Opinions split on choosing a Linn County representation plan that best represents rural residents

CEDAR RAPIDS - How should Linn County Supervisors be elected?

That's what voters must decide on Aug. 1 when they choose one of three possible representation plans for the county Board of Supervisors.

One option before voters is to maintain the current district plan, which has supervisors living within specific districts elected by the residents of their respective district.

Another plan would maintain supervisors in select districts, but allow countywide residents to vote for all members of the board.

The final plan - an entirely at-large option - would eliminate districts, allowing supervisors to live anywhere in the county and have countywide votes for each board member.

Lucas Beenken, public policy specialist with the Iowa State Association of Counties, said, for most Iowans who know the difference between the three options, the best plan comes down to a matter of opinion.

'There's the argument that if you're a county supervisor, you should represent the whole county and not just where you're from, but then there's also folks that would kind of appreciate having their supervisor represent their area,” Beenken said. 'There's arguments both ways.”

The association doesn't endorse any one plan, he added.

Supporters of the current representation plan, which includes several current Linn County Supervisors and the Linn County Farm Bureau, have argued districts provide for better rural representation by spreading out members of the board in terms of geography and preventing an all-Cedar Rapids board.

Up to about a decade ago, at-large voting allowed Cedar Rapids - home to some 60 percent of the population - to hold the majority of votes in every county supervisor election.

But those who recently collected signatures to force the upcoming election on the representation plan - and the November vote that reduced the board from five supervisors to three come 2019 - have said the opposite, that the board doesn't represent rural Linn County.

The second option is a hybrid plan permitting district supervisors but at-large voting.

Iowa code, however, dictates that districts be divided into similar populations, and a city must be split into the smallest number of districts. So with three supervisors and Cedar Rapids home to a majority of voters, the county's largest city could seat two of the county's three supervisors.

Kevin Kula of Coggon, who collected signatures, said the petition wasn't geared to any single plan, but rather aimed to give county voters the option to choose.

John Deeth, a Johnson County Democratic activist and blogger who has researched Iowa's representation plans and districting rules, said in the end, the supervisors who get elected are what matter most.

'Any individual can represent everybody if they're philosophically and ideologically committed to it,” Deeth said. 'Ultimately the people elect.”

For Linn County, voters will have to decide in little more than two weeks.

HOW WE GOT HERE

It was about 10 years ago that a Linn County petition began collecting signatures to address concerns that the county Board of Supervisors was made up entirely of Cedar Rapids residents - leaving other smaller communities and the rural area underrepresented on the board, petitioners said.

The board at the time was made up of three members elected at-large.

In November 2006, nearly 60 percent of voters chose to add two supervisors to the board, effective Jan. 1, 2009.

The next year, in a June special election that saw a 14.4 percent turnout, voters selected the current representation plan - district voting with district supervisors - by a more than 56 percent majority.

District representation with at-large voting received about 41 percent of votes. At-large voting brought in less than three percent approval from voters.

The county mapped out the five districts as they are known today. The first three districts split up Cedar Rapids. District 4 included Marion and the Bertram and Maine townships. District 5 was largely rural and circles the outer edge of Linn County, covering such cities as Fairfax, Robins, and Hiawatha.

Those who pushed to increase the board's size and later adopt district representation praised the end result as a success - rural Linn County would have its representation.

But the change has been short-lived, and this past summer residents largely upset with supervisor salaries - which surpassed $100,000 last fiscal year - took aim at the size of the board itself.

With a petition close to amassing the signatures needed to force a vote on reducing the board back to three supervisors, the board in 2016 pre-empted the effort and placed the item on the Nov. 8 election.

By a margin of less than 2,000 votes, the public chose to return to three supervisors.

All five supervisor terms expire at the end of 2018, with voters in that year's November election choosing the who will sit on the new three-member board.

With that, the Board of Supervisors began preparing to redraw the county's districts for three members. But a second petition - presented to the county in June - called for a vote on the county's representation plan.

Remapping now has been put on hold until after the Aug. 1 special election.

It's been a little over three weeks since early voting began June 22. As of July 13, 1,164 absentee ballots had been requested - and 429 returned - by Linn County voters.

Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said the timing of the election ultimately could hurt voter turnout.

'We don't have a lot of elections in August, it's a very poor time from an election administrator's standpoint,” Miller said.

In addition to voting absentee or at the Linn County Auditor's Office, in the Jean Oxley Public Service Center, 935 Second St. SW in Cedar Rapids, voters can visit a special satellite voting station from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Thursday, July 20, at the Marion Public Library, 1095 Sixth Ave.

Voter polling location information can be found at the county's election services website, www.linncounty.org/157/Election-Services.

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com

Here are the three options:

l Districts - Keep the current representation plan, in which voters in each district vote for a supervisor who lives in that same district.

Pro - Your supervisor lives in your district.

Con - You don't have a say on who the other supervisors are.

l At-large districts - Voters countywide vote on supervisors who live within specific districts.

Pro - You get a say on possible supervisors who live farther away from you.

Con - Con - Voters countywide have a say on your district supervisor.

l At-large - Voters countywide choose all three supervisors. Districts are eliminated.

Pro - You get to decide on all supervisors.

Con - None of your supervisors may end up living in your part of the county.

Of Iowa's 99 counties, 44 follow full districts with as in the first option, 17 have the second option and 38 are at-large.

Whichever plan is selected must remain in place for at least six years, per Iowa code.