Critics of Linn County Supervisors seek smaller board

CEDAR RAPIDS — For a second time since 2013, disgruntled critics of the Linn County Board of Supervisors are launching a petition drive to make a change in county government.

The first one, by two retirees with support from Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, failed.

This time, Kevin Kula, a retired truck driver from rural Coggon, said Friday he and a group of like-minded critics will attempt to obtain 8,695 signatures — 10 percent of the number voting in the 2014 general election as set by state law — on two different petitions.

The first petition calls for the five-member board to reduce to a three-member board.

A second petition asks voters to decide if they want supervisors to live anywhere in the county and be elected by all county voters; or require each supervisor to live in a specified district and be elected by all county voters; or if each supervisor should live in a district and be elected only by voters in the district.

The current arrangement is the last one.

The Kula-led petition drive is premised on his belief that the five supervisors do no work full time or don't need to work full time and, as a result, should not have changed their status from 80-percent time to full time in 2013 with a corresponding pay raise.

He said he was like others who voted in November 2006 to move from three supervisors to five, thinking the total cost for five would be similar to what the total cost was for three.

In 2009, the five-member board agreed to drop its pay to 80-percent time. But the board reverted to full time four years later.

On July 1, supervisors began earning $100,863 a year, a move that two of them, Brent Oleson and Ben Rogers, opposed. They wanted to raise the salaries to $99,872, below the six-figure threshold.

Kula, who frequently attends supervisor meetings, said Friday he questions how much the supervisors spend and how much they work.

'Myself, I don't see where you need three full-time supervisors either,' he said.

Dave Machacek — an Alburnett farmer who led petition drives that resulted in successful referendums to expand the number to five in 2006 and to have them represent districts in 2007 — said Friday it didn't make sense to return to a three-member board. The board now has two representatives from outside Cedar Rapids — Oleson from rural Marion and John Harris from Palo — he said. Rural representation was the reason for the referendums, he added.

At the same time, Machacek said the supervisors 'didn't do right by us' by not keeping their pay at a lower rate.

Supervisors Linda Langston, Oleson and Rogers said they don't want colleagues to put the questions on the ballot without a petition.

Langston said those supporting the petition drive have a better chance to educate the public on their concerns if they have to work to get the signatures.

Oleson said he won election to the first five-member board with backing from Machacek and the Farm Bureau and other expansion supporters.

'They never felt their interests were getting represented,' Oleson said. 'I think that's changed for the better.'

Linn County Auditor Miller, who is a frequent critic of the supervisors as they are of him, said Friday he was a 'minor partner' in the unsuccessful drive in 2013 that sought to consider a change to part-time supervisors and a full-time county manager.

Miller said he is not part of this effort. But he said he supports a return to three supervisors.

'My overall perception is that they are part-time and they are treating the job as part-time,' Miller said.