The Iowa House has voted to increase the fines for violating Iowa’s open meetings law.
The House bill would require government officials to complete a course that explains Iowa’s open meetings and open records law within 90 days of being elected to public office or appointed to a board.
Representative Brent Siegrist of Council Bluffs, the bill’s floor manager, said public officials need to understand the state’s sunshine law and make sure it’s followed.
“Each year in the state of Iowa we see numerous open meetings law violations,” Siegrist said during House debate Thursday afternoon. “Many of them are simply because of not understanding the law. Others are blatant disregard of the law…and then there are simply egregious examples of breaking the law that we have seen in the Davenport area in the wake of the apartment building collapse last year.”
Representative Gary Mohr of Bettendorf is the bill’s sponsor. “Last May we had a six story apartment building collapse in downtown Davenport,” Mohr said. “As the local media groups asked questions and many of the citizens asked questions, the city was very reluctant or would not provide information such as: ‘Did the building pass inspection? When was the last time that building was inspected? Who was involved in approving the inspections?’ And the city simply did not provide timely responses to those questions.”
Mohr also cited a lawsuit that’s been filed alleging the Davenport City Council failed to vote in a public meeting on settlements reached with three city employees, in violation of Iowa’s open meetings law..
Mohr quoted the late Bill Wundrum, a long time columnist for the Quad City Times, as he urged his colleagues to act.
“Periodically Bill would say: ‘Is anybody there? Does anybody care?’ I’ve thought of him so many times over the last nine months. Yes Bill, some of us are there. Some of us do care and ladies and gentlemen of the House, we’re either going to have open records in this state or we’re not,” Mohr said in conclusion. “I ask you to support this bill.”
The bill passed on a 92-2 vote. If the Senate agrees to the policy and the governor signed it into law, Siegrist expects some local officials to complain about the required training.
“Too often in Iowa they just simply claim ignorance of the law,” Siegrist said. “This would make sure that’s no longer a viable option and we would make sure that we maintain our open meetings laws.”
The Iowa Freedom of Information Council and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa are the only groups that have registered on the legislature’s website as supporting the bill, while a number of groups representing government officials have checked the undecided box. The Iowa Association of School Boards is the only group on record as opposing the bill.