Group collects almost 1,200 signatures for Floyd County budget protest hearing

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A group alleging improprieties with the Floyd County budget and property tax rates for the 2021-22 fiscal year says it has collected more than 10 times the number of signatures required to call for a state budget appeal hearing.

Members of the Floyd County group Coalition for Better County Government and Charles City CPA Scott Andrews said Thursday evening that about 1,193 signatures had been collected throughout the county on petitions that question the budget the county Board of Supervisors recently approved for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.

Those petitions and signatures will be turned in to the Floyd County Auditor’s Office at 9 a.m. today (Friday), said Gordon Boge, a leader of the Coalition for Better County Government. The legal deadline for a budget hearing petition is April 10, but that is Saturday this year.

Iowa Code requires a minimum of 100 valid signatures from county residents or county property owners “who are affected by any proposed budget, expenditure or tax levy, or by any item thereof” to call for a protest hearing.

County Auditor Gloria Carr said Thursday if there is a large number of signatures on the petitions her office will make sure there are at least 100 of them that are valid, but would not attempt to verify them all.

Carr, who previously said she has never gone through a state appeal of a county budget before, said she has been talking with state officials regarding the hearing process.

She said staff from the state Department of Management will work with the representatives of the petitioning group and with the Board of Supervisors to set a date and time for the protest hearing, but “one thing that’s still unclear is if it will be in person or virtual.”

Included in the petition is a request that the protest hearing be held in the evening at the Youth Enrichment Center at the Floyd County Fairgrounds “to allow maximum participation,” but Carr said she was told that such meetings are still being held online, by teleconference.

The petition alleges four areas where petition supporters say the supervisors acted improperly. They are:

1) The proposed budget for expenditures for fiscal year and authorized expenditures therein underestimate the cost of Floyd Co. Law Enforcement Center construction and County Courthouse renovations.

2) The Board of Supervisors unreasonably and arbitrarily increased the tax levy as to property holders in order to finance improperly contracted repairs and work orders without any cap or adequate supervision of construction costs already approved, or to be approved in the future by Floyd County Board of Supervisors.

3) The proposed budget fails to clearly and adequately specify the income sources to be used by the county for the Law Enforcement Center construction and County Courthouse renovations and the true cost of the same.

4) The review process of the budget including review and submission of budget proposals and change order were not sufficiently identified to comply with the requirements of the Iowa Open Meetings Law for disclosure of Board of Supervisors’ activity with regard to the budget expenditures for tax year herein contested and protested.

The allegations primarily involve the cost of the county law enforcement center and courthouse updates project, and an approved increase in county property tax collections for next fiscal year that is tied in large part to the project costing significantly more than the $13.5 million originally estimated and for which general obligation bonds were originally issued.