Joel Miller is fulfilling his duties

To the editor:

The May 5 article 'Auditor stands to lose more employees” seems to be retaliation against Linn County Auditor Joel Miller by Linn County Board of Supervisors for calling them to task for sloppy business decisions.

In a past letter, Miller called them on the leasing of the county owned land to a firm for $1 per year for development into a sports complex. That was a glaring mistake when the party who leased the land for $1 then leased it to someone else for thousands of dollars. It seems that the supervisors didn't like having that and other poor business decisions brought to the forefront by Miller. Isn't that the job of an auditor?

Supervisor Ben Rogers claims to have saved 'some $40,000” by moving the facilities management operations and 32 of its employees from Miller's office to the 'watchful care” of the supervisors management. Also, Garth Fagerbakke, who directs the county's facilities employees, expects to save more than $40,000 this fiscal year.

Let's consider another cost saving measure that supervisors could take - their own salaries. Our Board of Supervisors could drop their salaries by 25 percent, saving over $100,000 per year.

I have served on school board and other board positions where the compensation was zero and none was expected. I served because I felt a duty to serve. I am not suggesting that supervisors should serve without compensation, but might some who run be doing it only for the salary and not the desire to serve their community?

Frank Zieser

Cedar Rapids