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Group opposed to large livestock operations seeks demotion of legislator

February 24, 2009 By

A group that’s opposed to large-scale hog confinements has filed an ethics complaint against the woman who leads the Agriculture Committee in the Iowa House. The group "Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement" accuses Representative Dolores Mertz, a Democrat from Ottosen, of having a conflict of interest because her sons operate a 4000 head hog operation in Kossuth County.

Barb Kalbach, the group’s president, says Mertz should not be House Ag Committee chairwoman. "Her record shows her bias towards the factory farm industry and that’s supported by her family ties and her financial ties," Kalbach says. "I mean she seriously should not be in a place where bills can be immediately killed and not at least debated before the committee."

Peter and David Mertz pay their mother rent to spread manure on her farm. According to Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, the two brothers have been cited five times in the last five years for environmental violations connected to their hog confinement.  "Given her position as chair of the House Ag Committee and her ties — her family ties and her financial ties — to the factor farm industry, we feel that Representative Mertz’s judgment could be influenced on factory farm bills that come before her committee," says Hugh Espy, executive director of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.

Espy says he’s angry Mertz has not championed bills that strengthen construction standards for large-scale livestock confinements or change state law to increase the distances required between livestock confinements and homes. "We need policies that put people before polluters, people before politics, and people before profits," Espy says, "and we will not have that as long as Representative Dolores Mertz is the chair of the House Ag Committee."

Mertz has been a member of the Iowa House for 20 years and the top Democrat in the Iowa House says he has no plans to demote her. "Representative Mertz has the experience and knowledge to lead the House Agriculture Committee," said House Speaker Pat Murphy of Dubuque. "She knows the problems faced by Iowa farmers today and understands the agricultural issues facing our state. As chair of the House Agriculture Committee over the last three years, no one can surpass Representative Mertz’s expertise on agriculture issues."

Mertz, who is 80 years old, narrowly won reelection this past November, edging her Republican opponent by 42 votes.

 

Filed Under: Agriculture, Environment & Conservation, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

DHS checked Atalissa bunkhouse twice before without action

February 24, 2009 By

The Iowa Department of Human Services has released a file that shows the department twice looked into the treatment of mentally disabled men living in a house in Atalissa, and decided to take no action each time.

The file was discovered about two weeks ago in the Muscatine office, and shows social workers contemplated taking some action in the 1970′s and then in 1997 , but determined they did not have jurisdiction.

D.H.S. director Gene Gessow says the file is somewhat incomplete. “What we found was a file which I’m not sure that tells me a lot. But to the extent that we look at what we did even 30 or 40 years ago and make sure we’re doing things differently today, that’s a good thing,” Gessow says.

The 21 men were removed from the 100-year-old bunkhouse earlier this month after the state fire marshal ruled the facility was unsafe. The men worked for at a local turkey processing plant through the Texas-based Henry’s Turkey Service.

 The report says a social worker complained that the men lost their basic human rights, but was overruled by the district manager who reported good group morale among the men and noted a separate state agency had agreed to monitor the case.

Gessow says he refuses to second guess the decision then and says he prefers to focus on the action taken now. Gessow says, “What appears to be the fact is that people thought and I have no reason to think that they did so inappropriately, that it was not a problem for them then. I don’t believe that would necessarily be the conclusion that we came to today and in fact today we did conclude it would be a problem and we acted very quickly to protect those men and I’m very proud of what we did today.”

Two of the men have returned to the care of relatives in Texas, while 19 others are at a Waterloo care facility. 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Culver "absolutely" backs labor bills

February 24, 2009 By

Governor Chet Culver says he "absolutely" supports four labor-related bills pending in the legislature.

Last year, Culver — a Democrat — vetoed a bill which was backed by unions, but this past weekend the governor made phone calls to try to get the extra vote needed to pass a bill that would have set a "prevailing wage" for those who work on taxpayer-funded construction projects.

"I was asked, along with the lieutenant governor, to contact legislators and obviously we were disappointed," Culver says. "We had one legislator that was out of the state, traveling, so that’s one reason the vote was kept open. We were hoping we could get that person back." That person would be Representative Geri Huser, a Democrat from Altoona who is visiting her ailing father in Florida, but Huser has said she would vote "no" on the prevailing wage bill. The House voting machine was kept open all weekend in the hopes at least one representative would change their mind and the bill would pass.

The governor says it’s "still early" in the 2009 legislative session and that bill may yet become law. "I do believe that being 42nd in wages is not good enough," Culver says. "Hard-working carpenters and plumbers and pipefitters and those in the trades that work every day of their life to build our state and to rebuild Iowa from the floods deserve a pay increase of a couple of bucks an hour."

House Speaker Pat Murphy said Monday that Culver had given "100 percent" to try to get the prevailing wage bill passed.  Earlier this afternoon, Culver indicated he plans to work on getting three other labor-related bills passed this year, too. "Absolutely," Culver said during a telephone conference call with reporters, "and I think it’s time that we move forward on some important bills that would help hard-working Iowans and we’re going to keep fighting to do that."

