Floyd County continues work toward setting up supervisor districts

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The temporary redistricting commission that will decide precincts within the new Floyd County Board of Supervisors districts will likely be composed of three people, who won’t be paid a per diem for their work but will be reimbursed for mileage.

Those tentative decisions were made Monday morning at a supervisor workshop meeting, as the board members continued going through the process that will turn supervisor positions from at-large representation to representation by individual districts.

Information from an Iowa assistant attorney general who had also conferred with the Iowa Secretary of State office confirmed information that the county board had been working with, but that had remained uncertain because of conflicts within the Iowa Code.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Bennett, in an email to Assistant Floyd County Attorney Randy Tilton that was referred to by the supervisors Monday, confirmed that the state Legislative Services Bureau will draw the supervisor districts.

Once those districts are drawn, the temporary districting commission, which will be appointed by the supervisors, will be responsible for drawing the precinct boundaries within those districts.

Because 2020 census information was just released and state legislative districts have to be drawn by the Legislative Services Bureau and approved by the Legislature before the bureau can draw county supervisor districts, there is a question if the process can be completed to meet a Nov. 1 state code deadline.

If the temporary districting commission can’t finish its part of the process by then, the State Commissioner of Elections can draw the precinct boundaries.

“The (county) commission should not rely upon the State Commissioner of Elections to draw the precincts under Iowa Code Section 331.209(4),” Bennett wrote. “That process is intended to be a stop-gap provision when county redistricting commission is unable or fails to perform this duty, and not an alternative means to draw the precincts.”

Bennett said the county commission “should continue to prepare to draw their precincts while awaiting the census/districting data and be ready do so ASAP when that information becomes available.”

“The deadline to complete this process is November 1,” Bennett wrote. “If we are  getting near to that deadline and the data isn’t yet available, please contact me to discuss options.”

County Auditor Gloria Carr said none of the information or the computer tools the commission will need to draw the precincts are available yet.

Supervisor Roy Schwickerath said that the precincts will likely follow township lines as they do now, so “their ability to make decisions is somewhat limited,” and will be determined to a great extend by the state-drawn district boundaries.

The supervisors have a choice of creating a three-person, five-person or seven-person commission, and the majority party members  — Republican supervisors Linda Tjaden and Doug Kamm — will appoint a majority of the members, while the minority party supervisor — Democrat Schwickerath — will appoint the rest.

The supervisors quickly agreed Monday morning that a seven-person commission could become too unwieldy, especially given the short time it may have to make any decisions, and soon settled on the smallest number allowed with three commissioners.

“The more people, the harder to get them together,” said Kamm.

The board had the option of paying commission members a per diem for attendance at meetings, but members said they had contacted people who were willing to serve on the commission without consideration of pay.

Schwickerath said he favored paying mileage, as is typical for many county boards and commissions.

The supervisors didn’t take any official action on setting up the commission but could do so at their regular meeting today (Tuesday).

With three members on the commission, Tjaden and Kamm will appoint two members and Schwickerath will appoint the third.

Assistant County Attorney Tilton had earlier recommended that the members announce their selections during a board meeting, so it will be officially recorded in the meeting minutes.

The county is forming supervisor districts because of the results of a special election held Aug.3, where a large majority of county voters chose “Plan 3” for supervisor representation, which requires the county to be drawn up into districts, that supervisor candidates have to live in the district they are running to represent, and only the voters who live in a district can vote for the supervisor for their district.

Also at the meeting Monday morning, the supervisors:

• Talked about what is hoped to be the imminent opening of the new county law enforcement center, including the Sheriff’s office, the dispatch department and the county jail.

After going through the usual weekly update on current construction activities with Brian Shindelar, site superintendent with construction manager the Samuels Group, the supervisors talked about when the facility might be ready for occupation.

Shindelar said the state jail inspector is scheduled to do a walk-through on Sept. 8, and the state fire marshall will do an inspection in the next week or two.

Tjaden said there is still a plan to let the public see the new building before detainees in the jail currently on the top floor of the courthouse are transferred over, but the window for those tours may be very short, possible even a single day.

“I want the public to see it, but you have to remember this is a highly secure facility,” she said.

With the LEC construction winding down, the next phase of the project will shift to the courthouse, replacing all the windows and connecting the new LEC’s heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system into the courthouse, among other updates.

Carr said there is a concern as late as it is getting in the season whether there will be heat in the courthouse when needed.

The courthouse currently uses hot water radiators for heat, but those are all being removed and the new system will require ductwork to be run throughout the courthouse.

There is asbestos in some areas of the courthouse, and the specialized process of removing that will need to be coordinated with other work as well.

Tjaden said that the district court has been contacted as far as finding other options for using the magistrate courtroom on the fourth floor when work removing the existing jail is going on up there, and with the district courtroom on the third floor, which is two stories high and extends into the fourth floor.

• Discussed a special election to renew the rural area local option sales tax which will expire at the end of next year after being approved 10 years earlier.

The special election will likely be held March 1, and will require the city of Charles City and the supervisors to both pass resolutions calling for the election.

A county-wide local option sales tax election must be requested by government bodies representing at least 50% of the county population, Carr said, and all the cities in the county other than Charles City have a perpetual local option sales tax, but both Charles City and the unincorporated areas of the county had the 10-year sunset.

Together, the city and the rural county account for more than 50% of the population, so resolutions from the city and by the supervisors would be enough to call for the election, Carr said.

The city is working with its financial and bonding attorney to prepare a resolution for the city to hold a special election to renew its local option sales tax, she said.