Floyd County supervisor chair cites illegal zoning meeting; board sends process back to the start

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The chairs of two Floyd County boards got into a contentious discussion at the Board of Supervisors meeting Monday morning after the supervisor’s chairman accused the county Planning and Zoning Commission of violating the Iowa Open Meetings law by holding an illegal meeting.

The supervisors ultimately voted to require that the Zoning Commission start the rezoning request process from the beginning.

Also at the supervisors meeting, the board approved a resolution continuing the process of issuing $5.1 million in general obligation emergency communications bonds for a new county communications system, and approved the second reading of a resolution declaring emergency medical services (EMS) an essential service in the county.

Regarding the zoning issue, an agenda item for the weekly supervisors meeting called for a public hearing on a rezoning request for property in the county, followed by Board of Supervisors discussion and possible action on a resolution to make the zoning change.

Dallas Kuper had requested a zoning change from AM – agricultural mining, to CR – commercial recreational, for property he owns around a former quarry about six miles east of Charles City along Windfall Avenue, so he can develop the site as a campground for long-term camping.

The Floyd County Planning and Zoning Commission had held a meeting last Wednesday where members had discussed the rezoning request and voted to recommend approval to the Board of Supervisors.

On Monday morning, the supervisors held a public hearing on the request, as had been previously scheduled, including discussing concerns regarding traffic and noise by some neighboring property owners and raising questions regarding mineral rights still owned by a third party to the sand in the quarry.

At the end of the hearing, two of the county supervisors, Dennis Keifer and Jim Jorgensen, said they could not support the rezoning at this time until they had something more official regarding the mineral rights question.

At that point Supervisor Chair Mark Kuhn said that the Planning and Zoning Commission’s meeting the previous week had been “inadequate, and in my opinion, illegal,” because an agenda had not been posted at least 24 hours in advance as required by the Iowa Open Meetings Law.

Kuhn said Zoning Board Chair Dean Tjaden had sent an email to County Attorney Todd Prichard Tuesday morning before the Wednesday zoning commission meeting regarding the requirements for notification and minutes of meetings.

Reading a copy of Tjaden’s email, Kuhn said that Tjaden told Prichard he had been advised by the county zoning administrator, Jeff Sherman, that an agenda wasn’t needed in advance of the meeting and that minutes weren’t required for workshop meetings.

Kuhn said Tjaden told Prichard in the email, “‘I’m just wanting to make sure we are doing this properly, and not to postpone tomorrow’s meeting altogether because of not following the protocols properly.’”

Prichard responded to Tjaden’s email shortly before the Wednesday morning meeting started, Kuhn said, advising him that the Planning and Zoning Commission is a governmental body as defined in the Iowa Open Meetings law, is required to post an agenda at least 24 hours in advance of a meeting, and if an agenda had not been posted “‘I would advise the commission to reschedule the meeting.’”

“‘If a meeting is held without proper 24-hour notice, it is a violation of the Iowa Open Meetings Law and is an illegal meeting,’” Kuhn said Prichard’s reply said.

Tjaden said he hadn’t seen Prichard’s message – which was time-stamped 8:52 a.m. – before the commission’s 9 a.m. meeting, because the members of the board and other meeting participants had already gathered.

“We’re not sitting at a computer, Mark, looking at our emails when a meeting is just about to be held,” Tjaden said.

“The reason we held that – the reason is because we had the parties interested here, we’d given proper notification, it was published in the paper. The only thing we didn’t have was the agenda, and that would have been posted out on the courthouse bulletin board,” Tjaden said.

“Twenty-four hours in advance,” Kuhn said.

“I understand,” said Tjaden.

“And you should understand,” Kuhn said.

“Those procedures have been changed in the office,” Tjaden said. “We’re moving forward.”

Kuhn said, “You should understand, because when your wife was a supervisor the previous Board of Supervisors was charged with an improper notice of 24 hours …”

“Oh, don’t drag that up,” Tjaden said, interrupting. “That’s off the agenda.”

“No, but it is the truth,” Kuhn said, “and so what I’m saying is …”

“Is my wife the personal consultant here?” Tjaden asked.

Kuhn then said Tjaden was out of order for interrupting him, and said both Tjaden, as a longtime chair of the Zoning Commission, and Sherman, as a longtime zoning superintendent, should be aware of the Iowa Open Meetings Law requirements.

“I’m putting this at the feet of three people – the Zoning Administrator Jeff Scherman, the Zoning Administrator Assistant Jennifer Solomon and the Zoning Chair Dean Tjaden,” Kuhn said.

Tjaden responded, “Well, maybe you should correct it, then. I don’t hire and fire the zoning administrator or the assistant. This is an appointed job that I volunteer for. If you want that way as supervisors, clean house.”

Kuhn said, “Well, we’ll do what needs to be done, at an appropriate time, but right now we are considering this zoning application, and so I would move that we take no action on this zoning application at this time and the process start again.

The supervisors passed the motion 3-0.

“We’ll start the process over,” Tjaden said.

In December 2020, Kuhn, who had previously been a Floyd County supervisor, filed a complaint with the Iowa Public Information Board (IPUB), accusing the then-Board of Supervisors which included Supervisor Linda Tjaden of violating the Iowa Open Meetings Law because its agendas were not specific enough on the action that could be taken regarding the COVID pandemic, especially holding a vote on courthouse masking rules without being mentioned in advance in the agenda.

The IPUB accepted the complaint and negotiated an informal agreement between Kuhn and the board where the board publicly acknowledged it had not met the requirements of the Iowa Open Meetings Law regarding specific advance notice of items to be discussed during a meeting, agreed to create procedures to avoid future violations and held training on the Iowa Open Meeting Law requirements.

Also at the supervisors meeting Monday, the board:

• Approved a resolution continuing the process of issuing up to $5.1 million in general obligation emergency communication bonds to pay for the purchase and installation of a new county radio communications system for law enforcement agencies, fire departments and some other entities in the county.

The board agreed to issue the bonds for 10 years, which will increase the annual payments and property tax impact over other options of 12 or 15 years, but will reduce overall interest paid on the bonds and have them paid back at about the time the new equipment will be at or near its useful life.

• Passed the second reading of a resolution declaring EMS an essential service in the county. If the resolution passes its third reading at next week’s meeting it will be in effect and the supervisors will appoint an EMS advisory board to make recommendations regarding EMS service in the county.

Part of that recommendation could be to ask voters to approve an EMS tax levy to support EMS services including ambulance services in the county, similar to the effort that took place last year when voters turned down the levy. Passing the essential services resolution does not require that a levy vote be held.

• Received the annual county audit report from Elizabeth Thyer, partner and CPA at Gardiner and Co., for the 2021-22 fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022. Thyer said there were no significant problems identified other than those that are identified regularly and commonly among public bodies of not having enough people to segregate duties so no one person handles a transaction from inception to completion.

• Discussed with Adam Sears, county conservation director and weed commissioner, a problem with a property northeast of Rudd where a field of 20 to 30 acres is overgrown with thistles, which qualify as a noxious weed. Sears said for the last several years the property owner had reluctantly mowed the field when confronted by Sears, but this year took no action and the thistles had gone to seed.

Sears said he has the authority as weed commissioner to take care of the problem and then assess the cost against the property, but he said he doesn’t have the equipment or budget to tackle the job.

The board directed Sears to assess the current situation, take some pictures and bring it back to the board at a future meeting, perhaps next week.