Linn County supervisors approve two-year-old hiring

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Linn County Board of Supervisors took some unusual action Wednesday, approving the hiring of an employee who joined the Assessor's Office on a full-time basis nearly two years ago.

Linn County Assessor Julie Kester said she hired her daughter Alicia Brislawn as a full-time clerk in 2014 and was unaware the hiring required board approval.

According to Iowa Code, county officials cannot hire a relative without approval from the board of supervisors.

'Apparently there has been some miscommunication and I was totally unaware of the statute,' Kester said during Wednesday's board meeting. 'If I had known about the statute, I would never have hired her and in hindsight it was probably not the best decision I could have made. At the time, we felt we made the best decision with the information we had.'

Brislawn actually started working in the Assessor's Office part time in late 2010 and was hired for full-time work in September 2014. She made about $32,000 in her first nine months of full-time employment and earned about $35,000 in fiscal year 2015, according to county records.

Auditor Joel Miller said he discovered Kester's hiring of Brislawn had not been approved about a week ago and forwarded the information to the Linn County Attorney's Office.

'Somebody ought to have their hand slapped for doing this,' he said Wednesday. 'We all know we can't just hire our children or spouses in county government without someone's approval.'

Assistant County Attorney Gary Jarvis said any punitive action would have to be handled by the county's conference board, which consists of representatives from the county and its city councils and school districts.

'I think really the only issue or question for this board is whether to provide that approval or not,' Jarvis said.

The board on Wednesday unanimously approved the hiring of Brislawn, with Supervisor Jim Houser absent.

Supervisor Ben Rogers said before the vote he had no reason to believe the situation involved anything other than a mistake.

'It seems like, yes, there may have been some miscommunication on the front end, we are now here several years later, we want to make sure everything is above board,' he said. 'This isn't unusual that we have family members working at the county. We have a lot of other people who have family members, maybe not the same department, but I feel comfortable that we are able to approve this.'

Kester said to maintain a distance between her and he daughter, Brislawn has been reporting to one of the deputy assessors.