Ineptitude at City Council Chambers on November 20

There was some ineptitude on Thursday, November 20, at city hall that would be laughable except that it was another example of our leaders skirting the spirit of Iowa's open meetings laws. At about 6:30 pm, we checked the window at city hall and noticed there was an agenda for a meeting to be held that night at 7:00 pm to interview candidates for city personnel positions. "Whoa," we thought, "When did that agenda get put up?"

Gazette editor Helen Gunderson went to the meeting, but it did not start on time. And in some ways, it never really happened. Council members Craig Allen, Chris Benda, Lynn Henn, and Peg Uthe sat at the table joking about their hot tub experiences and about access to the tunnels under the residence halls at Iowa State. Gilbert's mayor Bob Jaquis, attorney Frank Feilmeyer, and office worker Carolyn Main were in the office with the door closed. Mayor-elect Yvonne Wannemuehler and John Lloyd, a candidate for the administrator/clerk position, as well as Helen sat in the visitors' chairs. At about 7:11 pm, the office doors opened, the attorney and office worker seated themselves in the visitor's area, and the mayor assumed his position at the head of the council table.

The mayor announced that because the agenda had not been posted until that day, they could not have an official council meeting. We don't know how this bumbling mix up happened. It reminds us of last June when the announcement of the budget hearing was posted on the window of city hall but the budget itself was hung upside down.

In some sense, it seems the mayor and council should simply have rescheduled the interview and gone home. But instead, he said that the attorney had advised they could do the interviews in two shifts with half of the council members sequestering themselves in the office with doors shut while the other council members and mayor interviewed the candidate. Then after the first shift, the council members would switch places. Sounds fair enough in some respects.

However, there has never been any council discussion to finalize the positions it wants to fill and adopt job descriptions. Nor has there been any council discussion about what criteria to look for in resumes and how to proceed with interviews. Nor has there been any discussion of what kind of pay and benefits to offer to the chosen applicants. In other words, there has been no council discussion to set the context for Thursday nights interviews. No discussion even to say that John was one of X number of candidates still under consideration.

Craig Allen directed that Helen turn off her camcorder, and Chris Benda told her to either shut it off or leave the meeting. She said that as soon as they were ready to ask the candidate to come forward for the interview, they should let her know and she would turn off the camcorder.

The interview with John went well. In our estimation, the conversation was pretty surface and innocuous. It's hard to understand why Craig and Chris were so adamant about having the camcorder turned off. Perhaps they have control issues that they need to deal with. And we don't know if they really had a legal right to insist that the recorder be turned off. Helen could probably have sat tight and simply asked for the council members to state their legal basis from Iowa code for their directives. Perhaps the attorney had been asked to sit in on the meeting and be prepared with chapter and section of the code in case it was needed. Or Helen could have waited until things got ugly and have all the ugliness recorded on the sound track of the videotape. But first, Chris Benda is a former football coach and bigger than Helen. She knows when to duck out of a confrontation. Also, she gained a lot more information and insight into what's been happening behind the scenes with the restaffing process by staying in the room, listening, and taking notes rather than risking being ousted to street with her camcorder.

It is possible to argue that the council did hold a meeting. For at least a few minutes while determining how to proceed, four council members and the mayor were present and engaged in the discussion.

The Interviewees

There was no indication that the full council would interview anyone other than John. Also, after John left city hall, the mayor and two council members interviewed Carolyn. According to the mayor, none of the other applicants were interested in the part-time position of deputy clerk. Carolyn likes the job, the small town of Gilbert and its people. She wants to stay here.

We would suggest that John or any other candidates for the administrator/clerk position ask the mayor and council a few questions about their skirting of the open meetings laws before signing on the dotted line of a job contract.

At the November 3 meeting, nothing was said about the process of restaffing city hall, and the council agreed that it's next meeting would be at the Ames City Hall with the City of Ames, Story County, and Boone County. An observer would have thought there would not be another council meeting in Gilbert until December 1. But life has its surprises and so does city hall. It's too bad that our town leaders don't do their work more publicly to reduce the surprises.
  

This unofficial summary provided by Gilbert Gazette editor, Helen D. Gunderson. When the minutes of a  meeting become available (after they are approved at the next council meeting), we will post them. You may also wish to look for the minutes in the fine print of the legal notices in the Ames Tribune about 14 days after a council meeting. 

If someone has an eye for proof-reading and finds typos, mis-spelling, grammar, or other errors, please let us know so we can make corrections. It's difficult and time-consuming to prepare the summary, and although it would be wise to find a copy editor before posting the summaries, we feel it is important to make the essence of the material available to the public as soon as possible.

Also, the city council tape records each meeting, and the clerk maintains the cassettes for use in writing the minutes and clarifying future questions about meetings. As far as we know, those tapes are part of the public record (unless the a city uses the tapes only for preparing minutes then destroys the tapes). And as far as we know, citizens and other persons may arrange with the clerk to listen to the tapes at city hall.