Supervisors want CIJDC board membership resolved

ELDORA - An organizational question has the Hardin County Board of Supervisors wanting to see just who on the CIJDC board is actually legally allowed to vote on center business.

Consideration came up during the Dec. 11 meeting before the supervisors on authorizing the county attorney to prepare a petition for 

Declaratory Judgment/Injunctive Relief with regard to the CIJDC’s foundational inter-agency agreement.

Some matters regarding that 28E agreement are up in the air. 

County Attorney Darrell Meyer gave an outline of the issue.

“The primary question here is who are the valid voting members of the commission for the Central Iowa Juvenile Detention Center?”

A 28E by Hardin County and other counties created the CIJDC back in 1993.

“Since then there’s been several amendments to that 28E and to the entities’ governing by-laws,” said Meyer. “Many of these amendments added new voting members to the Central Iowa Detention board/commission. It went from 10 original members to over 30 presently, or 30 that ostensibly are members and have voted, maybe when they shouldn’t have.”

Addition of many members came with amendments that were never filed with Iowa Secretary of State, said Meyer.

Timely notice must be given to each county per the by-laws.

“And it’s unclear whether that requirement was followed for any of the membership changes,” said Meyer.

Being able to enter into binding contracts or to go into closed session is up in the air, according to Meyer.

“So, we need to know who the voting members are,” said Meyer.

Along with determining that is having the board stop voting on matters until such time as the status questionis is actually resolved.  

As a default, the original 10 members, or at minimum, members approved before 2008 when state law changed, might be a workable way to get business done until the matter is settled, according to Meyer.

“I think this is going to give us some checks and balances we need,” said Supervisor B.J. Hoffman.

Supervisors approved Meyer proceeding with a 3-0 vote.