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Governor says there’s no one single answer to school safety issues

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Governor Kim Reynolds (file photo)

Students in some Iowa schools walked out of classes this morning to join a national protest on the 19th anniversary of a school shooting in Colorado. Thirteen students were killed and 24 were injured by the two gunmen at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999 — before today’s high school seniors were born.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said there is “no one single answer” to school safety.

“We’ll continue to bring all of the agencies together, school boards, administrators — people we need to have at the table to talk about how we can make sure that when we drop off our children at school that they’re safe and they’re able to learn in a safe environment,” Reynolds told reporters Thursday.

Reynolds, a Republican, said the Republican-led legislature has already passed a bill that requires all Iowa school districts to have a safety plan and conduct yearly active shooter drills. As for new gun regulations, Reynolds is opposed. She said the priority should be enforcing the laws already on the books and updating the existing federal background check system.

Senate President Charles Schneider, a Republican from West Des Moines, said the Iowa legislature is setting aside $35 million in grant money to help schools pay for safety upgrades to buildings, like lock down systems or stronger classroom doors. But Schneider, like the governor, suggested new gun regulations are not on this year’s agenda.

“We always have to take into consideration the balance of school safety and the balance of constitutional rights as well,” Schneider told reporters this morning.

Senator Janet Petersen of Des Moines, the Democratic leader in the senate, attended a local school walk-out as well as a student-led rally at the statehouse late this morning.

“I think it’s an important time in our country as we see kids getting more civically engaged, so it’s exciting to see,” Petersen said this morning. “…All Iowans want to make sure that our kids are safe in our schools and so it’s time to listen to what our kids have to say.”

Students involved in today’s protests are calling for gun law changes.

From poignant to pointed, retiring Iowa legislators give farewell speeches

By

Rick Bertrand

It’s an even-numbered year, so that means legislators who have decided to retire rather than seek re-election are given an “open mic” moment.

In the House, retiring representatives give floor speeches. Clel Baudler of Greenfield kicked the speech-a-thon off this week with a nearly 20-minute speech.

“One thing I will miss is the policies,” Baudler said, “but I will not miss the politics.”

In the Iowa Senate, these public farewells last far longer, sometimes for hours. Colleagues start with compliments, bits of shared humor and sometimes an outright roasting, then the retiree gets to speak. Mark Chelgren of Ottumwa spoke for nearly half an hour after his peers finished.

“For all of the wonderful things that you’ve said, I am so blessed,” Chelgren said, “but I’d also like to spend a little bit of time explaining why I’ve done the things in the order I’ve done them.”

Retiring Senator Rick Bertrand used part of his farewell speech to settle old scores with former Senate Republican Leader Bill Dix. Bertrand revealed he met his wife 23 years ago at the Waveland Tap in Des Moines. That’s the same bar where Dix was pictured kissing a lobbyist — images posted online that prompted Dix to resign last month.

“I mean, you talk about karma,” Bertrand said and his colleagues laughed. “I mean, I laughed my ass off when I heard that. We want to go back there and remake the video, just her and I. It was crazy.”

Senator Bob Dvorsky of Coralville is retiring after 32 years in the legislature and he offered a few “principles” about the legislative process.

“You can probably get most things passed here as long as you don’t care who gets credit for it,” Dvorsky said. “…The second one is we deal in raging incrementalism.”

Dvorsky gave a relatively short, five-minute-long goodbye speech and, like many exiting lawmakers, he choked up at the end.

“We’re here as public servants and we can be proud of that and I will miss all that dearly,” Dvorsky said. “And one other thing I will miss — I will miss all of you.”

Once the reminiscing, advice, compliments and emotional goodbyes are over, some of the retiring senators get a piece of furniture. Lawmakers who’ve served at least 20 years in the state senate get to take the chair from their senate desk.

Neither the House nor the Senate will be in session today. Next week, more farewell speeches are on tap. One more retiring senator has yet to be recognized and 15 other retiring members of the House will have the option of giving a farewell remarks.

House GOP plans ‘status quo’ budget for justice, public safety agencies

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Lawmakers of both parties are expressing concerns about staffing levels in state public safety agencies, but Republicans on a House committee have approved what they’re calling “status quo” funding for Iowa’s justice system which covers the highway patrol, prisons and the state crime lab.

Representative Gary Worthan, a Republican from Storm Lake, said there’s no extra money to hire more troopers or crime scene investigators.

