The Republicans are working hard to make the state’s hotels dirty and unsafe.
Bill eliminating regular health and safety inspections of hotels and motels in Iowa passes
by
Paul BrennanMar 20, 2024
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The Iowa Senate gave final approval on Tuesday to a bill that addresses the failure of the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing’s (DIAL) decade-long failure to follow state law and inspect hotels and motels once every two years
by eliminating the law requiring those inspections.
HF 2426 repeals the biennial hotel inspection requirement, and instead requires a property only be inspected “
pon receipt of a verified complaint signed by a guest of a hotel and stating facts indicating the place is in an insanitary condition.” This is what has already been occurring for the last 10 years.
DIAL stopped conducting the mandatory inspections in 2014, moving to a system where it conducts an inspection when a new hotel or motel opens, and after that, only in response to a complaint being filed. DIAL never publicized that change, and its decision not to follow state law didn’t become public knowledge until October 2022 when it was uncovered by Clark Kauffman of the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
DIAL Director Larry Johnson told Kauffman he couldn’t explain why the department made the decision to stop routine inspection, because it occurred during the Branstad administration and was in place when Johnson was appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2019. Johnson continued the practice in place when he took over, rather than follow Iowa Code.
Once Gov. Reynolds signs HF 2426 into law, Iowa Code will be changed to accommodate DIAL’s preferred practices.
During the floor debate on the bill in the House last month, Rep. Jeff Cooling pointed out that it’s “impossible to say what issues have gone undetected in Iowa’s uninspected hotels” since DIAL stopped routine inspection. The Cedar Rapids Democrat then read off a list of problems DIAL had reported in the inspections it has conducted in recent years. The list contained such health and safety violations as broken smoke detectors and bed bug infestations.
Rep. Craig Johnson, a Republican from Independence and the bill’s manager in the House, conceded that all the examples Cooling listed were real problems, but suggested market forces were more effective at making hotels comply with health and safety laws.
“I’m not sure where these hotels are at and those do sound horrible, yep,” Johnson said. “But I think in the big picture of things, those hotels that are operating like that, their clients probably aren’t returning. I’ve had bad experiences in hotels, out of state — I don’t go back. That is my consumer choice.”
The bill’s floor manager in the Senate, Republican Sen. Carrie Koelker of Dyerville, took a similar if slightly more upbeat approach to assuring her colleagues the businesses can handle their own problems.
“We need to have our hotels step up and take responsibility for their reputation, their bedbug problems, their own communities,” Koelker said on Tuesday.
Sen. Bill Dozler, a Waterloo Democrat, suggested a different solution to the inspections shortfall, one that would require DIAL to follow existing state law.
“I know that our inspectors are overworked,” he said. “Let’s add some inspectors.”
HF 2426 passed the Senate with just Republican support. One Republican, Sen. Sen. Rocky DeWitt of Lawton, joined all the chamber’s Democrats in opposing the bill. It passed the House last month on a party-line vote. It now goes to Gov. Reynolds for her signature.
