Years ago, the Iowa Legislature convened what was called the program elimination committee. It was supposed to evaluate state programs and decide which ones could be scrapped.
In the end, no programs were eliminated. It served up a big nothing burger.
In 2007, Democratic Gov. Chet Culver convened a task force to make recommendations on property tax reform. His staff handed out a set of options to the bipartisan committee and then pressured its members to adopt ideas from the list.
When the recommendations were released, task force members said they saw them for the first time in Culver’s news release. The fix was in.
Now, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has convened the Boards and Commissions Review Committee, charged with evaluating more than 250 state boards and commissions. Some could be eliminated or restructured. Some of these panels play a large role in affecting state policy, some less so.
It doesn’t look much like an independent fact-finding panel. Of its six voting members, four work for the governor, including Jacob Nicholson, chief operating officer in the governor’s office, Nate Ristow, the governor’s administrative rules coordinator, Kraig Paulsen, director of the Department of Management and Larry Johnson, director of the Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing.
The other voting members are David Faith, deputy attorney general, and Barbara Sloniker, a public member appointed by the governor. Sloniker is executive vice president of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce in Sioux City.
There are also four non-voting members, including two Democratic and two Republican state lawmakers. On of them is Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City.
On Thursday, Zabner told me that subcommittees, with two voting members in each, have been meeting this summer to shape the recommendations. He said the two member subcommittees were chosen so they could meet behind closed doors and not run afoul of Iowa’s open meetings laws.
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At the end of June, the full committee met very briefly, with three more meetings planned between now and the end of September when its recommendations are due. But it seems the real work is being done behind the scenes and out of the public eye.
“They’re definitely not public meetings,” Zabner said. “They’re sort of being cagey about it.”
“I think they have some plan for what they want to do,” Zabner said.
So, it appears the fix may be in. I sent an email seeking information on the subcommittees from the governor’s office but received no reply before my deadline.
Just because they can hold closed meetings doesn’t mean they have to. The spirit of the open meetings law is that the public should have access to government deliberations affecting public policy.
This doesn’t bode well for the final work product. This will be no nothing burger. The committee was created as part of the governor’s government reorganization push. You may recall the 1,500-page bill approved by lawmakers.
If the bill is any indication of what the committee will recommend, we’ll could see further concentration of power in the governor’s office, more political appointments for Reynolds’ allies, fewer for expert members and fewer boards and commissions that might give the governor political headaches.
In the bill, for example, the governor-appointed Director of Administrative Services now picks the state librarian. The state Commission of Libraries used to have that job.
The governor eliminated the state Board of Health, which was an 11-member board with seven members from health care fields. It’s been replaced by a nine-member board with just one member working in health care. At the height of the pandemic, the Board of Health voted to recommend that the governor call for a mask mandate.
So it’s likely the governor already has a plan for how she’d alter the boards and commissions landscape that will be carried out by her political appointees. I doubt the committee will surprise the boss.
That’s too bad, because an actual, thorough, public review of boards and commissions with the input of Iowans beyond the governor’s office could have been valuable. But that would mean ceding some control over the proceedings. Our all-powerful governor certainly wouldn’t allow it.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
www.thegazette.com
In the end, no programs were eliminated. It served up a big nothing burger.
In 2007, Democratic Gov. Chet Culver convened a task force to make recommendations on property tax reform. His staff handed out a set of options to the bipartisan committee and then pressured its members to adopt ideas from the list.
When the recommendations were released, task force members said they saw them for the first time in Culver’s news release. The fix was in.
Now, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has convened the Boards and Commissions Review Committee, charged with evaluating more than 250 state boards and commissions. Some could be eliminated or restructured. Some of these panels play a large role in affecting state policy, some less so.
It doesn’t look much like an independent fact-finding panel. Of its six voting members, four work for the governor, including Jacob Nicholson, chief operating officer in the governor’s office, Nate Ristow, the governor’s administrative rules coordinator, Kraig Paulsen, director of the Department of Management and Larry Johnson, director of the Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing.
The other voting members are David Faith, deputy attorney general, and Barbara Sloniker, a public member appointed by the governor. Sloniker is executive vice president of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce in Sioux City.
There are also four non-voting members, including two Democratic and two Republican state lawmakers. On of them is Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City.
On Thursday, Zabner told me that subcommittees, with two voting members in each, have been meeting this summer to shape the recommendations. He said the two member subcommittees were chosen so they could meet behind closed doors and not run afoul of Iowa’s open meetings laws.
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At the end of June, the full committee met very briefly, with three more meetings planned between now and the end of September when its recommendations are due. But it seems the real work is being done behind the scenes and out of the public eye.
“They’re definitely not public meetings,” Zabner said. “They’re sort of being cagey about it.”
“I think they have some plan for what they want to do,” Zabner said.
So, it appears the fix may be in. I sent an email seeking information on the subcommittees from the governor’s office but received no reply before my deadline.
Just because they can hold closed meetings doesn’t mean they have to. The spirit of the open meetings law is that the public should have access to government deliberations affecting public policy.
This doesn’t bode well for the final work product. This will be no nothing burger. The committee was created as part of the governor’s government reorganization push. You may recall the 1,500-page bill approved by lawmakers.
If the bill is any indication of what the committee will recommend, we’ll could see further concentration of power in the governor’s office, more political appointments for Reynolds’ allies, fewer for expert members and fewer boards and commissions that might give the governor political headaches.
In the bill, for example, the governor-appointed Director of Administrative Services now picks the state librarian. The state Commission of Libraries used to have that job.
The governor eliminated the state Board of Health, which was an 11-member board with seven members from health care fields. It’s been replaced by a nine-member board with just one member working in health care. At the height of the pandemic, the Board of Health voted to recommend that the governor call for a mask mandate.
So it’s likely the governor already has a plan for how she’d alter the boards and commissions landscape that will be carried out by her political appointees. I doubt the committee will surprise the boss.
That’s too bad, because an actual, thorough, public review of boards and commissions with the input of Iowans beyond the governor’s office could have been valuable. But that would mean ceding some control over the proceedings. Our all-powerful governor certainly wouldn’t allow it.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
Opinion: Is the fix in on boards and commissions in Iowa?
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds discusses the 2023 legislative session during her appearance on Iowa PBS’ “Iowa Press,” which was recorded …
www.thegazette.com
