Linn supervisor District 1: Four Democrats competing for departing Lu Barron’s seat

CEDAR RAPIDS - Longtime Linn County Supervisor Lu Barron has decided not to seek re-election to her District 1 seat, and four fellow Democrats are competing in the June 3 primary to make a run as the Democrat in the November general election.

The most recognizable of the four candidates is Jim Houser, 60, himself a longtime Linn County supervisor, who was defeated in 2010 by John Harris in a close vote for the supervisors' District 5 seat. Houser, a Realtor and sheet-metal worker, lost by 166 votes out of more than 16,700 cast. District boundary changes now have him in District 1.

Ian Cullis was the first to announce his entry into the District 1 primary race, and he did so last fall when Barron had yet to announce her intentions to retire from the office. Cullis, 65, chose not to seek re-election as Robins mayor, but instead took an apartment in Cedar Rapids in District 1. He said he preferred to run against Barron than Harris.

In the race, too, are Andrea Jackson, 45, a Regis Middle School teacher, and Kim Taylor, 45, who has worked in Sen. Tom Harkin's Cedar Rapids office for 18 years as a senior constituent advocate, specializing in veterans, military and immigration work.

District 1 sits entirely in the city of Cedar Rapids and includes part of downtown, the city's northwest quadrant, far west-side precincts and parts of the city's southeast and northeast quadrants.

One of the four candidates must garner 35 percent of the primary vote on June 3 or the race goes to a county convention where Democratic Party leaders will select the winner.

None of the four candidates thinks that the current Board of Supervisors is doing a bad job, though Cullis said the current board is better at telling the public what it has done than what its 'vision” is for what it plans to do.

The Linn County board has had something of an upheaval since 2009 when it went from a three-member board to a five-member one and supervisors now are elected in districts and not by the county at-large.

The five-member board agreed to cut their pay to 80 percent time to respect a perception that the public wanted more board members who made less than board members on a three-member board. In 2013, the five-member board decided the job was full time, and voted to pay themselves as full time in the face of some criticism.

Houser, Jackson and Taylor said that the job is full time and should have full-time pay, though Cullis said it is hard to know until the supervisors detail their job descriptions and spell out a vision for the county's future.

'You can be as busy as you want,” Cullis said. 'You can be busy doing nothing. So let's see what the vision is.”

All four candidates agreed that a big matter that they would confront as a supervisor is how the county helps deliver mental health services and services for the developmentally disabled.

'That's one thing I want to make sure I keep my eye on because I do look at how these services actually play out,” Jackson said. 'Everything can always look good on paper.”

She said it was important that those in need have access to the 'right service at the right time,” and she said it also is important to provide services to avert crises so fewer crisis facilities need to be in place.

Taylor said changes in the local service delivery for mental health and developmental disabilities can make it a 'scary time” for those in need and their families. One example is the county's Options sheltered workshop program, which is being pushed to better integrate clients into the community. Taylor said she looks at the changes as an opportunity 'to see how we can make it better.”

'We should at least give them the option to see what they can do and how they can be successful,” Taylor said.

Cullis said his first job in Linn County was as a therapist at what is now the Four Oaks children and family services agency, and he said not providing quality community services for mental health has bigger costs in the long run.

'At some point, if you don't show an interest in the welfare of the mentally challenged, you end up taking care of them one way or another,” Cullis said, meaning jails, prisons and mental institutions.

Houser said in his 19 years as supervisor, the state of Iowa took steps to take more and more control of the money and decisions related to mental health and developmental disabilities. He said the county supervisors successfully convinced the Iowa Legislature to provide extra interim funding for the Abbe Center for Community Care residential care facility in Linn County, money he said Gov. Terry Branstad then vetoed from the state budget. As a result, Abbe's residential facility was forced to close in 2013, he said.

'So now the hospitals are full,” said Houser, who said he worries about the 'unraveling” of services. Houser works as a Linn County Sheriff's reserve officer, and he said sheriff's deputies tell him that they drive mental-health patients to every corner of the state to get care not provided here.

'We're the rippling effect of the decisions they (state and federal government) make,” Houser said.

As he campaigns, Houser said he tells voters about his five supervisor election wins and his accomplishments as supervisor. Among those are his work at modernizing the sheriff's communications system, helping direct flood recovery in 2008 through 2010, getting flooded county buildings back online and planning for the new Juvenile Court building and new community services building, he said.

'I had unfinished business when I was there,” Houser said. 'I miss it.”

Cullis said he has the background, education and energy to be a good supervisor.

He said the Board of Supervisors has spent too much time arguing with Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, who proceeded Cullis as Robins mayor, and Cullis said the supervisors need to lead more, argue less. Miller supports him, Cullis said.

Jackson said she alone among the four candidates has not worked in politics.

'And that gives me a fresh perspective,” she said. She said her master's degree in leadership gives her unique skills for the supervisor job as well.

'When I'm out talking to people, they're excited that I have a new outlook,” Jackson said. 'They know, as a teacher, I like to do my research, I like to find out the information before I make a decision. I like to talk to people and I like to collaborate.”

Taylor said her work as constituent advocate for Sen. Harkin has made her 'quite familiar” with the needs in Linn County and Cedar Rapids.

She said she wants to continue to work on flood recovery and flood protection to make sure public dollars are spent wisely. She said she supports economic development and wants to see good jobs and a work force where 'employees are valued.” And she wants to ensure there is a 'social safety network” in place for those who need it, she said.

Taylor is the wife of state Rep. Todd Taylor. Among the candidates, she has drawn union backing, taking in $9,300 in campaign contributions from unions.

The Democratic nominee will face Dennis Petersen, 56, a Realtor in Cedar Rapids, in the November general election. He is running unopposed in the Republican primary for District 1.