[Iowa-dx] Local vs. Statewide, S&WCDC

[Kelley Putman]

The SWCDC (you forgot the D) is dominated by Republicans because the
majority of farmers in Iowa are Republican and the majority of predominantly
rural counties are Republican.  Each district has five commissioners
regardless of local population because the land mass of each district is
roughly the same.

This commission is rather unique in that it represents the land itself.  It
was founded on the principle that local people know the land in their area
the best.

This rule is important so we don't get a concentration of S&WCD
commissioners from the towns and cities where there is a concentration of
voters.  As it is, four out of five of the commissioners from Johnson County
live in or close to Iowa City.  It is often difficult for us to know the
needs of the rural landowners near the county borders.  This came up in
discussion at our last commissioner meeting since there is highly erodible
land in both the SW corner and the E Central part of the county that has not
received as much attention as other areas such as the Lake Macbride
watershed.  In order to get grants we need to partner with other
organizations, and it would be helpful if we had a commissioner from one of
these areas who was familiar with the communities and the features of the
landscape.

This is a non-partisan position and political party affiliation does not
figure into the distribution of matching funds for eligible conservation
practices.

There is no state governmental organization that unites or represents the
conservation districts.  Each is independent.  The CDI board is a 501(c)3
non-profit corporation, with only one full time paid staff person who is
carefully non-partisan, to which each district, at its discretion, pays dues
in return for certain services.

All of our matching funds ONLY go to rural practices at present.  Only
recently have mandated stormwater rules become an issue.  Guidelines for
recommended practices to deal with this problem are still being sorted out
and therefore yet to be funded or implemented.

Kelley



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim O'Loughlin" <jim.oloughlin@uni.edu>
To: "Kelley Putman" <kputman@mchsi.com>
Cc: "IAGP Discussion" <iowa-dx@lists.gp-us.org>
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 12:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Iowa-dx] Local vs. Statewide, S&WCDC


> Thanks, Kelley, for the details about the SWC.  I appreciate the work
> you've done blazing a trail I hope other Greens will be inspired to
> follow.  You're right that it is not something to be taken on without
> commitment, but for anyone with environmental concerns in Iowa, it's
> hard to find more important issues than using land wisely and
> reducing agricultural run off.
>
> Just to clarify my problem with the residency requirements, I believe
> back in the 1960s the state legislature had a similar geographic
> diversity requirement, so that each county had one House
> representative.  That requirement was struck down as a violation of
> the one-person, one-vote rule, as it was seen to essentially
> disenfranchise large number of voters in urban areas.  Not
> coincidentally, the old requirement virtually assured Republican
> domination of the state legislature.  Considering that the SWCs have
> a related requirement, I'm not surprised to hear that they are
> dominated by Republicans.
>
> Jim