ISU: Information request will cost family $1,235

A Pocatello family has questions for Idaho State University about Serval House, the president’s official off-campus residence. But they got quite the surprise when they learned that that information would cost them.

It started in November when the school announced plans to sell the house and buy a new one south of town.

At the time, ISU said it could save an average of $30,000 in annual maintenance costs by selling the house, which has been home to ISU’s presidents for more than 63 years.

“To me, it’s always been the president’s house. It’s been a part of the campus and a part of the history of this town,” said Eric D’Amico.

In the D’Amico family, the colors orange and black run deep. D’Amico graduated from ISU, his wife once worked there, and his son is currently an ISU student.

But even now that ISU has abandoned plans to sell Serval House, the D’Amicos still have questions about some of ISU’s previous claims.

“They specifically mentioned $31,000 in annual maintenance costs,” said Rhonda D’Amico.

In early December, the D’Amicos filed a public information request for purchase requests and other documents that might support the stated maintenance costs.

“It’s a transparency issue. It’s state money. It’s public funds,” said Sam D’Amico.
The D’Amicos were given some documents, but told the others would cost them an estimated $1,235.

“That kind of information is kept in multiple different systems on the university campus. Many of them could even be in hard copy paper files,” said Adrienne King, spokeswoman for ISU.

According to emails from the school to the D’Amicos, ISU said it would take anywhere from 60 to 80 hours to gather and compile this information.

“We would not have, say, a spreadsheet that includes all of that itemized information,” said King.

“To me, that’s kind of scary because what they’re saying is they don’t keep track of where their money goes,” said Eric D’Amico.

The D’Amicos tell Local News 8 they intend to pay ISU for the information with money they raised on the website, GoFundMe.com.

They say once they have the information, they hope to make it publicly available so that people can come to their own conclusions.

“We haven’t made any claims about what might come out of those documents that we’ve asked for. We also haven’t leveled any accusations,” said Rhonda D’Amico.

As of Wednesday afternoon, ISU officials said they hadn’t received payment from the D’Amicos.