Opinion ID: 2134903
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Judicial Review of Agency Inaction/Insufficiency of Agency Record for Judicial Review.

Text: Where the issue on judicial review involves the board's failure to approve a voluntary application, the court is reviewing agency inaction. Under the Iowa Administrative Procedure Act, the term agency action includes a decision not to act or the failure to act or perform a duty. Iowa Code § 17A.2(9). Unfortunately, an agency's failure to act or refusal to act will often be attended by an absence of formal agency factual findings and legal conclusions. We are further constricted by a provision in Senate File 4 limiting judicial review of board decisions to testimony and documents presented to the board prior to issuing its decision on the application for voluntary annexation. 1991 Iowa Acts ch. 250, § 4. We explained the critical importance of formal, recorded agency findings to the process of judicial review of agency action in Ward v. Iowa Department of Transportation, 304 N.W.2d 236, 238 (Iowa 1981), and Johnston v. Iowa Real Estate Commission, 344 N.W.2d 236, 239 (Iowa 1984). Meaningful appellate review is impossible in the absence of reasoned findings of fact. Catalfo v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 213 N.W.2d 506, 510 (Iowa 1973). It is only in rare cases where an agency's unexpressed reasoning [will] appear by ineluctable implication from the record. Johnston, 344 N.W.2d at 240.