Nebraska dad sues state after his record request has $1M bill – and a 2076 answer timeline
An Omaha father is suing Nebraska’s health agency after it estimated his request for public records about a controversial disability funding tool would cost nearly $1 million and take 50 years to fulfill.
Curt Safranek, co-founder of Disability Alliance of Nebraska, began investigating the state’s InterRAI assessment tool after it cut Medicaid funding for his 24-year-old son, Will, who has an intellectual disability and autism.
In September, Safranek requested emails between state health officials and contractor Alvarez & Marsal, which was hired to review the tool’s rollout. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services estimated it would cost $976,262 to locate and review the emails, with the records not ready until September 29, 2076, according to the lawsuit.
The agency also requested a $97,626 deposit to begin pulling the records.
“I was dumbfounded. I thought I was reading it wrong,” Safranek told the Lincoln Journal Star. “Needless to say, I was in shock.”
Safranek sued the state’s health agency on Monday, alleging it violated the Nebraska Public Records Act, which requires agencies to provide reasonable estimates for fulfilling public records requests. He is asking a judge to order the department to provide an accurate estimate or release the records immediately.
The estimate included $644,360 for an attorney to search for records, $271,655 for a paralegal to gather and redact documents, and $60,247 for an administrative programs officer to migrate records.
“Based on the agency’s estimate, Curt will be 105 years old when he receives the public documents,” the lawsuit states.
Safranek then narrowed his request to emails sent between January 1 and September 29, 2026. The agency cut its estimate to $474,383 and projected a 25-year wait, requiring a $47,438 deposit. Still, Safranek questioned why the revised estimates appeared to simply halve the original figures.
“Are they using AI to respond to these where it just cuts them with a formula like interRAI does?” he asked.
The lawsuit names the agency and records custodian Thomas Skutt, accusing them of providing “legally insufficient and invalid estimates.”
The case follows years of disputes over public records fees in Nebraska. In 2024, lawmakers passed a law prohibiting state agencies from charging special service fees for attorneys and non-attorneys reviewing records for information that could be withheld from release, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.
Safranek said public records are essential for families seeking answers about decisions affecting their loved ones.
“It’s the only avenue we have to keep them accountable and find out the questions that need to be asked,” he told the outlet.
