Former lawmaker files open meetings complaint against Floyd County supervisors

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A former Floyd County supervisor has filed a complaint with the Iowa Public Information Board, alleging that the current supervisors violated the Iowa Open Meetings Law regarding a recent meeting and actions.

Mark Kuhn filed a complaint saying that an agenda item for a meeting last week was not sufficiently detailed to inform the public about the decisions that would be made, and he asks the state board to direct the Board of Supervisors — and the Floyd County Board of Health — to take specific actions.

The agenda item in question, “Review/Action regarding coronavirus (COVID-19) issues as applicable,” has been on just about every supervisors agenda in essentially that form since the pandemic began.

On Tuesday, Dec. 8, under that agenda item, the Board of Supervisors undertook three actions:

• It considered a motion by Supervisor Roy Schwickerath to mandate facemask use in all public places in the courthouse, a motion that failed because neither of the other two supervisors seconded it.
• It approved modifying a sign posted at the entrance of the courthouse to change COVID-19 screening requirements to enter the courthouse.
• It approved changes in the screening form itself.

Kuhn, who was a supervisor from 1993 to 1998, a state legislator from 1999 to 2010, and a supervisor again from 2011 to 2018,  said in his complaint to the Iowa Public Information Board (IPIB) that the agenda item did not have enough detail to let people know that those three topics would be discussed.

He also noted that County Auditor Gloria Carr had talked with Floyd County Assistant Attorney Randall Tilton before the Tuesday meeting regarding a complaint Kuhn had made about the agenda the day before, at a Monday workshop meeting.

“Randy said he does think if action is going to be taken that the provision for Iowa Code agenda laws would require that a mask mandate for the courthouse facility should be specifically listed as an agenda item,” Carr said in an email message to Schwickerath.

“He mentioned the mask mandate affects about 2/3 of the county’s population and a fair number of people have interest in this,” Carr said Tilton had told her.

Regarding proposed changes in the screening sign and form, Carr said Tilton had sent her an email stating, “Since this is a modification of an existing policy without a significant increase of restrictions, I believe that your general statement in the agenda should be sufficient.”

Kuhn said in his complaint to IPIB that he believes all three actions were violations of the Iowa Open Meetings Law agenda requirement.

Kuhn told the Press Thursday that the complaint will likely be addressed by the IPIB at its next monthly meeting in January. That meeting is scheduled for Jan. 21.

Kuhn said the IPIB would follow its process to investigate the complaint, but, he said, considering the information he sent them, including copies of agendas, board minutes and emails, “they don’t have to investigate much.”

“It’s laid out cold, open and shut. Period. There’s no doubt,” he said, adding that what was so “appalling” to him was that after the discussions about that agenda item at last week’s meetings, that the same agenda language was used for a meeting held this week, on Monday.

According to the Iowa Open Meetings Law and subsequent Iowa court decisions, an agenda to a public meeting must provide notice that is sufficient to inform the public of the specific actions to be taken and matters to be discussed at the meeting.

The IPIB was created by the Legislature to “secure compliance” with the Iowa Open Meetings Law (Chapter 21) and the Iowa Open Records Law (Chapter 22). It is a nine-member board appointed by the governor, consisting of representatives of media, government and the public, plus an attorney employed as the executive director.

At the meeting Dec. 8, Schwickerath and Supervisors Linda Tjaden and Doug Kamm indicated they were comfortable operating as they had been regarding the COVID-19 agenda item.

Schwickerath said at that meeting that the quickly changing nature of the pandemic requires flexibility in the board’s ability to deal with the coronavirus.

Contacted Thursday, Schwickerath said he was going to decline to comment.

“It’s a legal matter now and our county attorney has it, and until we see where that goes I don’t want to say any more,” he said.

As part of the IPIB complaint process, persons who file a complaint are asked what they would like to see happen to address their complaint.

Kuhn wrote that he wants the Board of Supervisors to:

• Publicly acknowledge that it had not met the requirements for adequate notice regarding the Dec. agenda.
• Create a checklist as part of “developing a procedure for drafting detailed agendas.”
• Conduct training for the supervisors, county auditor and assistant county attorney regarding the requirements of the Open Meetings Law.
• Approve a resolution including the text of any order issued by the IPIB in response to Kuhn’s complaint.

Kuhn also wrote that he wants the IPIB to direct the Floyd County Board of Health to meet in emergency session to consider whether or not to recommend requiring mask use in the courthouse and to send that recommendation to the Board of Supervisors for action to be taken at a meeting.

And he wants the IPIB to direct the Board of Health to meet in emergency session to review the changes to the COVID-19 screening sign and the screening checklist, and send that recommendation to the Board of Supervisors for action to be taken at a meeting.