This is so typical of the way in which Gov. Reynolds and her crew have changed things when most do not pay attention to this kind of thing unless they know it affects them personally. It wasn't too long ago that most state officials would respond, maybe not with the answer we hoped for but that was better than the way the current administration hides things pretending that both we and the problems do not exist.
Great peace and kudos to all three ladies. Eminent domain is for the government and the good of the people. Not some bullshit “sustainability“ corporate monetization of such. All CO2 at ethanol plants should be captured directly and formed into a valuable solid such as carbon fiber at the source. Hell better yet, stop the fucking corn grower subsidy of ethanol altogether. Takes 5 quarts of gasoline to make a gallon of ethanol. I cannot believe the bullshit we consent to. We should’ve been in the streets by the tens of millions during Ronnie Rayguns….
Thank you very much for this coverage. I know how hard Jan and James Norris and several other community members have worked on these issues, only to be disrespected by the Board chair at every turn. The MAGA way of treating those with whom we disagree has filtered down so very rapidly to local affairs. Fingers crossed that we are at the lowest ebb of civility and are about to see an upswing.
So many good points made by the activists you interviewed. I applaud them for their work and totally understand how frustrated they must be. Their experiences are similar to mine as a local activist in Des Moines working on the issue of police accountability. Our Black residents' documented experiences and the data we have obtained indicate that Des Moines police policies and practices are racially biased.
I have been involved in this work for six years and educated myself deeply on this issue. Our group has been regularly attending city council meetings, holding press conferences and community meetings, building relationships with allies, etc. The resistance to meaningful action and the obvious influence of powerful interests behind the scenes means change is glacially slow.
I am pretty sure our city leaders are complacent in their view that they are doing what's best for our city, but I see them letting go of any power they have to stand up to the authoritarian regime of our state government. As Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, says, they (and many of us) are in a "collective coma."
They can be complacent because so many of us have tuned it all out. Thank you to Julie, Kathy, Jan, and all of your fellow activists for your efforts to fight back, and to Bob, for his efforts to get the word out that we are losing our power. I am so glad and proud to be in solidarity with folks like you all who care about our communities.
Excellent job moderating this Bob, and sorting out and summarizing the issues. Regarding open meetings questions, I don't know how Montgomery County functions, but in Black Hawk County we have an assistant county attorney present at every board of supervisors meeting, part of whose function is to make sure the elected body follows the provisions of the open meetings law. Elected officials also are supposed to be briefed on the open meetings law upon taking office. Maybe a little more oversight and self-policing is in order by the county attorney's office as it applies to the board of supervisors sas well as their appointed bodies like the planning and zoning commission.
At a cursory glance, seems like there's a lot of buck passing on this issue -- reminiscent of what the state has gone through over the past 20-25 years on consolidated animal feed operations. And as is the case with a lot of zoning matters, constituents hear a drumbeat of "we don't make the final decision," from P and Z commissions and then when it gets to the final stage with the supes or a city council, it's "well this has already been discussed over a number of meetings...."
For what it's worth I always thought the Iowa Department of Transportation, in my experience, had a pretty thorough process for taking public input on a number of items ranging from highway construction to railroad abandonments. both at the commission level and at public input meetings and public comment periods -- even getting speakers to spell their names which I appreciated as a journalist :) Might be a model for sister agencies and local governmental bodies to follow.
Or, do what you just did. I admire your work here Bob. It is not an easy task, but one very necessary and why we need free, vigorous and independent media to give voice to all sides of an issue and holding those in authority accountable. You may be doing the job some of the elected officials here should have been doing. Pending litigation should not be used as an excuse to run and hide.
Pat- If you look into the IPIB investigation of the Montgomery Co open meetings violations, you will see that the Montgomery Co attorneys were present during the recent egregious procedural errors. A sad state of affairs....
And I wonder whether any of the Board of Supervisors were listening if they attended those initial training sessions on open meetings.
