Linn Supervisors reluctant to downsize

So Kevin Kula of Coggon stood before the five-member Linn County Board of Supervisors Monday morning, urging them to toss two supervisors and change the way they're elected.

'The way I see it, we can do this thing the easy way or the hard way,” said Kula, a retired trucker, contending that the board could simply vote to put the issues on the ballot. Or, he and his fellow citizens can gather more than 8,000 signatures and force a vote.

And, as you might have guessed, it's going to have to be the hard way. The board did not jump at the chance to downsize itself.

'If we have to do it the hard way, we can do it,” Kula said.

Kula is a determined guy. He came to the meeting to 'speak for a group of working class people,” folks making $30,000 to $40,000 a year, he said. People without good benefits. This would be in sharp contrast to the supervisors, who now make more than $100,000 annually after boosting their pay by roughly $25,000 in 2013.

Kula said he spoke for people who can't make it to weekday morning supervisor meetings. He questions whether supervisors care about public access, considering they've yet to turn on video cameras that could record or stream supervisor meetings online. Kula is concerned about rural representation on the board. Another county resident, Dedra Beauregard of Central City, also spoke, insisting citizen concerns aren't being acknowledged.

Good for them, for getting involved and being heard. But I doubt shrinking the board will give them a more responsive panel. I'm also skeptical of electing supervisors at-large instead of by votes in individual districts. Again, Cedar Rapids voters and candidates would dominate.

I fear we'd end up with what we had until 2009, a board with three Democrats from Cedar Rapids. That's what prompted local voters in 2006 to push for a five-member board and in 2007 to petition for districts, with hopes of electing supervisors from outside Cedar Rapids. Now the board has two Republicans, Brent Oleson from Marion and John Harris from Palo.

'I think it would be a huge mistake,” said Oleson of the proposed changes. He ran in 2008 to give his community and others in his district a vote on county issues.

'I think the Board of Supervisors should represent the whole county,” Kula said, when I asked if he was concerned about a Cedar Rapids-dominated board. I also asked him what he thought would change if he succeeded.

'I guess it depends on the people we elect,” Kula said.

That's the bottom line no matter how the deck chairs are shuffled. Structural changes only get you so far.

As much as I hate to say I told them so, the supervisors' decision in 2013 to rescind a salary cut they took under heavy fire in 2009 and boost their own pay was a mistake that keeps on giving. Their rationale was weak, benefits to constituents were nonexistent and the fallout continues. At a time when so many folks face economic uncertainty and earn stagnant paychecks, it's no surprise that supersized raise still sticks in so many Linn County craws.

But you know what they say. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com