Poweshiek County Democrats Central Committee Meeting

January 26, 2021

via Zoom

Meeting called to order at 7:05 PM. Officers present: Rachel Bly, co-chair; John Grennan, co-chair; Tara
Shukla, vice chair; Daniel Rodrigues, treasurer; Sarah Barks, secretary.

Remarks from candidates, campaigns & local elected officials:

1. County supervisors, Diana Dawley & Jason Roudabush: county budget is complete except for
mental health levy. Lowered both rural and urban levies. First 100 turbines helped rural levies.
Assessor has increased local property valuations. Working on bonding and setting levy for
county radio system: police, fire, sheriff, ambulance; expandable to schools and Grinnell College.
Hope to start building towers this spring. State legislature is starting session by discussing county
business: considering eliminating County Compensation Board. Question from John Grennan:
news on COVID vaccine? Diana: follow Poweshiek County Public Health for updates. Phase 1B
should begin February 1, but there may not be enough doses for everyone in that category.
2. Sarah Smith: working on budget and timeline planning for 2022 campaign. Working again with
campaign manager and marketer from 2020 campaign. Will sign up for Ready to Run. Paying
close attention to business in the State House: concerned about proposed school voucher
legislation. (John Grennan notes that PowDems try to keep current information about bills
posted on Facebook and through other channels.) Question from Daniel Rodrigues: what is
timeline for redistricting? Rachel Bly: there are multiple rounds in committees and legislature
before anything is finalized.

New business:
1. Treasurer’s report: no expenses since last meeting. Current balance $3,313.26. Recurring
contributions from county party members have carried us through the last year. To become a
sustaining member, go to ​ActBlue website​.
2. Ross Wilburn recently elected chair of Iowa Democratic Party. He hopes to plan several elections
ahead, and ensure that Democratic candidates for state offices get good training. We hope that
he can join a PowDems meeting in 2021. June Owens will continue as vice-chair.
3. 2021 Off-Year Caucus and Planning Meeting: IDP has asked us to schedule this event before the
end of March. Opportunity to elect Central Committee leaders and fill committee positions. We
will likely need to do this via Zoom. Other county parties are hoping to hold their meeting in
person later in the year, hoping for sufficient vaccinations or an outdoor event. Rachel Bly:
discussion of doing bare minimum to meet IDP requirements (e.g., election of officers) early in
the year, then hold a second meeting later in the year for other party business. We can continue
to recruit new members with or without a meeting, and do some planning within the Central
Committee. Question from Kathy Focht of Iowa County: what are the consequences from the
IDP if we do not meet the meeting deadline? Rachel: unsure, but these circumstances may
justify not following the state by-laws. Julie Eberbach: in support of “gaveling in” for a meeting
in March via Zoom for elections, with a continuance to an in-person meeting in the summer to
 accommodate the more active work. Donna Winburn: the state party might have a deadline for
turning in new platform resolutions. We will finalize plan at February CC meeting.
4. The Central Committee has five sub-committees: data (chaired by Sarah Barks), communications
(Tara Shukla), events (Ed Cohn), candidate outreach (Garold Nelson), fundraising (Susan Ferrari).
These committees’ work has been difficult to keep going during pandemic, but each may have
contributions to make for the off-year caucus.
5. 2021 volunteer & service opportunities: recently held a food drive for MICA. Jamie Leonard has
led many of these organizing efforts. Events committee could be involved as well. We may set a
goal of having a volunteer/service event every month. Proposal for adopt-a-highway via Iowa
Dept. of Transportation: general support from the committee, so John will continue working on
this with IDOT.
6. Website & security: after US Capitol attack on January 6, members of IDP and of larger counties’
Democratic CCs received threats. The state party removed member names from their website.
Poweshiek members’ names have been taken down from PowDems site, per recommendation
from IDP. Personal information was never included there (address, phone, etc.). Posting
committee members’ names on website is not required by IDP, and not all counties do so. Sheryl
Bissen: in favor of leaving names off website. Linda Baeza Porter: there may be a middle ground
that shows party & committee structures, and allows a site visitor to contact for more
information. Jamie Leonard: prefers that the committee ​not​ be anonymous, but is in favor of
following the majority’s preference. Rachel Bly: the PowDems and Grinnell College both reached
out to local law enforcement after Jan. 6. Tara Shukla: recent letters to the editor in Grinnell
paper have seemed to support & condone the attacks. Should we as a party issue a statement?
John Grennan: the website does not get a lot of traffic, and we are very active on Facebook via
our closed group. We are very careful about the membership of that group.
7. Guests for future Central Committee meetings: guest speakers often result in a very long
meeting. Should we continue having these guests at meetings, or perhaps host guests outside
the regular CC meeting? Kathy Focht: we could collaborate with Iowa & Benton counties to host
guest speakers outside the regular meetings. Kent Reed: for the smaller counties, a larger
audience gives more credibility. In favor of combining with neighbors to host speakers. Lots of
general support for scheduling meetings during non-meeting weeks, and joining with other
counties.
8. Other remarks: Jim Kessler: Democrats are not doing good messaging in rural areas. This should
be a topic for discussion in future work, possibly in the 2021 Planning Meeting. Jason
Roudabush: important to just talk to people in rural areas and discuss the issues. Julie Eberbach:
the New Iowa Project is looking at new ways to organize in rural areas and could be a good
connection. Diana Dawley: there has been no middle ground allowed with the current
Republican Party; Democrats should try to reclaim the middle ground. Sarah Smith: very difficult
for Democratic campaigns in the pandemic, but hopeful for the next election. Hopeful that
Biden’s influence will change the climate.

Meeting adjourned 8:30 pm.