Linn Supervisors Accept Pay Cut

 

I just left the Linn County Board of Supervisors Meeting, where I watched members vote 5-0 to slice their annual pay back to $70,097.96.

Earlier this week the County Compensation Board voted to “freeze” supervisor pay at $87,622, with the backing of four supervisors.

But $70,000 is what the three original supervisors – Lu Barron, Jim Houser and Linda Langston - pledged to accept last year before they won re-election. They abandoned that promise, and supervisors have been catching plenty of hell over the $17,000 difference for the last two days.

New Supervisor Brent Oleson, who favored the freeze earlier this week, changed his mind. He offered a resolution cutting the supervisors’ pay back to 80 percent of full-time. It’s roughly the same resolution Barron, Houser and Langston passed during Salary War I last March, but then jettisoned in December, sparking Salary War II.

Oleson negotiated the latest armistice.

“It’s about trust and keeping your word,” Oleson said. “There is a time to lead and a time to be responsive to public sentiment.”

“I’m just glad we’re getting an opportunity to correct a wrong,” said Supervisor Ben Rogers, who favored $70,000 all along.

So this was, at long last, the right call.

Of course, this awkward, Friday afternoon reversal wouldn’t have been necessary if Langston, Houser and Barron hadn’t made such a boneheaded call in December. But it’s still the right call.

Two things still trouble me.

For one thing, even after last year’s salary debacle, most of the supervisors still didn’t understand how strongly the public would react on this issue. That’s astounding.

The economy sucks, political shenanigans are in the headlines very day and public trust in government is in the sub-basement. And yet, they tried to pull this bumbling  salary switcheroo. Not smart.

They need to take their political barometers to the shop for significant recalibration.

Second, the ridiculous county compensation board system in Iowa has to go. Langston said today that supervisors and other elected officials should have the sole power to set their pay and be accountable to voters. I agree with her 100 percent.

“I think it’s a faulty system,” Langston said. She wants the Legislature to do something to change it.

In the end, it’s welcome news that the board will live up to last year’s promise. I give them credit for listening to the people, although I gave them similar credit last year and it didn’t work out so well.

I hope they bought back some squandered public good will today, because there are some very big jobs and tough decisions ahead.

Voters will be watching them closely.

UPDATE — Here’s the county’s news release:

Linn County Board of Supervisors Reduces Salary by Twenty Percent

Decision retroactive to January 2, 2009

(CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – February 6, 2009)-The Linn County Board of Supervisors today unanimously approved a resolution reducing their salaries by 20 percent. This resolution is retroactive to January 2, 2009, and results in a salary of $70,097.96 for each of the five members of the Board of Supervisors. Due to the retroactive nature of the resolution, the members of the Board of Supervisors will return any monies paid in excess of the newly established salary by March 15, 2009.

“This is the only mechanism we have to take care of the salary issue in a swift and decisive manner,” said Lu Barron, Chair of the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

“I’m glad we have this opportunity to correct a wrong and move forward with other substantive issues,” said Supervisor Ben Rogers in reference to flood recovery as well as issues that were important to Linn County well before the flood. “Our focus is on the future and rebuilding our community.”

Friday Mailbag — Salaries and Love Lost

Needless to say, most of my e-mail this week was tied to the two columns I wrote on the Linn County Board of Supervisors’ pay saga. You can read Tuesday’s here and Thursday’s here.

The supervisors meet today at 1 p.m. at the Palmer Building to take action on the salary issue. I’m hearing there may be a few more plot twists.

Carol Olson was one of many readers who agreed that supervisors’ pay should not stay at $87,622 after the board abandoned last year’s pre-election promise to cut their own pay to $70.000.

Just read your column this morning and you said exactly what I was thinking after watching the 10:00 news last night! $17,000 is more important than stepping up in these difficult times and doing the right thing! “Character Counts” is a class taught in Iowa elementary schools — I do believe the Linn County Supervisors need a crash course!

Eve Casserly also doesn’t think much of the freeze.

It is appalling – given the horrific problems so many in Linn county are having – that these privileged few would rub all our noses in their ability to lie to us and then get away with it.

Next election is four years down the road. Will all the voters have forgotten – by then – the lack of ethics on the part of these supervisors?

Lila Kramer hopes the Legislature takes action on House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen’s bill that would give local voters recall powers.

Your comments on our Linn County Board of Supervisors is “RIGHT ON”……. and hundreds of other residents must agree w/ you too since I see the they are e-mailing our legislators in Des Moines to files a “recall” bill………. I plan to e-mail my State Rep. Kraig Paulsen & Senator Rob Hoog to let them know I am in favor of this bill.

I also got some mail on last Sunday’s column detailing the ill-fated, whirlwind affair between Linn and Dale. Their love now seems to be as dead as a big 1970s shopping mall.

Some readers, like Peg Dvorak, liked my twist on the Westdale Mall saga.

Have always enjoyed your columns but the one today made me laugh out loud. It was a hoot! Thanks for the reading pleasure.

But Luke Sandberg strongly disagreed.

I can’t believe they actually published this waste of space. Have you ever heard someone dissect a joke until all humor is lost? That’s what you did with this column. You made a terrible analogy and then beat the dead horse all the way down the page. I’ve never contacted a “columnist” before, but this was inspirational. The Gazette has reached a new low.

I bet Dale’s mad too, especially now that Linn is moving in with Steve and Barry. Keep the e-mails coming.

Friday Reads — Patrolling the Mean Tweets

So what am I doing? I’m reading The Gazette’s front-page piece on local law enforcement agencies that are using social networking sites such as Twitter to communicate. Stephen Schmidt reports that Coralville cops have been tweeting since September. For instance, The department tweeted descriptions of a bank robbery suspect back in October.

Perhaps the Waterloo cops could use Twitter to help find the dastardly villain who stole a film projector from the Mini Cinema, an adult movie house. If I were a detective, or U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, I’d start by grilling officials at the National Science Foundation. They like the naughty movies.

OK, there’s no clever transition here. The Gazette fronts and other papers carry news that projects hoping to get a slice of Gov. Culver’s $700 million bonding pie will be required to pay prevailing wages. Lt. Gov. Patty Judge delivered the news to the Iowa Building Trades convention.

Democrats like the idea, of course, but Republicans say the gov is more interested in pushing a labor agenda than rebuilding the state.

So what’s prevailing wage? Rod Boshart sums it up nicely: Prevailing wages are characterized as the hourly wage, usual benefits and overtime paid to the majority of workers, laborers and mechanics for each trade and occupation in the largest city in each county. They are established separately for each county and reflect local wage conditions.

The Statehouse is slated to get some rebuild cash, and just in time to plug some holes. The Gazette carries a brief in its print edition describing how a mouse is loose in the Iowa House. A House clerk noticed that her lunch had been sampled by some critter, and the chief clerk issued a rodent alert.

The Mason City Globe-Gazette fronts Charlotte Eby’s story describing legislation that would require gender balance on locally appointed boards and commissions. Most panels are overwhelmingly male, and board seats are one route to higher office. Iowa is still one of only two states to never send a woman to Congress or the governor’s office.

The bill, pushed by Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, would exempt small towns under 1,000. Rep. Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, father of two daughters, says there should be no exemption.

From the whatever-happened-to-that-bad-idea file, Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, says the University of Iowa should sell its Jackson Pollock “Mural” masterpiece instead of raising tuition. The same idea was floated several months ago and rejected. But why not throw it at the canvas again and see if it sticks?