The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that Gov. Kim Reynolds can be dismissed from a wrongful termination lawsuit brought by a former state health department employee who claims she was forced to resign for fulfilling journalists' public information requests.
The ruling reversed a lower court’s decision, which had declined to dismiss Reynolds and her former communications director Pat Garrett from the lawsuit filed by former IDPH spokesperson Polly Carver-Kimm, saying they lacked the power to remove her from her position.
However, the court ruled Carver-Kimm’s case against the state can proceed.
Carver-Kimm was the communications director at IDPH when she claims she was asked to either resign or be fired in July 2020, a move she believes was in retaliation for responding to journalists' public information requests, which she said she is required to do under Iowa's Open Records law.
Shortly after, she filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Reynolds, Garrett and the state.
In her petition, Carver-Kimm argued that Reynolds and Garrett "directed, influenced, authorized, and/or had input into the decision" to fire her.
The Supreme Court ruling, written by Justice Matthew McDermott, disagreed with district court's decision to deny Reynolds and Garrett's motion to be dismissed from the case, saying that former IDPH Director Gerd Clabaugh held the power to terminate Carver-Kimm, not the governor or her staff.
Clabaugh retired the same month that Carver-Kimm was terminated.
On Wednesday, the state agreed to pay more than $174,000 in attorney's fees to settle three lawsuits accusing Reynolds of failing to follow public records laws.
