Iowa lawmakers clash on oversight of conference

DES MOINES - Members of an Iowa House committee that reviews state agencies clashed Wednesday over the scope of its authority to compel public testimony.

The dispute arose when House Government Oversight Committee revisited an anti-bullying conference that last year purportedly provided students with instructions on 'safe” sexual bondage and how to find orgies.

Some committee members have called for an investigation of the use of tax dollars to register middle and high school students and use school vehicles to transport them to and from the conference. Iowa Safe Schools sponsored the annual Iowa Governor's Conference on LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) Youth. The conference has no connection to the governor's office.

The refusal by its executive director, Nate Monson, to meet with the committee on the advice of his lawyer has rankled Chairman Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, and prompted a debate about whether the committee can compel a private citizen to testify.

State Rep. Mary Wolfe, D-Clinton, a defense lawyer, said she would advise a client 'to refuse to appear in front of a panel that has no legal authority over him to answer questions.”

However, Rep. Dawn Pettengill, R-Mount Auburn, cited a section of code that 'specifically gives us authority to call witnesses, administer oaths, issue subpoenas, cite for contempt.”

The idea that 'any standing committee can subpoena anybody for any reason at any time based on curiosity or a personal issue was never the intent of the people who wrote the Code,” Wolfe said.

'I find that really concerning and I would think that everyone in this room would and certainly everyone in your party.”

Kaufmann continued to defend the inquiry into the conference, citing the use of tax dollars for some aspects of it.

That prompted Pettengill to ask why the committee is investigating Midwest Academy, which did not receive tax money.

'We can't say it's one thing out of one side of our mouth and something else out of the other side of our mouth,” she said.

As Wolfe started to respond, Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, jumped in.

'Catfight,” he said, eliciting laughter from some committee members, including Pettengill.

Wolfe defended the investigation of Midwest Academy, a Keokuk-area boarding school for troubled youth, on grounds that the Department of Human Services was aware of allegations of sexual abuse and physical assault and the Department of Education allowed the school to operate - 'perhaps to gaps in our law.”

'Our role to investigate how state agencies dropped the ball and to make sure it doesn't happen again,” she said.

Kaufmann said Rep. Greg Heartsill, R-Melcher-Dallas, after meeting with Rep. Ruth Ann Gaines of Des Moines, the committee's ranking Democrat, will issue a report on the LGBT conference.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com