(Des Moines, Iowa) – A bill adopted by the Iowa Legislature this year that is meant to more harshly penalize open meetings violations might also enable city councils, school boards and others to deliberate in secret, according to the Iowa Public Information Board. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports House File 2539 would increase the penalties for violating a state law that generally requires governmental bodies to operate transparently. That includes providing sufficient notice and agendas for their meetings and deliberating and voting in public.

Purposeful violations of that law could result in fines of up to $12,500 for each board or council member who participated — up from $2,500 — according to the bill. It would further require repeat offenders to be expelled from office. However, a late amendment to the bill might have undercut those provisions.

Under current law, it’s permissible for a majority of a board’s or council’s members to attend the same social event “when there is no discussion of policy or no intent to avoid” open meetings requirements. With the amendment, lawmakers sought to emphasize that includes gatherings that are “hosted or organized by a political party, political candidate or civic organization.”

“There’s some concerns in some smaller counties in Iowa that have, say, three (county) supervisors, that if they’re attending a social event for a political party or a civic gathering, that they would be in violation of the open meetings law,” Sen. Scott Webster, R-Bettendorf, said last month in support of the amendment during debate in the Senate. “This clarifies that’s not a meeting.”

The problem is that the additional text was placed in a way that fully exempts those gatherings from open meeting requirements, said Erika Eckley, executive director of the Iowa Public Information Board, which is charged with deciding whether government officials violate open meetings and records law.

“This language is in direct conflict with the transparency requirements of Iowa’s sunshine laws and will create an enormous loophole for government bodies to allow for decisions to be made in secret, avoiding public consideration and disclosure, which is contrary to ensuring accountability of government to Iowans and the legislative intent behind the legislation,” Eckley wrote in a letter to Gov. Kim Reynolds this month.

Eckley sent that letter at the direction of IPIB’s legislative committee, which sought to notify Reynolds of their interpretation of the bill before Reynolds potentially signs it into law. Reynolds should veto the bill, said Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, which advocates for open government. Evans supports increasing the fines for violations but said the apparently errant amendment has negative implications that far outweigh the bill’s benefits.

The bill was amended and adopted unanimously in the Senate in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session on April 18. The change was then approved by the House.