This is a concern in our area, too. It's bad enough that every acre is tiled like a Minecraft Theme Park. Someday I'll write a piece on The State of IowAg, but I need to calm down, take off the rose-colored cat-eyes, and factcheck my emotions.
Outstanding article in Bob's substack. Where does one begin to understand the simple concept of 'follow the money'? Where is the fear you ask? Lets start with the fear of litigation and who has enormous resources. Then, pivot to a State House full of folks who value dollars over anything else. We the people elected these folks, including the governor. One last item to ponder. One of the ladies mentioned not paying attention. Shame on all of us.
"Going to take a lot of natural resources and have a huge carbon footprint." Self defeating, isn't it? What's wrong with our government leaders that they can't seem to think?
Without a doubt this pipeline is an extremely profitable project for Summit's investors and of course Rastetter. As I understand it he has different entity's set up for people to invest in. Maybe build a sugar refinery in South America and then sell or a farm land buying entity to buy, make improvements and sell besides other investment entity's. Probably not for small investors. This man is a very powerful man. He has, or has had, his lavish annual summer picnic at his home.
The attendees are investors, potential investors, politicians, potential politicians etc. People of power and position. Need not point out he knows how to pressure to get what he wants.
The pipe line. I do not support this private owned pipeline when it comes to eminent domain. My home is about 300yars from a privately owned anhydrous ammonia pipeline that was put in in late 1960's. A couple three years ago there was smell of anhydrous, there is valve shut off on the line about 50 yards from the gravel road, and you could see anhydrous ammonia bubbling up through the ground. Turns out a fitting or something underground had rusted or failed. A crew came in on Sunday morning, dug it up and fixed. I understand they had the same on down the line a few miles.
Many years ago I farmed a farm with a pipeline installed through it in early to mid 60's. one neighbor wouldn't settle with them , made them condemn it and he got less than his neighbors did. In about '70 they came back and laid another along side of the first, only got paid for damage to the standing crop. Took a good many years for the production to be back near to what it was previously.
This is so typical of the way in which Gov. Reynolds and her crew have changed things when most do not pay attention to this kind of thing unless they know it affects them personally. It wasn't too long ago that most state officials would respond, maybe not with the answer we hoped for but that was better than the way the current administration hides things pretending that both we and the problems do not exist.
Excellent piece!
Great peace and kudos to all three ladies. Eminent domain is for the government and the good of the people. Not some bullshit “sustainability“ corporate monetization of such. All CO2 at ethanol plants should be captured directly and formed into a valuable solid such as carbon fiber at the source. Hell better yet, stop the fucking corn grower subsidy of ethanol altogether. Takes 5 quarts of gasoline to make a gallon of ethanol. I cannot believe the bullshit we consent to. We should’ve been in the streets by the tens of millions during Ronnie Rayguns….
Just saying.
They want to let something drive my car that doesn’t understand synonyms? I’ll pass….
Thank you very much for this coverage. I know how hard Jan and James Norris and several other community members have worked on these issues, only to be disrespected by the Board chair at every turn. The MAGA way of treating those with whom we disagree has filtered down so very rapidly to local affairs. Fingers crossed that we are at the lowest ebb of civility and are about to see an upswing.
So many good points made by the activists you interviewed. I applaud them for their work and totally understand how frustrated they must be. Their experiences are similar to mine as a local activist in Des Moines working on the issue of police accountability. Our Black residents' documented experiences and the data we have obtained indicate that Des Moines police policies and practices are racially biased.
I have been involved in this work for six years and educated myself deeply on this issue. Our group has been regularly attending city council meetings, holding press conferences and community meetings, building relationships with allies, etc. The resistance to meaningful action and the obvious influence of powerful interests behind the scenes means change is glacially slow.
I am pretty sure our city leaders are complacent in their view that they are doing what's best for our city, but I see them letting go of any power they have to stand up to the authoritarian regime of our state government. As Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, says, they (and many of us) are in a "collective coma."
They can be complacent because so many of us have tuned it all out. Thank you to Julie, Kathy, Jan, and all of your fellow activists for your efforts to fight back, and to Bob, for his efforts to get the word out that we are losing our power. I am so glad and proud to be in solidarity with folks like you all who care about our communities.
