Helena Hayes Discusses Mental Health, Child Abuse, Regulations During Sigourney Meet and Greet

SIGOURNEY – Iowa House Representative Helena Hayes held a meet and greet at Barnwired in Sigourney on Sept. 26, where she talked with Keokuk County Supervisor Daryl Wood, Keokuk County Attorney Amber Thompson, Keota City Councilman Curt Burroughs and several locals about the issues they felt were affecting Iowa. One attendee brought up concerns over mental health, saying that there needs to be more facilities and beds. Thompson added that, while Keokuk County has a decent amount of outpatient care, it is very difficult to get someone inpatient treatment. She stated that people with mental health problems frequently end up in jail, which may be safer for the community or them, but does not benefit them mentally at all. The attendee stated that part of the problem is that people can find themselves too bad for one facility, but not bad enough for another. Thompson mentioned that a lot of facilities don’t allow patients with drug problems, even though mental health problems and drug issues are often linked, while the attendee stated that some facilities only treat people with drug problems.

The attendee noted that a lot of asylums were shut down in the 80s due to unethical treatment, but that nothing was put in place to replace them. Wood noted that the state took over the funding for and the managing of county level mental health services. He said the takeover was great, but caused problems because the county mental health employee is overseen by the state, with their salary being reimbursed by the state, but listed as a county employee on the payroll, making the county liable for them. He stated that he gets complaints about county mental health services, but has no control over it. He agreed with the others that there needed to be more mental health facilities, adding that dispatch and jailers don’t want to and aren’t trained to deal with the mentally ill. Thompson and Wood both noted that county taxpayers have to pay to keep mentally ill people in local jails.

Hayes stated that she didn’t serve on the mental health subcommittee, and thus this issue was not on her peripheral, but stated she would pass these concerns on to the subcommittee chair. She explained she serves on the natural resources, environmental protection and foreign affairs committees.

An attendee explained that her child had been abused by his father, leaving him traumatized and with PTSD. She claimed that a local judge had told her that abuse is going to happen and that black boys need black fathers. She stated that she thinks judges need to be more educated on abuse and trauma. She also noted that, although she has gotten a five-year no contact order, she will need to go to court and fight to keep her son’s father from seeing him after it expires. Hayes stated that human nature is complicated and that, when it goes into a system of government, it makes broken hearts, and that for that she was sorry.

Another attendee noted the “Catch 22” of having to prove the father was abusive after five years of no contact. The mother stated that her son’s younger sister and the sister’s mother are also abused, but that DHS can’t do anything because no one will say anything. Hayes stated that everyone wants child abuse to end, but that no one wants to come forward, and said that it is really hard for even the best judges to decide whose telling the truth after only a few days with them. Another attendee pointed out that potential jurors can be eliminated from child abuse cases if they have a background with child abuse that would keep them from being impartial. She stated she could never be on a jury. Hayes stated this was unfortunate and that there is a lot of “brokenness” with the legal system.

Hayes stated she was working on laws that would make it a criminal offense to modify normal images into child porn or revenge porn using AI software. She stated that it was becoming harder to distinguish what’s real, and that she was working to make any AI generated child pornography illegal, regardless if a child was used or not.

An attendee claimed that someone had carried out a sting on his neighbor similar to “To Catch a Predator,” where they pretended to be 14 and filmed the neighbor propositioning them for sex. He stated that the police hadn’t done anything about this. Thompson knew about the case and stated the sheriff’s office was having problems, due to statutes about who can pretend to be minors for stings. She said the case was still under investigation.

Hayes gave attendees a printed handout about the United Nations’s recent Pact for the Future, a non-binding agreement to take steps towards nuclear disarmament, prevent an arms race in outer space, apply laws of war to lethal autonomous weapons, take steps to address climate change, implement Sustainable Development goals, expand access to the internet, make the internet a safe space for children, take steps to account for future generations in decision-making, and strengthen human rights, among other things. The United States signed this pact last month, but as the pact was non-binding, there are no legal requirements for any policies to be put in place.

