Suit claims City of Davenport, council, city attorney violated Open Meetings Act

A Bettendorf man who owns property in Davenport has filed a civil suit claiming the City of Davenport, its council and attorney violated Iowa regulations involving three large settlements with city employees, court records show.

In Scott County Court, Dr. Allen L. Diercks, through his attorney Michael J. Meloy, on Thursday filed a petition about the open meetings act and settlements with three city employees.

Named as defendants are the City of Davenport, the Davenport City Council, and City Attorney Tom Warner.

The suit challenges the execution of three “settlement” contracts by Warner of about $2 million with three city employees, and says the contracts were signed without prior city council approval in violation of the Iowa Code.

Warner was the corporation counsel for the City of Davenport and was a full-time in-house legal employee of the City, the suit says.

The suit says Corrin Spiegel was the city administrator in 2023 and was hired in 2016 as city administrator, and that Spiegel was Warner’s immediate job and operational supervisor.

Tiffany Thorndike and Samantha Torres were at-will employees who were supervised by Spiegel and who both worked as executive assistants for the office of the mayor and the city council, according to the suit.

On Sept. 8, 2023, “without prior council approval voted upon by the Council in an open meeting,” Warner signed two separate settlement agreements with Thorndike and Torres for $157,000 and $140,500 dollars, respectively, the suit claims, saying the council did not vote to approve nor was provided the actual Thorndike and Torres agreements “prior to its execution on September 8, 2023.”

On Oct. 2023, “without prior Council approval voted upon by the Council in an open meeting,” the suit accuses Warner of signing a third settlement agreement with Spiegel, for $1,600,000, including $600,000 dollars for lost wages and $1 million for emotional pain and suffering.

The Council did not vote to approve and was not provided the actual Spiegel settlement agreement prior to its execution on Oct. 6, 2023, the suit says.

Each of these three settlement agreements was a Chapter 22 public record upon the dates of their execution, according to the suit.

The lawsuit claims each of the three executed settlement agreements constitutes a void contract between the parties signing the agreements. The council did not approve any of these three settlement agreements, by a recorded vote in an open meeting, with Thorndike, Torres and Spiegel, prior to the date Warner signed said agreements with the three employees, the suit says.

On Nov. 10, 2023, according to the suit, the city disbursed settlement funds to Thorndike and Torres for $157,000 and $140,500.

On or about Nov. 20, 2023, the suit says, the city announced that Warner was retiring effective Jan. 2, 2024. On Nov. 22, 2023, the city first publicly disclosed the settlement agreement executed with Spiegel, “keeping the contract, which was a public record, secret from public knowledge and inspection” for a period of 47 days, after the date Warner executed the settlement agreement with Spiegel on Oct. 6, 2023.

On Nov. 29, 2023, the city first publicly disclosed the Thorndike and Torres settlements, “keeping these contracts, which were public records, secret from public knowledge and inspection for 83 days” after Warner executed the agreements on Sept. 8, 2023, the suit says.

On or about Dec. 4, 2023, Warner was placed on administrative leave by the city, “without the City disclosing the reason for Warner’s administrative leave,” the suit says, adding the three large monetary settlements “were purposely kept secret, by Warner and Mayor Matson, from the public until after the November 7, 2023 municipal election for Mayor, to protect the incumbent Mayor from public criticism and potential loss of electoral office, in his re-election bid for a third term in office.”

The suit alleges the settlement agreements were “purposely kept secret” by Warner and the vouncil from the public until after the municipal elections for alderpersons “to protect incumbent alderpersons from public criticism and potential loss of electoral office, in their reelection bids.”

On Dec. 13, 2023, the council held an executive session “to discuss strategy with counsel in matters involving litigation,” according to the lawsuit, which says a “a secret (executive) session” was held after the mayor adjourned the regular council meeting in a session “involving litigation.”

According to the suit, “At the conclusion of the secret (executive) session” held on Dec. 13, 2023, the council, by vote of 6 to 1 (3 council persons not voting), voted to “ratify” the three settlements.

In the suit, Diercks requests that the court:

• Declare these three employee settlement agreements were void and could not be ratified by the council on Dec. 13, 2023, after they were executed.
• Schedule an oral hearing on this matter before the court and, after the hearing, “declare that the Council’s December 13, 2023 ‘ratification’ was erroneous, illegal, arbitrary and capricious and was void.”
• Schedule a trial on the Declaratory Judgment action, the Open Meetings count and the Certiorari count.
• Declare that Warner’s actions in signing the three contracts and the Council’s actions to “ratify” these three contracts on Dec. 13, 2023 were each “illegal, … erroneous and void.”
• Find that Warner, the City of Davenport and the Council failed to follow statutes.
• Find that Warner, the City of Davenport and the Council violated the Iowa Code.
• Find that the City of Davenport and Warner violated the Davenport City Code on the stipulated settlement amounts that are allowed by Warner to sign.
• Find that Warner is personally liable for unlawfully signing the three contracts and causing the “three extravagant monetary payments” made to Spiegel, Thorndike and Torres.
• “Declare that the City shall take legal action to clawback all monetary payments made to Spiegel, Thorndike and Torres.” (A “clawback” is a contractual provision by which money already paid to an employee must be returned to an employer, sometimes with a penalty.)
• Award Dr. Allen L. Diercks attorney fees for the council’s violations of the Iowa Open Meetings Act.
• Enter other relief to Dr. Diercks that is just and equitable, including court costs and attorney fees.

The suit refers to Chapter 21 of the Official Meetings Open to the Public (see the Iowa Code here) that regulates public meetings.

Read the lawsuit below:

Read Chapter 21 of the Iowa Code here.

Read Chapter 22 about open records here.