Twenty-two months ago this is what I said before the Davenport City Council:

Sometime in the next two years a jury will award the victims of 324 Main Street over a hundred million dollars. The city of Davenport does not have an insurance policy that will cover this, nor does it have enough money in the bank. The city of Davenport will either float junk bonds or go into state receivership. Possibly both. And you, the elected officials of the city of Davenport, will forever be remembered as the people in charge when the city went bankrupt.

Over the next two years you will be called into ‘executive session’ many times. After the public city council meeting, you will go upstairs to the third floor and a lawyer from Lane Waterman will tell you that the city has nothing to worry about. The lawyer will tell you that they will get the city off using ‘qualified immunity’.

This is Iowa Code 670.4A “Qualified Immunity.” It’s not very long. You can read it in a minute. This law was passed to protect police officers that shoot civilians in the line of duty. It doesn’t do anything for cities being sued for felonious malfeasance which is what the city of Davenport is being sued for in eight separate lawsuits.

On August 2, 2021 a city of Davenport employee ordered that all rental inspections at 324 Main Street stop immediately and they were never conducted again, right up to the day the building collapsed killing three and maiming a fourth. That is felonious malfeasance.

On February 2, 2023 a city of Davenport employee officially declared 324 Main Street a public hazard. The city did nothing and people died. That is felonious malfeasance.

On March 13, 2023 the city of Davenport Fire Marshal cited numerous uncorrected fire safety issues at 324 Main Street. The city did nothing and people died. That is felonious malfeasance.

The city placed over a dozen HUD Section 8 and Veterans in need of Housing Assistance into 324 Main Street and paid the slumlord Andrew Wold thousands of dollars to house these people even though they knew the building to be unsafe. Some of these people died. That is felonious malfeasance.

On May 27, 2023 the Davenport Fire department responded to a 911 call from 324 Main Street. The caller said, quote, “Bricks were bulging out of a large multi-story building.” A Davenport Fire department Chief arrived on scene and then called a city employee, hung up the phone, turned to the 911 team on site and said, quote, “This matter has already been addressed and there was no further action needed.” Twenty-four hours later the building collapsed killing three and maiming a fourth. That is felonious malfeasance.

There is no bigger issue before the city of Davenport than these lawsuits. Over the next two years you will vote to spend tens of millions of dollars and you will lose sight of the freight train that is coming down the track.

That freight train will inevitably arrive and it will bankrupt the city. And you will forever be remembered as the city officials that were in charge when the city of Davenport went into receivership. It is still possible to do something. But you won’t because it’s easier to believe in the fantasy of ‘qualified immunity’ than the reality of felonious malfeasance.

Good luck. We’re all going to need it.