Hayes blasted the pact as “overreach of global governance into America” and a “loss of state sovereignty.” She stated it was vital to re-elect Donal Trump, claiming he would pull the U.S. out of the United Nations and World Health Organization, and called this a fight for independence.

Hayes stated that she had voted to fast track Iowa’s move towards having 0% income tax, with the state government instead being funded by gambling revenue, sales tax, and business taxes. She was asked what effect this would have on government funding. Hayes stated that Iowa is sitting well financially and has a surplus, saying she didn’t expect it to do any harm. She claimed it wouldn’t affect local funding.  She was asked where in particular statewide funding would be cut to account for the reduced revenue. Hayes ignored the question.

Hayes brought up the limit the state put on the ability of local governments to increase taxes. Wood stated the discussion of state funding tied back to the earlier discussion of mental health, saying that, if it was not funded by the state, locals would have to pick up the bill. He stated he was “all for lower taxes,” but asked how the state could cut revenue and also fund mental health, which he sees as the biggest problem for rural Iowa. Hayes answered by telling Wood to check out the Department of Revenue website.

Hayes claimed the goal of the Republican party was less government. Burroughs explained he works in the goat dairy industry. He stated there used to be eight statewide inspectors and claimed that the law was not updated to science. He claimed that the industry used to have to do excessive paperwork, but due to budget cuts reducing the number of state inspectors to only four, the dairy industry became freer. He claimed that Iowa had gone from one of the most anti-dairy states to one of the friendliest, because of the government not being in the way.

Burroughs stated that, when the government makes laws, it becomes more powerful and you become weaker. He said that, if he wanted to, as a city councilman, he could make things he didn’t like not happen anymore and force people to comply. He stated he eliminated 11 pages of ordinances after being elected.

Hayes talked about a bill that would prevent cities from banning specific dog breeds, saying that she didn’t support it because it violated local control. Burroughs stated that he voted to ban pit bulls in Keota, despite not “having any skin in the game,” because 70% of the town wanted pitbulls banned. Hayes brought up a bill that would have given a $5 bounty for raccoon tails, designed to reduce the skyrocketing raccoon population. She stated the bill didn’t get out of caucus due to the cost to the state. Burroughs said that people would breed raccoons if the bill had been approved. Wood stated the county had been asked to do the same thing, and asked who would pay for it. Hayes brought up a different bill, which made it legal to hunt raccoons all year round.

Hayes stated a lot of her constituents had asked her about chemtrails. Chemtrails conspiracy theorists believe that the condensation trails left by aircraft are actually aerosolized chemicals sprayed by the government for nefarious purposes. This conspiracy theory has been around since the nineties, despite a complete lack of evidence. Hayes did not refer to chemtrails as a conspiracy theory or give any indication she understood it wasn’t a real thing. An attendee claimed that Joe Biden was using chemtrails to make the sky cloudy and reduce temperatures. The News-Review could find no reporting about this online. Hayes asked out loud what responsibility the state had to stop chemtrails and said there was a discrepancy on what chemtrails are and if they exist.

The same attendee brought up what she called “over vaccinating.” Hayes said she supported “medical freedom” and that she would never support companies requiring employees to be vaccinated. She stated that schools aren’t actually allowed to mandate children be vaccinated.

Hayes stated she was working on requiring people to give their ID to porn websites to access them. She stated she would possibly implement similar laws to prevent children from accessing social media.

Wood brought up the fact that the state already regulates hog buildings and asked if it would also regulate wind or solar. He stated that there is a hodgepodge of different ordinances and that developers wanted something more unified. He noted that ordinances had blocked the building of turbines in multiple counties and that similar ordinances were currently being discussed in Keokuk County. He asked if he should have this authority. Hayes said this discussion was similar to the fight against the Summit Carbon Pipeline. Wood stated landowners were still dealing with the land loss and reduced crop yield from the Dakota Access Pipeline nine years ago. Hayes noted that a lot of counties invite these kinds of projects for the increased revenue.

