(Spirit Lake)– A judge has found four current members and one former member of the Spirit Lake school board guilty on two counts each of violating Iowa’s Open Meetings law.
In his ruling, Judge Patrick Duffy sites special meetings held November 15th, 2007 in the lobby of a Des Moines hotel and on January 9th, 2008.
Duffy says that while there doesn’t appear to be any statutory restriction on where a school board can meet, that its doesn’t mean the board can pick a location far away from the district to meet. He says the November 15th, 2007 meeting was held in blatant disregard for the public’s right to access the meeting.
In the violation on January 9th, 2008, Duffy says the board did not got into closed session for the intended purposes stated. That meeting was held as the board was narrowing down a list of candidates for a superintendent’s search. Prior to the closed session, the board stated it was going into the closed meeting to prevent needless and irreparable injury to an individual’s reputation. However, Duffy says none of the superintendent candidates made a request to close the meeting, and that none of the names of the names of the candidates were disclosed to the board by a consultant who was at the meeting. At that point Duffy says the meeting should have been ended. Instead, he says the board discussed other items not on the agenda. He added the board’s Secretary did not electronically record the meeting and failed to provide detailed minutes.
Under the ruling, board members Beth Will, Ann Goerss, Todd Hummell and Scott Wicks and former board member Cliff Garvey are ordered to pay 400-dollar fines on each count per board member by March 30th.
Attorney Peter Hart, who represented plaintiffs Valentine Waltz, James Naujock, Elizabeth Simpson, Jean Lathrop and L.C. Wise and Steve Avery, an attorney who represented the school district in the case, were not immediately available for comment.
The judge’s ruling came months after a trial in the matter was held back on October 21st and 22nd of last year.
