DCI Report on 324 Main Street Case Number 2023014262 Version 1 Cover Page

The watchers are no longer being watched by the people. At least in Scott County, Iowa, that is.

[The remarks below were delivered during Public With Business at the Scott County Board of Supervisors Board Meeting Thursday April 24, 2025.]  "I will save you the suspense: It is a public record. We all know how this is going to end. The only question is if you’re going to write another check for $93,000 to Mike Meloy or not?"

As we approach May 28, the second anniversary of a tragedy that shocked the people of Davenport and brought national attention to the issue of building safety, secrecy continues to cloud public confidence in their government officials.

Scott County Iowa Vacancy Appointment Committee 2022 Tompkins Knobbe Vargas

For two years, lifelong Scott County residents Dr Allen Diercks and Diane Holst (a former Scott County Board of Supervisor) put their money where their convictions are and hired Attorney Mike Meloy to take Scott County, Iowa, and Auditor Kerri Tompkins to court in 2023 to compel her in the direction of greater transparency and participation with Scott Countians by disclosing the list of names and addresses of 27 candidates who submitted résumés for a vacant supervisor seat on the Scott County Board of Supervisors (SCBS).

Former Davenport City Administrator's Missing Demand Letter Revealed: $1.6MM Nothing Burger

On May 28, 2023, my wife and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary at our home in Davenport with family and friends when we began to hear police and ambulance sirens racing downtown. News reports soon made it clear that there had been a horrific disaster: 324 Main Street, a 116-year-old, six-story building housing numerous low-income tenants partially collapsed from top to bottom.  Given the gravitas of what had transpired in 2019 with the flood wall disaster and in 2023 with 324 Main St. disaster – both of which occurred on (former city administrator) Corrin Spiegel's watch as the top paid city official – compared to the school-age-girl-thin-skinned complaints in the finally released September 2023 demand letter, one could say Spiegel's demand letter is a “nothing burger.”

Demolition Site at 324 Main Street in Davenport, Iowa on June 13, 2023

How Did the City of Davenport, Iowa Allow This Disaster to Happen? All citations below linked to source documents regarding the history and demise of the building and lives inside 324 Main Street in downtown Davenport, Iowa and were either acquired via Freedom of Information Act requests made to the city of Davenport, or are publicly available documents or links to published articles.

On Sunday evening, May 28, 2023, six stories of the west wall of the building known as The Davenport at 324 Main Street in downtown Davenport collapsed. Three people lost their lives in the tragedy. There is much controversy about city inspections, accountability and the building's owner Andrew Wold. Numerous lawsuits are in play. The building was originally a hotel built in 1907, had more than 50 tenants renting at the time of the collapse, and has since been demolished. Below, we publish the updates the city of Davenport chief strategy officer Sarah Ott issued to local and national media, in the order in which they were released.