Owlnotes.com

I am the Legislative Services Agency Director for the State of Iowa.

I have been in that position for four years.

I work for the Iowa Legislative Council. I am the director of the central staff agencies, and I report to the Legislative Council.

The Legislative Services Agency provides staff support to the legislature. We have three main functions. We provide bill drafts for any proposed legislation. We provide fiscal analysis for the budgeting process that has to be approved by the legislature. And the third thing our office does is to provide support and manage the computer system for the legislature.

When legislature is in session, my job is primarily administrative. We review drafts of the bills we write. We also review agency requests for the general fund budget, which is financial work. I assist with managing the computer system, which is used for e-mailing, serving legislators' constituents through a list-serv (mass e-mail updates), drafting bills, and managing the legislature's website. The website provides public access to the Iowa Code, all bills that have been introduced, official records such as journals and transactions that the legislature makes, the state budget and each agency's budget, proposed bills, committee meeting minutes, and information about each legislator.

The most difficult task is working with 150 legislators on a daily basis. We work with them, their clerks, and their individual caucus staffs. When requesting bill information or a fiscal note (an economic impact statement on a bill), legislators have the option of accepting or rejecting it. The most controversial situations occur when a fiscal note comes up on a very politicized issue. One group will say the plan costs too much, and another group that says it is not receiving enough money. We have discussions with both groups, listen to their comments, and review our research to make sure we are correct. If there are valid issues that we left out, we address them. If not, the bill moves forward. We don't always alleviate the groups' objections to the bill, but we do the best we can.

Whenever we complete a big project, such as finishing a legislative session, it is satisfying because the legislators all get to go home, we get the bills, and we finish the analyses. At the end of last year's session, we started a new project. We are rewriting all of the software and updating the technology for administrative rules, bill drafting, code publications, and trying to get some chamber automation. The project won't be complete for a couple of years, but when we get that done it will be very satisfying.

We work individually and on teams. During a session, work is primarily done individually. During the interim, we have some team projects. For example, when we put together committees or subcommittees they are usually one, two, or three people. Committee teams function year round. Big projects, such as our software update, also involve teams with as many as six or eight people.

Yes; during session, it is the rules of the Senate that men must wear a coat and tie. During the interim, the dress code is business casual. Managers and people like myself wear ties everyday of the year.

There is one legislative session per year, and it always begins on the second Monday of January. Legislators are paid for 120 days of work for the session. Most times, a session does not end early. It either ends on the exact end of the 120 days or shortly after.

After high school, I went to a railroad trade school. I was going to be a telegraph operator. I made lists of car numbers, destinations, contents, and weights for 100-car trains. I soon got tired of that, and went to Drake University for four years to study business administration and accounting. The first four years after college, I worked in the finance department at a seed company. Then I started working for the legislature in the fiscal bureau. Four years ago, we had a consolidation of the fiscal bureau, bill-drafting agency, and computer department, and I transposed into working for the legislative services agency. So I've worked for the legislature for a total of 35 years.

No, I didn't. The first company I worked for wanted to transfer me to another state, and I wasn't comfortable with that idea. I went back to Drake and spoke with some of my professors. They informed me that a position with the legislature was open, and I applied for it. So that is how I became interested in my current job.

On the fiscal side, my accounting background is very beneficial. Knowledge of economics and political science is also helpful.

The finer details of my job have changed to some degree, but overall, my work has remained the same.

Everybody is different and has his/her own ideas or agenda. I've had to learn how to work around that within the constraints of time, energy, and my specific function to get the job done.

Retirement is the next step in my career. In the state of Iowa, we have something called the Rule of 88, which means if your years of service plus your age is equal to or greater than 88, you can retire with full retirement benefits. I am well over a total of 88; therefore I can retire whenever I choose to do so. I have not decided when that will be, though.

I am a part of the IPERS program, which is the Iowa Public Employees Retire System. The program, counting the Rule of 88, states that after 30 years of service an employee can receive 60 percent of the average of his or her three highest-year salaries. I have stayed on longer than 30 years, so I can receive 65 percent.

Most of the time, my day begins at 7:00 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m. When the legislature is in session, my day starts between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m. The time each day ends depends on what is going on in a session. For example, if the congressmen are debating, we may work 24 hours straight. On average, however, a day during session is from about 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

On a regular day, the first thing I do is log on to my computer, and the last thing I do is log off. During session, the first thing I do is sign on to my computer. Then I walk around the office to see who is there, find out of there are any problems, and that sort of thing. I do that again before I leave.

There is not a typical day at the legislature. In the 35 years that I have been with the legislature, every day has been different, and that is what makes it enjoyable.

There are about 100 employees working under me. I have managers and supervisors beneath me who conduct interviews and go through the hiring process with new employees, but the final decisions are my responsibility.

Usually, I work Monday through Friday, but occasionally I work on the weekend and work extra hours. For example, when I worked in the fiscal bureau, we would get the governor's information, and they needed a quick turn-around so that the governor's office could initiate the necessary committee work. We worked very long hours, seven days a week, until we were done. Now, I usually work on a Saturday or Sunday to stay caught up with work, but it is much less frequent than in the past.

The legislature has a policy that you get up to the first 120 hours of your overtime back, and you take it as vacation time. But you have to take that vacation time before the next session starts, or you lose it. Only a few people receive overtime pay.

