{"id":477,"date":"2011-04-04T19:40:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T00:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=477"},"modified":"2011-04-04T19:40:48","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T00:40:48","slug":"advisory-or-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=477","title":{"rendered":"Advisory Or Enforcement?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Public records are public.\u00a0 Government does not own them, but manages them.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s difficult to understand who owns these records by listening to government lobbyists at the Iowa Capitol.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost funny, and certainly shameful, to see several government representatives oppose a bill that expands the enforcement and oversight of government compliance with the two chapters of the Iowa Code that pertains to public records and open meetings.<\/p>\n

A bill is moving through the legislative process (SF 430<\/a>) that creates an enforcement board to ensure compliance with the open meetings\/public records chapters \u2013 Chapter 21 & Chapter 22.\u00a0 For years, there has been a back and forth argument between the Senate and House about whether the matter of compliance should be overseen by an advisory committee or an enforcement board.\u00a0 The enforcement board appears to have won out.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the end of the argument.\u00a0 Lobbyists for political subdivisions of the state want an advisory committee, and they don\u2019t seem to want to stop complaining until they get one.<\/p>\n

The problem with an advisory committee is that it becomes another tentacle of state bureaucracy.\u00a0 The committee is filled with wise people saying brilliant things, but in the end, it\u2019s the staffing that makes all of the decisions.\u00a0 This has been repeated far too many times.\u00a0 In a word search of the Iowa Code the word \u201cadvisory\u201d shows up 384 times.\u00a0 The phrase \u201cadvisory board\u201d shows up 180 times, and the phrase \u201cadvisory committee\u201d appears 138 times.\u00a0 Advisory bodies are a dime a dozen and seldom are they taken seriously.<\/p>\n

The staff prepares the agenda with the chair\u2019s help.\u00a0 Staff does all the research, makes suggestions for recommendations, and performs most of the work before and after meetings.\u00a0 The committee members show up and discuss matters for hours, often leaving with a lack of any accomplishment.\u00a0 The attendance at so many of these types of meetings is poor, especially if there is very little to do but approve items that will be included in a report that no one notices \u2013 or reads.<\/p>\n

The current situation is not the ideal setup for improving the expectations the public wants or needs as it pertains to open meetings\/public records.\u00a0 In most instances, the enforcement is provided by the county attorney, the top law enforcement official in each county.\u00a0 The appearance of a conflict of interest is exposed each and every time a matter of a possible violation comes up in a political subdivision of the state.<\/p>\n

There are 940 communities in Iowa.\u00a0 There are 99 counties.\u00a0 Each has its own legal counsel.\u00a0 That means there are potentially 1,039 different opinions on issues involving public records and open meetings.\u00a0 Enforcement, education, compilation of complaints, and compliance with the law needs to be centralized in one place.\u00a0 The ongoing effort of the Citizens\u2019 Aide\/Ombudsman and Attorney General is admired, but it scatters these essential efforts and promotes duplication.\u00a0 One body, speaking one language, is necessary to the perseverance and equal application of Iowa\u2019s dedication to openness in government.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright 2011\u00a0 Fawkes-Lee & Ryan.\u00a0 All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are 940 communities in Iowa. There are 99 counties. Each has its own legal counsel. That means there are potentially 1,039 different opinions on issues involving public records and open meetings. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,65],"tags":[207,70,159,186,145,197],"class_list":["post-477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues","category-open-meetingspublic-records","tag-chapter-21","tag-chapter-22","tag-iowa-attorney-general","tag-iowa-citizens-aideombudsman","tag-open-meetings","tag-public-records"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}