Johnson County supervisors OK election district plan

New law requires three Democrat-leaning Iowa counties — Johnson, Black Hawk and Story — to elect supervisors by district, not at-large

Johnson County Board of Supervisors member Rod Sullivan (from left), vice chair V Fixmer-Oraiz, and chair Jon Green listen to a person speak at a board meeting at the Johnson County Health and Human Services Building in Iowa City on Aug. 20, 2025. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

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IOWA CITY — The Johnson County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a supervisor district plan that splits the county into five districts, setting up a possible face-off between current board members next year.

The district plan, proposed 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 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.

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 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 District 1.

Green and Remington currently live in District 5, while Fixmer-Oraiz and Sullivan live in District 4.

Both Sullivan and Remington have announced their intention to run for re-election for District 4 and District 5, respectively. No other board members have announced their intention to run at this time.

Supervisor comments on the redistricting plan were limited at the board’s meeting Tuesday morning.

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.

Next steps, staggered term limit selection

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 early next year to determine which districts get which term length. After the 2026 election, supervisors will be elected to serve staggered four-year terms.

While the redistricting process is underway, so is an ongoing legal battle. A lawsuit filed in Johnson County District Court by voters in the three counties affected by the new law is asking for a temporary injunction to stop the redistricting process, arguing that the new law is unconstitutional.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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