Linn supervisor District 5: Incumbent faces off against small-business owner in GOP primary

CEDAR RAPIDS - One-term incumbent John Harris of Palo and challenger Mark Banowetz of Ely are competing in the Republican primary on June 3 for the District 5 seat on the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

The district comprises most of Linn County outside of Cedar Rapids, Marion, Central City and Bertram.

Harris won the seat in 2010 in a close vote over Jim Houser, then a longtime incumbent supervisor.

The five supervisor districts have been redrawn since 2010, and Houser is running this year in the Democratic primary for the District 1 supervisor seat.

Harris, 61, and Banowetz, 56, have business backgrounds and held elective office at their local city halls.

Harris is retired from Rockwell Collins, where he worked for 38 years, the last 20 years as manager of commercial contracts with a team of eight to 10 employees. He served on the Palo City Council for some 15 years, four as mayor.

Banowetz began his work career in Central City as assistant manager at the then-Farmers Cooperative Exchange. After that, he worked in insurance and investments for four years and also helped set up a K's Merchandise store in Cedar Rapids. In the late 1980s, he and his family moved to western Colorado, where they set up three pizza restaurants called Pizza to the Limit.

Banowetz and his family returned to the Cedar Rapids area and moved to Ely in 2000. He operated a Pizza to the Limit restaurant in Ely for about six years, still operates a 9-year-old shed-building company called Great American Shed Co. and owns a coffee shop and bakery there.

Banowetz said he is not running against Harris, but is running because he thinks his experience starting up and running small businesses can help Linn County at a time when local government needs to stretch budget dollars more.

'We need to be able to react and look ahead and be creative ... to keep some of these programs going that we have,” Banowetz said. ' ... I have a lot of experience in business and budgeting and finance to go ahead and bring to the table.”

Harris said he is seeking re-election because he continues to have 'a need to do something good for the community,”

Before the flood in 2008, which hit his residence and the town of Palo hard, Harris had retired from the Palo City Council. After the flood, he asked Palo city officials what he could do to help. He was reappointed to the City Council.

Since then, he said he has had mayors of other cities in Linn County talk about stepping down, and he said he has told them this: 'You're going to miss it. Public service is something you'll miss when you're out of it.”

Banowetz, too, stepped down from his city council post - after nine years for him - and he now has decided it's time to get back into public service.

'I'm refired up again,” he said.

Harris said he has worked to cooperate and collaborate with the three Democrats and the other Republican on the county board.

'Seldom do we argue. We get a lot done that way,” he said.

Harris said the supervisors have held the line on taxes, and, in fact, have used a portion of the county's revenue from the local-option sales tax to reduce property taxes for those living in the unincorporated areas of the county outside of cities.

Harris and Banowetz said they will pay attention to a big county issue - how the county deals with changes in the delivery of mental health and development disability services.

Both expect changes to the county's Options sheltered workshop program, with which Banowetz is well acquainted despite being the non-incumbent in the race. His brother-in-law, he said, used the workshop's services for years. Banowetz said he's not sure that local businesses will be able to employ enough of the workshop's adults, which is one of the recommendations.

A year ago, the Board of Supervisors, which grew from three to five members in 2009, decided that the job once again was a full-time one, deserving of full-time pay. Harris said the pay decision was correct, while Banowetz said he'll find out if the supervisors were correct if he gets a chance to do the job.

Harris said one issue facing the supervisors in the future will be whether they decide to help provide funding to protect May's Island, home to the county courthouse and jail as well as Cedar Rapids' Veterans Memorial Building from future flooding. The county already has used federal disaster money to move critical components of its buildings out of harm's way, so the debate will be over how much additional protection will be needed, he said.

Out on the campaign trail, Banowetz said he tells constituents that he's not running to be 'part of a social club” or as part of a popularity contest.

'I'm doing it because it's a job,” he said. 'I think I'm a man of integrity, and I'm not afraid to stand up, to stand alone and to say, ‘I don't agree with that.'”

Harris, a cancer survivor who has been cancer free for a year now, said he talks to voters about 'leadership.”

'I have led a group of contract professionals in business (at Rockwell Collins),” he said. 'I led somewhat the city of Palo as a council member and mayor through the post-flood activities in 2008 and 2009. And I've had a leadership role along with the board (of supervisors), rebuilding county buildings (damaged in the flood). That's something I stress, something I think is unique to me.”

The Republican primary winner will compete against Democrat Becky Shoop, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary. Shoop, 57, of 3490 Wileys Rd., Walker, is a 39-year employee of Linn County with almost 37 years spent in the Auditor's Office.