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Disasters are like movies. When they’re all over, everybody remembers the big dramatic moments, but nobody scans the credits for the names of the key grip or the head gaffer, and nobody really cares how much it cost to fake an avalanche or provide lunch to the crew.

Our ongoing production of “Iowa 2008: Total Mess” got a new director last week, and right away he was called upon to brief the few people who are specifically assigned to care about what happens behind the scenes. Maj. Gen. Ron Dardis, meet the Iowa Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee.

Dardis took charge of the Rebuild Iowa Office after the previous honcho, Emily Hajek, failed her audition. She didn’t have the right answers about Carpetgate and other details, and disappeared faster than your retirement plan.

Giving the job to Dardis falls into the “sure bet” category; he’s the Tom Hanks of Iowa leaders. A calm, confident aura hovers about Dardis, and you suspect that were he ever to be mugged, the mugger would end up giving him back his wallet and offering to shine his shoes.

Not that they ever need shining. The top man of the Iowa National Guard sports a military gleam on his footwear and his name stitched on his jacket, and he seemed to give most of the assembled legislators a warm glow of confidence just by sitting down at the same table with them.

One noted that when he was in boot camp 43 years ago, never would he have imagined he would be addressing a major general. Let’s hope he had more exciting things to imagine back then.

Fortunately, for the sake of the “oversight” label, Rep. Ralph Watts was among the assembled. “As much as I respect your position in the National Guard,” Watts said to Dardis, “now you’re a bureaucrat.”

Dardis no doubt wanted to assign a long hike with a heavy pack, but kept his slight grin in place and just said, “Thank you.”

Watts is a Republican from Adel who regularly receives high ratings from business groups.

If you’re looking for someone to throw money around with wild abandon, Watts probably isn’t your man.

Now here we are spending millions of dollars to help the Iowa communities that were devastated by floods and tornadoes last summer, and there’s always just the slightest danger that a budget levee might burst, sending a cascade of cash into low-lying pockets.

Watts studied the roster of staff members in the Rebuild Iowa Office (RIO) and the estimates of what they’re going to cost the taxpayers, and the experience made him curious. For instance, he wonders why we penciled in potential overtime pay for supervisory positions. In Watts’ understanding of the world – largely acquired in the utility industry – supervisors do whatever has to be done. There is no overtime.

And why would a person making less than $70,000 in a state job suddenly be paid $120,000 while temporarily assigned to RIO? Watts figures you have to do more than sit down in a different office to get that kind of raise.

Watts also flashed back to his experience with ice storms and other disasters that demanded immediate response. Utility workers head out on a moment’s notice and work until the job is done, then it’s back to normal.

The RIO plan, in his opinion, smacks of a permanent addition to Iowa’s bureaucracy.

Dardis assured Watts that things are under control. He doesn’t think much overtime will be paid to anybody. He expects RIO and the rest of the disaster functions to “sunset” as scheduled; the plans remain available, but the bureaucracy disappears.

Listening to Dardis is reassuring.

But it’s also good to watch Watts at work, like a veteran film critic with eyes narrowed, questioning the staging of each scene. That’s why they call it the Oversight Committee.