Wood stated that, because of the limit to county growth, adding 50 wind turbines would destroy the county by throwing off evaluations. He stated that, when he raises taxes, he raises his own taxes too, and did not want higher taxes, but that prices were going up and the county needed more money.  He said that the cost for repairing roads had gone from $350,000 to $1,000,000 in the 14 years he had been in office and asked where that money is going to come from. Hayes encouraged people to attend local budget meetings.

Hayes stated she had received flack for the assessor mail outs she voted be mandated to be sent out. Wood noted that the county had been forced to spend $8,000 sending notices that people threw in the trash. Hayes admitted that they were confusing, telling the story of a woman going into her assessor office thinking she would lose her property because of the poorly worded notice, but said the idea was to increase the transparency of local government.

Hayes said that she was once asked if she serves her constituents or her conscience. She stated that she tells her constituents how she plans to vote and that becomes her conscience, and that serving all of her constituents was impossible. She quoted Thomas Jefferson, saying “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” She stated that people are checked out on politics, but still have to vote because it is a big election that will affect them.

A 15-year-old in attendance stated he had problems with people parking in disabled spots without being disabled. His father, who walks with a cane, said that the cops don’t care to enforce disabled parking laws. Burroughs stated that he thought there was a problem with people not legitimately disabled getting disability placards.

An attendee brought up the Education Savings Account vouchers for private schools, saying he wanted that money to also be given to homeschool parents. Burroughs stated the problem was the homeschool community had not reached a consensus, and that many believed that, if they receive money from the state, there will be stricter requirements on what to teach, which homeschool parents don’t want. Hayes claimed that, once children are “taken into the system” of public education, parents lose control over them.

The conversation returned to the topic of child abuse, with one attendee claiming that animals have more rights than children, and that the government won’t take away abused children. Another attendee said that you’re allowed to abuse your own children, but can’t abuse other people’s children. Hayes transitioned the conversation to schools, claiming that the one reason teachers are leaving is because student behavior and an inability to discipline kids. She noted that teachers used to be allowed to hit kids. She claimed that schools only reward good behavior and never punish bad.

Burroughs claimed this is because the U.S. doesn’t have a “common moral code” anymore. He claimed that the U.S. used to be a Judeo-Christrian country and that it was disintegrating because Christianity lacked as much power. Hayes brought up a John Adams quote, where he said “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Burroughs stated people had left Christianity because it was judgmental and empty, often just people pontificating about their own righteousness. An attendee claimed the country started going downhill after the early sixties, when schools were prohibited from having mandatory prayer, due to it blatantly violating the First Amendment. She claimed that the lack of government mandated religion in public schools had opened the door for Satan. Burroughs said it shouldn’t be radical to want the U.S. to go back to like it was during the first 180 years of its existence. He was asked if the U.S. was a good country during its first 180 years. He said it wasn’t, pointing out the lack of freedom and institutionalized bigotry that defined American history, but claimed that people were more willing to change before the sixties.

Burroughs brought up discussion of reforming the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court hit its lowest approval rating in history, 40%, during 2023, due to a series of widely controversial decisions and allegations of justices receiving massive bribes in return for favorable judgments. Currently, its approval rating sits at 47%. Burroughs pointed out that the Supreme Court is more popular than Congress (20% approval) and the President (39%) and claimed that Congress should be reformed instead.

An attendee from South English said there needs to be more stop signs, speed bumps, or an officer posted watching traffic in South English, and that he had told this to the council and been told they couldn’t. Hayes stated the problem with traffic laws in small towns is the lack of police to enforce them. An attendee brought up speed traps, a practice where towns add sudden changes to the speed limit as a way to generate revenue from speeding tickets. Hayes said that there was an attempt to ban speed traps in the state legislature, but that it had failed. Burroughs stated that companies come to towns along the interstate and offer to set up speed cameras for them in return for a large chunk of the revenue. Hayes noted receiving a speeding ticket from a private company in Tennessee, and said that out of state companies can’t enforce tickets. She asked out loud if speed traps even make people safer. Burroughs stated that, when he lived in Cedar Rapids, the adding of traffic cameras resulted in more accidents, due to people slowing down rapidly and being rear-ended.