The auditor won't fight it

The Linn County Board of Supervisors won't let him audit, but they can't stop county Auditor Joel Miller from reading the writing on the wall.

The board is going to give his facilities duties to the guy he beat in the November election. It's going to vote on it Wednesday. And Miller's not going to fight it. Here's an email the auditor sent out this morning to facilities employees:

Dear Facilities Team:

About an hour ago, I announced to the Board, elected officials, and department heads during today's Board meeting that I would be relinquishing control of Facilities to the Board on or before April 1st. I based my decision on the assumption the Board will sign one of the two resolutions they had in-hand yesterday.

Thank you to those who defended me and/or supported me!

I have exhausted every legal argument I could make to prevent this takeover. The words “… subject to the direction of the Board” as interpreted by the Attorney General of Iowa and the Linn County Attorney, and as used in the resolutions, eliminated my authority over Facilities. The Board's second resolution left me with a title, but forbid me from giving direction to employees, forbid me from signing contracts and buying supplies/tools, and did not allow me to make any personnel decisions – there would have only been one Facilities department – not two as speculated.

To those who I think I should have kept on fighting – sorry.

To those who think they will suffer retribution or retaliation – you have a union to represent you and an HR department that is equipped to handle those situations.

And if you need an advocate, then come and see me.

Sincerely,

Joel D Miller, C.E.R.A.

Linn County Auditor

PO Box 1328

Cedar Rapids, IA 52406

319-892-5333

I wasn't at the meeting this morning, so I'm not sure how that went over. I'm sure everyone will get along super swell once this is over. Yeah.

At Monday's meeting, Miller urged the board to make its decision quickly so he can "move on to other things." Watchdog-type stuff, I gathered. I guess we'll see what that means.