by Robin Opsahl, Iowa Capital Dispatch
January 10, 2023

Gov. Kim Reynolds unveiled her latest private school scholarship proposal and plans for a huge restructuring of the state government Tuesday in her 2023 Condition of the State address.

Reynolds delivered her sixth address as governor to the most Republican-dominated Legislature of her time in office and one in which more than a third of the members are beginning their first terms.

“Through natural disasters, a pandemic, a nationwide recession and more, Iowa’s status as a beacon for freedom and opportunity has endured,” she said. “We’ve been recognized as the most fiscally responsible state in the country, we’re ranked in the top ten states to live in America, and we continue to be ranked the #1 state for opportunity.”

Reynolds was reelected to her second full term as Iowa governor in the 2022 election, defeating Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear.

Republicans also strengthened their trifecta control at the Iowa Statehouse, and party leaders in both chambers said they were ready to implement the governor’s agenda quickly. Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver said the Senate is ready to hold a subcommittee meeting on Reynolds’ education bill yet this week or early next week.

“We are ready to get to work and hopefully make this agenda into law,” Whitver said.

Iowa Capital Dispatch

The Iowa-based newspaper chain Lee Enterprises is facing a potential class-action lawsuit alleging it has shared readers’ personal information with Facebook in violation of federal law.

Lee publishes newspapers and other media content in 77 markets across 26 states. The company’s 10 Iowa papers include the Quad-City Times in Davenport, the Sioux City Journal, the Mason City Globe-Gazette the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and the Muscatine Journal.

The lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court, alleges that Lee’s news-media websites offer users the option of subscribing to newsletters or to newspapers that provide consumers with access to articles and video content in exchange for their personal information, including names and mailing addresses.

Lee Enterprises – owner of the Quad City Times, Daily Dispatch/Argus and more than 70 other newspapers and online news sites – reported a $6.34 million loss for the fourth quarter ended September 25. However, the quarterly financial results were skewed into negative territory primarily by a $21 million (non-cash) write-down of company assets.

Without the write-down, Lee likely would have had positive earnings for the quarter, as opposed to the $1.09 per share loss it reported Thursday (December 8).

Iowa Capital Dispatch
October 12, 2022

The state of Iowa is planning to dramatically scale back the routine inspection of restaurants and other food-service establishments by making only one onsite inspection every five years.

Currently, most Iowa restaurants are subjected to at least one routine inspection every three years. They are also inspected in response to complaints or changes in ownership.

Complaint-driven and ownership-related inspections will continue. But in the absence of those issues, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals intends to visit each Iowa restaurant no more than once every five years under a set of new rules that are expected to take effect next month.

Iowa Capital Dispatch
October 10, 2022

For the past eight years, a state regulatory agency has violated a law requiring the routine inspection of Iowa’s hotels and motels.

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals is required to inspect all hotels within its jurisdiction at least once every two years. Inspections are the sole process by which Iowa enforces regulations intended to protect hotel guests’ health, safety and rights as consumers.

In May, the Iowa Capital Dispatch asked the department why few hotel inspection reports were being posted to the agency’s website given the legal requirement for routine, biennial inspections at all hotels.

One of the first questions YMCA of the Mississippi Valley officials asked about a possible deal to buy the Bettendorf Life Fitness Center was if the city had done a real estate appraisal to determine the market value of the 72,000-square-foot facility and its 3-acre site along Middle Road.

"No, there has not," was the email response from Bettendorf City Administrator Decker Ploehn.

That exchange occurred in mid-December 2021, according to emails obtained by Bettendorf.com under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the city. Over the ensuing nine months, the city has not sought an appraisal to determine the current market value of the facility.

Under state law, an appraisal is not required if the city conducts a public hearing on the sale of public property. That public hearing on the sale of the life fitness center for $1.4 million – the county's assessed value which has changed little over the past four years – is scheduled for the city council's Oct. 4 meeting.

City officials in response to questions about the emails obtained by bettendorf.com said using the county's assessed value saved the city from spending money on an appraisal. But by not having a real estate appraiser estimate the actual market value of property, the city could be giving away far more taxpayer dollars than the cost of an appraisal.

The $18.7-million estimate for the proposed Bettendorf waterpark/ice rink project doesn't include $1.3 million in engineering and design costs nor bonding fees or interest expenses should the city need to issue bonds to finance construction of the facility.

The disclosure of additional costs came during questioning of City Administrator Decker Ploehn at the council's Monday night committee-of-the-whole meeting.

The project has been touted as being funded equally with $6 million from the city, and like amounts from the Scott County Family Y and private donors.

Bettendorf city officials plan to sell the Life Fitness Center for $1.4 million without obtaining a property appraisal to determine its current market value.

Instead, the price tag for the 62,000-square-foot building along one of the city's busiest streets, Middle Road, was taken from the most recent assessed value of the property by the Scott County Assessor's Office.

The $1.4 million assessed value has changed little over the past four years.

Bettendorf city officials say they want to offload the Life Fitness Center to the Scott County Y to "save taxpayers" $250,000 a year.

But just a few blocks north and west of the fitness center sits the city's Family Museum that required six times that amount – nearly $1.7 million – in tax dollars last year to meet payroll.

For the first time, online revenue during the third quarter exceeded print income at Lee Enterprises, Inc. – owner of the Quad City Times and Daily Dispatch/Argus newspapers and online news sites.

Despite the continued growth of online revenue, the company lost 5 cents per share ($269,000) for the three-month period ended June 26. A year earlier, Lee reported third quarter earnings of 56 cents per share, or $3.23 million.