The Greene County supervisors at their March 18 meeting reviewed a draft of a new open meetings policy. County attorney Thomas Laehn prepared the policy in response to recent discussions of the board’s use of Zoom to provide public access to meetings.
According to the policy purpose statement, the supervisors are “committed to both transparency and public participation in government.” The purpose of the policy is “to assure that the basis and rationale of decisions by the board, as well as the decisions themselves, are easily accessible to the public,” and also “to provide members of the public with the opportunity to address the supervisors in a safe and orderly manner during board meetings while ensuring the integrity of the supervisors’ decision-making process and protecting the board’s deliberations from interference or interruption.”
The policy sets as a ground rule that members of the public must stay behind the half-wall partition that sets the board workspace apart from the public gallery. The public may use cameras or recording devices as long as they don’t interfere with the conduct of business.
Persons disrupting the meeting may be referred to the Greene County sheriff’s office for possible charges for disorderly conduct.
The policy states that members of the public shall be provided access to a live audio stream of all board meetings unless the board is in closed session. However, only persons physically present at the meeting will be allowed to address the board. Comments texted via Zoom will not be considered or answered.
The open forum portion of the meeting will continue as it is now, but speakers will be limited to three minutes each. The board chair may extend that limit when business is pending before the board that is especially significant or complex.
Only the supervisors and auditor can place an item on the agenda. As the supervisors discuss business on the agenda, members of the public may not address the board unless allowed specifically by the board chair.
Laehn’s draft policy specifies that although supervisors could listen to the livestream audio, they must be physically present for the purpose of establishing a quorum and to vote. Supervisors not present physically will be unable to vote. Laehn explained that would protect the board in the event of litigation over a disputed vote, and that it would be better to vote on a controversial motion with a full board.
Laehn will revise the draft policy according to the discussion with the supervisors. Approving the revised policy will be on a future meeting agenda.
As an offshoot of that discussion, it was determined that posting the agenda Friday at 4 pm for a Monday morning, as has been the practice for many years, may not meet the state’s requirement for public notice of meetings. Auditor Billie Jo Hoskins said she will move up the deadline for submitting agenda items and have the complete agenda posted in the courthouse and sent to media outlets by Thursday at 4 pm for a Monday morning meeting.
Laehn also reported that assistant county attorney Laura Snider, who lives in West Des Moines, is running for the Iowa House. He said if she were to win, she would like to continue on a part-time basis in Greene County. In that case, Laehn said he would need to hire a second part-time assistant. He also said Snyder has asked to be relieved of her job representing the county on the board of the Community Animal Shelter.
Laehn said there are 79 cases pending in his office. He is handling 50 of them, with Snider handling the other 29.
Drain clerk Michelle Fields briefed the board on repairs to a drainage tile near the Union Pacific railroad tracks east of Scranton. The tile has needed work for several years, but the process UP requested made the repair very costly to others who own property in the drainage district.
The solution is to have a company clean the tile from the upstream side using a high-powered water jet. That will happen yet this week. Fields hopes clearing roots from the tile will get the tile flowing again.
“The railroad has not been a very good partner on that project,” Muir said.
The city of Scranton has agreed to supply water for the jetter.
Zoning official Chuck Wenthold reported the Iowa Utilities Board did not accept the request from Summit Carbon Solutions to hold meetings in April concerning miles of pipeline just recently proposed to go through Greene County. The IUB requested that meetings be held no earlier than June so they wouldn’t conflict with farmers’ planting schedules.
