Linn County supervisor vacancy will be filled by appointment

CEDAR RAPIDS — A committee of three Linn County elected officials decided Friday it will pursue an appointment — rather than a special election — to fill the seat that will be open when Supervisor Ben Rogers resigns and leaves a year-and-a-half vacancy.

Rogers announced Monday he will resign April 1 after serving 16 years on the Linn County board. He is leaving to become a senior director of development with the UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Foundation.

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According to Iowa Code, a committee of three Linn County elected officials — Auditor Todd Taylor, Recorder Carolyn Siebrecht and Treasurer Brent Oleson — is tasked with determining whether the vacancy should be filled by appointment or election.

That committee met Friday. After hearing from county officials about the process for both methods of selection, and from members of the public — most of whom urged holding a special election — the committee voted unanimously to appoint the replacement for Rogers.

Several members of the public spoke during the meeting, and five of eight urged the committee to choose a special election over an appointment. Two people advocated for appointments. One urged the committee to “pick the right person.”

“My hope for this position is that if you are looking at an appointment, that you would pick an individual who is most qualified for this position and not necessarily do it just along party lines,” said Linn County resident Holly Barnhart. “If you choose to not necessarily do it that way and pick somebody who’s within your own party, my hope is that you would also then consider going to an election.”

All three committee members — who would make the appointment — are Democrats, as is Rogers. Oleson said he would “pledge” to not consider candidates’ political party affiliation.

“I don’t have any commitment or preference at this time,” said Oleson, a former Linn County supervisor. “I will take a pledge to not have party as a factor that I’m going to look at. I do want to appoint the best person for the position. I served there for 12 years and I love this county deeply and I love the institution of the Board of Supervisors.”

Oleson said he has been contacted by one Republican, one independent and “four or five” Democrats who’ve expressed interest in the seat.

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Appointment vs. special election

The process to appoint a supervisor begins with publication of the committee’s intent to fill the seat by appointment. That will be published Feb. 26 in The Gazette. The public then has 14 days to submit a petition that would force a special election.

A petition for a special election requires 4,125 signatures from eligible electors in Rogers’ district — District 2, which includes southeast and northeast Cedar Rapids, as well as a portion of Hiawatha. The signature total is an equation based on the number of Linn County residents who voted in the last presidential election.

If a petition with enough valid signatures is not submitted by 5 p.m. March 12, the committee can proceed with its appointment.

According to a draft schedule proposed by Darrin Gage, the county’s director of policy and administration, the county would set a deadline of March 21 for applications from people who want to be appointed. Those applications — including a resume and cover letter — would be submitted through the county’s human resources application system.

After the deadline passes, the committee would meet to decide whether it intends to conduct interviews or appoint someone based on the submitted materials.

The appointment cannot be made until Rogers has resigned. After the appointment is made, there would be another 14-day period when a petition — bearing the same number of signatures of eligible electors — could be submitted to force a special election.

If an election is required, it must be scheduled after Rogers has resigned, and at least 32 days after a “call for election” is made by the committee.

Matt Warfield, Linn County deputy commissioner of elections, said the two official political parties in Linn County — Democrats and Republicans — have requested two weeks for their nomination process if there is an election. Other people could file to run for the seat, and they would be required to file 100 signatures with the auditor’s office more than 25 days before the election date.

A special election would cost the county about $100,000, according to Warfield’s estimates.

Whether a replacement is appointed or elected, that person would serve until the election for that position. Rogers’ term is set to expire in 2026. Supervisors are paid over $130,000 a year.

Committee cites expediency, turnout

Committee members cited a need to fill the seat quickly, as well as concerns about voter turnout as reasons they were choosing an appointment.

Siebrecht said there also could be consequences of keeping the board at just two members — one is a Republican, one is a Democrat — while waiting to hold a special election.

“One of the issues for the Board of Supervisors — and will be for the person who does get elected, is the reality is we have three members, so when you’re at two members for very long, that is going to cause some issues and that will affect Linn County,” she said.

“But I agree we don’t need it to go so fast that we don’t look at everything,” Siebrecht added.