University of Iowa lawsuit in Harreld hire dismissed

IOWA CITY - A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the committee involved in what became a contentious search for a new University of Iowa president in 2015.

University of Iowa professor emeritus Harold Hammond filed the lawsuit against the presidential search and screen committee in Johnson County District Court on Aug. 14, 2015, but he died June 12, 2016. His attorneys didn't file any more documents until Dec. 19 - blowing past deadlines and leaving pending motions in limbo, according to a judge's ruling dismissing the case issued earlier this week.

Attorneys in December asked to assign Hammond's case to John Menninger, making him the new plaintiff. But UI attorneys argued - among other things - that the request came too late, and Johnson County District Court Judge Ian Thornhill agreed.

He concluded dismissal an appropriate action because no one from Hammond's estate stepped up to become part of the case, his attorneys waited six months to proceed, and now a new person wanted to be added as plaintiff in violation of previous agreements.

Thornhill added that if Menninger wants to state the claims Hammond made in his original lawsuit, he can 'proceed with his own separate claim.”

The case had been set for trial March 7.

'There is nothing in the record to show that, at any time during the approximately six-month period of time between Mr. Hammond's death and the filing of the proposed assignment of action, defendants were aware of whether or not Mr. Hammond's counsel intended to proceed,” according to the judge's ruling.

Hammond's lawsuit arose out of a divisive search to replace former UI President Sally Mason that resulted in the Board of Regents hiring former IBM executive Bruce Harreld. The board chose Harreld from among four finalists despite widespread criticism of his candidacy from faculty, staff, students and community members.

But Hammond's lawsuit was filed even before Harreld was hired in September 2015 and hinged on allegations the 21-member UI search committee violated open meeting laws by holding both public and closed meetings at 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2015, and 7:15 a.m. on Aug. 12, 2015, in Rosemont, Ill.

According to the lawsuit, those meetings constituted violations by being 'at a location outside the State of Iowa and otherwise at times and locations not reasonably accessible or convenient to the public.”

the suit also accused the committee of holding closed meetings without following appropriate procedures and of considering and finalizing matters in closed session that should have been done in the open.

Hammond in 2007 filed a similar lawsuit against the Board of Regents, the presidential search committee, and others that resulted in a settlement costing the defendants nearly $66,000.

Even with the dismissal, a separate lawsuit also targeting the UI presidential search is moving forward with a trial date in that case set for Nov. 6.

The suit, filed last summer by UI alumnus and former employee Gerhild Krapf, is asking a court to void Harreld's appointment due to actions regents took in recruiting him. Also alleging open-meetings violations, Krapf's accusations center around meetings Harreld requested while being recruited for the job.

In early June 2015, Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter and Interim UI President Jean Robillard, who also was heading up the search committee, met with Harreld in Cedar Rapids to discuss the job. Robillard then invited Harreld to speak at the UI Hospitals and Clinics on July 8, when he again met with Rastetter and two other search committee members.

Rastetter then coordinated two meetings between Harreld and four other regents on July 30 at his business location in Ames. The first meeting involved regents Katie Mulholland and Milk Dakovich, and the second meeting involved Larry McKibben and Mary Andringa.

Krapf, in her lawsuit, asserts Harreld's meetings with the regents violated Iowa law, which requires gatherings related to policymaking duties involving a majority of a governmental body's members to be open.

Even though five of the nine regents weren't present at any one of the meetings, Krapf argues the gatherings happened near one another - constituting a violation.

l Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com