A letter signed by five of the eight Iola City Council members and Mayor Bill Shirley asks higher powers to stop a recall vote for Councilmen Kendall Callahan and Ken Rowe.
The letter, drafted by Councilman Steve French, was presented at Monday’s council meeting requesting for either Allen County Attorney Wade Bowie or Dan Creitz, Allen County District Judge, to quash the Aug. 7 recall vote.
The issue, according to French, was that when a group of citizens spearheaded a petition drive seeking Rowe’s and Callahan’s recall, they did so based on “outdated statutory language.”
French alleged Bowie provided the petitioners information from a state law affecting the Kansas Open Meetings Act that changed in 2008.
The change, French said, constituted a public meeting as any attended by a majority of Iola’s eight-member council — five members — instead of a majority of a quorum, which would have required only three members to constitute an open meetings violation.
Further, French said, if Rowe and Callahan were guilty of violating open meetings laws, so were the rest of the council members.
French pointed out the petition that spelled out seven criteria for Rowe’s ouster.
“I’d like to state publicly, I’m guilty of five of the seven as are many of you,” French told the Council. “I guess I don’t understand why the rest of us aren’t on this petition for recall.
“We can all stand around and wait for reason to prevail,” he continued. “Or we can stand up for what we believe in.”
FRENCH responded to the allegations, that:
— Councilmen have met in secret to discuss city business. “I’ve been there; I’ve done that,” French said. “Folks, we’re allowed to do that. Statutorily, we’re allowed to meet if there are four or fewer members. We’ve been very careful from day one not to cross that line.”
And even then, the meetings have not been in secret, French contended, because it’s been made known committees were formed, and those committees met in public buildings during normal business hours “witnessed by city employees or anybody else coming in to do city business. It has not been done in secret.”
— Rowe tried to access employees’ private health insurance information.
Requests by council members were focused on an attempt to secure the city’s insurance contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas. Through Iola’s partially self-funded insurance plan, BCBS provides recommendations on premiums for city employees.
An investigation led to the firing of former Human Resources Officer Ken Hunt after council members said employees with family plans and retirees were paying substantially less than what had been spelled out in the city’s policy handbook.
French said the allegations are based on a difference of opinion on what information is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
