Floyd County Supervisor Tjaden won’t seek another 4-year term

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A county vote last summer to require Floyd County to be divided into county supervisor districts did more than just change how supervisors are elected. It also will result in one current supervisor not filling out her full term.

Supervisor Linda Tjaden announced to the Press Thursday that she has decided to not seek reelection this year.

“The news is that I am not running,” Tjaden said. “If anybody is holding off on running because they don’t want to run against me, I got to thinking, I’ve got to get this out there.”

Tjaden was elected to a second four-year term in 2020, running unopposed, and her position would not normally have been on the ballot this year.

She said she had planned on holding office for only two terms, and “if it hadn’t been for this redistricting I would have stayed my term and been done Jan. 1 of 2025.”

The rules of the new supervisor districting require that all three distinct positions are up for election this year. In order to set up staggered terms for future elections, one district was drawn by chance to serve only a two-year term in this election.

Tjaden said she might have considered running this year if the district she is in had been selected for the two-year term, but she didn’t want another four-year term, which is what the supervisor who is elected in her district, Supervisor District 3, will serve.

Instead, the district chosen for a two-year term is Supervisor District 2, where current incumbents Roy Schwickerath and Doug Kamm live. Both of them were elected in 2018, so their terms are up this year anyway.

Schwickerath has said he probably will not run again, with the only thing that could change that decision being who else is running or not running this year. Kamm did not return a call Thursday regarding his decision, but said last week he had not yet made up his mind whether he would run for the two-year term.

As of Thursday afternoon, only one person had filed for any of the supervisor seats – Jeff Hawbaker, running in District 3, Tjaden’s district and the only one of the three districts that does not include one or two Charles City precincts.

Tjaden said the fact that the county law enforcement center and courthouse update project will be finished this year also weighed into her decision.

“I want to see this project done. I don’t want it being left in other hands, and it will get done. I’ve talked to a lot of people – I know people, those that are coming to our meeting, they still fault the project as being a failure. I don’t look at it that way. I look at it as during my term we made our county safer,” Tjaden said.

“In the long run I still believe we will save ourselves money. I truly believe in that. Not everybody may feel that way. But I do. Down the road we’re not transporting, we’re not sending money, county funds, to other counties. We’re keeping that within our own county,” she said.

“Hopefully by the time we get the project with the courthouse done we’ll eventually save money in utility costs. It’s just amazing what we’re paying right now and what we will be saving in the future because of the work that were doing right now,” she said.

Asked what’s next for her, Tjaden said she wants to spend more time farming with her husband and having more time for her grandchildren.

“I know that’s probably a typical statement, but that is what I really want,” she said.