“Not to try and gloss it over or anything, this is kind of holding our own in the Department of Public Safety,” Worthan said. “We’re not going to be able to increase numbers.”

In most cases, the agencies would receive about as much money as was planned for the current year, before a round of budget cuts last month. Representative Chris Hall, a Democrat from Sioux City, said the state prisons, in particular, are understaffed.

“It’s endangering some of our state workers,” Hall said. “It’s endangering our taxpayers and families across the state.”

The House GOP’s overall state budget plan is drafted around a tax cut of $100 million. Republicans in the Senate have proposed significantly deeper tax cuts.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Joyce Russell)

Iowa Senate has new personnel guidelines on harassment, retaliation

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Charles Schneider

The Iowa Senate has a new “harassment prevention” policy and an updated code of conduct. Republican Senator Charles Schneider indicated a month ago when he was elected president of the state senate that updating senate “personnel guidelines” were a priority.

“First, to make sure that all those who work in and around the Iowa Senate have a clear understanding of what constitutes harassment, sexual harassment and retaliation,” Schneider said today during the Senate Rules Committee meeting, “and second to make sure that everybody understand the process for addressing complaints when they arise.”

Last fall, the state paid $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a former Iowa Senate GOP staffer who was fired in 2013 after she complained of harassment. Last month, the senator who fired Kirsten Anderson resigned after online photos and video showed him kissing a lobbyist. Schneider was elected to his new leadership position after that senator’s exit.

Schneider told said the new policy requires annual training for every senator and for all employees of the senate as well as interns. There will be a yearly review of the anti-harassment policy to ensure it’s keeping up with “best practices” in the public and private sectors.

“We wanted to make sure that we created an environment that people feel safe in to come to work and that people feel safe to send their kids to and we just knew we had to get it done,” Schneider said after the meeting.

Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen said it took nearly five years after the firing of an employee who was harassed to get to this moment.

“I’m hopeful that this will be a first step in the right direction to changing the culture and making the Iowa Senate a more welcome and opening place for people to work,” Petersen told reporters.

Senators unanimously voted this afternoon to update the Senate Code of Ethics as well. The update makes it clear the Senate Ethics Committee has the authority to receive and investigate complaints of harassment or retaliation. A senator’s clerk was just fired April 3 after a “credible complaint of harassment” was made. That clerk, who functioned as a secretary to Republican Senator Waylon Brown of St. Ansgar, was a paid employee of the senate and had recently completed anti-harassment training.

Senator Petersen said it appears the same male clerk had previously been fired from a similar job in the Iowa House.

“Even with the training that everyone who serves on the senate floor went through, to see misbehavior like that shows that we’ve got work to do,” Petersen said.

Senate Republican leaders say the new human resources director for the legislative branch will help keep personnel policies updated and avoid similar situations in the future.

House Republicans unveil $7.4 billion state spending plan

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Pat Grassley (file photo)

Republicans in the Iowa House have unveiled a plan to increase spending by more than three percent for the next state budgeting year.

Republican Representative Pat Grassley of New Hartford suggests the plan’s overall $7.4 billion spending target is similar to what Senate Republicans have in mind.

“As far as the size of the pie would be, I would say we’re fairly close in those conversation and it just really is getting down to this point in the session, we need to get things moving,” Grassley told reporters yesterday.

There is no limit on how long an Iowa legislative session may last, but this is the 100th day of the 2018 and the final day members of the House and Senate get daily expense money. Jack Whitver, the Republican leader in the Iowa Senate, said he’s optimistic Republicans in the Senate and House are close to striking a final deal.

“Hopefully in the next few days we can get to some agreement on taxes and then we can get moving on the budget,” Whitver told reporters.

Yesterday, Governor Reynolds said she is not making any public demands about what her fellow Republicans in the legislature should include in their tax bill. Democrats like Senator Joe Bolkcom say the state is “flat broke” and cannot afford to cut taxes.

Iowa Senate honors Wally Horn for 46-year legislative career

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Wally Horn and his wife Phyllis.

The Iowa Senate paused for more than an hour this afternoon for a series of speeches honoring the longest-serving state legislator in Iowa history.

Senator Wally Horn of Cedar Rapids, an 84-year-old Democrat, has been a member of the Iowa General Assembly for 46 years.

“I’m going to miss you dearly, miss the wisdom, miss the advice and also miss the fun,” Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo said.

