Public Information Board dismisses complaint against City of Marengo

MARENGO — The Iowa Public Information Board dismissed a complaint last month against the City of Marengo regarding the posting and publication of meeting minutes.

Erika Eckley, executive director for the Iowa Public Information Board, entered the dismissal order for a complaint filed by Matt Loffer June 23 which alleged that the City of Marengo had violated Iowa Code Chapter 22 when it didn’t post minutes for the May 14 meeting on its official website and did not publish those minutes in the local newspaper or through the Iowa Newspaper Association’s Public Notices bulletin.

“A review of the City’s website shows that there was a meeting scheduled for May 14, with an agenda posted, though no corresponding minutes were available as of July 7, 2025,” wrote Eckley.

Iowa Code 21.3(2) requires that governmental bodies keep minutes of all meetings as public records subject to inspection by any member of the public.

“However, there is no publication requirement in Chapter 21, meaning that governmental bodies are not required to take affirmative steps under this chapter to disseminate minutes as public records if no request has been made for access,” Eckley wrote.

“For this reason, even if all allegations in the complaint are assumed to be accurate for the purposes of facial review, there is no violation of Chapter 21 from the City’s failure to upload their minutes or publish them in the local newspaper, even if it is their normal practice to do so.”

If the city is subject to additional publication requirements under another section of Iowa Code, those violations would be outside the Public Information Board’s jurisdiction over Chapters 21 and 22, said Eckley.

“Because Chapter 21 does not contain publication requirements and because any publication requirements provided elsewhere in the Code would be outside IPIB’s statutory jurisdiction to enforce, the complaint is dismissed on facial review,” wrote Eckley.

Marengo City Administrator Karla Marck said Aug. 6 that no one had contacted the city about the minutes of the May 14 meeting and city officials didn’t know until The Hometown Current contacted city hall Aug. 6 that the minutes were not posted and had not been published.

“The complainant did not notify, nor inquire with the city, and due to IPIB’s dismissal of the complaint, the city was not notified by IPIB,” said Marck via email.

Marck said the minutes were not posted or published due to oversight.

“The meeting minutes were written and approved by council during the May 28, 2025 council meeting, but not published. As a result of your inquiry, we have posted the minutes on the city website and have forwarded [them] to The Hometown Current to be published in the next edition,” Marck wrote.