DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Board members of an insurance program for Iowa’s municipal governments are rethinking their long-standing practice of holding public meetings at resorts in other states.

Directors of the Iowa Communities Assurance Pool have faced criticism since The Associated Press reported last month that they have long held meetings once a year at getaway destinations in Florida and Michigan.

Those trips have cost pool members tens of thousands of dollars and made the meetings inaccessible to the public. The pool provides insurance to hundreds of counties, cities and other local government agencies.

Board chairman Jody Smith says the board is not planning to meet in Florida in February but that members may still attend an annual insurance conference there.

He says the board has gotten a refund for the $1,000 deposit that it had put down to reserve a Michigan resort for its August 2020 meeting. Smith says the location of that meeting will be determined early next year.

Smith had previously defended the Michigan meetings.