Ames is preparing for a major leadership transition after City Attorney Mark Lambert announced plans to retire in September.
City officials began preparations for a months-long national search designed to find the next top legal adviser at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The council could have discussed a proposed recruitment plan Tuesday, but tabled the matter until its March 24 meeting so all council members could be present. The plan details how candidates will be recruited, interviewed and evaluated, with the goal of selecting a new attorney who could begin work as early as September.
The plan, drafted by Director of Human Resources Bethany Ballou, also recommends several updates to the job description to better reflect the expectations of the role. The council oversees the position and will ultimately hire the next city attorney.
According to the memo, the hiring process would begin with advertising the position in May and continue through interviews, public presentations and reference checks before a final job offer is made later in the summer.
City officials say the process is designed to give council members, city staff and residents a chance to meet candidates and provide feedback before the final decision.
Council prepares next steps for civil rights protections
The council was scheduled to vote on writing a letter opposing a bill in the Iowa Legislature that would prevent cities from adopting civil rights protections broader than state law. But, before council members could discuss the bill, lawmakers passed the bill and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it Tuesday.
Lambert said he would prepare a next-steps memo for the council to discuss at its next meeting.
House File 2541 bars cities from including protected classes in local civil rights ordinances that are not already recognized under the state’s civil rights law. The proposal comes weeks after the city council adopted an ordinance adding gender identity as a protected class under the city’s human rights ordinance.
The language of HF 2541 was offered as an amendment to a 2025 bill addressing civil rights complaints, SF 579. The Iowa House approved the amendment, followed by the Senate. It then went to the governor.
Ames would not have been the first city to oppose the measure. Urbandale and Windsor Heights sent letters to their legislators expressing opposition to the bill. Those cities argued that local governments should be able to establish protections that reflect the values and needs of their communities, even if those protections go beyond state law. Supporters of the bill, however, have argued that civil rights protections should be consistent statewide rather than varying from city to city.
In other business
- The council tabled until March 24 a vote to ban Jordison Construction of Urbandale, from bidding on city projects for at least three years. The company’s faulty concrete work on Schainker Plaza cost the city more than $156,000 in extra fees and delayed the public space’s opening by several years, according to city staff. The city reached a settlement on Feb. 27 with the prime contractor.
- The council approved up to $150,000 for climate-related grants in fiscal year 2026–27, expanding a program that supports sustainability projects by community groups, youth and homeowners.
- The council voted to allow the state to handle new permits for businesses that want to deliver certain glass- or metal-based smoking devices to customers after a recent change in state law.
- The council passed the first reading of an ordinance that would create two tax increment financing (TIF) districts within the downtown reinvestment district urban renewal area to help support redevelopment of the Linc site, a proposed development of shops, restaurants and apartments along Lincoln Way next to downtown. An urban renewal plan, approved Aug. 24, 2021, allows up to $32.5 million in TIF funding, but the ordinance only establishes where the taxes could be collected and does not set the amount or timing of incentives for developers.
- The council approved the first reading of an ordinance to rezone a 10-acre Ames Multipurpose Educational Services Center property, 1323 Northwestern Ave., from residential to a government district zone, clearing the way for the school district to expand it. Plans include renovating existing buildings for classrooms, offices, rental space and a food pantry and adding an information technology and storage building and an addition to the gymnasium.
- Following a closed session, the council passed a resolution approving a settlement agreement with Scott Hutzell, a former Ames Electric Department employee, for $185,000 related to his worker’s compensation claim.
- Attendance: Mayor John Haila and Rep. Amber Corrieri were absent. Mayor Pro Tem Anita Rollins conducted the meeting.
- What’s next: The next regularly scheduled meeting of the council will be at 6 p.m. March 24 at City Hall, 515 Clark Ave.