Iowa parole board member not protected by whistleblower law, judge rules in dismissing suit

A former member of Iowa's Board of Parole is not protected by state whistleblower laws and cannot sue over the loss of her position, a judge has found.

Kathleen Kooiker of Osceola served from 2018 to 2021 on the board, which makes decisions about when Iowa prisoners who have completed a minimum sentence may be granted parole. Members are appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, but in 2021 Reynolds declined to reappoint Kooiker at the conclusion of her term.

In a lawsuit filed in 2023, Kooiker alleged she had been denied reappointment because she'd spoken up about potentially illegal actions by the board and its then-chair, Helen Miller.

In her complaint, she describes a range of alleged mismanagement by Miller, a longtime Democratic state representative from Fort Dodge, most notably that she had permitted some parole decisions to be made by a panel solely of the board's three alternate members in violation of state law. Kooiker said she'd brought her concerns repeatedly to Reynolds and the Iowa Attorney General's Office, but got little or no response.

Judge: Appointed officers aren't employees

Attorneys for the state moved to dismiss Kooiker's suit, and earlier this month, a Polk County judge agreed.

The issue, Judge David Porter wrote, is that the whistleblower laws Kooiker cites in her complaint draw a distinction between employees and officers of the state. Parole Board members, Porter found, clearly fall in the latter category and aren't afforded the same protections as regular state employees.

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"The employment protections granted to employees, by virtue of the master/servant relationship they enter with employers, far surpass the employment protections public officials enjoy," Porter wrote in dismissing Kooiker's claims.

Kooiker warns of 'loophole' in whistleblower law

Kooiker, a retired magistrate judge, said in a statement that Porter's decision points to what she calls a "loophole" in the law that "allows some members of Iowa’s executive branch to be considered above the law, unaccountable under that law for misappropriation of funds, violating the rights of inmates and victims, tampering with records, filing false reports, and punishing whistleblowers."

"This is now a cautionary tale to any other state employees who can be also classified as 'officers' ― do not report or try to stop illegal actions you witness at your board, just be complicit if you want to keep your job, or if you plan to apply for reappointment," she said.

While the lawsuit is over, Kooiker said she will be "happy" to meet with legislators to discuss what she saw as violations of the law during her time on the board.

What about those possibly illegal parole decisions?

In an email, Kooiker estimated that an illegally constituted panel of the parole board. made parole decisions in the cases of about 250 inmates. In her lawsuit, she alleged that regular board members had later gone back and added their votes to decisions made by the three alternates in an attempt to make them retroactively appear legal.

It's not clear whether any of those denied parole by a possibly illegal panel have challenged their decisions in court. In February, State Auditor Rob Sand released a report on the board noting he had sought records related to Kooiker's allegations, but that the board had denied his request, citing a recent state law limiting the auditor's authority.

Meanwhile, the problem appears unlikely to arise again. The Legislature in 2023 rescinded the statute requiring at least one member of each Parole Board decision panel to be a permanent member.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Board of Parole wrongful termination lawsuit dismissed