Opinion ID: 2177021
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Additional Testimony in District Court.

Text: The teacher asserts the superintendent should have been required to make all of his record in the board hearing; that this was the proper construction of Iowa Code section 279.16, and that he was surprised when the superintendent was permitted to assign additional reasons in district court for his failure to comply with the subpoena. He contends this procedure violated that portion of section 279.16 that states, Process and procedure under sections 279.13 to 279.19 shall be as summary as reasonably may be. Resolution of this issue requires us to examine Iowa Code section 279.16 which provides in relevant part: The board shall cause subpoenas to be issued for such witnesses and the production of such books and papers as either the board or the teacher may designate. The subpoenas shall be signed by the presiding officer of the board. In case a witness is duly subpoenaed and refuses to attend, or in case a witness appears and refuses to testify or to produce required books or papers, the board shall, in writing, report such refusal to the district court of the county in which the administrative office of the school district is located, and the court shall proceed with the person or witness as though the refusal had occurred in a proceeding legally pending before the court. We are not aided by a legislative history, for the entire section dealing with termination hearings was adopted as a floor amendment. See S.F. 205, 66th G.A., 2d Sess. (Iowa 1976). Nor does Smith v. Board of Education, 334 N.W.2d 150, 153-54 (Iowa 1983), provide guidance. We there held the teacher had waived her right to have access to allegedly confidential files because she had failed to invoke the section 279.16 procedure to enforce the subpoena. Ordinarily it is required that all objections and issues be raised at an initial proceeding in order to provide the presiding decision maker with as much information as possible upon which to base his or her decision, and to focus and narrow the issues for appellate consideration. Under section 279.16, however, the board apparently has no discretion in issuing the subpoena, and no power to make an initial decision to enforce it. The enforcement proceeding in district court is not a review of the action of any other decision maker. Thus the ordinary considerations for requiring a complete record in the prior proceeding are absent here. These situations generally will involve a person who refuses to testify or produce documents, with a potential incarceration lurking in the wings. The first refusal to obey the subpoena usually will occur before presiding lay persons lacking the legal knowledge to probe the motives of the subpoenaed witness, or to properly warn him or her of the consequences. In these circumstances, reason and due process may dictate additional record in the district court. We are not convinced the section 279.16 admonition that the process and procedure shall be as summary as reasonably may be should tie the hands of a careful court in dealing with a balky witness. We hold trial court was right in permitting the superintendent to amplify his reasons for refusing to produce the controverted documents.