Opinion: An open letter to Joe and Jane six-pack, hardworking Iowans

An open letter to Joe and Jane six-pack, hardworking Iowans. The laws in Iowa are to be equally enforced to all. This sounds good on paper, in reality, nothing has become farther from the truth. State government needs to work for the people, the hard working people of Iowa, not for the bureaucrats who routinely dismiss most cases as it does today. Bureaucrat’s workloads are diminished if cases can be routinely dismissed.

Take the Iowa Public Information Board (IPIB). This is a governmental board that is supposed to investigate and possibly prosecute violators of Iowa’s Open Meetings and Open Records laws. In the past 12 or so years, there has been around 1,000 formal complaints filed. The Executive Director for the IPIB who is an attorney who makes recommendations to the IPIB. Low and behold, only two complaint have been found valid by this board. Yes, just two! 1,000 complaints, only 2 realistic.

I filed a complaint with this board. An individual was hired in Mitchell County with no open meetings held as required by law, no motions to hire, no seconds, no votes and no minutes of any meetings, yet she was magically on the payroll for seven weeks, earning over $8,000 plus benefits before a retroactive vote, yes a retroactive vote was taken to hire her. The director of the IPIB ruled this action was a harmless error.

This was not a harmless error since at least one person not hired who was highly qualified along with injured various local governmental agencies funding this agency to pay for training that could last for years. The person hired admitted she had no education in Economic Development nor did she have any experience or accomplishments but her claim to fame was she is willing to learn at the government’s expense. This was contrary to the advertised position.

Since Director Margaret Johnson of the IPIB is an attorney and has basically ruled every complaint filed (remember around, 1,000) has had no basis, none, I contacted the Iowa Supreme Court Disciplinary Attorney Board and filed a complaint against Attorney Margaret Johnson for failing to do her job as required under Ch. 23 of the Iowa Code.

On the 2nd of March I received a second letter from Director Tara van Brederode of this board addressing my complaint against Director Margaret Johnson. The letter reads in part “You allege that (the director) has violated the attorney ethics rules while engaged in her professional role at the IPIB. The Board cannot address these concerns for you.“ My question is why not? No answer was provided.

So the Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board is supposed to oversee and discipline attorneys who violate or fail to enforce the law. In my opinion, dismissing every complaint brought to the IPIB is not carrying out the functions of Ch. 23 of the Iowa Code. Now comes along the Attorney Disciplinary Board stating basically Attorneys in Iowa can do no wrong. This Disciplinary Attorney Board basically states we (the Board) will look the other way if an Iowa licensed attorney fails to uphold Iowa Law. You have a complaint, the recommendation of the Attorney Disciplinary Board is to hire your own attorney, spend tens of thousands of dollars and then be ruled against. The State of Iowa government is not here to enforce state laws.

I want to point this out to some of you, do not waste your time filing a complaint with ANY State of Iowa governmental bureaucrat. You will receive one of two standard replies: “Your concern does not fall under our jurisdiction or two; you do not have a legitimate complaint, no substantiating reasons provided”. The public no longer ever wins a legitimate complaint with a state of Iowa bureaucrat, the facts speak for themselves. State of Iowa bureaucrats are failing to follow the law, because there is no punishment for State employees when ignoring the law.

One other point. County and city officials are catching on that they do not have to follow the law because the State of Iowa will not enforce the law. I am observing local governments violating Iowa law because they understand they can.
Remember, the next time you receive a traffic citation inform the officer if no one is injured, “It was a harmless oversight, the officer must at a maximum write a warning citation, this is Iowa’s bureaucratic standard.”

Stan Walk
St. Ansgar, IA