Two weeks ago Culver would give few clues publicly about his thoughts on the four labor-related bills, but on Friday night he issued a statement that, for the first time, made clear he would sign the prevailing wage bill into law. One of the three other bills would let Iowa workers choose their own doctor when they’re injured on the job. Another would charge non-union members a fee if they receive union services on the job. The third would expand the number of subjects union workers may bring up during contract negotiations,

 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , ,

Fight on to save UNI baseball

February 24, 2009 By

UNI Athletic Director Troy Dannen says the decision by the school to drop the sport of baseball has nothing to do with gender equity but instead is simply a financial matter. In fact, Dannen says the program could be saved if enough money is raised in the next month.

Dannen says it’s a matter of funding and he says if the funds are replaced from private sources then there is no reason why an action has to be taken. But Dannen says it will take more than one million dollars to keep it going. He says it’s not raising money for one year, it’s raising support for the program to sustain it perpetually.

Baseball coach Rick Heller says he is approaching it like there is a chance baseball will continue. Heller says you never know, he says hopefully the message will go out all over the state and they can get 1.2 million dollars. Heller says they have a chance to have a very good team next year.

Heller says he will do whatever he can, "If there’s a chance we will fight." He says he owes it to anyone who ever put on the uniform to keep fighting and it would be a "waste" if he didn’t.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

UNI basketball teams looks to hold MVC lead

February 24, 2009 By

The UNI Panthers look to maintain at least a share of the Missouri Valley Conference lead when they visit Illinois State. The Panthers are 12-4 and tied at the top with Creighton while the Redbirds are a game back and hoping to claim a victory on "senior night".

With a victory the Rebirds would tie the Panthers in the standings heading into their regular season finale at Creighton.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Mortgage Helpline allows many to get loan modifications

February 24, 2009 By

In its first year of existence, the Iowa Mortgage Help Hotline has helped thousands of people that are at risk of losing their home. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said today that about one-quarter of the 3,700 applications taken in the last 12 months have ended with loan modifications.

Miller says about half of the applications are still in progress. The hotline was created in February of 2008 with a one-point-five million dollar federal grant. One of the many partners in the project is Iowa Mediation Service, which has offices in West Des Moines, Spencer, Mason City and Cedar Rapids.

I-M-S Executive Director Mike Thompson says negotiating home loan modifications can take several months because servicers are so far behind on the requests. "Part of the other problem with the negotiations – it’s not just with the servicer. They may have to go all the way to the investor to get final approval. So, we’re dealing with sort of a moving target at times," Thompson said.

"The third part that makes this really difficult…is we’re not seeing debt write-down yet. In a lot of ways, that’s going to make some of this work a little better if we can have some of these accounts written down." Thompson and Attorney General Miller both believe the federal foreclosure prevention program announced last week by President Obama will also help more Iowans stay in their homes.

However, Thompson says there are hundreds of homeowners in the state that are too far behind on their payments to help. "We have a number of people who don’t have jobs, people who have zero ability to make payments," Thompson said. "We’ve had some not make payments in over two years." Miller says a recent extension of the federal grant will keep the Iowa Mortgage Help Hotline in operation through the end of 2009. The toll-free number is 877-622-4866. Or visit the website here .

 

Filed Under: Business, Politics & Government

Council Bluffs council member maintains innocence after prostitution arrest

February 24, 2009 By

A Council Bluffs city councilman is maintaining his innocence after being arrested in prostitution sting. Darren Bates was one of six men cited in earlier this month at a hotel in Council Bluffs. With his wife and attorney by his side on Monday night, Bates said that when he went to a hotel earlier this month, all he wanted was a massage.

Bates says, "I’m not guilty and I’m anxious for everybody to see the tape that will show exactly what happened." Bates insists he turned down offers for sex, saying he said "no" several times. Bates says, "I was very nervous and even was checking the door right before the police came in. It was very awkward."

Another Council Bluffs leader, Councilman Scott Belt, says the whole situation has reflected poorly on the southwest Iowa city and he thinks Bates should resign. Belt says, "I’m hoping the county attorney will do his job and we’ll get this thing resolved because we need to get back to business at hand in Council Bluffs." Belt believes that Bates should just quit — and the sooner the better.

Belt says, "If I was in the same boat as Mr. Bates, I would’ve resigned and went on with my life." Belt says this prostitution arrest of a city leader is taking away from important business the city needs to conduct. Belt says, "It’s not the proper conduct that you would expect from a person representing these people in this great town."

Jim Nelson is a resident of Council Bluffs and says he isn’t buying Bates’ story. "I’m married and if I told my wife I went to a hotel for a massage…she ain’t going to buy that, I’ll tell you that much," Nelson says. Bates’ attorney, James Martin Davis, says his client did nothing illegal and he shouldn’t be punished over false accusations. Bates was the president of the Omaha Firefighter’s Union and both are to meet with the Omaha Fire department today to discuss disciplinary proceedings.  

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government
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