Sierrans,

 

Here’s a report from out Sierra Club lobby school last weekend.  Please help
out as you can.

 

Thanks…

 

 

We had an informative and enjoyable lobby school last Saturday.  Thank you
to Lyle Krewson, Neila Seaman and Debbie Neustadt from the Sierra Club for
making the trip from Des Moines.  Many compliments received.  

 

Here’s the local control strategy at this point:

 

1.  House and Senate Agricultural Committees will play primary roles.

 

2.  Senate Ag Committee Chair, Gene Fraise, supports local control.  Senator
Fraise is a farmer himself, but he says that industrial ag needs to take
responsibility for the negative externalities of their business model.  He
is from Ft. Madison and his email is HYPERLINK
"mailto:[log in to unmask]"[log in to unmask] .
Senator Fraise’s district covers the south eastern tip of Iowa and up to the
Mt. Pleasant area.

 

3.  House Ag Committee Chair, Delores Mertz, does not support local control.
Representative Mertz may change her mind – don’t alienate her, but be kindly
persuasive.  But as of last Friday, Representative Mertz was saying that she
has two sons with confinements in two different townships, and they aren’t
going to have to learn two sets of rules.  Rep Mertz is from Ottosen and her
email is HYPERLINK
"mailto:[log in to unmask]"[log in to unmask] .
Her district includes Pocahontas, Kossuth, Humboldt Counties.  Rep Mertz is
a former county supervisor, so she has experience with local land use issues
and balancing the competing interests of county residents.  

 

4.  Senate Ag Committee.  We need to help assure that Senator Fraise has the
votes in his committee to pass a local control bill.  Committee members are
listed on the Iowa Legislature’s website.

 

5.  House Ag Committee.  We need to assure that there are enough votes in
the House Ag Committee to pass a local control bill even if Rep Mertz votes
no.

 

6.  Democratic Caucus.  There has to be more buzz in the caucus that local
control is an issue that needs to be addressed, and a bill needs to come to
the floor.

 

7.  Republican Caucus.  Word I’m hearing is that the Republican Caucus may
try to block local control.  They will “make the Democrats deliver the
votes”.  We need enough Republican legislators telling the caucus that this
is an issue in their district -- to help break up a party-line vote and
allow supporting Republicans to in fact vote for a local control bill.  Our
own Representative Mike May could be very helpful here.  Senator Johnson?

 

8.  Email is a preferred form of communication.

 

9.  Legislators respond best to their own constituents.  Do you know anyone
in Rep Mertz’s district?  If so, ask him/her to contact Mertz.  

 

10.  Another idea we’re working on is to gather together supporters in a
particular legislator’s district to go visit with the legislator at his/her
Saturday coffees, or whatever method used to be available for constituents.
This takes a lot of organization, but I’m told it may be more effective than
a lobby day at the Capitol.  Chris Murphy is helping with this project at
the local level, so please contact Chris with your ideas and suggestions.

 

11.  Governor Culver.  We need leadership on this issue!  If local control
was a factor in your vote for Culver, then let him know!  The Governor could
be the maker or breaker of local control, depending on how much weight he
throws behind this issue.

 

 

Hopefully, this will give you some ideas.  We may very well fail.  I haven’t
let myself go there before…but somehow we have to do more…

 

Donna

 

 

 

 

 


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