[DSM-Iowa] Fwd: Bleeding Heartland article

[Cindy Ray]

It is late but important.


Cindy Lou Ray
Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Cindy Ray <cindyray at gmail.com>
> Date: July 25, 2023 at 2:04:37 PM CDT
> To: Cindy Ray <cindyray at gmail.com>
> Subject: Fwd: Bleeding Heartland article
> 
> 
> 
> Cindy Lou Ray
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>> From: shawnmmayo at gmail.com
>> Date: July 7, 2023 at 2:48:17 PM CDT
>> To: Cindy Ray <cindyray at gmail.com>, Dolinsek.Bettina at gmail.com
>> Subject: Bleeding Heartland article
>> 
>> 
>> Iowa governor names Emily Wharton to lead Department for Blind
>> list of 4 items
>> 
>> Thursday, Jul 6 2023|
>> Laura Belin|
>> 0 Comments
>> list end
>> Governor Kim Reynolds
>> has appointed
>> Emily Wharton to remain in charge at the Iowa Department for the Blind, effective July 1. Wharton has worked for the agency since 2013 and has served
>> as its director
>> since 2016.
>> NEW POWER FOR THE GOVERNOR
>> For generations, the Iowa Commission for the Blind (a three-member body appointed by the governor) had the authority to hire and fire the agency director.
>> But Reynolds' plan to restructure state government, which Republican lawmakers approved in March,
>> gave that power to the governor.
>> The change was consistent with language giving Reynolds direct control over several other agency leaders not already serving "at the pleasure of the governor."
>> But that idea didn't come from the outside consultant's
>> report on realigning Iowa government,
>> commissioned by the Reynolds administration
>> at a cost of $994,000.
>> Blind Iowans turned out in large numbeers for state House and Senate subcommittee hearings on the bill and
>> uniformly spoke against the proposal.
>> Staff for the governor acknowledged no one from Iowa's blind community was consulted about the planned reorganization. Pressed by state lawmakers, Reynolds'
>> legislative liaison Molly Severn
>> offered the following explanation:
>> "If Iowans currently perceive a government official to be accountable to the governor, that official should be." The governor's staff did not respond to
>> Bleeding Heartland's inquiries about evidence suggesting Iowans had any such belief about the Department for the Blind director.
>> DEMOCRATS OBJECTED TO CHANGE
>> During legislative debates on
>> Senate File 514,
>> Democratic State Senator Tony Bisignano and State Representative Amy Nielsen offered amendments to remove
>> the section covering the Department for the Blind.
>> Bisignano and more than a half-dozen House Democrats spoke passionately in favor of letting blind Iowans serving on the state commission continue to select
>> the head of the agency. (Debate over the relevant amendments begins
>> at 5:51:30 of the Iowa Senate video
>> from March 7, and
>> at 1:30:20 of the Iowa House video
>> from March 15.)
>> Though the chambers rejected the amendments, Republican State Senators
>> Tom Shipley and Brad Zaun joined Democratic colleagues
>> to support the effort, as did three GOP members of the House:
>> Eddie Andrews, Mark Cisneros, and David Young.
>> State Representative Jane Bloomingdale, who floor-managed the reorganization plan in the House,
>> addressed the controversy during her closing remarks.
>> She said she had just received a message from the governor's staff, assuring her nothing would change with the Department for the Blind. "The governor's
>> staff has committed to me that she will rehire or hire Director Wharton as soon as this bill becomes effective. So there will be no change," Bloomingdale
>> promised.
>> REYNOLDS LEFT WHARTON'S SALARY UNCHANGED
>> Wharton had gone off script
>> during an Iowa Senate subcommittee
>> meeting in February, predicting she would "most likely" not remain as director if the bill passed. She added, "I cannot say that this is good for blind
>> Iowans. I cannot support that. I know that I'm not supposed to say that." Wharton was more circumspect when a House subcommittee heard public comments
>> on the same section.
>> Reynolds signed Senate File 514 in early April. The
>> division relating to the Department for the Blind
>> took effect upon enactment, and required the governor to appoint a director "on or before July 1, 2023."
>> The governor's office provided Bleeding Heartland
>> with a letter dated June 22,
>> confirming Wharton's appointment. It's not clear whether Reynolds (who
>> left Iowa for a two-week international trade mission
>> on June 20) signed the letter before her departure, or whether staff used an auto-pen to affix her signature.
>> The letter sets Wharton's annual salary at $97,460, which is the top of
>> the allowable range
>> for
>> her position.
>> Wharton has been at that level
>> for the past four years.
>> The realignment bill gave Reynolds the
>> power to set unlimited salaries
>> for the leaders of
>> sixteen cabinet-level agencies.
>> But it did not change the statutory salary range for other appointed positions, including leaders of departments that are no longer cabinet-level. (Those
>> salary ranges have not increased for more than a decade.)
>> Wharton will manage a slightly larger agency; the fiscal year 2024 budget
>> allocated an additional $150,000
>> and one more full-time equivalent position to the Department for the Blind. However, Republican appropriators did not approve the agency's request for
>> $500,000 to create an Instructional Materials Center and fund monthly purchases of braille and large-print materials. As
>> Bleeding Heartland discussed here,
>> that budgetary decision may leave blind or visually impaired students without access to high-quality materials in many K-12 school districts.
>> COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND STILL DOWN ONE MEMBER
>> After being without a quorum for several months, the Iowa Commission for the Blind can conduct official business, but lacks a full contingent.
>> One board member retired in August 2022, and
>> another passed away in November,
>> leaving only one of three positions filled. Reynolds finally
>> appointed Amy Salger in time for the board's scheduled quarterly meeting in March.
>> She later appointed Michael Hoenig to serve, effective May 1. At this writing,
>> one commissioner position remains unfilled.
>> Salger and Hoenig are both registered Republicans,
>> according to the state's official website
>> on boards and commissions.
>> Reynolds has pursued a similar strategy in other areas of state government, leaving vacancies on various boards where she would need to name non-Republicans
>> to comply with Iowa's
>> law on political affiliations for appointed bodies.
>> For example, the three-member Public Employment Relations Board
>> operated with two Republicans and one vacancy
>> for more than a year and a half. According to the
>> state's website,
>> the
>> ten-member Iowa Board of Medicine
>> currently has five Republicans, three no-party voters, and two vacancies. The
>> five-member Health Facilities Council
>> has one Republican, two no-party voters, and two vacancies.
>> Top photo by Laura Belin: Iowa Department for the Blind Director Emily Wharton listens at a February 2023 Iowa Senate subcommittee on the state government
>> reorganization plan.
>> Tags:
>> Amy Nielsen,
>> Amy Salger,
>> analysis,
>> Brad Zaun,
>> David Young,
>> Disabilities,
>> Eddie Andrews,
>> Emily Wharton,
>> exclusive,
>> Jane Bloomingdale,
>> Kim Reynolds,
>> Mark Cisneros,
>> Michael Hoenig,
>> news,
>> State Government,
>> Tom Shipley,
>> Tony Bisignano
>> article end
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