We heard from House District 20 State Representative Clel Baudler yesterday as he discussed his main highlight from the recently completed 2014 legislative session, so today he addresses his biggest disappointment.

Baudler says the one negative that sticks out from this session pertains to the legislature’s inability to pass an amended bill relating to the disclosure of state employee bonuses.

Baudler explains the content of the amendment he worked on with Democratic Representative Ruth Ann Gaines of Des Moines.

“We added that you can give bonuses with taxpayer money, but you have to immediately identify the time period that bonuses were given, and also you have to notify how much the bonus was for, what is for, who got it, and then it has to be put in a database which is easily accessible by the public so we can watch these (bonuses)… This was a result of these secret employee confidentiality agreements.”

Baudler says the amendment wasn’t well-received in the Senate, and it ultimately wasn’t even brought up.

“They kept balking, saying that they’re writing their own (legislation).  They came back with a weakened, haphazard, helter skelter bill that was not going to go anywhere, so the legislation died.  I guarantee that the amendment that Ruth Ann and I worked on will be back as a bill next year, not as an amendment.”

To hear Baudler give a full recap of this year’s session, tune-in to today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County during the 9am, noon and 5pm hours for part one of our final legislative conversation with the Representative.