Floyd County supervisors, treasurer knock heads over office access

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Seeking to find a balance between public safety and public service, members of the Floyd County Board of Supervisors and the county treasurer squared off Monday morning.

Every supervisors’ agenda now contains a routine item to discuss updates or action on COVID-19 and the coronavirus, and for the last several meetings a common board member comment has been that they have had complaints the Treasurer’s Office’s doors are closed to walk-in traffic.

After a similar discussion had begun at Monday’s board workshop meeting, board Chairman Roy Schwickerath called upstairs and asked Treasurer Frank Rottinghaus to join them.

“We all get input from the public about frustration with the Treasurer’s Office and dealing with the Treasurer’s Office and so we’re trying to figure out, what direction are you headed?” Schwickerath asked Rottinghaus.

Rottinghaus asked, “Is this frustration with the Treasurer’s Office, or is this frustration with the situation that we are under, the pandemic?”

The three supervisors responded, almost in unison, “The Treasurer’s Office.”

Supervisor Doug Kamm said the reality is there are many people in Floyd County who are not computer savvy and don’t want to do business over the internet.

Rottinghaus said, “I totally understand that we’re not able to do business like we usually do, and people are frustrated with that. There are people out there in the county that think this pandemic is something that someone’s foisted upon them, that it’s not a real thing.

“But as we can tell, the state is not dealing with it well,” he said. “Iowa doesn’t have a good system as far as keeping track of all the things that are happening. I think we all have to err on the side of caution because we don’t really know what the situation is out there.”

Rottinghaus, who has held his office for more than 27 years, said anyone who feels he or she isn’t getting served should call him personally.

“My phone number is in the book if they want to call me at home,” he said. “I’ll make sure that they get the service that they need, but we’re not going to open the doors to the Treasurer’s Office so we have 15 people walking up the stairs, six people at the counter rubbing elbows. We don’t have the physical space to adequately protect the public and to protect the employees, the people who work for the county.”

Rottinghaus said people are adapting to doing things differently, pointing out that the Iowa Department of Transportation recently announced it will no longer take walk-in customers for driver’s licenses, but will require appointments, and that’s resulting in better service and less frustration for customers and employees.

“I believe I’m offering the best service to the citizens of the county that can be expected at this point. And I know that you’re going to get some complaints. And you should know that. You shouldn’t be surprised by that,” Rottinghaus said.

“Having me come down here and explain the same thing a couple of times over and over again without coming to me directly and having a 10-minute visit with me on the phone or something about this is frustrating to me,” he said.

Part of the problem, everyone agreed, is that the Treasurer’s Office has the highest volume of traffic in the courthouse, with its combination of dealing with property tax payments, driver’s licenses and driving tests, vehicle titles, transfers and registration renewals.

For many people, doing business at the courthouse means doing business at the Treasurer’s Office.

Supervisor Kamm said to Rottinghaus, “Most people who come to the courthouse come to your office. You’re the one that’s locked up. That’s what they’re asking about.”

Rottinghaus responded, “When people say the Treasurer’s Office is locked up, you should be saying the Treasurer’s Office is doing business differently than they have in the past, but you can still get everything you want do, you just need to exercise a little more effort, and that’s what we’re going to have to do in this situation.”

Supervisor Linda Tjaden said, “I asked you, ‘What’s your plan, what’s your plan?’ And yet you still couldn’t answer that you have a plan as to what it would take to get to that point where you could open your doors.

“Are you looking at other ways to try to continue to have safety but to open your doors?” she asked.

“Of course I am,” Rottinghaus said. “I’m the treasurer. I’m in charge. I look at ways, yes. If you have suggestions I’m certainly happy to listen to them. To think that I haven’t thought about that is just beyond my belief.”

He said he would look at opening to walk-in traffic “when this thing is somewhat under control.”

“It’s not under control at this point, and we don’t even have a metric that we can absolutely trust to go by at this point, because the numbers have been questioned and go up and down,” he said.

Schwickerath said, “I’ll admit we are changing the ways we do things as a society, but eventually we as the people delivering the services have to adjust as well a little bit.

“We are a team, and unfortunately the way you’re running your office does affect the rest of the courthouse,” Schwickerath said. “It isn’t just the citizens, but it’s the other offices, because they get that person that comes in their office and says, ‘Why can’t I get in the Treasurer’s Office?’ Now they’ve got an interaction that they shouldn’t have had. We’re putting those people at risk.”

Several suggestions were made at the meeting.

County Auditor Gloria Carr, whose position includes being the assistant to the board, suggested that a drop box be put outside the Treasurer’s Office for people to drop off payments.

Rottinghaus said he had no problem with that idea, but it would bring people into the courthouse and up to the second floor, and they would be walking right past a drop box that’s already in the courthouse entry vestibule.

Schwickerath suggested opening up one of the Treasurer’s Office’s two doors and putting up a barrier with a plexiglass shield, so people could get into the office to talk to someone and perhaps make an appointment in person.

Bernie Solomon, the county IT director who was at the meeting for another agenda item, suggested making one of the office doors a half door, with a plexiglass top and pass-thru to provide access.

Rottinghaus said either of those suggestions might give people the idea the office is open to walk-in traffic and cause the same kind of congestion he is trying to avoid.

Carr suggested using the ground floor assembly room a couple of days a week to set up stations to do Treasurer’s Office business, and Rottinghaus said he “could see some advantages to that.”

Kamm said, “There’s a tremendous amount of frustration out there in the county with your office. Rather than just go in your office and shut your door, think about something else you could do.”

Rottinghaus said, “I really don’t need your talking down to me about that. I think about this a lot and I’ve expressed that several times, and anybody who knows me knows I’m a serious person, that I don’t do things haphazardly and without looking at all sides of the issue.”

Schwickerath said, “We ask you to evaluate ideas. I hope you’ll go back and think about some of these today. Some of them will work and some won’t. But you’ve got to look at all those factors.”

“Two weeks from now we may ask you back to a board meeting to talk to us again,” he said.