Iowa City trustees choose RFP route for director search after city attorney outlines new open-meetings, records constraints

The Iowa City Public Library Board of Trustees on Thursday heard a detailed briefing from Eric Horace, Iowa City city attorney, about recent Iowa court decisions that restrict boards’ use of closed sessions and broaden public-records exposure for applicant materials, and then approved a motion directing the board president to identify a small volunteer group to develop a request for proposals for a search firm to lead the director search.

Horace told trustees that recent opinions, including a case the attorney described as coming from the Iowa Supreme Court and a related Court of Appeals opinion, limit when governing bodies may meet in closed session to discuss applicants. “The open meetings case related to, hiring of the city clerk. And it was concluded that unless there was specific and articulable, negative things that would irreparably harm the applicant's, reputation, then they could not go into closed session to consider, the hiring and firing of those candidates,” Horace said. He also described changes in open-records practice that make application materials for internal candidates more likely to be public under section 22.7 of Iowa law as it is being applied now.

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