The lawsuit from Jim Nahas alleges libel, extortion, wrongful termination, and violations of Iowa's open meetings and records laws against the county, county administrator and four of the five elected supervisors. Nahas says he was forced to resigned in January. "The facts giving rise to this lawsuit are not happenstance, but occur where back-biting, turf-protection and dysfunction run rampant in a government body," the lawsuit notes.
Nahas alleges that county officials gave the media a “false and defamatory” termination letter to get back at him for not leaving his position quietly and for not corroborating allegations that one of the town supervisors had directed violent, sexist comments to the county's director of community relations and to another supervisor.
One of the named defendants, country administrator John Norris, said the county denies all of the allegations, but would not comment further.