Two years ago, Kim Reynolds and Republicans in the state house repealed Iowa’s longstanding requirement to have gender balance on state, county, and local boards and commissions. This law had helped Iowa become one of the most successful states in achieving gender representation on government boards. And representation matters.

Just because the state has moved backwards does not mean Des Moines should as well. Des Moines has a city ordinance requiring gender balance on boards and commissions. Our gender balance ordinance is only as good as the Council is at following it. In February, the city violated our gender balance policy when Councilmember Gatto replaced a woman serving on Planning and Zoning with a man, taking the make-up of the Commission out of balance. Councilmember Gatto made this appointment even though there were 12 women who have an active application to serve on Planning and Zoning, and a KCCI investigative report found that he did not contact a single one of them. 

Rather than correct this mistake and bring the Planning and Zoning Commission back into compliance with the city gender balance policy, there are councilmembers working behind closed doors to repeal the policy.

The undersigned call on the Des Moines City Council to:

• Affirm its commitment to its gender balance policy for city boards and commissions;

• take action to rescind Councilmember Gatto’s appointment that violated the city gender balance policy; and

• request Councilmember Gatto appoint a woman to serve the term and bring the commission back into compliance with the city gender balance policy.