A state subcommittee that has proposed the elimination of more than a quarter of Iowa’s boards and commissions heard more than two hours of public testimony Wednesday.
The proposal from the Boards and Commissions Review Committee is part of a 1,500 page government reorganization law signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds earlier this year. The law consolidated the state's government agencies from 37 to 16.
It proposes consolidating and merging nearly 100 of the state's more than 250 existing boards and eliminating nearly 70 others, such as the Board of Athletic Training, the Board of Nursing Home Administrators and the Child Care Advisory Committee.
It also recommends eliminating a gender balance requirement for boards.
Keenan Crow, the director of policy and advocacy at One Iowa, which advocates for LGBTQ rights, told the subcommittee that the requirement has shown to greatly help balance county boards and commissions, but they still haven’t achieved gender parity.
"Getting rid of the gender balance requirement right now — it'd be like standing in a rainstorm with an umbrella and concluding that you aren't currently getting very wet at the moment, so maybe we can just ditch the umbrella altogether," they said.
Supporters of the recommendation said the requirement could prevent qualified members from serving on a board based solely on their gender.
Pete Hird, the secretary-treasurer with the Iowa Federation of Labor, said his group has a lot of concerns about the proposed changes.
"Boards and commissions allow citizens to have a real voice in governmental decisions and be the ears on the ground to people who represent and respond to changes," he said. "I’ve spoken to people on several different boards, and none of them were contacted in this process."
Hird recommended the committee allow more time to receive input from board members and offer more detailed explanations on the proposed changes.
The public has until Sept. 17 to submit testimony to the subcommittee, which will issue a report to Gov. Reynolds and lawmakers no later than Sept. 30.
