(Spirit Lake)– Testimony got underway Tuesday in Dickinson County District Court for four current members and a former member of the Spirit Lake school board. Beth Will, Ann Goerss, Todd Hummel, Scott Wicks and Cliff Garvey are accused of violating the Iowa Open Meetings Law.
Most of the testimony Tuesday was on a closed session January 9th, 2008 with a consultant assisting the district in the search for a new superintendent. Peter Hart, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, drilled school board President Beth Will and Vice President Ann Goerss over that session. The two testified that the initial intent of the meeting was to review a pool of candidates. But they opted to postpone the search when budget issues came to light.
Hart questioned whether it was proper for the board to discuss anything other than superintendent candidates during the closed session. Will and Goerss testified nothing else was addressed during the closed session, and that no action was taken during the nearly two-hour closed meeting.
Hart also questioned why minutes from the public portion of that meeting weren’t published until 203 days later. Will said they were under the impression they didn’t have to publish those. She says they later learned otherwise, and they’ve changed their policy now to reflect that.
Hart also asked Will about a school board meeting November 15th, 2007 in the lobby at the Hotel Fort Des Moines and whether there was just cause for holding the session there instead of Spirit Lake. School board members were in Des Moines at the time attending a school board convention. The board met with a consultant assisting in the superintendent search that was going on at that time as well. Will said by having that meeting in Des Moines, they saved the district money as the consultant didn’t have to travel to Spirit Lake.
She added, however, the just cause for having the meeting in Des Moines wasn’t mentioned in the minutes.
It was also brought out through testimony and cross examination the January 9th meeting wasn’t tape recorded. Asked why it wasn’t, Will said she wasn’t sure, adding it’s the responsibility of the board’s Secretary to make sure that’s done.
Testimony resumes at 9:00 a.m. this (Wednesday) morning.
