Senate Journal: Page 66: Wednesday, January 15, 1997

  66 JOURNAL OF THE SENATE 3rd Day next century, that is fast approaching.

  I'm pleased to report that our Commission on Planning for the 21st Century,
  which
  conducted this study, submitted its report to us last summer. A copy of the
  report has been provided to you this morning. We now have an outstanding
  blueprint for a
  model system of justice. It will serve Iowans well into the future.
  Who were the architects of this plan? They were more than sixty Iowans from
  many
  different walks of life including --farmers, a retired newspaper executive,
  a county supervisor, small business owners, union representatives, former
  and current
  members of theGeneral Assembly, judges, business executives, attorneys, and
  heads of state agencies. And they came from every corner of the state--from
  Corwith
  to Carroll, Marathon to Bettendorf, and Burlington to Sioux City.
  We, indeed all Iowans, are indebted to every member of the Commission for
  the
  commitment and talent they brought to this project. We owe special thanks to
  Justice Linda Neuman, who chaired the Commission, and to Justices Bruce
  Snell and
  Marsha Ternus who served with Justice Neuman on the steering committee. And,
  of course, we are indebted to the many individuals and groups, including the
  Legislature, for their financial support that helped make this all possible.
  The creation of a formal planning process within the Judicial Branch is the
  cornerstone of the Commission's plan. With your support, we hope to add a
  professional planning staff this year so we can begin this important
  program. Because
  it is so obviously inthe public interest, this is one of our very top budget
  priorities.
  We have created an implementation committee to help us sift through the
  Commission's other recommendations. We will be coming toyou in the future to
  help us carry out the rest of our plan.

  What does the future hold in store?

  Start by thinking back twenty-five years--to 1971. Back then, I was a
  district court
  judge in the old Second Judicial District that included seven counties in
  South Central Iowa. My court reporter was a "pen-writer." He reported the
  testimony with a
  pen using Gregg shorthand symbols. The latest technology to hit the courts
  was the memory typewriter. And we couldn't operate without mass quantities
  of carbon
  paper. I must confess that I understand carbon paper easier than computers.
  I usually presided over a few divorce cases each month. Domestic abuse cases
  rarely
  came to the courts and were not identified as such. Unlike today, most
  district court judges had time to hear juvenile cases. The juveniles who
  came before me were
  usually there for petty property crimes. I don't remember a single case
  involving a violent juvenile during my thirteen years as a district court
  judge. I handled a drug
  case on occasion. But not many. Meth or crank didn't exist in our world
  then. Most of the drug casesinvolved marijuana. Most of the offenders
  inhaled!

  Who would have predicted the dramatic changes we've seen in just twenty-five
  years? The world is vastly different now. Yet the principles upon which our
  justice system is based remain the same. And those principles are the
  foundation upon which
  to build a court system that will best serve Iowans in the twenty-first
  century.
  No one can really predict the future, but with the Commission's help, we now
  have a

Iowa General Assembly

Index: Senate Journal (77th General Assembly: Session 1)

© 1997 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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