656 JOURNAL OF THE HOUSE 73rd Day SENATE MESSAGE CONSIDERED Senate File 502, by committee on Local Government, a bill for an act relating to disclosures of certain information, including reprisals with respect to employees of a political subdivision of the state and providing information to employees concerning the office of ombudsman. Read first time and referred to committee on State Government. SPECIAL PRESENTATION M. Smith of Marshall introduced to the House, former legislator William Hill. The House rose and expressed its welcome. COMMITTEE TO NOTIFY THE SENATE Bacon of Story moved that a committee of three be appointed to notify the Senate that the House was ready to receive it in Joint Convention. The motion prevailed and the Speaker appointed as such committee the following: Bacon of Story, Chair; Gerhold of Benton and Mascher of Johnson. On motion by Hagenow of Dallas, the House was recessed at 8:44 a.m., until 2:00 p.m. AFTERNOON SESSION The House reconvened at 2:02 p.m., Speaker Upmeyer in the chair. Bacon of Story, chair of the committee appointed to notify the Senate that the House was ready to receive it in Joint Convention, reported the committee had performed its duty. The report was received and the committee discharged. The Sergeant-at-Arms announced the arrival of the President of the Senate, the Secretary of the Senate and the honorable body of the Senate. 73rd Day WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2019 657 The President was escorted to the Speaker’s station and the members of the Senate were seated in the House chamber. JOINT CONVENTION PIONEER LAWMAKERS SIXTY-FIFTH BIENNIAL SESSION In accordance with House Concurrent Resolution 12 duly adopted, the Joint Convention was called to order at 2:05 p.m., President Schneider presiding. Senator Whitver of Polk moved that the roll call be dispensed with and that the President of the Joint Convention be authorized to declare a quorum present. The motion prevailed. President Schneider announced a quorum present and the Joint Convention duly organized. President Schneider presented Senator Behn of Boone who welcomed the Pioneer Lawmakers on behalf of the Senate. President Schneider presented Speaker Linda Upmeyer who welcomed the Pioneer Lawmakers on behalf of the House. President Schneider presented Senator Dotzler of Black Hawk who responded to the welcome and announced the 1999 class of legislators who were eligible to become members of the Pioneer Lawmakers. PIONEER LAWMAKERS CLASS OF 1999 SENATE Joe Bolkcom John Judge David Miller Mike Sexton Mark Shearer Betty Soukup 658 JOURNAL OF THE HOUSE 73rd Day HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Clel Baudler Carmine Boal Clarence Hoffman Lance Horbach Michael Jager David Johnson Steve Kettering Mark Kuhn Dennis Parmenter Scott Raecker Greg Stevens James Van Engelenhoven Honorary members of the 2019 class were the following: HONORARY PIONEER LAWMAKERS Joni Arnett Susan Cameron Daeman John Pederson Bill Petroski Gary Steinke Kristi Wentz Mark Willemssen Senator Dotzler introduced Bill Petroski, who addressed the Joint Convention as follows: PIONEER LAWMAKERS ADDRESS Good afternoon Speaker Upmeyer, President Schneider, distinguished members of the Iowa House and Senate, and special guests: One of my favorite political quotes came from the late U.S. Sen. and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey. He remarked, “It is always a risk to speak to the press: they are likely to report what you say.” Thank you to so many of you who have been so helpful to the men and women on the Iowa House and Senate press benches, as well as your local news organizations, in their effort to share news with the citizens of Iowa. I have already told many of you how grateful I have been for your cooperation for so many years. I truly believe I have had one of the best jobs in American journalism the past 37 years as a state government reporter for the Des Moines Register. I have been to all 99 Iowa counties over and over in one of the most beautiful states in the nation to write about some of the most interesting people and issues you could imagine. As a journalist, I have been able to walk down Main Street of any community in Iowa, or into any cafe or tavern, tell them I work for the Register, and almost everybody has been nice and pleasant to talk with. I have almost always had the same experience at the Iowa Capitol. 73rd Day WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2019 659 But being an older, balding reporter who always wears a coat and tie as I have traveled the state to write about politics has sometimes created unanticipated situations. Near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, I covered vice presidential candidate Mike Pence as he spoke to a Republican rally at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge. Lots of prominent Iowa Republicans were there, as you might expect. I particularly remember talking with Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, who told me he was very optimistic about GOP chances in state legislative races, and he turned out to be right. After Pence finished speaking, I wrapped up some work on my laptop and headed back to my car in the parking lot. A very nice man who I had never met stopped me and thanked me for coming, which isn’t unusual for a Register reporter. We talked seriously for a few minutes and he asked me some questions about Washington politics. As we departed, the man expressed good wishes to me and remarked, “Thank you very much. It was a great honor and a pleasure to meet you, Congressman King. You are Congressman King, aren’t you?” This wasn’t the first time somebody in the 4th Congressional District has mistaken me for Steve King, which has amused my journalistic colleagues. But I quickly explained that no, I was a reporter from the Des Moines Register. Now I want you to know that Steve King called me to wish me well when I retired, so I am pretty sure he wouldn’t be offended by the mix-up. I have had some experiences covering state government in Iowa that most Iowans will never have. This includes having had lunch in the inmate dining halls of all nine of Iowa’s state prisons and talking with many inmates in their cells and work areas. At the maximum-security Fort Madison penitentiary, which I have visited many times to talk with inmates and staff, the warden’s executive officer Ron Welder used to joke that if the prison staff didn’t like the story I wrote that day that they wouldn’t let me leave the next time I came there. On a couple of other occasions, I have sat in the front seat of an Iowa State Patrol car with the gas pedal floored on Interstate Highway 35 with a state trooper who was issuing tickets to speed violators. It was probably the only times I have ever been traveling in a car at around 100 mph while we were doing it legally. On July 19, 1989, I was in Sioux City to cover the worst airplane disaster in Iowa history – the emergency crash landing of United Airlines Flight 232, which killed 112 people, but saw 184 people miraculously survive. The Sioux City airfield that day was filled with dozens of ambulances and volunteer fire trucks from many communities from long distances away, and metal pieces of the DC-10 aircraft were scattered everywhere. It was an incredibly tragic and stunning scene of life and death that I and many others will never forget. But the response by the hundreds of volunteers and professionals who rushed to crash site and Sioux City’s hospitals was inspiring as well and they were called heroes for their efforts. I have spent time on U.S. Army bases in five states outside of Iowa to report on Iowa National Guard troops who were away from home while serving our country. I have also written many, many stories about the deaths of Iowa military service members and I have attended some of their funerals. There’s a memorial in the Iowa Capitol Rotunda downstairs with the pictures of fallen Iowa soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have died in Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat zones. I urge you to visit that memorial and study their names and faces. I say a silent prayer every time I 660 JOURNAL OF THE HOUSE 73rd Day see those pictures because I have interviewed the family members or friends of so many people who are included on that memorial. I know what good people those Iowa service members were and how much they are missed. I was asked to reminisce today, but I wasn’t told any topics were off limits. So I want to talk for a minute about the #metoo movement, the personal conduct of public officials, and being a journalist covering state government. Everybody in this state knows there’s been a lot of controversy regarding some incidents involving some Iowa legislators and other government officials over the past few years. But the truth is, this has been a bipartisan problem as long as I have been here, and well before then. And I can assure you it was a serious matter when I spent four sessions at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul covering the Minnesota Legislature before I came to Iowa in 1981. I particularly I recall a prominent older male legislator from a small town in southern Minnesota being the focus of controversy after being accused in a Minneapolis Star newspaper story of making suggestive remarks to a young female lobbyist while they were having a dinner to discuss legislative policies.