Cedar Falls Mayoral Candidate donated $25k to Iowa legislator who co-sponsored the bill to ban the PSO program
Councilman Dave Sires' large donation to state legislator raises questions
Cedar Falls At Large City Council member (and current candidate for mayor) Dave Sires has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Cedar Falls PSO program.
On March 9, 2021 the Iowa House passed House File 683. If signed into law, this bill would have effectively prevented Cedar Falls from having a combined police and fire department. At this time, the Iowa Senate has not taken up the bill. Sires' wife Lisa also led the "No PSOs" political action committee, which hired a lobbyist to advocate for the bill. In a March 24th Waterloo Courier article, Dave Sires was quoted as saying that "he was glad to see the bill advance" and hoped that it would make it to Governor Reynolds’ desk.
In a September mayoral forum at the Cedar Falls Rotary Club, Sires explained the bill and took some credit for it,
"What our law that we proposed was, our bill, was that any community who had a university with a board of Regents would be required to have full-time professional fire department."
When Sires referred to HF 683 as "our bill", he may have been accurately describing a much bigger role than citizens realize. We did a search on Iowa's campaign disclosure database and discovered that on April 19, 2020, Dave Sires donated a sizable $25,002 to Iowa House member Phil Thompson, R - District 47. Thompson's district includes Boone and Jefferson, Iowa (west of Ames). This was Sires' largest donation to any Iowa campaign, and Thompson's largest contribution from an individual.
Two days later, Thompson's campaign wrote a check to the Republican Party of Iowa for an expenditure of $25,000. Expenditures involving the Republican Party of Iowa aren’t uncommon in Thompson’s list of expenditures. It could be a coincidence, but the close proximity and similar dollar amount raises questions.
Nine months later, on January 27, 2021, Thompson co-sponsored House File 248 (HF 248 was later renumbered to HF 683)....the very bill that would prevent Cedar Falls from continuing the PSO program. Thompson was joined by co-sponsors, Jon Thorup, R - District 28 (Knoxville, IA, southeast of Des Moines) and Timi Brown-Powers, D - District 61 (southeast of Waterloo).
A search of campaign contributions to Thorup and Brown-Powers did not yield any notable large donations.
Timeline
4/19/20 - David Sires writes a $25k check to Phil Thompson for Iowa (committee ID #2448).
4/21/20 - Phil Thompson for Iowa write a $25k check to the Republican Party of Iowa
1/27/21 - HF 248 introduced by Thompson, Brown-Powers, and Thorup. The bill was read for the first time and referred to the committee on Public Safety.
2/2/21 - Subcommittee votes 3-0 to recommend passage
2/24/21 - Committee report approving bill, renumbered as HF 683
3/9/21 - Iowa House passes HF 683, vote was 86-7.
The Iowa Senate has not taken up the bill.