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Johnson County commission approves state’s proposed supervisor district plan
New law requires three Democrat-leaning Iowa counties — Johnson, Black Hawk and Story — to elect supervisors by district, not at-large
Dec. 16, 2025 6:13 pm
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IOWA CITY — Johnson County’s Temporary Redistricting Commission voted Monday to adopt a supervisor district plan that splits the county into five districts and was proposed by the state’s non-partisan Legislative Services Agency.
The proposed district plan is part of the county’s efforts to comply with a new state law, passed earlier this year, that requires the three Iowa counties that are home to regents university campuses to elect their county supervisors by districts, rather than at-large.
The commission’s adoption of the plan serves as a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors, which must vote to approve or reject the plan.
Should the supervisors choose to reject the plan, they must give written reasons for the rejection. LSA would then prepare a second plan for the board’s consideration.
All five seats on the Johnson County Board of Supervisors will be on the ballot in November 2026. Voters will be able to vote for a single member of the board based on where they live.
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the LSA’s plan at its meeting on Jan. 8.
Ideal supervisor district population set at 30,571
The population of each of the five Johnson County districts is slightly more than 30,000 people. The LSA has set its ideal district population to 30,571. In the proposed plan, each district is within 1 percent of the ideal population, with a surplus of 83 people on the high end and 201 people less than the ideal on the low end.
The five proposed districts are:
- District 1: North Liberty, Shueyville, Swisher, Oxford and the northwestern portion of the county.
- District 2: The eastern part of the county, including Solon, Hills, Lone Tree, West Branch and a portion of eastern Iowa City.
- District 3: Parts of central and southwestern unincorporated Johnson County, as well as Coralville and Tiffin.
- District 4: The north side of Iowa City.
- District 5: University Heights and parts of west and south Iowa City.
Commission voted 2-1 to adopt LSA’s district plan
At the commission’s public hearing Monday, an alternate district map was presented by a member of the public. The map proposes to switch which parts of unincorporated parts of Johnson County are in Districts 1, 2 and 3.
As a result of the shifts, the alternate map reduces the difference between the lowest-population district and the highest-population district from 367 to 362.
Commission member Thomas McInery said his vote against the LSA map Monday was in reference to a part of the Iowa Code that states, “all districts shall be as nearly equal as practicable to the ideal population.”
“... It emphasizes establishing districts on the basis of population, with the goal of minimizing the deviation. So if we see a deviation, I believe it would be reasonable to have them redirected with these recommendations, because it's a tighter spread, and it complies with law in a more efficient manner,” McInerney said of the code.
While the overall spread improved, two of the districts in the alternate map moved further away from the ideal population than they were in LSA’s map. Other commission members Sue Dvorsky and Nate Mueller voted to adopt the LSA’s map with that logic in mind.
The three-person redistricting commission had two members appointed by the Board of Supervisors and one by the Johnson County Republicans. The Board of Supervisors appointed Dvorsky, former chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, and Mueller, assistant director of planning, development and sustainability for Johnson County.
Johnson County Republicans appointed McInerney, an Iowa City-based architect.
The commission worked with county staff to develop a precinct plan that certifies the population in each precinct using data from the 2020 census. The precinct plan was used by the LSA in developing the district plan.
Random selection process for staggered term limits
In order to create staggered terms, some supervisor districts will be assigned two-year terms and others will be assigned four-year terms. Those terms will begin after next fall’s election.
The county auditor plans to use a random selection process at a public meeting to determine which districts get which term length. That will happen after the plan has been approved and published. After the 2026 election, supervisors will to be elected in staggered four-year terms.
The terms of Board Chair Jon Green and Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz were set to end in 2026. Supervisors Rod Sullivan, Mandi Remington and Lisa Green-Douglass were elected to new four-year terms in November 2024, but now face a 2026 election.
According to public address information from the most recent election filings, Green-Douglass is the only current supervisor who lives in a proposed district without another supervisor. She lives in proposed District 1.
Green and Remington both live in the proposed District 5, while Sullivan and Fixmer-Oraiz both live in the proposed District 4.
Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com
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