Candidate column: Ian Cullis

What do Linn County Supervisors do?

'Everyone knows what a Mayor does, no one knows what a county supervisor does' is a statement supervisor Linda Langston made in her address to the Cedar Rapids Downtown Rotary Club last year. To find out what they do, I went to the county Auditor's Office and asked to see the job description. There is no job description!

All employees working for our county have a job description but our county supervisors do not.

To understand the scope of our supervisor's responsibility, you must reference section 331 of the Iowa Code, County Home Rule Implementation, and 382 in particular, outlines the powers and limitations relating to services they are to provide.

Our Linn County government is a $108 million business with approximately 800 permanent employees who provide services, facilities and infrastructure for citizens and residents. The departments of Linn County public and mental health, emergency management, conservation and parks, the sheriffs department, the county attorney and the maintenance of our roads and bridges highlight some of the responsibility.

As your county supervisor in District 1, I will be physically responsible and provide our residents with quality, services, facilities and infrastructure.

I will listen to our citizens and county employees to create efficiencies and reduce redundancy.

I will work with business, government and local municipalities to improve our process and have fun.

Having worked as a teacher, therapist and, for the past 30 years, a human resource director, I helped hire, train and lead over 16,000 employees to work for Cedar Rapids companies throughout the United States and world.

As an athlete, I have captained or coached teams that include a Big Ten, Midwest and U.S. championship in rugby.

With my service as the mayor for the city of Robins, I served on the Linn County Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Emergency Management Commission boards and executive boards for the past six years. This has given me the opportunity to forge many relationships within our county structure.

I will use my knowledge and skills to build on this platform while serving you as your county supervisor.

' Ian Cullis of Cedar Rapids is a Democratic candidate for Linn County supervisor District 1. Comments: iangscullis@hotmail.com