Bettendorf City Council members should end the practice of meeting secretly in small groups to discuss controversial issues.
According to the city's administrator, the practice has been ongoing for more than a decade and grew out of concern by alderman they didn't wish to be "surprised" by issues/topics which came up at council meetings. (See article below)
The secret meetings certainly eliminate any "surprises" to aldermen, but they leave the public in the dark when important decisions are being formulated by city staff and the council.
By the time the issue arrives for a "public" discussion, aldermen have often, if not always, reached a consensus on the matter. The public hearings where citizens can comment on these issues are mere formalities to be held before the council holds an "official" vote.
The most recent abuse of such secret deliberations is the plan to sell the city-owned Eagle Food building and land along 18th Street next to the library and Family Museum.
Council members were briefed and discussed the property sale at private luncheons hosted at city hall in March. The consensus was to accept a $1 million offer by a Moline contractor for the vacant building and 3.1 acres of land.
The purchase is awaiting the developer completing his due diligence to buy the property, and the holding of a "public" vote by the city council at an open meeting, likely in May.
Should you (like the city's library) oppose the sell decision, you'll be welcome to state your opinion at the meeting. Aldermen will listen, but the real discussion and decision-making on the issue was weeks earlier in a private meeting.
As the city administrator likes to point out, these private meetings of three aldermen are legal. State open meeting law prohibits a majority of council members (4) from meeting secretly. Breaking into groups of three for two separate sessions may be legal, but the practice clearly violates the spirit of the law - to assure elected public officials conduct public business in public.
Such meetings undermine public trust in the decision-making by its elected representatives. With no public record of the meetings, citizens can only speculate on what was discussed and agreed to by their public officials.
