Ottosen lawmaker reflects on her career
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 04/22/2010 9:08 AM
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OTTOSEN, Iowa —Rep. Dolores Mertz said she has little time for environmentalists who want to regulate everything that deals with agriculture.
"Farmers are the best environmentalists you'll ever find," said Mertz, who is retiring from the Legislature after 22 years. "They realize that they have to be good stewards of the land because our Lord won't make any more. They know that they'll be drinking the water and eating the food before it goes anywhere."
Last year, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement petitioned the Ethics Committee to remove Mertz as ag committee chairwoman, charging that she was too closely tied to agribusiness and that her sons operated hog confinement facilities.
"For more than a dozen years, she has consistently voted for policies that benefit corporate factory farms," said the ICCI press release at the time.
House Speaker Patrick Murphy issued a statement praising Mertz for her service, saying she had the experience and knowledge to lead the House Agriculture Committee. The Ethics Committee dismissed the complaint.
"You cushion yourself against things like that, but I felt bad that they dragged my boys into it," she said. "If they ousted me for a conflict of interest in agriculture, they'd have to oust the chair of the judiciary committee, who is a lawyer, the education committee, who is a teacher and superintendent, and the human services committee, who is a social worker. I don't know why you wouldn't want a chair with expertise in agriculture."
Mertz said she is opposed to local control of confined animal feeding operations and didn't bring up bills supporting it. She knows that angered some.
"I feel that we need state standards, and with the Master Matrix, counties do have some input," she said.
Rep. Jack Drake, a Griswold Republican, served with Mertz on the agriculture committee for eight years. When he chaired the committee, she was the ranking member. When she chaired the committee, he was the ranking member.
"I found her very pleasant to work with," Drake said. "What I really appreciated is her support of agriculture. She is very firm in her beliefs, and I think she was representing the area that elected her."
Drake said he will miss Mertz.
"We had similar philosophies, and we believed in working together to find solutions," he said.
One of the most frustrating things for Mertz has been serving on the Ag and Natural Resources Budget Subcommittee and never having money to adequately fund agriculture.
"Iowa is 50th in the nation for what we appropriate for our agriculture department, but we're the top agricultural state," she said. "I think that we could do a little better than that."