Assink sworn in as new Floyd County recorder; seeks to fill out team

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County has a new county recorder as of Monday morning, as the long-time deputy in that office was sworn in to take over.

Amy Assink was appointed to the position by the Board of Supervisors at its meeting Monday morning. The meeting was held as a special meeting instead of a workshop so the board could take official actions.

Assink will replace Recorder Deb Roberts, who has retired from the elected office, and Assink will serve until the next county general election in 2022, when Robert’s term would have ended. Assink has said she plans to run to be elected to the position at that time.

For her first official act, Assink asked the supervisors for permission to promote the current clerk in the office, Jessie Holm, to the deputy position that Assink was vacating, and also asked for permission to hire a new clerk to replace Holm.

Legally, county residents can file a petition with the county Board of Supervisors within 14 days of Assink’s appointment, asking that a special election be held to fill the position.

Supervisor Roy Schwickerath said he had not heard any indication that such a petition was forthcoming, but he would prefer not to fill the deputy position for at least 14 days, in case an election is called.

Legally, the position has to be advertised as open for 10 days before it can be filled, and the supervisors indicated to Assink that she could at least post the position now.

Supervisor Doug Kamm wondered whether the office needed a deputy, or whether the office could run with the recorder and two clerks.

Deputies are paid a specified percentage of the office-holder’s salary. Assink had been an 80% deputy to Roberts, but said she would like to hire Holm at a 75% salary. Clerks are paid an hourly wage set by the supervisors.

Supervisor Chair Linda Tjaden wondered whether the clerk needed to be a full-time position, or if it could be part-time or a position shared with another office.

Tjaden asked whether three people are needed to cover the regular workload, or just so another person is available when someone is gone.

Roberts, who was attending the meeting, asked if she could respond.

“I don’t think you realize the amount of work we do on a daily basis, not just with customers in the office,” the former recorder said. “We’ve never had a problem staying busy all day with three people. It would be a disservice sharing someone … you are going to burn out the remaining people and lose good help.

“There’s never an idle moment,” Roberts said, saying the amount of work in the office had increased over time, not decreased.

County Auditor Gloria Carr said she was not aware of any elected office in any county in the state that did not have at least one deputy in the office.

The board made no decision on the issue during the initial discussion, and returned to the topic later while discussing department budgets.

The supervisors have been looking at the potential for at least a couple of additional people working for the county beginning with the new fiscal year starting July 1, including a person to possibly be split among planning and zoning, 911, emergency management or other departments.

They are also looking at adding another staff person to the Auditor’s Office or taking on an assistant who would report directly to the board, to help with budgeting, other financial and human resources issues, to relieve Carr of some of those direct responsibilities, which are not in the job description for auditor.

In what looks to be a tight budget year, the board members are looking to cut wherever they can to make up for what they know will be several areas where spending increases.

No decisions were made on the staff level topic Monday.

Also at the meeting:

• The board approved extending a job offer to Drew Mitchell of Charles City as county safety coordinator. Mitchell’s primary duty will be as the new county Emergency Management Agency director, but that position reports to the Floyd County Emergency Management Commission, and that board approved extending a job offer to Mitchell at its meeting last Wednesday evening.

Mitchell’s job responsibilities would be 90% EMA and 10% safety coordinator, at an annual starting salary of $45,000. He will get an additional $1,000 in annual salary when he receives his EMA certification.

• The supervisors approved medical and dental insurance rates for county employees. The county purchases insurance through the Iowa Governmental Health Care Plan at a high deductible, then covers some of the deductible cost for county employees through self-insurance to reduce the individual deductible to $750. It pays all of the premium cost for single employees and a part of the premium cost for family coverage.

Carr said the monthly cost for family coverage for the employees will increase from the current $522.02 to $546.78, an increase of about 4.7%. The additional cost to the county for all 100 county employees will be more than $71,000, although some of that is reimbursed through various programs.

• The board noted the Floyd County COVID-19 immunization clinic sign-up that will begin Friday morning for a limited number of doses for persons age 65 and older.