I personally do not have to be in the office during the entire session. The office is open the entire time that a session is open. When debates continue at night, about of our staff is in the office, and we take turns staying to keep things fair.

I don't have a salary range for my particular job, but all of the other employees in my department do. They are on a merit system that includes seven steps beginning with analyst, analyst 1, analyst 2, and so on. Each numeric position receives a five percent salary increase per year. Directors' salaries are awarded by the legislative council, and they determine my salary by evaluating my work yearly. If someone new came in to fill my position, I would estimate that he or she would make about $100,000 a year. However, there is not set salary range.

There is sporadic traveling involved in my job. Sometimes the interim committees take trips, such as when the fiscal committees visit the three state universities. We also provide training and trips to national conventions for state legislative employees. We are not required to attend the events, but I do go.

When my kids were young, I missed a lot of ball games and school functions. Now, I periodically miss choir practice at church. We have more people in the agency now, and the job is more family-friendly. So usually, the older people whose children no longer live at home do the brunt of the night work.

Overall, I think the stability is very good. Our jobs are not guaranteed, because we do not use a merit system for some positions, including mine. But we do have stability from other aspects. We are non-partisan, so even when parties change control of power, we do not have to worry about losing our jobs. There will always be a demand for the kind of work I do, but it may be organized differently. For example, some states have decentralized legislative agencies; the House Republicans and the House Democrats have their own staff rather than a single body of workers serving both parties. The legislative process and the need for staff assistance will always create a demand for my type of work, it just may not be in the form of a centralized agency like we currently have.

A new employee receives two weeks of vacation. After five years of service, an employee receives three weeks of vacation, then four weeks after 12 years of service, and five weeks after twenty years of service. I get five weeks of vacation per year, plus my compensation time. You can accrue double allotment, which is 10 weeks of vacation time. Once you have reached 10 weeks, though, any additional unused time is lost. Sick leave is 18 days a year, and you can also accumulate that time. I have accumulated about 2600 hours of sick leave. The state has a policy that you can convert 12 hours of sick leave into four hours of vacation time as long as you do not exceed the 10-week limit.

The policy that we have includes a single policy for health and dental, and they pay some toward families' coverage. We can choose from about five different options for policy programs.

Lobbyists frequently put on functions for legislators and their staffs, but no one is required to attend them. I do not attend such functions. We have a policy that we cannot campaign for or donate to any particular person, party, or issue, so I also stay away from any partisan things. We are actually fairly restricted.

The most satisfying part of my job is getting to do something that I like to do and something that is different every day. My philosophy toward all of my work with the senators is, "I'm going to do the best work I can do to make it work best for you, even if I do not agree with or like your proposal." I try to instill that philosophy upon all of our staff.

The most frustrating times are when staff members promise bills or other things to legislators knowing that we can't produce, because there are hundreds of other proposals coming in at the same time. They have full knowledge of the situation, but they try to save their own reputations with the legislators. Then I have to handle the situation and deal with angry legislators. I have to defend a lot of employees, even when I don't agree with them, and that is frustrating too.

Technology has greatly impacted my job. When I started working in 1972, we only had typewriters. We had to hand-write and add every week's numbers on 12-column accounting pads. Technology is driving our work. Iowa has been a leader in technology for drafting bills and budgeting. Technology has created a lot of opportunities for us to move forward, such as with our current software rewrite.

They create a great opportunity for someone just coming in, because most young people are technology-savvy. Long-time employees are often resistant to change. Technology is on the side of the inexperienced employee.

It is definitely growing. When I started in 1972, there were only five of us working in the fiscal bureau. Now, there are about 22 people in the fiscal bureau. There was no computer department when I started, and now we have about 15 people working there.

I wish I would have paid more attention to my political science class. I only had one course in it in college. If I had known I was going to be involved with the legislative process, I would have paid closer attention.

Someone who is well-rounded, willing to be innovative, accepting of change, willing to listen, and doesn't have a pride of authorship would be well-suited for a job in the Legislative Services Agency.

Someone who is narrow in vision, unwilling to accept change, cannot get along with other people, or has an ego would not be successful in my profession.

It is valuable to be a well-rounded individual. Being good at analysis also helps. Finding someone with common sense is the best thing an employer can find when hiring for a position.

Education and experience are both important. A person's GPA and college reputation are important early in a person's career, but later on, they do not really matter. Some employers look heavily at education, and some do not.

We usually have two or three people interview each applicant. A manager and I will talk to applicants about the agency, the dos, and the don'ts. Then applicants are turned over to a supervisor who goes over the details of drafting bills and other responsibilities. Finally, we evaluate the applicants individually and make a decision.

A beginning analyst in the fiscal bureau analyzes the budget in a specific subject area, produces fiscal notes, conducts research, and contacts lobbyists and other people who are affected by their research.

Our agency is a flat agency. There are not many career ladders. There are rankings of beginning analyst, analyst 1, analyst 2, analyst 3, and senior analyst. Above that is a manager, and beyond that is my position a director. It is relatively easy to advance from a beginning analyst to a senior analyst. But there are not very many opportunities to move up beyond that. So the keys to advancing are hard work and longevity.

To work with the legislature, you should like to work with people and technology. Be aware of politics, but don't be involved in them. Those are the keys to success.