Floyd County group wants to change the way supervisors are elected

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Fresh off their success forcing a state hearing on the fiscal year 2021-22 Floyd County budget, a group of county residents is now trying to shake up the Board of Supervisors.

Thirty-five people met Thursday evening at the Floyd fire station to discuss a petition drive to ask county voters to change the way supervisors are elected.

Gordon Boge, the president of the Coalition for Better County Government, said the first goal is to change the current three supervisor seats from election at-large to election by district, to require people from different parts of the county to be elected.

“We’re tired of these people in town electing our supervisors,” Boge said, referring to the concentration of voters in Charles City. “We want some representation from the western part of the county.”

If voters approve changing from at-large election to one of two different forms of district elections for the supervisors, the next goal would be to push for an election to change the number of supervisors from three to five, Boge said.

Iowa code allows for a petition drive to force a special election to consider changes to how county boards are organized. A successful petition requires valid signatures from county residents equal to or greater than 10% of the number of people who voted in the last presidential or gubernatorial general election.

In November 2020, 8,081 people voted, according to county records, so at least 809 valid signatures would be needed.

If successful in collecting the needed signatures, a special election would be called for the first Tuesday in August, or Aug. 10 this year.

On the ballot, county voters would be asked to decide among three choices for how the supervisors would be elected:

• Plan 1 — Election at large, with all voters voting on all the seats available, regardless of residence. This is the way supervisors are elected now.
• Plan 2 — County divided into districts by population and candidates have to live in the district where they are running, but all county voters can vote to select the winner in all the districts.
• Plan 3 — County divided into districts by population and candidates have to reside in the district where they are running, but only the residents of each district get to vote on their supervisor.

Boge said the coalition is pushing for people to support Plan 3, with the people of each district deciding who will represent them.

“When you vote for the one that represents you in your area, that way they’re up to speed and they know what’s going on in that area, what needs to be done,” he said. “And if you’re not doing a good job in that area, they’re not going to vote you.”

Under Plan 2, with Charles City residents representing almost half of the total voters in the county, it’s possible they could decide who represents the districts they don’t even live in. In 2020, the three Charles City precincts represented 44% of the total county vote.

Under Plan 3, it’s assured that the residents of a district would decide who will represent that district.

Boge told the Press Sunday that the group expects to collect many more than the minimum number of signatures.

The petition drive to force the State Appeal Board review of the county budget a week ago on May 10 — and which is expected to announce a decision about June 7 — had only about five days from when the effort started until the deadline to be turned in to the county auditor’s office, Boge said.

That petition required only 100 valid signatures, and the group turned in petitions with 1,193 signatures.

With more than two weeks until the June 1 state deadline for an organizational petition, Boge said he expects the group will easily surpass the required 808 or 809 signatures, and he hopes to beat the number collected for the budget protest.

Iowa code gives the county board of supervisors the ability to call for a vote on the election form by passing a resolution.

At an Aug. 3, 2020, Board of Supervisors special evening meeting, a group of county residents asked the board to place an item on the ballot to increase the number of supervisors from three to five.

At that meeting, John Pearson, Floyd County Farm Bureau president, said the county Farm Bureau board favored putting the question of the number of supervisors to a vote.

“We feel that placing it on the ballot and if it was passed it would improve and support rural representation,” he said.

Boge said at that meeting that the idea had been to force a vote on the number of supervisors by petition, which is similar to the way to force a vote on the way they are elected, but because of COVID-19 restrictions it would have been difficult to collect signatures.

“With the coronavirus … we decided that was impossible,” Boge said. “But you, as supervisors, can put this on the ballot and let the voters decide.”

None of the three supervisors favored changing the number of board members.

Supervisor Doug Kamm said there were openings on board and commissions that anyone in the county could fill and they couldn’t find people willing to serve.

Supervisor Linda Tjaden questioned what issues the people felt they weren’t being represented on. “Our meetings are open and nobody comes,” she said.

Roy Schwickerath, who was then chair of the board, said it came down to a matter of getting people to run, noting that Tjaden was unopposed in seeking re-election.

“It really is hard to say people feel like they’re not represented when they don’t run for the office or find someone to run for the office,” he said. “Find somebody who can run that you’ll back and support.”

Boge said Sunday that he thinks more people will run if the county is divided into districts.

“I think it will be easier to find people there. Nobody wants to buck the system, but I think we’ve got plenty of qualified people to come from the western side of the county to take those seats,” he said.

Boge said anyone interested in more information or wanting to sign the petition should go to the Coalition for Better County Government Facebook page.