State lawmakers juggle work, home responsibilities in Iowa

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) - Patti Ruff’s layoff notice comes every year before Christmas. That’s a good thing.

“Usually about the first of December I get laid off and normally I go back in the middle of March,” said Ruff, an accounting clerk at the Bunge North America grain elevator facility in McGregor. “So being an elected official down here (in Des Moines) from January until about April or May works out pretty well.”

Telegraph Herald (https://bit.ly/1R4q0ld ) reports that like many state lawmakers, Ruff, a Democrat, manages the responsibilities of public office with the duties of earning a living back home.

Included among Iowa lawmakers are pharmacists, doctors, teachers, small-business owners, a railroad switchman and a whole crop of farmers.

Iowa is a “right-to-serve” state, meaning public officials must be granted a leave of absence for up to six years from regular employment, except where prohibited by federal law.

The leave may be granted without pay and applies only to employers with 20 or more full-time people.

Iowa Rep. Chuck Isenhart, D-Dubuque, spends his time away from legislative chambers as an official for sports leagues.

“There’s an indoor soccer league in Iowa City that plays on weekends. Sometimes I stop by there on Sunday nights on my way back here and get a little exercise,” he said. “That’s the main thing. I get my two hours of exercise” without going to a gym.

And when seats in the Legislature open up, there’s a rush to recruit and elect a replacement. Isenhart said he invests full-time hours into that unpaid work.

“I’ve been working pretty much full-time unpaid on, ’How do we get into the majority?’” he said.

Ruff’s lawmaking duties do at times overlap with her job in McGregor. There isn’t an official end to session, but per diem payments end on the 100th day — this year, April 19. In recent years, sessions have dragged on for weeks past then.

Surprisingly, the overlap time between session and season at the elevator isn’t the most challenging time for Ruff.

“The difficult part comes usually during harvest in the months of October and November,” she said. “There a lot of times our tours or legislative forums, meet-and-greets that happen later in the week, and that’s my busy time and I can’t get off work to attend those.”

Fellow Clayton County resident Sen. Michael Breitbach, R-Strawberry Point, knows the challenge of having his time limited. His four-county district keeps him on the road constantly, even out-of-session. He knew before running for office he’d have to change a few things.

“My wife and I made a joint decision in 2008 that I would run for the Iowa Senate in 2012,” said Breitbach, whose ventures have included trucking, insurance and a precast concrete business.

“When I decided that I was going to make a run for the Senate, I needed to bring in staff that could handle the tasks I was doing because I wouldn’t be able to handle it,” he said. “It took about four years to get that person trained and up to where I wanted them to be so that they could take over when I was gone doing this.”

In the long run, he said, it was a good idea to begin transferring the accounting duties of his office to an office manager.

“You feel like you’re losing a little bit of your control when you’re giving that up,” he said. “But I also knew it was best for the company not just because I was running for office, but what happens to the company if something happens to me for whatever reason?”

For Sen. Dan Zumbach, R-Ryan, he wonders what he would do without his friends and family. He knows he wouldn’t be able to keep up his farm without their help.

“I have an unbelievably understanding family that literally, on a simple request, will help get that crop in, taken care of and taken back out again,” he said. “I truly lean on my family. And then I’ve got neighbors who, if I’m not there, will check in on my wife if she would have a problem, or they’d check on facilities if something is happening.”

There were a few changes. He used to haul grain by himself to Cedar Rapids and Dyersville, but he hires someone to do that. He doesn’t plan on remaining a legislator forever, and will be content whenever he returns to the farm, he said.

“There’ll be a time when I step away and I say, you know, someone else can take a turn and I’m going to go back to being a husband and a father and a full-time farmer again and I’ll enjoy that too,” he said.

Rep. Brian Moore, R-Bellevue, already has made the choice to return home to the farm and his trucking business. The father of eight and grandfather of four - soon to be six - said time in Des Moines has taken a toll on business, but won’t seek re-election in November for a more important reason.

“Probably more so the family,” he said. “Three of my children have graduated during this process and I missed out on at least half their activities. I’ve got a ninth-grader yet that I’d like to see go through her activities. I can’t make that up.”

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Information from: Telegraph Herald, https://www.thonline.com