Senator Tim Kaputcian, a Republican from Keystone, said Horn and his wife, Phyllis, took the time to get to know him and his wife.

“The thing that I appreciate is the fact that they were the first to welcome us and respect us,” Kaputcian said, “just like we respect them.”

A couple of senators, including Tony Bisignano of Des Moines, noted the looming exit of the candy dish Horn and his wife have stocked on Horn’s senate desk.

“And so we’ll lose weight and our diabetes levels will go down,” Bisignano said, while another senator used a mild curse word to refer to the candy bowl.

Horn was the last to speak. He reflected on the decades he’s spent at the statehouse in Des Moines.

“I don’t know if I’d do it again. Looking back I probably would, but there were some things I didn’t get done that I should have done more and that is my son and daughter — spend more time with them,” Horn said, pausing for emotion, adding service in the legislature “hurts your family.”

Horn was elected to the Iowa House in 1972 and he crossed paths with two of the state’s well-known Republican politicians. U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley was already a member of the Iowa House at the time and former Governor Terry Branstad won a race for a House seat the same year Horn did.

Horn served 10 years in the Iowa House and has been a member of the Iowa Senate since 1983.

Horn is a native of Bloomfield, Iowa, an Army veteran and a retired school teacher and coach. He worked at Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School after teaching stints in the Washington and the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock School Districts.

He was the Senate Majority Leader from 1992 to 1996, shortly after being the senator who helped guide a bill legalizing “riverboat” gambling through the legislature.

Horn told his colleagues he has cast more than 210,000 votes during his tenure in the legislature.

Senator Ernst, Congressman Young praise ‘precise’ strikes against Syria

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Senator Joni Ernst late Friday said allied strikes against Syria make it clear the use of chemical weapons “will not be tolerated.”

Ernst, a Republican, is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. She issued a written statement shortly before 10 o’clock Friday night. Ernst said there is “indisputable” evidence the Syrian regime is guilty of “horrific crimes” against its own people. Ernst called Syrian president Bashar al-Assad a war criminal and she accused Russia and Iran of being “complicit in these chemical weapons attacks on innocent” civilians.

Ernst praised the Trump Administration for “decisive and precise” leadership with our British and French allies.

At midnight, Republican Congressman David Young of Van Meter issued a statement, calling the action against Syrian “strong, swift and targeted.” Young said the U.S. and its allies “cannot tolerate atrocities against the innocent and the use of chemical weapons.”

Congressman Rod Blum of Dubuque sent a “re-tweet: last night, signaling he’s part of a group of Republicans in the U.S. House who will call on President Trump is get authorization from congress before engaging further in Syria. Blum, however, did not issue a written statement on last night’s air strike.

As of 4:30 a.m. Saturday, Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican Congressman Steve King of Kiron and Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Iowa City, had not issued statements on the president’s action in Syria.

Los Angeles Mayor says Democratic Party should focus on ‘practical things’

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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti during a visit to Altoona.

The mayor of Los Angeles is in Iowa this weekend for a campaign-style tour that includes a Saturday night fundraising banquet for Scott County Democrats and a walk down the street of a booming Des Moines neighborhood this afternoon.

Eric Garcetti told reporters he will decide next year “whether to jump in” to the Democratic presidential race.

“There’s a false dichotomy between red and blue, heartland and coast, rural and urban. The only ‘two Americas’ that exist right now are Washington and the rest of us,” Garcetti said. “I think we are increasingly frustrated to hear and to see what’s coming out of Washington, D.C. that isn’t listening.”

Garcetti told reporters in California this week it is “B.S.” to characterize the nation’s heartland and its coasts as divided against one another. Today, on Iowa soil, Garcetti distanced himself from the so-called “resistance” movement who argue Democrats must be more left-leaning.

“Some people talk about the resistance,” Garcetti said. “I’m more interested in what we can get done. I’m more interested in things that are out there (like) American infrastructure, a sensible trade policy that will result in jobs — not whipsawing us back and forth one day, wondering at the job site if iron is going to be more expensive.”

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Garcetti suggests focusing on “practical things” like health care, education and retirement security will be the path forward for his party.

“I’m not here looking for a new job for me,” Garcetti said. “I’m looking for new jobs for Americans.”

Garcetti made his comments after a tour of a new facility in Altoona where union carpenters are being trained for construction work.

