By Attorneys Jenna Sabroske and Emily Kolbe The ability of public entities to recover costs incurred in responding to open records requests has been a topic of debate in recent legislative sessions. During the 2022 legislative session, the Iowa Legislature amended Iowa Code Chapter 22, Iowa’s Open Records Law, to...
New Limitations on City and County Regulation of Fireworks Sales - Effective Immediately Changes to Extraterritorial Zoning Administration - Effective July 1, 2022 By Attorneys Maria Brownell, Kristine Stone, and Logan Brundage On April 21, 2022, Governor Reynolds signed Senate File 2285 into law, which restricts city and county regulatory...
By Attorneys Danielle Haindfield, Kristine Stone, Maria Brownell, and Conner Wasson On April 21, 2022, Governor Reynolds signed Senate File 2279 into law. This new law affects public improvement projects in the State of Iowa, effective July 1, 2022. Senate File 2279 amends Iowa Code sections 26.7 & 26.10 to...
On Friday, February 25, 2022 the CDC updated its masking guidance for public and private school systems. The CDC no longer recommends universal indoor mask wearing in K-12 and early education settings in areas with a low or medium COVID-19 community transmission. Order: Wearing of face masks while on conveyances...
Timothy Whipple has joined the Ahlers & Cooney, P.C. law firm as Special Counsel and focuses his practice in the Government Law Practice Area, working with municipal utilities, including electric, water, sewer, gas, and telecommunications. He works closely with clients as counsel on municipal utility matters, general municipal law matters,...
By Attorney Jenna Bishop Sabroske As you work through your annual city or county budget approval process, attached is a 12-step checklist explaining key steps and deadlines in the budget process, originally prepared by Ahlers & Cooney following the Iowa Legislature’s enactment of changes to the budget process that went...
By Attorneys Logan Brundage, Jason Comisky, Nathan Overberg, and Jenna H.B. Sabroske Iowa’s Auditor of State, Rob Sand, recently issued a ""Best Practices’ Advisory to Governments on Working with Non-Profits” that recommends approaches for ensuring a public purpose is served when directing public funds toward a private non-profit. The Auditor’s...
On Tuesday, January 25, 2022, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in The Arc of Iowa, et al. v. Reynolds, et al., regarding the preliminary injunction previously issued by the federal District Court against enforcement of Iowa Code § 280.31. This statute generally prohibits schools from requiring...
Brad Beaman has joined the Ahlers & Cooney, P.C. law firm as Special Counsel, and is a member of both the Public Law and Private Law Practice Areas, with a focus on litigation, construction law, and procurement/contracting. As a litigation attorney, Brad serves as a legal adviser to clients counseling...
As you may know, on January 13, 2022, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision imposing a stay on enforcement of OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”): 21A244 National Federation of Independent Business v. OSHA (01/13/2022) (supremecourt.gov). The effect of the Supreme Court’s decision is to...
