County attorney advises state law allows it
~by Janice Harbaugh for GreeneCountyNewsOnline
“We want to balance the public’s right to request open records and still be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” county attorney Thomas Laehn told the Greene County board of supervisors at their regular meeting on May 16.
Laehn introduced a resolution to adopt a revised Greene County open records policy which would bring the county policy in line with recent changes to Iowa’s open records law which will become effective July 1.
The county policy, applying to all departments responsible to the board of supervisors and all offices responsible to a Greene County elected official, had stated the first hour of county employee time engaged in opening and copying records was free and 25 copies of records were free.
The new state law requires only the first 30 minutes of county employee time to locate and copy public records be free.
Laehn recommended repealing the current county policy for open records requests and adopting a revised Open Records Policy.
“After the first 30 minutes of free county employee time (in searching and copying records) the requestor will be charged at the employee’s usual rate of pay for additional time,” Laehn said.
The board unanimously approved the resolution.
Laehn also spoke to the board about amending certain parts of the previously approved 28E agreement between the county and Central Iowa Community Services (CICS).
“The agreement that was filed May 3 has some fundamental ambiguities,” Laehn said. “Indirectly, we’re exposed to some liability.”
Laehn re-wrote several sections of the procedures described by CICS in the 28E agreement and identified weak phrases and unclear definitions. The resulting resolution was offered to the supervisors.
Board chair John Muir said, “The services CICs provides have been super. We have a great relationship with them.”
After discussion, the board unanimously approved Resolution 2022-18: A Resolution Recommending Certain Amendments to the 28E Agreement for Central Iowa Community Services.
In other business, engineer Wade Weiss told the board fuel costs have been “getting out of hand” and his department has been discussing ways to conserve fuel such as limiting blading operations to three days a week and less use of the maintainers.
Weiss also said a ballot deposit box has been installed next to the regular deposit box on the east side of the courthouse.
Auditor and election official Jane Heun noted the ballot box will be open for primary election ballots from May 19 through June 7 until 8 pm and is for ballots only.
Weiss spoke of using LED lighting to update lighting on the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower. He said this lighting would be more efficient.
The board briefly discussed colored lighting for the tower but agreed choice of color could fall under the Public Art Policy because certain colors are associated with support for various ideas, movements, and places.
Chuck Wenthold, environmental department, reported a permit application has been submitted to the Iowa Utilities Board by National Grid Renewables for a proposed solar farm south of Grand Junction. He said a meeting will be held Thursday with the carbon pipeline’s permitting specialist.
The board unanimously approved a cigarette, tobacco, nicotine, vapor permit for Paton Pit Stop.
Supervisor Tom Contner reported to the board he has heard from a resident who complained about the recently approved social host ordinance. The resident questioned whether the ordinance makes him responsible if someone is hurt in his timber.
The board agreed the social host ordinance covers responsibility for under-age drinking with the knowledge of a host and does not assign responsibility for people hurt in timber.
