Johnson County sets staggered term limits ahead of supervisor district election

IOWA CITY — The Johnson County Board of Supervisors’ staggered terms have been set ahead of the November election in which all five supervisor seats will be on the ballot as the county shifts to electing supervisors from districts.

The district plan, developed by the state’s non-partisan Legislative Services Agency, is required as part of the county’s efforts to comply with a new state law, passed last year, that requires the three Iowa counties that are home to regents university campuses — Johnson, Story and Black Hawk — to elect their county supervisors by districts, rather than at-large.

Johnson County voters will be able to vote for a single member of the board based on where they live.

To determine which of the five districts will have a two-year term to start, and which will have a four-year term, the county auditor drew Easter eggs out of a box. Each Easter egg contained a slip of paper with either a 2 or a 4 on it.

“Normally, all five supervisors are not on the same election, and we want to get them back on a rotation,” said County Auditor Julie Persons. “So every two years, new people would be coming on the board, potentially, depending on how people vote. So since all five were up this year, we had to put some back on the two-year rotation and some on the four-year rotation.”

Following the November election, supervisor terms will return to the full four years. The random drawing set the term limits as follows:

The new law gave no specific direction on how the staggered terms were to be determined. After consulting with the county attorney’s office, the auditor’s office decided that three seats would have two-year terms and two seats would have four-year terms.

“If we hadn't been doing the districts this year, we would have only had two supervisors up for election, so they would have had a normal four year term. … two years ago, three supervisors came onto the board. They are really two years into their term, and that's how we determined that number per year rotation,” said Persons.

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Majority of incumbents have announced re-election bids

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.

Fixmer-Oraiz and Sullivan have both announced re-election bids in District 4, while Green-Douglass plans to run in District 1. Remington plans to run in District 5

Green is the only supervisor who has not made a formal announcement regarding a re-election bid. According to public address information from the most recent election filings, Green lives in District 2.

Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition Executive Director Jessica Andino has announced she will run for the District 2 seat.

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 plan, each district is within 1 percent of the ideal population, with a surplus of 83 people on the high end and 201 people fewer than the ideal on the low end.

The five districts are:

Ongoing lawsuit over constitutionality of new law

While the redistricting process continues to move forward, a legal battle is ongoing.

A lawsuit filed in Johnson County District Court by voters in the three counties affected by the new law are arguing that the law is unconstitutional.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed for temporary injunctive relief to stop the redistricting process from moving forward, a request that was denied by a Johnson County judge. A non-jury trial is set to begin March 3, 2027.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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