{"id":1904,"date":"2021-02-02T18:48:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T00:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1904"},"modified":"2021-02-02T18:48:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T00:48:24","slug":"clay-spear-amendments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1904","title":{"rendered":"Clay Spear Amendments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clay Spear<\/a> was a legislator from Wever, Iowa, when I began my lobbing career in 1992.\u00a0 Rep. Spear, a former postmaster in southeastern Iowa, died while in office, on January 27, 1993.\u00a0 I recall coming into the Capitol on a Thursday morning and asking why there was a black cloth over his desk. \u00a0I was hurt when I found out he died the night before. \u00a0He served in the Iowa Legislature for over 18 years.\u00a0 He was a master at checking bills for improper and poor grammar.\u00a0 Oh, how we need him now.<\/p>\n

My friend, Mark Lambert, told me that he had \u201cchanneled\u201d Rep. Spear once when he explained to his city council that he had discussed an issue with other city attorneys via an email list.\u00a0 He said it was an email list of the “large city attorneys” in Iowa, then he clarified with, “that’s large-city city attorneys, not large city attorneys, though I could belong to either group!”\u00a0 It\u2019s a perfect example of what Clay Spear would find in legislation and offer an amendment to fix it.<\/p>\n

Rep. Spear could have an amendment to a bill that did nothing but add a comma.\u00a0 Maybe his amendment would insert a hyphen, nothing more.\u00a0 \u201cSmall town police officer\u201d to \u201cSmall-town police officer.\u201d\u00a0 It makes a difference, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 The only legislators today who would know what someone was saying if they mentioned a \u201cClay Spear Amendment\u201d would be Reps. Dennis Cohoon<\/a>, Steve Hansen<\/a>, Brent Seigrist<\/a>, and Senators Tony Bisignano<\/a> and Pam Jochum<\/a>.\u00a0 Long after his death, amendments introduced to correct spelling, grammar or syntax were often called \u201cClay Spear amendments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iowa used to be the education state.\u00a0 It\u2019s on the 2007 Iowa quarter.\u00a0 \u201cFoundation in Education.\u201d\u00a0 Every other state in the nation was jealous of Iowa and looked up to us.\u00a0 Now, we\u2019re barely in the top ten and sinking.\u00a0 I think I know why.\u00a0 We have a problem in Iowa with sentence structure.<\/p>\n

I have pointed out quirks and failures in the Iowa Code several times.\u00a0 Flaws in the Laws: Part I \u2013 Employment Drug Testing<\/a>; Flaws in the Laws: Part II \u2013 Mourning Dove Hunting<\/a>; Flaws in the Laws \u2013 Part III: 2nd Degree Kidnapping<\/a>; and the most recent blog – Flaws in the Laws: Part IV \u2013 Disturbing the Peace<\/a>, which was posted almost a year ago.\u00a0 That most recent blog highlighted a problem with syntax in a bill.\u00a0 Guess what?\u00a0 The bill, requested by the Iowa County Attorneys Association<\/a>, has been introduced in both chambers and is moving.\u00a0 It passed the Iowa House of Representatives 88-0 on Tuesday, February 2nd<\/sup>.\u00a0 There have been no revisions to this bill.<\/p>\n

The ICAA conducts a lot of training for its members. \u00a0However, absent but definitely needed is a refresher course on basic English grammar.<\/p>\n

In the ICAA bill, as I have written about last March, is the amended language (underlined is new language):<\/p>\n

\u201c2.\u00a0 Makes loud and raucous noise in the vicinity of any residence or public building which intentionally or recklessly<\/u> causes unreasonable distress to the occupants thereof.\u201d<\/p>\n

The language was added to address the absence of criminal intent.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t change the intent of the sentence.\u00a0 The sentence remains \u201cgoofy.\u201d\u00a0 From what you can remember of grade school classes in grammar (maybe even high school or college), read that sentence aloud a few times and see if you don\u2019t find that the object causing \u201cunreasonable distress\u201d is the \u201cresidence or public building?\u201d\u00a0 Remember, a sentence has a subject, a verb, an object, and a few modifiers.\u00a0 Modifiers are adjectives and adverbs.\u00a0 Now, without getting into teaching everyone all over again about proper grammar, can you diagram that sentence?\u00a0 You never learned to diagram?\u00a0 Oh, my!\u00a0 That is what needs to be taught in school once again.<\/p>\n

The last time I saw diagramming was during an Advanced Legal Research and Writing course, and the instructor, Curt Sytsma, wrote on the white board, \u201cJesus wept!\u201d\u00a0 He underlined the phrase and drew a line between Jesus and wept.\u00a0 That is what diagramming is about \u2013 separate the parts of a sentence to the subject, verb(s), object, modifiers, etc.<\/p>\n

How will this poorly-worded bill play out if the measure is enacted?\u00a0 Will the courts say, \u2018well, we know what it means, so we\u2019ll rule that the person caused \u201cunreasonable distress to the occupants?\u201d\u2019\u00a0 They shouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 A smart lawyer, or maybe even a mediocre one if you can find one, is going to get someone off on a \u201ctechnicality<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Auen v. Alcoholic Beverages Div<\/em>., 679 NW 2d 586 (Iowa 2004)<\/a> Justice Wiggins wrote for a unanimous Court that the \u201cgoal of statutory construction is to determine legislative intent. State v. McCoy,<\/em> 618 N.W.2d 324, 325 (Iowa 2000)<\/a>. We determine legislative intent from the words chosen by the legislature, not what it should or might have said. Painters & Allied Trades Local Union v. City of Des Moines,<\/em> 451 N.W.2d 825, 826 (Iowa 1990)<\/a>.\u00a0 Auen<\/em> at 590.<\/p>\n

I sent my concerns to several lawmakers; I discussed my concerns with the ICAA\u2019s lobbyist; I drew up a short brief and shared it with legislative staff in both chambers, and nothing has changed.<\/p>\n

These are the leaders that are arguing over our children\u2019s education.\u00a0 And yet, it seems as though none of them have the ability to recognize a poorly-worded sentence.\u00a0 Is this why Iowa is no longer the education envy of the nation? \u00a0Hah!\u00a0 I wonder how many elected officials recognized that I began a sentence with a conjunction.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m no Clay Spear, but I\u2019m going to bet that he is having grave thoughts about this language problem resting in his tomb.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clay Spear was a legislator from Wever, Iowa, when I began my lobbing career in 1992.\u00a0 Rep. Spear, a former postmaster in southeastern Iowa, died while in office, on January 27, 1993.\u00a0 I recall coming into the Capitol on a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[809,804,810,806,370,805,808,807,592],"class_list":["post-1904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brent-seigrist","tag-clay-spear","tag-curt-sytsma","tag-dennis-cohoon","tag-justice-wiggins","tag-mark-lambert","tag-pam-jochum","tag-steve-hansen","tag-tony-bisignano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1905,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions\/1905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}