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 [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 [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