“These aren’t just carpenters. They’re entrepreneurs. They’re keeping up with the most cutting-edge technology,” Garcetti said. “That seems to be a pretty more urgent call for us right now than any of our own futures.”

Garcetti, a former college professor, was re-elected to a second term as Los Angeles mayor last year.

New dueling GOP tax plans emerge in Iowa House and Senate

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Senator Randy Feenstra.

The statehouse showdown among Republicans over competing tax plans entered a new phase Thursday afternoon.

As a House committee debated a plan with the top-line promise of cutting individual state income tax rates by nearly nine percent, Republicans in the Senate promised to cut those rates by eight percent next year — and eventually cut corporate income taxes, too.

Senator Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, was the principle architect of the billion dollar tax cut proposal that cleared the Senate in February. Feenstra didn’t have a printed version of the new plan available for review.

“The first two years we want to give $733 million back,” Feenstra told reporters. “And then, after that, it just depends on how our economy grows and, if it grows well, we’ll continue to rachet down rates and do other things.”

Feenstra indicated the Senate Ways and Means Committee he leads will vote on this new plan next week.

Representative Guy Vander Linden, a Republican from Oskaloosa, leads a similar committee in the Iowa House. Republicans on that panel approved a $300 million tax-cutting plan Thursday afternoon.

“The Senate has always had a bill. The governor had a bill. We’ve got a bill,” Vander Linden said. “Now our bill is remarkable close to the governor, I think, so we’ll see.”

Senator Feenstra called the new Senate GOP plan “bold and prudent.”

“The bottom line is I want to make sure Iowa taxpayers get a significant reduction and that we can grow our economy and that’s what this bill is trying to do,” Feenstra said

Vander Linden, a retired Marine Corps Brigadier General, flew Marine One during Ronald Reagan’s presidency and he referred to that background as he spoke with reporters yesterday.

“‘We used to stay that there are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots,” Vander Linden said. “And I think that may apply to tax relief as well.”

Vander Linden said Republicans in the House are aiming for “responsible” tax cuts.

“We have to keep in mind that we still have obligations for the state to fund education and Medicaid and all of those things,” Vander Linden said. “And we are a little bit more cautious.”

Representative Dave Jacoby, a Democrat from Coralville, told reporters Thursday morning none of the ideas Republicans have floated are reasonable.*

“The budget is such a mess, how can we afford now to take another $300 million chunk out of the budget?” Jacoby asked. “The math just does not add up.”

Jacoby used some coarse language to suggest the tug-of-war among Republicans won’t be resolved quickly. Vander Linden, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said it’ll be “at least next week” before a final resolution.

“We always get these things worked out,” Vander Linden said. “And we will.”

Senator Feenstra offered similar sentiments.

“There is a lot of common ground,” Feenstra said. “…We’re hoping that in the next five to 10 days we can get to a resolution.”

The daily expense money legislators get runs out next Tuesday.

 

Senate Democrats unite, refuse to retain official who oversees union votes

By

Tony Bisignano

Democrats in the Iowa Senate have refused to allow the state official overseeing re-certification votes for public sector unions to keep his job.

Governor Kim Reynolds nominated Mike Cormack to serve another term as chairman of the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board, but Senate Democrats refused to vote to re-confirm him for the post in protest of the Republican-led effort last year to reduce collective bargaining rights to public sector workers.

“Mr. Cormack is nothing more than a casualty along the lines of the war you started,” Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, told Republican senators .

Bisignano said Cormack’s management of the re-certification votes was part the “massacre” of public employee bargaining rights.

“This battle’s continuing and I can’t think of a more worthy cause to take the sword up, to fight and die for, that representation by a union,” Bisignano said.

Senator Jason Schultz of Schleswig is the Republican who guided the collective bargaining bill through the senate a year ago.

“If (Cormack) is to be a casualty of the war that we started, that can be agreed to because Mr. Cormack has done nothing to lose this job,” Schultz said. “…He did his best in an incredibly difficult situation.”

Cormack put in a heroic effort” according to Schultz. Schultz also thanked Democrats for not attacking Cormack personally.

“He’s been a fantastic human being,” Schultz said. “…I thank you, again, for not running him through the mud on a personal level. It’s fair to bring up the policy implications.”

Cormack, a Republican, served four terms in the Iowa House representing his hometown of Fort Dodge. He’s a former a teacher and coach in the CAM School District in Anita. Cormack served as president of the local teachers union in the district.