Petitions challenge Maxwell's role with county and NS schools

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A March 15 public hearing will consider John Maxwell’s future public service following the Scott County Attorney’s opinion challenging Maxwell’s eligibility to be a North Scott school board member and a Scott County supervisor.

Petitions with signatures from 95 county residents called for a hearing to consider a conflict created by an old state law created by legislators who never anticipated an Iowan winning election to county board and school board. North Scott school district voters made Maxwell a board member in 2011, and reelected him in 2015 and 2019. County voters made him a supervisor in 2018. He’s up for reelection in 2022.

Maxwell on Monday said he welcomes the inquiry to settle the matter, but noted that legislation on the governor’s desk may do it before the hearing.

“Cleary, I want to keep my jobs,” Maxwell said. “I’m in the belief I will be able to keep my job and serve the citizens of Scott County and maintain an office to which I was elected.”

The concern involves state law that requires all elected supervisors and school board members to serve on conference boards that oversee city and county assessors. A fraction of the North Scott Community School District is in Davenport, making North Scott school board members a part of the Davenport conference board.

Each conference board meeting must have an elected member from each taxing district covered by that assessor.

The conference boards meet no more than twice annually. Maxwell said he participated in two conference boards since 2019, including the Feb. 8 online meeting of the Davenport conference board.

When it appeared that too few school board members were present at that meeting, Maxwell offered to serve in that role. North Scott board chairman Joni Dittmer was on the call, but the conference board needed another district’s board member. A Davenport school board member joined the call moments later, and Maxwell remained as a county board representative.

But the conflict was enough for Davenport city assessor Nick Van Camp to ask the Davenport city attorney for advice. In his Feb. 11 memo to the city attorney, Van Camp described what happened at the Feb. 8 conference board meeting.

“At the time, the schools did not have a quorum as a voting unit. Supervisor Maxwell appeared virtually, and at the time, since the Board of (Supervisors) had a quorum, he decided to wear the hat as representative for the schools,” Van Camp wrote in a Feb. 11 memo.

Maxwell said he welcomed Van Camp’s followup. “I don’t think it was ill-intended. It was just for clarity.”

That launched the inquiry that led to County attorney Mike Walton’s Feb. 24 conclusion that a conflict in the law existed.

About the same time, Rep. Roby Smith, R-Bettendorf, added a paragraph in his voting bill that would resolve this conflict, and any others the law created in Iowa.

State legislation

Maxwell said he believes that legislation, already passed by both chambers and on the governor’s desk, resolves the issue.

Walton’s memo focused on Iowa law, not Maxwell’s actions. “Due to both positions requiring membership on the city conference board, the offices of county supervisor and school board member in this situation are incompatible.”

Walton cited 1965 case law that says in event of such a conflict, the elected official “vacates the first office and his title thereto is terminated without any other act or proceeding.”

Deputy county attorney Rob Cusack alerted supervisors to Sen. Smith’s voting bill, including a paragraph that might resolve the conflict.

The paragraph in the bill reads: “If a person is a member of more than one body whose members make up a voting unit on the conference board, that person shall waive the person’s position on the conference board for all but one of the bodies the person represents. A waiver pursuant to this section does not cause the person to vacate any elective office.”

The bill, which also reduces early voting in all counties, won Senate and House approval on partisan lines, and is on the governor’s desk for her expected signature.

County board chairman Ken Beck said if the governor signs it prior to the March 15 hearing, the conflict is resolved and Maxwell keeps both jobs.

"We'll follow whatever the current legislation is at the time when vacancy is declared. My understanding is that legislation will be signed Wednesdsay. We need to let that go through. According to our own county attorney, if that is signed, it  negates any implications or allegations," Beck said.

Beck and Maxwell said they did not contact Sen. Smith on the matter.

Smith inserted the language in his early voting bill before it passed the Senate Feb. 23.

Petitioners seek hearing

On Feb. 25 and 26, four residents passed petitions that secured 95 signatures seeking a public hearing on John Maxwell’s supervisor service.

State law requires a petition with at least 25 signatures to challenge an elected office holder’s eligibility. The petitions require the county to convene a panel of elected county office holders: Republican Scott County treasurer Mike Fennelly, and Democrats, county auditor Roxanna Moritz and recorder Rita Vargas.

Petitions made available Monday by auditor Moritz showed 95 signatures, including:

• 68 from Davenport residents;

• 11 from North Scott school district residents;

• 10 from Bettendorf.

Bettendorf signatures included Rev. Rogers Kirk, a Democratic county board candidate in 2018 and 2020. Other signatures were from LeClaire, Wheatland, Bennett and Blue Grass.

The signatures were on petitions that read: “We the undersigned are requesting a public hearing to be held under Iowa Code 69.2, if there a vacancy on the Scott County Board of Supervisors in regards to Supervisor Maxwell.” Moritz on Monday said state law requires a hearing once the petitions have submitted and verified.

“The way I interpret it, the public hearing is for people to bring forward a cause of their case. Upon hearing it, we have seven days to make a decision,” she said.

 

John Maxwell, Scott County Board of Supervisors, North Scott School Board, Scott County Attorney's Office, North Scott School District, Joni Dittmer, Nick Van Camp, Mike Walton, Roby Smith, Rob Cusack, Ken Beck, Mike Fennelly, Roxanna Moritz, Rita Vargas, Rogers Kirk

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