Established in 2021, the Legislator of the Year Award is meant to honor elected officials who have served as an advocate for public health and safety through the use of consensus-based codes. The official also demonstrates a strong commitment to providing the residents of his/her state with cleaner water, safer sanitation, and a stronger infrastructure.
This award will be presented during IAPMO’s Annual Education and Business Conference. Recipients of this award will be notified in advance and provided a complimentary registration to participate in the awards ceremony and conference events held that day.
AWARD RECIPIENT
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Jane Bloomingdale Prior to the start of the 2024 legislative session, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds championed a bill that would reduce the number of state boards and commissions, an effort intended to streamline government, reduce bureaucracy, and improve efficiency statewide. As proposed, however, this legislation would weaken the protections such boards provide to Iowans through their advocacy and oversight by combining them with other competencies. For instance, the governor’s proposed legislation would have removed the Iowa State Plumbing Board’s autonomy by combining it with the Electrical Board. State Rep. Jane Bloomingdale didn’t allow that to happen. The former mayor of Northwood, Iowa, and since 2016 the representative for House District 60, Rep. Bloomingdale was concerned about the heavy-handed approach to terminating state oversight. She took a bold stance, rejecting the governor’s version of the bill and introducing her own legislation reflecting the objections of many groups and organizations whose boards would be eliminated or combined. Rep. Bloomingdale put the health and safety of Iowans ahead of politics. Despite pressure from the governor’s office and the Senate, she and her committee held strong. HSB 710 split the difference by achieving the governor’s vision of increasing efficiency and removing redundancies while preserving stalwarts of Iowan safety. We thank Rep. Bloomingdale for her courageous work and honor her with the 2024 Legislator of the Year. “I want to say thank you for your help and I appreciate all IAPMO has done,” she said. “I am honored to be named Legislator of the Year. I’m a little taken aback; I don’t get these honors very often. “The one thing I don’t want to forget to say is thank you to your lobbyists. You can’t do this without them. You’ve got great lobbyists and I can’t run a bill without their help. You’re lucky, you’ve got terrific people.”
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- Sheila Oliver (Former Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey)
- Representative Dina Titus (Nevada)
- Representative Armando Walle (Texas)
- Congresswoman Norma Torres (California)
- Senator Justin Wayne (Nebraska)
- Representative Senfronia Thompson (Texas)