A while ago, someone told me that I was a saint, to which I responded knowing that they indeed were not, "It's really not that hard to do the right thing."

That is true today.

Tonight, the City Council will hold another meeting. I know that they will all be just tickled pink to see me, (that was in my sarcasm font). I've attempted to share my thoughts concerning the debacle over the most recent appointment(s) at the City Council.

I've attempted to sort out my feelings and thoughts and tried without success to do that, I have 15 articles written that you haven't seen that prove it.

First, my issue is not with the gender part of the requirement for the Board Appointment to the Vinton Municipal Electric Utilities. My issue is with the blatant ignoring of the law.

Second, the Nepotism Law, which appears to have been around since 2014 has been put in place for situations like this. When Nepotism is allowed and winked at, it allows other things that just aren't quite right or things that make you cringe, but has been happening in Vinton, and no one says anything, because, well, we're all friends here. We're "Iowa nice."

I get that, at the same time, I see the result of that.

According to "Nepotism Iowa Code 71.1" it states,

"Employments prohibited. It shall hereafter be unlawful for any person elected or appointed to any public office or position under the laws of the state or by virtue of the ordinance of any city in the state, to appoint as deputy, clerk, or helper in said office or position to be paid f r o m the public funds, any person related by consanguinity or affinity, within the third degree, to the person elected, appointed, or making said appointment, unless such appointment shall first be approved by the officer, board, council, or commission whose duty it is to approve the bond of the principal; provided this provision shall not apply in cases where such person appointed receives compensation at the rate of six hundred dollars per year or less, nor shall it apply to persons teaching in public schools, nor shall it apply to the employment of clerks of members of the general assembly."

The argument could be made that because the council did not know that they had to give their approval to break the nepotism law, they were duped into approval by rushing to a vote. After rewatching the footage, it appears to me that the topic was being broached for discussion when it was shut down, I'd guess because let's face it, it's uncomfortable.

Even after the city attorney clarified at a second meeting that the appointment made by the mayor was indeed Nepotism, it appears that not everyone was convinced that it still was not...as long as the council approved.

The second law broken, and blatantly, was the Gender Balance law.

Honest, I have always had the opinion that if you're good enough, you will be chosen, and then I started to rethink this after this fiasco.

The Iowa Law, not a suggestion, some random idea, but the LAW states in Iowa Code 69.16AGender balance.

1. All appointive boards, commissions, committees, and councils of the state established by the Code, if not otherwise provided by law, shall be gender-balanced. No person shall be appointed or reappointed to any board, commission, committee, or council established by the Code if that appointment or reappointment would cause the number of members of the board, commission, committee, or council of one gender to be greater than one-half the membership of the board, commission, committee, or council plus one if the board, commission, committee, or council is composed of an odd number of members. If the board, commission, committee, or council is composed of an even number of members, not more than one-half of the membership shall be of one gender. If there are multiple appointing authorities for a board, commission, committee, or council, they shall consult each other to avoid a violation of this section.2. All appointive boards, commissions, committees, and councils of a political subdivision of the state that are established by the Code, if not otherwise provided by law, shall be gender balanced as provided by subsection 1 unless the political subdivision has made a good faith effort to appoint a qualified person to fill a vacancy on a board, commission, committee, or council in compliance with subsection 1 for a period of three months but has been unable to make a compliant appointment. In complying with the requirements of this subsection, political subdivisions shall utilize a fair and unbiased method of selecting the best-qualified applicants. This subsection shall not prohibit an individual whose term expires prior to January 1, 2012, f r o m being reappointed even though the reappointment continues an inequity in gender balance.

The date of the origination of this law I assume dates back to 2011 because the law gives the January 2012 date.

So for at least 7 years, we've ignored any attempt to make the VMEU board gender-balanced, and at least 5 years we've ignored Nepotism.

Now in all of this, I've heard, "They are really NICE people, they are good people!" I KNOW that there isn't anyone in the room that I don't like! They've all been welcoming and some may have growled a little went I brought along the camera to live stream the meetings, but they've all been nice about it, and for sure I'm not saying that anyone in any of these offices are bad people. I am simply saying that laws were made to be followed.

Ironically the people breaking the law are the same people that make the local laws, and expect them to be followed and when they aren't they move to enforce them. It only seems fair to me that if you make laws, you should follow them.

Another incident that hit me wrong was the quick adjournment when Councilman Hesson again attempted to ask a question at the end of the second meeting on December 19th, he was quickly shut down being told that the meeting had been adjourned.

In all other meetings I've attended, there is a motion made to adjourn. Now I'm not up on my Robert's Rules of Order, but I'd guess that just because you don't want to discuss any further a topic, I don't think you can just declare a meeting "adjourned."

If nothing else, the manner in which this happened was rude and a blatant attempt to shut down any discussion on the wrong that had just happened.

I am bothered when our local government seems to operate on the basis of choosing the laws they will and will not follow. When it gets heated they will declare a meeting adjourned.

Is the city attorney not allowed to object when laws are being broken? Or is he supposed to wait to be summoned on issues like all of the ones mentioned above? Is he too not tasked with acting on behalf of the city or is his job to serve only when the mayor or council asks him to? Or is his job to speak on behalf of the citizens?

I will again include the links to the meetings mentioned above. I could be wrong, I could be totally missing the mark on these three issues, but I don't think I am.

Local leadership should remember that they are representing the residents that voted them into office, they are not there to serve their own wants. They are to serve and do what is best for the city while following all the laws and the rules.

And again, if you make laws, follow the laws.

Yeah, we know the drill, "It's already been done, we'll fix it NEXT time." Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Now I thought for sure at last week's meeting you'd all say, "Hold the phone, we really messed up, we MUST fix this!" You didn't. You can, but you didn't.

For area residents, the agenda for the meeting tonight is listed below.

City of Vinton Council Meeting Agenda

Vinton City Hall

December 26, 2019 7:00 p.m.

1. Call to order and roll call

2. Pledge of Allegiance

3. Approve Agenda

4. Public hearing on proposal to vacate an alley in west Vinton.

5. Consider ordinance for the vacation of an alley in Vinton, Iowa.

6. Approve appointment of Andrew Elwick to the 2nd Ward vacancy occuring in January

7. Set special council meeting date for December 30, 2019.

8. Adjournment

December 12 mtg.

December 19 mtg.


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