Open the doors, Iowa City SSMID

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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While it's a “close call,” there's nothing illegal about downtown Iowa City's fledgling self-supported municipal improvement district board meeting in secret, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

Since the tax-funded group is technically a non-profit, it's the group's decision whether or not to comply with Iowa's Sunshine Laws, the state's chief legal adviser says.

That perplexing opinion aside, there's nothing stopping Iowa City's SSMID board from conducting business in full public view - as many groups do. In fact, it's a good idea.

Operating in the light of day would expose the SSMID board to diverse ideas and help publicize the group's efforts.

It would help build the public's confidence in the group's activities and purpose and ensure that opponents who were outvoted and now must pay the tax are adequately represented.

At the request of business and property owners in downtown and Northside Marketplace, Iowa City Councilors approved the SSMID in December.

For the next four years, beginning this July, property owners in the area will pay an additional $2 per $1,000 of taxable value to fund the SSMID. The University of Iowa will kick in an additional $100,000 each year.

The SSMID board will spend the revenues - estimated at just shy of $300,000 each year - to hire a business development manager to market and beautify the area. The city oversees its budget.

Yet last week, leaders of the recently formed SSMID board announced they would close the board's meetings to non-members so that they can deliberate in peace.

“The majority of the board wanted to be able to just have some time ... in private to do our work and not be concerned about how it sounds as we communicate with each other,” board president and business owner Karen Kubby told a Gazette reporter.

The board even plans on excluding from their meetings property owners who must pay the tax, but who haven't signed on as members of the SSMID.

A number of property owners opposed the idea of a SSMID when it first came before council - property owners representing one-fifth of the property value in the district signed a counter-petition asking council to deny the request.

Some questioned the value of the added tax. Others questioned the SSMID's proposed budget.

Now, according to the group's self-imposed rules, those opponents won't be able to weigh in on or watch deliberations about how their tax money is spent.

That kind of strong arming just smells funny and does little to build confidence in the group's mission.

Illegal or not, the board is ill-advised to close the doors on their deliberations.

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