Iowa newspaper, college settle open-meetings lawsuit
By The Associated Press
02.05.03
WATERLOO, Iowa — The Hawkeye Community College board of trustees has agreed to pay $10,000 in legal fees to settle a newspaper's lawsuit charging the board violated the state's open-meetings law when it fired the school's president.
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
filed the suit more than 3 years ago, alleging the board held illegal closed-door meetings that led to the firing of William Hierstein as president.In the Jan. 28 settlement offer, the board admitted violating the open-meetings law and approved the $10,000 payment for the newspaper's legal fees. The board also agreed to follow open-meetings laws in the future.
The Courier accepted the settlement Jan. 29.
"The college has admitted an open-meetings violation but said that it was acting on the advice of its counsel and doing its best to respect the open-meeting laws at the time," said HCC's attorney Andrew Bracken.
The newspaper sued HCC in 1999, alleging that the board discussed Hierstein's performance and then decided to terminate his contract in the closed meetings.
The open-meetings law states that in discussions of job performance of public employees, the employee in question has the right to open or close the meeting and be present for the discussion. Hierstein was not allowed into the meetings.
A board also cannot take any action in closed session, but the Courier alleged that action was taken to decide Hierstein's fate.
Bracken said the board maintains a formal vote was not taken in the closed sessions. However, he said, the board decided to resolve the matter because the majority of trustees at the time of the incident are no longer in office and further litigation would only result in additional cost.
"We're glad that it's resolved, and that Hawkeye Community College recognized it took action in violation of the open-meetings law," said John Goossen, the Courier's publisher.
"Our goal from the beginning was that of open, honest government and the public's right to know how its governmental bodies do business," he said. "We think this settlement serves that purpose."