While I'm ranting...

I have my previous post, and since I am in the spirit of ranting about stuff in Des Moines, here is another one.

Republicans are all about cutting the size of government. Right? Bzzzzt, wrong answer.

The Governor pushed for a new government agency, and the legislature OKed it. This agency (for now!) is going to cost $150,000 a year. It is to levy fines and punish local officials who knowingly break open meetings laws.

Ok, I'm not coming down on the side of breaking open meetings laws. But we already have the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. Besides making sure candidates do the right thing at elections, they also investigate issues with city councils and school boards who skirt the open meetings law. We don't need another government agency to handle this, when we already have one doing essentially the same thing.

This all started with the shysters at the Iowa Association of School Boards who pocketed a bunch of money. So apparently the solution is more government.

My 2 cents on the unintended consequences of this. It serves as a disincentive for the vast, vast majority of people across this state who honestly and diligently serve on city councils and school boards--people who are just trying to help their community.

Most of these elections are uncontested. It is not like people are widely clamoring for these jobs. So now, if some citizen gets all honked off at the city council, they can call this new agency, and we potentially could get dinged with a fine for breaking an open meetings law or some other issue.

Not that we try to, but in the case of Roland, with Deneen, our city clerk out of the office, the council and I have been taking on a lot more things. Speaking for myself only, I am not proficient on all of the rules and such of city procedure. I try to do the right thing, but I don't want to end up with a fine for an honest mistake.

The Iowa Ethics board in the past has done a good job of keeping on the line of wagging the finger with an education component to help government officials across the state. I would say that state agency took the appropriate measures to help people do the right thing.

So another state agency. Rejoice! {sarcasm off}