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Floyd County supervisors discuss appointments, calendar with incoming board members

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

In addition to what are currently weekly Floyd County Board of Supervisors meetings, the three supervisors sit on or are liaisons to more than 50 other boards, committees, commissions and other organizations at the city, county and state level.

The current supervisors spent some time at their regular meeting Monday morning talking with two supervisors-elect about their roles on those boards, as well as other topics.

Most of those positions are as ex officio members – they are there because the groups have decided a member of the Board of Supervisors should be part of their body – but the supervisors’ actual participation ranges from simple advisory roles to full voting membership, even including holding offices in some groups.

These extra meeting duties happen anywhere from weekly to a couple of times a year, depending on the group, and the supervisors split up membership on the other groups according to their interests and availability.

Mark Kuhn and Dennis Keifer, who were elected earlier this month to represent Supervisor Districts 1 and 2 respectively, had requested time on the Monday agenda to go through “organizational planning.”

The first question, Kuhn said, was whether there would be a third supervisor at that meeting.

Jeff Hawbaker, who had been elected to represent Supervisor District 3, sent a letter to the county auditor shortly after the election, saying that he was not able to accept the position.

With a supervisor position becoming vacant, it is up to three other county elected officials – the county auditor, recorder and treasurer – to either appoint a supervisor to serve until the next county general election, or to call for a special election to be held to fill the position for the rest of the usual four-year term.

That three-person group, meeting Nov. 18, decided to appoint a supervisor, and will further refine the process at another meeting Dec. 5. If they wish to, residents of District 3 will have 14 days after the appointment to petition for a special election, if at least 192 valid signatures are collected from within the district.

The current supervisors hold office through Jan. 1, so the District 3 office doesn’t become officially vacant until Jan. 2 – the earliest that someone can be appointed to fill the position.

Monday, Jan. 2, was expected to be a county holiday, observing New Year’s Day which falls on a Sunday next year, but the county auditor, recorder and the newly elected county treasurer planned to go to the courthouse that day to make their decision on an appointment.

It had been assumed that the organizational meeting for the new Board of Supervisors would then take place on the first day of regular business after the holiday, which would be Tuesday, Jan. 3.

But it was unclear for a while at Monday’s meeting whether Jan. 2 would even be a county holiday.

The board spent some time talking about whether the county should follow the state in making the Friday before Christmas and the Friday before New Year’s Day paid holidays.

County Assessor Brandi Schmidt, who was at the meeting for a different agenda item, said it is becoming more difficult to fill county job openings because the county’s benefits are lagging private business, and the number of holidays and other time off is part of the considerations.

Supervisor Linda Tjaden said the courthouse employees have been asked to put up with a lot this past year including construction noise and dust as the courthouse is being renovated, and another holiday would be one way to say thanks.

The board ended up deciding Friday, Dec. 23, will be an additional paid county holiday along with Monday, Dec. 26, but Friday, Dec. 30, will not be, because some county offices need to be open on the last business day of the year.

After some more discussion on holidays, including the 2023 holidays, Tjaden made a motion that Monday, Jan. 2, would be officially observed as the New Year’s Day holiday by county employees, but that the rest of the 2023 holiday schedule would be decided by the incoming Board of Supervisors.

That motion died for lack of a second, however, with Supervisor Doug Kamm apparently thinking the motion had been to award another additional holiday. Supervisor Roy Schwickerath was absent from the meeting.

That meant, if the motion had remained unapproved, that county employees would not receive a paid day off for New Year’s Day, and it also meant that the new board of supervisors would have to hold its organizational meeting on Monday, Jan. 2, the same day that the third supervisor was appointed.

After some more clarifying discussion, Tjaden made the same motion, Kamm seconded and it passed 2-0, so county employees will observe the New Year’s Day holiday on Monday, Jan. 2, the three elected officials will appoint the third supervisor on that day, and the organizational board meeting for the new supervisors will be held Tuesday, Jan. 3.

Also at the meeting Monday, the board:

  • Approved a six-month trial period of a communications and marketing specialist partnership with the Charles City Community School District, the city of Charles City and the Charles City Area Development Corp., where the school will pay 50%, the city 25% and the county and CCADC 12.5% each of the cost of the position, to be filled by Justin DeVore, currently director of communications with the school district. The cost to the county for the six months will be $5,125.
  • Approved amending an emergency ambulance services agreement among the county, Charles City and AMR ambulance service to allow AMR to serve the city limits of Nashua for a six-month period while that community works on establishing its own ambulance service. Nashua will pay a fee of $10,000 for the service – $5,000 each to the city and the county, which are paying $100,000 each to AMR to support ambulance services in the city and the county this current fiscal year, ending June 30, 2023. The $10,000 was based on the expected level of service that will be required in Nashua compared with the usual service to Charles City and the rest of Floyd County.
  • Approved the annual urban renewal report and approved a resolution on the debt and tax increment financing (TIF) certification for the fiscal year 2021-22.
  • Approved County Recorder Amy Assink posting the availability of full-time position in her office to replace her deputy recorder, Jesse Lynn Holm, who was recently elected as county treasurer and who will take that office Jan. 2. It is anticipated that Kim Usher, who is currently a shared position between the Recorder’s Office and the Treasurer’s Office, will take the full-time position in the Recorder’s Office.

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