Cityscape • February 2022 • Get to Know the League: Government Affairs

The next part of Get to Know the League will be about our government affairs team. Since the legislative session started on January 10, these staff members are at Capitol and researching the legislation to know the impacts on cities.

Robert Palmer is the director of government affairs and also serves as general counsel for the League.

Erin Mullenix is the League’s research director. Part of her role is to analyze data and provide information on anticipated impacts to cities. Erin also works with Iowa State University Extension & Outreach’s Community & Economic Development Program on various reports and research projects.

Daniel Stalder is the government affairs outreach coordinator and is at the Capitol throughout the legislative session and then travels the state meeting with members when session is over.

The League’s legislative values are the cornerstone of our legislative strategy, and can be found on the League’s website.

The government affairs team serves as representatives of League members at the Iowa General Assembly. This entails serving as a presence for cities in the Capitol, meeting and working with state legislators and staff, attending and monitoring the activity of state legislative committees and coordinating city testimony and grassroots efforts. They publish a weekly e-newsletter, Legislative Link, during each legislative session to communicate important city issues that the League is following at the Capitol. It also includes research and analysis of legislative proposals and their potential impacts on Iowa cities.

The League also engages in advocacy at the federal level, including monitoring federal legislation with the potential to impact the cities of Iowa, lobbying the state’s congressional delegation, and working closely with the National League of Cities to coordinate federal advocacy efforts.

The government affairs staff also works with the League’s Legislative Policy Committee. The committee is a group of elected and appointed city officials who work closely with the governmental affairs staff in order to screen, vet, and filter legislation as it pertains to cities. This small group of individuals is tasked with maintaining a positive relationship with their legislators, staying current on legislative news and updates in the Capitol, and aiding the legislative team on state policy affects their city operations.

While at the Capitol, the government affairs team represents the interest of cities at various committee meetings and gathering of legislators. These are small gatherings, which members of the public and lobbyists can express their opinions about legislation in front of a small group of legislators. For instance, the team typically attends between four and six subcommittee hearings every day. This is the only public and formal meeting where someone can express their opinion on legislation, so these tend to take up quite a bit of time and energy in the Capitol.

Besides subcommittees, there are full committees that are not open for public comment but are an opportunity for a larger swath of legislators to speak their minds and to make alterations to legislation. And while there is no chance for the members of the public to speak, the conversation between legislators is crucial for understanding how legislation might change or be passed into law and so they are critically important as well.

Subcommittees and committee meetings are formal and prescriptive. They end with a vote and legislation is required to go through these steps in order to become law. But the meetings which are less formal are frequently the most important. This includes talking to other lobbyists privately about legislation, letting legislators know just how a specific legislative proposal will interact in the real world, and understanding the unintended consequences all take place during conversations that don’t end with a vote.

While much of the above can be done through telephones and computers, the bulk of this work is done in person and so there is no replacement for being in the Capitol.