Paul Scott comment: Not an official Open Meetings Law violation, however...

The official Open Meetings Law violation complaint filed against the Winneshiek County Planning & Zoning Commission probably won't produce any action against the members of the commission.

That's because the complaint fails on a number of legal grounds.  However, that doesn't mean the filing of the complaint wasn't justified.

It would have been much better if the Planning & Zoning Commission had conducted a much more open process.  First of all, there was no public notice given of the tour with the quarry owner.  Secondly, you should no more accept a ride from the quarry owner than you should be driven to the scene of a crime by either the prosecutor or the defendant.

Finally, the woman who filed the complaint reported that a comment was made at the beginning of the quarry tour indicating that they were all aware of the fact that they were in violation of the open meeting statute.  Here's a good rule of thumb--if commission members joke about being in violation of the Open Meetings Law, then even if they don't get prosecuted, they WERE in violation of the Open Meetings Law.