Des Moines Register
03-23-07
Regents board choices spark criticism
Culver's appointments, if approved, would create a geographic imbalance.
Erin Jordan
Register Iowa City Bureau
Gov. Chet Culver's appointments to the Iowa Board of Regents are being
criticized for creating a serious geographic imbalance.
The selection of the four people named to the regents last week, coupled with the
five carry-over members, means:
- The western half of Iowa would not have a member of the regents.
- A majority of the board's nine members would live in the Des Moines
metropolitan area.
"Western Iowa has a lot of students that attend the regents' institutions and pay
taxes for the regents' institutions," said Sen. Jeff Angelo, a Creston Republican.
"People want to feel that their interests are being represented."
Angelo predicted that the absence of western Iowa representation may make it
difficult for Culver to win Senate confirmation for his four appointees.
"Ultimately, this is going to put some nominations in jeopardy," Angelo said.
While Democrats hold 30 of the 50 seats in the Senate, Republicans have the
power to block the governor's appointments because confirmation needs the
support of a two-thirds majority of the Senate, or 34 senators.
The Senate has until April 15 to act on the appointments.
The Board of Regents, the overseer of Iowa's three public universities as well as
special schools for the blind and the deaf, is made up of nine people.
With Culver's appointments, five of the nine regents would live in the Des Moines
metro area.
Eight of the nine would live east of Interstate Highway 35. The ninth member,
Culver appointee David Miles of West Des Moines, lives in the gated Glen Oaks
community that is just west of I-35.
The regents appointments are the latest of Culver's 181 selections last week for
state boards and commissions to come under criticism. The governor was
criticized earlier this week for appointing a woman with ties to first lady Mari
Culver to the state board overseeing Iowa's nursing home administrators.
Culver aide Brad Anderson said appointments to state boards are a balancing
act.
Iowa law requires the governor to choose a mix of genders and political
affiliations for state boards or commissions, he said.
Governors also look for a balance of race, geographic representation and, for
regents, graduates from each of the state universities, he said.
"There are so many things you have to consider," Anderson said. "There will be
some constituency groups that will be disappointed."
At least four people from the western third of the state applied for, but did not get,
regents appointments. One of those was Connie Maxson, chief administrator of
the Green Valley Area Education Agency in Creston.
"I'm a little disappointed," Maxson said this week.
Maxson would like to see a regent from western Iowa - which already is
somewhat removed from the regents because none of the three state universities
is in the western half of the state.
"The population shift tends to be from Des Moines east, but that doesn't mean
we don't have an interest," Maxson said.
Western Iowa suffered the state's largest population losses in recent years,
according to census statistics released this week. Iowa has 12 counties that lost
between 6 percent and 11 percent of their population between 2000 and 2006,
and all of those are west of I-35.
Regent Robert Downer of Iowa City said geographic imbalance on the board may
hurt the regents' universities in the pocketbook.
"It does seem to me we may not be able to generate the level of support the
institutions will need unless all the areas of the state will feel like they are being
listened to," Downer said.
A greater imbalance, Downer said, is a board that does not include at least one
graduate from each of the state universities.
The regents have not had an Iowa State University graduate on the board
since 2004. Culver sought to rectify that with the selection of Craig Lang, a
Brooklyn farmer who is president of the Iowa Farm Bureau, Anderson said.
The other new regents appointees are Bonnie Campbell of Des Moines, a former
Iowa attorney general; Jack Evans of Cedar Rapids, a philanthropic corporation
president; and Miles, a biorenewable company executive.