(Radio Iowa) – Supervisors in more than two dozen Iowa counties are considering a proposed settlement related to a juvenile detention center in north central Iowa. A lawsuit filed by supervisors in Hardin County challenged whether officials from several other counties were properly added to the commission that oversees the Central Iowa Juvenile Detention Center in Eldora. Gary Rayhons, a supervisor in Hancock County, said under the settlement, five counties will reapply to be part of an agreement that allows counties to send juvenile offenders to the detention center in Eldora. “What we’re doing on Wednesday is as a county, since we’re a member of that, approving the settlement agreement,” Rayhons said, “so we can move forward with the process of getting everything back under the right paperwork.”

Rayhons said the lawsuit filed by Hardin County Supervisors challenged whether officials from Mitchell, Bremer, Grundy, Fayette and Jones Counties were valid voting members of the commission that oversees the juvenile detention facility. “The other 30 counties…will have to agreement to the terms of the settlement that we have, as worked out through the lawyers,” Rayhons said.

There were originally 10 people serving on the juvenile detention center’s commission, but membership had swelled to 30. Hardin County officials argued due to changes in the original 1993 agreement among counties, it was unclear if all those people had the authority to approve binding contracts or vote for the commission’s public meetings to go into closed session.