Court Opinion

ID: 9656232
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:43:58.889429+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:30.557882
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. There is no room in the present case for this court to pass judgment on the desirability of maintaining the confidentiality of the proceedings leading up to the board’s vote on termination of school administrators. We are only asked to declare what the legislature has provided in this regard. In considering that question, I fully agree with the district court that the legislature intended, in enacting section 279.24, that all of the steps in the statutory process prior to the final roll call vote are to be accorded confidentiality.
In order to reach a different conclusion, it is necessary to attribute to the legislature an intent to induce consequences in the middle step of a three-step process which, by purpose and design, will necessarily defeat the clear declaration of intent which the same legislature has espoused in regard to the first and last steps. I submit that such self-defeating, statutory interpretation should be indulged in, if ever, only when the intent to self-destruct appears with unmistakable clarity on the face of the enactment.
The majority’s attempt to draw an analogy between the present situation and the deliberations of a jury is of no assistance whatsoever in understanding the issues presented on this appeal. There simply is no analogy between the two situations. There are specific statutes which bear on the confidentiality issue in the situation involved in section 279.24 proceedings which are not involved in the normal jury trial situation. In addition, the majority uses its predetermined interpretation of the statutes at issue in order to frame the analogy. If the purpose of the analogy is to aid in arriving at the proper interpretation, this is bootstrapping the result.
The three, steps required in the present proceeding, prior to the final roll call vote of the board, are:
(1) The decision of the board to consider termination of the administrator and notification of the administrator of that decision;
(2) At the option of the administrator, a hearing before a hearing officer concerning whether just cause exists for termination of the administrator. Such hearing culminates in a written recommendation by the hearing officer;
(3) At the option of either the administrator or the board, a private hearing *84before the board for review of the record made before the hearing officer and the hearing officer’s proposed decision.
Within the first step, the board, if it desires, is allowed to maintain confidentiality of its deliberations and the notice to the administrator by reason of section 21.5(l)(i) and section 22.7(11). Within the third step, confidentiality is permitted by both the foregoing statutes and also by specific provision in section 279.24 that neither the private hearing or the record thereof are subject to the provisions of chapter 21 or chapter 22.
Within the second step (the one at issue here), confidentiality may be accorded to the detailed findings and recommendations of the hearing officer under section 22.7(11) and also by reason of the express provisions in section 279.24, exempting matters considered at the private hearing from the provisions of chapter 21 or chapter 22. The majority of the court concludes, however, that the proceedings before the hearing officer during the second step must be open to the public and that the transcript of that hearing is a public record by virtue of section 17A.12(7).
A major flaw in the majority’s analysis is a misplaced reliance on statutes contained in chapter 17A. The Iowa Administrative Procedure Act was not written so as to apply to section 279.24 hearings. For this reason, it is an unreliable source upon which to rely in seeking the meaning of section 279.24. The provisions of chapter 17A are only involved in these proceedings to the extent that section 272A.8 makes them applicable. All that is said in the latter statute is “[t]he hearing shall be held pursuant to the provisions of chapter 17A relating to contested cases.” This limited description of how the hearing shall be conducted falls far short of the majority’s claim that section 279.24 proceedings are converted into contested cases under chapter 17A for all purposes.
Rather than being inapposite, as the majority suggests, our decision in Jones v. Loess Hills Area Education Agency 13, 319 N.W.2d 263, 264 (Iowa 1982) is highly instructive on this point. In Jones, we interpreted the quoted provisions of section 272A.8 as only relating to how the hearing is to be conducted. We indicated that it should have no applicability with respect to anything before or after the hearing. Here, the preparation and custody of the transcript are matters subsequent to the hearing. We also recognized in Jones that, because of the special attributes of section 279.24 proceedings, requirements of chapter 17A which are inconsistent therewith need not be considered as incorporated by reference under section 272A.8.
We have often said that we must construe statutes by examining the objects and purposes which the legislature sought to accomplish and the evils and mischiefs sought to be remedied and seek to reach a result which will effectuate those purposes. E.G., State v. Peterson, 347 N.W.2d 398, 402 (Iowa 1984); Iowa National Industrial Loan Co. v. Iowa State Department of Revenue, 224 N.W.2d 437, 440 (Iowa 1974); Iowa Code §§ 4.2, 4.6(1), (5) (1985). If it appears from such an examination of the present statutes that it was the intention of the legislature to accord confidentiality to the proceedings before the hearing examiner, then we should not hesitate to give the statutes this interpretation as a result of misplaced reliance on rules of construction favoring public access to information.
The opinion of the court in the present case may serve to dissuade administrators facing discharge from requesting hearings which will require the presentation of sensitive material. The legislature acted wisely in protecting against such disclosure at the other stages of the proceeding in order to foster full disclosure of all pertinent facts to the board. No reason has been suggested by the court why the legislature would intend a lesser degree of confidentiality to prevail in those instances where the administrator exercises the statutory right to an independent fact finder. The fact-finding process is an integral part of a single statutory proceeding in which the *85legislature’s desire for confidentiality is clearly expressed.
HARRIS, J., loins this dissent.