Our letters, and the City's answer

We are not hiding anything. Here is everything we sent the City, and everything the City sent back, in full. Read it, and judge for yourself.

In short

In September 2026 we wrote to the Mayor of Postville, with copies for every member of the City Council. We asked for one thing: the same treatment at our synagogue that the church one block north has always had.

We asked with respect. We measured the road, photographed it, read the City's Code and its minutes, and put all of it in front of the City.

We said there was no need for a lawsuit. We said that if the City would simply take care of our parking, we would withdraw everything, our letter and our request for records, and that all it would ever hear from us about this road again would be thank you.

While the City decided, we asked for one small courtesy: no tickets on the cemetery side during the ten days of Sukkot.

The City answered our first letter the same day. The answer was no. It did not name a specific reason.

On September 29, the City Clerk answered our request for public records. The City estimated about 90 hours of staff time, 1,611 dollars, and invited us to narrow the request. That letter is below too.

Our second letter's requests, about parking and about the holiday, received no answer.

The letters, in full

1. Our first letter, September 23, 2026. With Attachment A, a short resolution we drafted for the Council, and Exhibits A to H. [Read it here] [Download the PDF]
2. The City's answer, September 23, 2026, signed by the Mayor. [Read it here] [Download the PDF]
3. Our reply, September 24, 2026. With Attachment B, our request for public records, and Exhibits I to Z. [Read it here] [Download the PDF]
4. The City Clerk's answer to our request for records, September 29, 2026. A fee estimate of 1,611 dollars for about 90 hours of staff time, and an invitation to narrow the request. [Read it here] [Download the PDF]

Each letter is shown exactly as it was sent. Each also has a plain-text version, so it can be read aloud and read easily on a phone. Car license plates, and the names and faces of private people, are covered. Nothing else is changed.

Who received them

Our letters were addressed to the Mayor, with copies for each of the five Council members, as the letters themselves show. We sent them by email to the City Clerk and to City Hall. The City's two answers acknowledge receiving them. We asked that every Council member receive them, and that someone tell us when they had. No one ever told us.

If you serve on the Council and these letters never reached you, here they are, in full. Now everyone can read them.

What happened on October 12, 2026

Our September 24 letter asked that our request be placed on the agenda of the Council's meeting of October 12. It was not, and our letters were not mentioned that night.

That night the Council did two other things, both on the City's own video. It dismissed a contested parking ticket. And it passed Ordinance #716-26. As it was described at the meeting, the ordinance closes the road to parking on both sides, from the curve at the church, past our synagogue, to where the City's pavement ends. The City has not yet posted the written text. When it does, we will post it here.

[Button: Read what was said that night] [Button: Watch the City's video]

What has changed since we wrote

We keep learning. When we learn something new, we say so here. We do not change the letters themselves.

1. Our letters said the Council had never adopted a parking ban for the cemetery side. That was true when we wrote. On October 12, 2026, the Council passed Ordinance #716-26.
2. Our September 24 letter described what the City agreed to when an earlier federal case against it was settled. The news reports we have found describe "a community workshop on diversity," to be sponsored by Iowa State University. We have not seen the settlement agreement itself, so the letter's description is not verified. [G answered Q89; the agreement is sought through the delegation search, to-do 24]
3. Our September 24 letter gave a traffic count as coming from 2013. We have not found the source of that year. The count itself comes from the State's records.
4. Our September 24 letter said our request for records "seeks no refund of any ticket already paid," and that once this was fixed, "the old tickets are water under the bridge." The City did not fix it.
5. Some things in our letters are our members' own accounts, such as particular tickets and the signs around our building. We are gathering the papers and photographs now, and we will add them here as they come in.
6. We plan to ask an independent professional to measure the road.
7. Our first letter says it was sent by hand and by certified mail as well as by email. Our own records show the email only, and we say only what we can prove. The City acknowledged receiving both letters in writing.

The door is still open

Our September 24 letter made a promise: "If the answer is yes, it ends today." That promise still stands for the community's leadership. If the City will sit down with us and end this treatment, the leadership of our community will sign a release. The terms will be settled when the City sits down with us. Your own rights stay your own. No one can sign them away for you.