Retirees begin drive for new form of government in Linn County

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids did it, so why can't Linn County?

That's the thought of two retirees, Richard Bice and Mike Engelken, who say they will launch a petition drive to create a charter commission and examine Linn County's form of government.

State law requires a minimum of 10,000 signatures in Linn County.

“I think it will take a little bit of work,” Engelken said, “but I also know there's a lot of frustration out there, and once they see what we're trying to do, I think we'll get the petition easily enough.”

Bice and Engelken want Linn County to replace its full-time supervisors with a county-manager form of government that features part-time supervisors and a full-time, professional manager.

Fueling Bice, 80, a retired businessman, and Engelken, 59, a retired financial controller for Rockwell Collins, is the Linn County Board of Supervisors' decision in March to move to full-time status and raise their pay by 25 percent.

Some, including Bice and Engelken, say they understood the supervisors were permanently cutting their pay when they went from a three-member board to a five-member board in 2009. Supervisors say they agreed to temporarily adopt the cut in pay. They now say they work full time and so want to be paid as full time.

Bice, 2980 First Ave., Marion, and Engelken, 7625 Normandy Dr. NE, also express support for Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, who has been tangling with the supervisors for a year or more. Engelken's son is married to Miller's daughter.

In Bice's mind, Linn County voters agreed to go from three to five supervisors to get better representation and with the idea that people who work full-time jobs could represent Linn County in part-time supervisor positions at the same time.

Engelken said people who run for supervisor typically are residents with varied backgrounds, not experts in matters of county government.

“Let's get somebody who is an expert to run all of that,” he said.

In June 2005, Cedar Rapids voters overwhelming approved a similar change at City Hall after a petition drive and the deliberation of a charter commission.

Cedar Rapids' shift to a part-time council with a full-time professional city manager moved the city into the mainstream. Most cities of some size in Iowa and across the nation have the council-manager form of government.

None of Iowa's 99 counties, however, have a county-manager form of government, even though Iowa law spells out how counties can adopt such a government.

Scott County, where Davenport is the county seat, has for years had a professional administrator to whom department heads report, said Larry Minard, chairman of the part-time Scott County Board of Supervisors.

However, Scott County has not adopted a charter with the county-manager government. So the supervisors could eliminate the administrator position at any time.

“We're not elected to the job with any particular depth or skill in all the complicated things that are involved in managing 460 employees and a variety of county departments,” said Minard, a retired teacher and former Davenport City Council member.

In Polk County, where Des Moines is the county seat, the full-time Board of Supervisors had set up a county manager operation without changing the county's form of government, but then the five supervisors eliminated the office about a decade ago.

Tom Hockensmith, chairman of the Polk County board, said the manager's office was top heavy. So the supervisors traded that for a single administrator who reports to the supervisors, he said.

“We didn't need a county manager and two or three assistant managers,” Hockensmith said. “That's what we get paid for.”

Under Iowa law, if sufficient signatures are gathered to convene a county charter commission, each of the county's elected officials - five supervisors, auditor, sheriff, attorney, recorder, treasurer - selects two representatives to the commission, as do each of the representatives in the Iowa Legislature whose districts have most of their constituents in the county.

In Linn County, there are seven such legislators. That will make for a Linn County Charter Commission of 34 people total.

Once organized, the commission will have a year to present a final report. The report may call for no change in the county's form of government, or it may create a charter for a new government and submit it to residents for a vote.

The charter could even give voters a chance to revolutionize county government. State law, for instance, permits the commission to eliminate elected county offices and turn the duties over to people appointed, for instance, by a county manager.

Rick Sanders, a member of the Story County Board of Supervisors, said a seven-member Story County Government Restructuring Committee issued a report in 2012 calling for a charter commission in Story County, where Ames is the largest city. The committee recommended a county-manager government, but Sanders said no one has begun a petition drive.

Linn County Supervisor Ben Rogers said Linn County's current form of government is “the most efficient, responsive and effective form of government,” he said.

His fellow Supervisor Linda Langston said a county-manager government wouldn't save Linn County money, because a county manager would have a salary in the $150,000 to $200,000 range and the supervisors also would have salaries.

County Auditor Joel Miller said Engelken is strong-minded and comes up with his own ideas. For his part, Miller said he'd like to see a charter commission study if certain county elected offices should be eliminated or combined or the duties turned over to appointees.

“Why not? Start with mine as far that goes,” Miller said. “I don't think we have the right county government for the future.”