Monday's Thoughts

I hope all of you had a safe and enjoyable Easter weekend. There was quite a bit of reaction to my posts last Wednesday and Thursday relating to the open meetings and open records laws of Iowa, and I wanted to take the time to opine about some of the comments.

Some comments stated that we should not nit-pick over these formalities that are the law and that the only point to contending that proper notice was not given was to cause unnecessary problems.

Here's the problem with this mindset: The city of Dayton falls under Chapter 21 and 22 of the Iowa code, no matter how small Dayton is. The open meetings laws are in effect so the citizens have easy access to the rationale and basis of governmental decisions. Hence, the reason for the 24 hour notice requirement for the tentative agenda. The 24 hour notice allows the citizens to see what is on the agenda and have the opportunity to speak at the meeting if the agenda has an item of importance on it. On the other hand, citizens may not get the opportunity to be heard if the agenda is changed right before the meeting.

Some comments argued that permit holders are at the mercy of the contractor's schedule and that a permit may have had to been issued asap. If this is the case, Iowa Code 21.4 allows an exemption to the public notice requirement for good cause, as well as noting the reason for the good cause in the city council minutes. For example, if the contractor had to start asap or else the project would be put on the back burner for 3 months. This would be an instance in which good cause could be shown and noted in the city council meeting minutes.

Another argument: Interpretation is the legal system in a nutshell. There is not too much interpretation that needs to be done with regards to 21.4. The city council meeting on Wednesday night was an open session that required the tentative agenda to be posted 24 hours before the start of the meeting. Please see the iowaleague.org link I made available in my last post (page 5).

Some say this is nit-picky. I disagree. This is a very slippery slope if we start allowing this to happen. Items may start to get put on the agenda right before meetings (the items without good cause), which does not allow concerned citizens to be part of the governmental decision making process. Furthermore, this kind of action does not allow a citizen the opportunity to challenge a permit that may impede on that citizen's property line.

Iowa Codes 21 and 22 were enacted to give us the power to watch over our city council and make the city council's rationale and decision making open to us, as well as all of the public records to any who wish to look over them.