Delaware County Republican Central Committee Minutes

March 6, 2023

Old 20 Auctions

7:00 p.m.

Present:  Jeff Madlom, Cher Delperdang, Cindy and Wayne Birkenholz, Travis Hemesath, Delma Hardin, David Marks, Kevin Glanz, Clarence Slife, Doug Robbins, David Weber, Lynn Sheets, Jean Gross, Roger Helmrichs, Roni Hilby.

                Roger called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.  A motion was made by Clarence, seconded by Jeff to approve the February minutes as written. A motion was made by Kevin, seconded by Clarence to approve the financial report as presented.   

Legislative Reports:  Jeff reported that Senate file 314, Option2 will remain in effect for Delaware County which states that a supervisor has to live in the district they represent but they are voted on by everyone in the county.  A plan to eliminate the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) is being looked at in favor of a 1% increase in the sales tax with 3/8 of the increase going to the DNR and the remainder being divided amongst all the counties.  At present not all counties voted to have a LOST so this would be a big monetary loss for Delaware County.  Currently 90% of the LOST goes to pavement improvements and  10% goes toward various organizations in our county. 

                Roger reported that education funding is being discussed at the Legislative Coffee on March 4 as well as expanding hunting seasons for farmers experiencing depravation due to the deer population. Record retention was also discussed. There is a proposal for year round hunting of "critters" such as raccoons. A bill has been proposed in the Iowa Legislature to change the Iowa Constitution defining marriage as between a man and a women.  

Roger also attended the town hall hosted by presidential candidate Nicki Haley held in Marion in February.  She was a former state house representative from South Carolina who later went on to be governor of that state and was instrumental in getting voting reforms enacted. She then served as Ambassador to the UN. Her parents were originally from India though she was born in this country.  She is well known as a hard worker and an effective leader.  She has very specific ideas about where she stands on the issues.  Roger also mentioned that Trump has some people committed to working for his campaign in Iowa.  His state director was instrumental in the Brenna Bird election.  A third candidate for president has also announced, Vivek Ramaswamy the author of the book Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam.

March 1st Roger took part in a conference call in which Brenna Bird shared her experience at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. during the hearings about the student loan forgiveness program.  She also came to Delaware County to meet with our suicide prevention group which has met with some success locally.  No decision has been made on the carbon pipeline which will have no benefit for farmers and has been very controversial. 

                Pastor David Weber announced that he has accepted a call to Warrens, WI and will be moving the end of April.  We thanked him for his service to our Republican central committee and wish him well in his new home.  He has lived here 25 years. 

                Travis Hemesath was present and he has officially announced his candidacy for Delaware County Sheriff as Sheriff John LeClere will be retiring the end of 2024.  He shared his law enforcement experience with us which entails 16 years on the job including his position now as Investigator for Delaware County.  A couple priorities he would like to see would be a School Resource Officer and a drone program to help with searching for someone in need.  There are grants that could be helpful for funding these priorities. We wished him well in his candidacy. 

Scholarship: David said five applications for our scholarship program have arrived so far.  The committee needs to meet sometime this month to look at those and make a decision.  We recently increased the scholarship amount to $1000 to go to two or three winners. 

Parades:  Doug reported that parade dates have been set and the first one will be the first Saturday in June at Hopkinton.  There will be seven parades if Delhi decides to have one again.  Some of the items used in parades will need a facelift and pickups will be needed to pull the trailer. 

                We will have a double booth again at the fair.  We discussed ideas of ways to increase our fair booth presence. 

It was suggested that our fall fundraiser should be scheduled before September 15 this year.  We need to make a decision at our next meeting. 

Cher will be working on a Century Club letter so we can get that going soon. 

Our next regular meeting is scheduled for April 3 at Old 20 Auctions with a chili meal prior to the meeting. 

Meeting adjourned at 8:20.

Respectfully submitted,

Jean Gross, Secretary