Three Linn County supervisors overstep open meetings line

A hastily-called Wednesday morning meeting turned into an open meetings kerfuffle for three Linn County supervisors.

Supervisor Ben Rogers was speaking with Darrin Gage, county director of policy and administration, about the possibility of commissioning a study on what it would cost to renovate the old Econofoods to suit county offices. Soon, Supervisors Linda Langston and Lu Barron joined the meeting by telephone.

Whoops.

Iowa law requires that any meeting by a quorum of a local governing body -- in the county's case, three supervisors -- must be posted 24 hours in advance with the agenda included, and must be open to the public.

Supervisor Brent Oleson blew up -- saying he was shaking, he was so angry -- minutes later when the get-together came up during the supervisors' weekly formal session.

"This is not how we do business in this county, darn it," he said.

Supervisor Jim Houser, who was also not involved in the meeting, said nothing.

Barron and Rogers said it shouldn't have happened, and they won't let it in the future.

Despite pointing out that the meeting was informational, and did not involve discussion of strategy or any decision-making, Rogers said he felt badly about it.

"We need to do a better job of making sure those types of situations don't happen again in the future," he said. "I don't want other supervisors to feel like they've been shut out of the process."