Details concerning next week’s Special Meeting of the Cass County Conference Board were released today (Wednesday). The meeting which will be held with regard to the re-appointment of Cass County Assessor Brenda Nelson, takes place in the 2nd Floor Courtroom at the Cass County Courthouse, beginning at 5:30-p.m. Wed., Sept. 23rd.

During the meeting, the Board will hold a voice vote on approval of the minutes of their last meeting on Sept. 3rd, during which they voted 2-1 against re-appointing Nelson to another six-year term. Afterward, the agenda calls for an order to rescind the non-appointment vote. The matter will be done by Roll Call.

A public forum will then take place, with members of the public limited to 2-minutes per speaker, during which you may voice your concerns and/or questions. The forum will be followed by Roll Call vote to reappoint Nelson.

The process of determining Nelson’s future will include all members of the Conference Board deliberating together, as one. Any discussion by any member of the Board will not occur until the motion is made and seconded. Any member of the Board may call for a motion to approve reappointing Nelson to a six-year term beginning January 1st, 2016. That motion, if made, will need to be seconded, followed by deliberations.

Another Roll Call vote will then be held and recorded by the clerk or secretary of the meeting, and taken in the following order: Schools, Mayors and Board of Supervisors of Cass County.

Late last week, Cass County Attorney David Wiederstein said said he asked Conference Board Chair Frank Waters to reconvene the Board, to rescind the Sept. 3rd vote not to reappoint Nelson because of how it was conducted. He stated “There may or may not have been a violation of Open Meetings laws when the three voting units caucused at the same time. Members of the public in attendance, therefore, had to simultaneously divide their attention three different ways.”

Wiederstein brought the matter to the Director of the Iowa Public Information Board, but because a Special Meeting of the Conference Board is being held, he thought there was no further need for the IPIB to be involved in the matter.