179.2 Commission created — suspension during national order — reactivation.

1. There is created an Iowa dairy industry commission, referred to in this chapter as the commission. The commission shall be composed of the secretary of agriculture or the secretary’s designee, the dean of agriculture at Iowa state university of science and technology or the dean’s designee, and sixteen members appointed by the secretary of agriculture as provided in this section.

2. Commissioners shall serve until their successors are duly appointed and qualify. Vacancies occurring in the membership of the commission resulting from death, inability or refusal to serve, or failure to meet the definition of a producer, shall be filled within three months of the time the vacancy occurs in the manner provided by the commission. Vacancy appointments shall be only for the remainder of the unexpired term. A commissioner shall not serve more than two consecutive full terms.

3. Appointive members of the commission shall receive a per diem as specified in section 7E.6 for each day spent on official business of the commission, not to exceed six hundred dollars per annum, and their actual necessary expenses, while engaged in commission activity.

4. When a national promotional order is established by the United States department of agriculture pursuant to the Dairy Product Stabilization Act of 1983, collection of the excise tax in section 179.5 shall be suspended for the period in which the national order is in effect. The commission shall continue to operate thereafter for only the period of time necessary to pay refunds and disburse the funds remaining in the dairy industry fund for the purposes enumerated in this chapter. Upon completion of these acts, the existence of the Iowa dairy industry commission shall be suspended. The secretary of agriculture shall certify the suspension of the commission as of a date certain to the Iowa dairy industry commission and the Iowa state dairy association. When the existence of the commission is suspended, the terms of office being served by individual commissioners shall terminate.

5. When the national promotional order expires, the period of suspension of the excise tax in section 179.5 shall terminate and the secretary of agriculture shall take the steps necessary to collect that excise tax and otherwise fulfill the duties of the commission, except that of expending funds collected under the excise tax, until those duties can be resumed by the reactivated commission. When the national promotional order expires, the period of suspension of the commission shall terminate. The secretary of agriculture shall call the first meeting of the reactivated commission. Upon reactivation, the commission shall reimburse the secretary of agriculture for expenses incurred in carrying out the duties provided in this subsection.

6. When the national dairy promotion program expires and the suspension of the Iowa dairy industry commission terminates pursuant to subsection 5, all first purchasers shall, in a manner designed to reflect their proportionate contributions to the national dairy promotion program in its most recently completed fiscal year, nominate two resident producers for each of the sixteen offices of the commission. The secretary of agriculture shall then appoint one nominee from each set of two nominees as commissioners of the reactivated Iowa dairy industry commission. The secretary of agriculture shall stagger the terms of the reactivated commission resulting in as nearly as possible one third of the commissioners serving for one year, one third of the commissioners serving for two years, and one third of the commissioners serving for three years. After the initial staggering of terms by the secretary, commissioners shall be appointed to three-year terms.

7. After the reactivated commission has been formed, nominations for commissioners shall be made by first purchasers in a manner designed to reflect their proportionate contributions to the Iowa dairy industry commission in its most recently completed fiscal year.

[C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §179.2]

84 Acts, ch 1183, §1; 85 Acts, ch 126, §5 – 8; 91 Acts, ch 258, §32