Excellent job moderating this Bob, and sorting out and summarizing the issues. Regarding open meetings questions, I don't know how Montgomery County functions, but in Black Hawk County we have an assistant county attorney present at every board of supervisors meeting, part of whose function is to make sure the elected body follows the provisions of the open meetings law. Elected officials also are supposed to be briefed on the open meetings law upon taking office. Maybe a little more oversight and self-policing is in order by the county attorney's office as it applies to the board of supervisors sas well as their appointed bodies like the planning and zoning commission.
At a cursory glance, seems like there's a lot of buck passing on this issue -- reminiscent of what the state has gone through over the past 20-25 years on consolidated animal feed operations. And as is the case with a lot of zoning matters, constituents hear a drumbeat of "we don't make the final decision," from P and Z commissions and then when it gets to the final stage with the supes or a city council, it's "well this has already been discussed over a number of meetings...."
For what it's worth I always thought the Iowa Department of Transportation, in my experience, had a pretty thorough process for taking public input on a number of items ranging from highway construction to railroad abandonments. both at the commission level and at public input meetings and public comment periods -- even getting speakers to spell their names which I appreciated as a journalist :) Might be a model for sister agencies and local governmental bodies to follow.
Or, do what you just did. I admire your work here Bob. It is not an easy task, but one very necessary and why we need free, vigorous and independent media to give voice to all sides of an issue and holding those in authority accountable. You may be doing the job some of the elected officials here should have been doing. Pending litigation should not be used as an excuse to run and hide.
Pat- If you look into the IPIB investigation of the Montgomery Co open meetings violations, you will see that the Montgomery Co attorneys were present during the recent egregious procedural errors. A sad state of affairs....
And I wonder whether any of the Board of Supervisors were listening if they attended those initial training sessions on open meetings.
This is a concern in our area, too. It's bad enough that every acre is tiled like a Minecraft Theme Park. Someday I'll write a piece on The State of IowAg, but I need to calm down, take off the rose-colored cat-eyes, and factcheck my emotions.
Outstanding article in Bob's substack. Where does one begin to understand the simple concept of 'follow the money'? Where is the fear you ask? Lets start with the fear of litigation and who has enormous resources. Then, pivot to a State House full of folks who value dollars over anything else. We the people elected these folks, including the governor. One last item to ponder. One of the ladies mentioned not paying attention. Shame on all of us.
"Going to take a lot of natural resources and have a huge carbon footprint." Self defeating, isn't it? What's wrong with our government leaders that they can't seem to think?
Without a doubt this pipeline is an extremely profitable project for Summit's investors and of course Rastetter. As I understand it he has different entity's set up for people to invest in. Maybe build a sugar refinery in South America and then sell or a farm land buying entity to buy, make improvements and sell besides other investment entity's. Probably not for small investors. This man is a very powerful man. He has, or has had, his lavish annual summer picnic at his home.
The attendees are investors, potential investors, politicians, potential politicians etc. People of power and position. Need not point out he knows how to pressure to get what he wants.
The pipe line. I do not support this private owned pipeline when it comes to eminent domain. My home is about 300yars from a privately owned anhydrous ammonia pipeline that was put in in late 1960's. A couple three years ago there was smell of anhydrous, there is valve shut off on the line about 50 yards from the gravel road, and you could see anhydrous ammonia bubbling up through the ground. Turns out a fitting or something underground had rusted or failed. A crew came in on Sunday morning, dug it up and fixed. I understand they had the same on down the line a few miles.
Many years ago I farmed a farm with a pipeline installed through it in early to mid 60's. one neighbor wouldn't settle with them , made them condemn it and he got less than his neighbors did. In about '70 they came back and laid another along side of the first, only got paid for damage to the standing crop. Took a good many years for the production to be back near to what it was previously.
Wow. thanks for sharing your experiences.
Thank you, Bob. This is really helpful.