By Michael Crumb | Senior Staff Writer and Mike Mendenhall | Associate Editor

For Iowa cities, the 2024 legislative session was “pretty typical” when compared to the past few years, according to Alan Kemp, executive director of the Iowa League of Cities. 

During this year’s session, which adjourned on April 20, lawmakers passed a restriction on cities’ ability to set local regulations on topsoil and surface storm runoff, building code preemptions, a block on cities investing in guaranteed income programs and a requirement for state approval for traffic speed cameras.

“Basically, [it’s] a one-size-fits-all approach, which the league and city officials argue doesn’t really work in a state in which you have 940 cities with populations as small as 12 on up to 220,000,” Kemp said. “And they all have unique issues based on their geography, their demographic makeup [and] their commercial businesses.” 

Kemp said the slow move away from home rule in Iowa is something the League, a statewide advocacy group representing the interest of municipalities, watches closely. The trend, he said,  is partially a result of the nationalization of many issues that once were the domain of local and county governments. 

“In the United States, from state to state, what we’re seeing is majorities in legislatures continue to get larger, regardless if it’s a Republican majority in Republican states or a Democrat majority in Democrat states. … The more you see those majorities, the more likely you’ll see a state really push back on home rule issues. And it’s simply a matter that there’s no backstop,” Kemp said in an interview with the Business Record on April 30. 

“You get a completely different political environment if you’re looking at a 51-49 (party split) chamber because suddenly things are a little tight, and leadership has to work together to ensure something gets passed,” he said.

According to Kemp, some legislative examples that were taken up this session include: 

SF 455 Topsoil and stormwater at construction sites: This bill restricts local topsoil and stormwater regulation at construction sites from being more restrictive than those requirements provided in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. They are based on flow rates calculated over five years, according to the bill. It passed the Senate 33-15 after first failing in the House before it was approved with an amendment that allows local governments to bypass the limits if the city or county pays for any increased development costs that result from the higher standards. The city could pay for an additional engineering study or take on additional private costs to lead to more stringent requirements.

Kemp said it’s unclear how this legislation will financially affect cities. 

HF 2388 Building code preemptions of construction material restrictions: This legislation would restrict counties from adopting and enforcing a building code that limits or prohibits specific materials – such as vinyl siding – cladding or exterior finishes on residential buildings that’s stronger than the state code. The bill carves out exceptions. Local government can have more strict requirements for structures designated a local, state or national landmark or located in areas designated a common interest community or a special interest zoning overlay.

HF 2681 Automated traffic enforcement: Approved by the Senate on April 15 and sent to the governor, this bill requires cities to get approval from the Iowa Department of Transportation to install speed cameras and issue traffic citations. 

HF 2319 Guaranteed income prohibition: When Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law on May 1, it prohibited local governments from creating or participating in guaranteed income programs. This most notably affects UpLift, a public-private partnership pilot project launched in 2023 that provides $500 a month for 24 months to 110 people in Polk, Dallas and Warren counties whose family income is 60% or less of the area’s median income. That project will have to move forward without the city and county government investments.

Despite the perceived pull away from home rule, Kemp said, the Legislature and the cities are ultimately partners. There were other bills approved this session that municipal leaders pushed for, including:

SF 2205 Civil service changes: This bill, signed by Reynolds on April 10, eliminated some administrative requirements when recruiting civil service employees, including law enforcement officers. For example, an applicant who completed training at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy or another certified training facility does not need to retake a civil service examination when changing employment from one Iowa law enforcement agency to another, according to the bill.

“Right now it’s hard to attract, particularly, public safety employees. Let’s streamline that civil service list as best we can to make it easier,” Kemp said.

SF 2331: Adjustments to public notices: The bill keeps public notices in print newspapers and ensures they are accessible in a digital format on local newspaper websites. However, the newspaper can no longer charge government bodies for the proof of publication of the notice beyond the maximum public notice rate allowed by state law. According to an April 25 email from the Iowa Newspaper Association, the bill does not affect public notices placed by non-government bodies. Cities say there’s been difficulty in publishing public notices in a timely manner as the number of newspapers declines. Kemp says the changes will be more efficient for city officials. 

The next session

The league is already preparing for the 2025 session. The group’s legislative policy committee was scheduled to meet on May 15 to look at future issues, and Kemp said he would not be surprised if state lawmakers return to property tax policy. 

“We are becoming used to property tax policy changes annually, it seems,” Kemp said.

“Honestly, it’s an easy target,” he added. “And the reason I say that is it’s one of the future taxes that you actually see and you have to make a large payment. … Whereas sales tax, by the time I get to work, if I’ve grabbed a breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee, I’ve already paid taxes. So, throughout the day sales tax is dribbled out.”

Reynolds signed an estimated $100 million property tax cut, HF 718, into law in 2023 which instituted a ceiling on levy rates for cities and counties. Business leaders pursued property tax reform as a way to make housing more affordable. A separate bill, SF 181, clarified the rollback calculations for residential and multifamily properties, the Reynolds administration said at the time. 

Leaders of many Iowa cities said the revenue reduction would make it more difficult to fully fund city services. What frustrates city officials, Kemp said, are the changes that happen year to year.

“The one thing that city officials and particularly finance directors for cities want is they want consistency,” he said. “They don’t want to be guessing what their revenues might be. Cities do a lot of long-term planning. They’ll look five and 10 years out financially to determine what things look like. But because the Legislature basically tweaks these things year to year, it gets to be really hard to build those models to determine ‘all right, this is where I think I’ll be in 10 years.’”

