By: E&P Staff The Des Moines Register filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium, claiming that the board of directors repeatedly violated the state?s open-meetings law.
In the lawsuit, the Register asks that a Polk County District Court judge listen to tape recordings of five closed-door meetings of the CIETC board of directors, held between April 7 and Sept 13. If the court determines that the meetings were illegally closed, the tapes will then become public record.
The state open-meeting law says that a board may close its doors to the public if it is discussing pending litigation or personnel matters. Since the board faced no pending litigation during this period, the newspaper claims, these meetings were conducted illegally.
The CIETC has been facing allegations of mismanagement since the state auditor announced that it believes the board misspent almost $1.6 million for employee compensation. Most of that money is said to have come from the federal government, and may need to be repaid Iowa taxpayers.
?We believe we?ve complied with the law in every respect -- both the letter and the spirit of the law,? CIETC attorney Jonathan Wilson told the Register. The CIETC board claims that three of the five meetings cited in the Register lawsuit were held for issues on personnel and although they were not currently involved in litigation, the allegations of mismanagement warranted closed-door meetings.
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