(Des Moines, IA) — Republican Governor Kim Reynolds says she’s filling openings on the state Board of Public Health so it can conduct business this fall. The governor told reporters, “we’re really close, I think if not, we are at a quorum right now.” When the terms of several board members expired at the end of June, it left just four members on the 11-person board. The panel’s July 14th meeting had to be cancelled. Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst and other Democrats say that’s unacceptable. Konfrst said, “It doesn’t seem to me that it’s too heavy of a lift to ask our governor to fill vacant positions on a public health board in the middle of a global pandemic.” The board is now scheduled to meet in early September, 119 days after its last meeting in May. Last fall, the group passed a resolution urging Reynolds to adopt a statewide mask mandate.