The Business Record spoke to Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh, Marion City Manager Ryan Waller and Story City Administrator Mark Jackson to learn more about their thoughts on how actions at the Statehouse could affect their communities. Not everyone responded to each bill listed below. Their responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

On SF 455 Topsoil and stormwater at construction sites

Walsh
“In the mid-1960s, Iowa citizens voted to adopt ‘Home Rule’ under the premise that each of Iowa’s cities and counties had various and unique challenges to only that city or only to a few cities. Back then, thoughtful consideration on the part of Iowa’s voters revealed that local city and county government officials should know best what their communities’ specific needs are and how to provide their citizens with adequate solutions. Council Bluffs, as a river city, is made of two significant land features. Council Bluffs is half steep hills and half river flat river bottoms. With a substantial rain event, water rushes off the steep hills toward the river, but once it hits the flat river bottom, that grade changes to a 1% grade for approximately three miles until it reaches the Missouri River. That difference in elevation changes the speed at which stormwater flows. Lots of water volume suddenly slowed by a grade change likely will mean neighborhood flooding that results in significant property damage when the city’s sewer system reaches capacity, a capacity it wouldn’t reach if the city were allowed to continue to slow the stormwater release using proven stormwater detentions systems. Cities can impose more stringent requirements, but the developer won’t pay the cost associated with those requirements. Each and every city taxpayer will share in covering the cost.”

Waller
“What the bill does doesn’t have much of an impact on the way Marion has worked with developers on topsoil and stormwater regulations. Our policies have lined up with the DNR permitting process. From the standpoint of the bill itself, there is not much of an impact for the city of Marion. The city of Marion is very in tune and engaged with our residents, and we make a point to implement policies and practices to align with what our community is asking for.”

Jackson
“This is going to shift some of the costs of stormwater management from individual developments to the community at large. Flooding is more of a local issue, and its impact is different for each city. A city needs the tools and flexibility to address stormwater and flooding issues in a way that works best for their individual community.”

HF 2388 Building code preemptions for construction material restrictions

Walsh
“A ‘one-off’ multi-family residential property of 14 units or less, generally located in a town or city in an appropriately zoned neighborhood, likely shouldn’t be dictated by things like cost and materials. That said, cities could make TIF funding approval subject to specific design criteria. If design is essential for areas like a historic or planned commercial district, then design and materials requirements will still be allowed.”

Waller
“Design standards are something that is important in our community. This does prohibit us from enforcing some of our design standards for certain developments, but not all. We have design standards in place that are reflective of what the community is asking for on the look and feel of neighborhoods. As part of our regulations we incorporated alternatives that still meet the intent of the design standards but were also more affordable alternatives that were acceptable. This would not allow us to fully implement our design standard in the manner the community has asked us to do.”

HF 2681 Automated traffic enforcement 

Walsh
“There are inherent flaws in the requirement to prove that automated traffic enforcement has improved public safety. What year will serve as the baseline for comparison purposes? If the cameras had been in place for over a decade, most drivers who regularly use that road network would have already modified their driving techniques to avoid tickets. It’s an entirely different basis of comparison between comparing 2023 to 2024 or comparing pre-camera activity to 2024. Some cities have mobile cameras that they use in response to neighborhood complaints. Because the location is constantly changing, there is no basis for historical comparison. I firmly believe that automatic traffic enforcement helps save the lives of both drivers and our public safety officers. Council Bluffs only has red light camera detection, but at those intersections that have automated traffic enforcement, the number of accidents is down significantly, and the dollar amount of fines has been reduced by approximately 60%, so both those factors would tell me that the traffic enforcement technique has been effective in modifying people’s driving habits.”

Waller
“We are very data driven and we are very comfortable with going through the approval process. Our police department did a wonderful job of providing the data to support the need. For us, this was about safety for the community and motorists and the officers. We were supportive of a regulation that made it based on data, and that is geared toward safety. This is something we were engaged with and supportive of. Again, we’re a data-driven community and we use data to inform our decision-making process and certainly this is no different.”

SF 2205 Civil service changes

Walsh
“Civil service is an archaic system with idiosyncrasies that can cause logistical nightmares in hiring. Under the old procedure, testing must be designed, completed, and validated. Once the list is ‘certified’, then under the old practice, the city must hire from that list for a specified period of time. If the job reopens months later, the city must return to the original list and begin calling those applicants who applied many months ago. In 99.9% of the calls, those former applicants had taken other jobs, moved, or moved on. Once the search for candidates on the old list is exhausted, the city must go through the lengthy process of creating a new list. It truly is an exercise in futility that takes literally months to fill a job that remains vacant until the prescribed process has been completed.”

Waller
“It is difficult to recruit and retain. We’ve run several recruitments in the 2.5 years I’ve been here. The first one had 69 applicants. Thirteen showed up and no one passed the test. People are just not flocking to law enforcement these days, so have this ability to streamline this process and make it easier on us [will help.] You want to act swiftly before these important individuals are picked up by other municipalities that are competing for that talent. We’ve been primarily focused on police. We have not had an issue recruiting firefighters. We’re definitely supportive and very much appreciative of the Legislature to work with local law enforcement on this bill and House File 2681.”

SF 2331: Adjustments in public notices

Walsh
“Public notices needed to be posted in the newspaper. Today, subscribership in local newspapers is down significantly, and subsequently, very few people read our newspapers. There are better ways to inform and notify the public.”

Other thoughts

Jackson
“Cities have been primarily focused on the financial ramifications that have been enacted from previous legislative sessions. It’s been primarily twofold: 1. The phasing out of reimbursement to cities for property tax reductions of commercial and industrial property, and 2. significant property tax changes enacted over multiple previous legislative sessions.”