Linn supervisors hand over facilities operation to Auditor's election opponent

CEDAR RAPIDS - Seemingly tough as nails, Joel Miller teared up for a time on Wednesday after the Linn County Board of Supervisors ended their meeting, the room had cleared and a significant change had taken place in Linn County government.

Miller, re-elected as Linn County auditor in November by a 25-percentage-point margin, no longer was responsible for the county's 30 or so custodians and maintenance workers.

The supervisors, on a 5-0 vote, took control of the county's facilities operation as they said they would on Monday and they turned the facilities' supervision over to Garth Fagerbakke, who failed to unseat Miller as auditor in last fall's election.

Fagerbakke had been the county's facilities manager under Miller until Miller volunteered in August 2008 to loan Fagerbakke to the supervisors so he could lead the county's post-flood reconstruction effort, a job he currently performs.

In the otherwise empty room after the supervisors and the public had left, Miller said he was disappointed with the outcome of what had been months of back-and-forth between him and the supervisors. And then he lost his composure as he recalled meeting each of the custodians and maintenance workers for the first time when he took over the auditor's job in 2007.

"I feel some kinship," Miller said.

He noted that some of his facilities staff had campaigned for him last fall and had come to the supervisor meetings in recent weeks to speak on his behalf even as a few had spoken out to criticize him.

"I'm concerned about what's going to happen to them," Miller said of his backers.

Miller has made a point of bringing the dispute with the supervisors over the county's facilities into the public light by speaking about it time and again during public comment periods in front of the five supervisors. In the end, it was five of them against him.

"They made me look bad and they made the employees of facilities look bad and there was no need for that," Miller said.

Wednesday's vote was without drama. In fact, on Tuesday, Miller announced that he would relinquish control of the county's facilities operation on April 1 without any more fight. He notified the employees of that.

In the end, legal opinions that say auditors manage county facilities "subject to the direction of the Board of Supervisors" left him with no ground to stand on, he said.

Supervisor Brent Oleson on Monday said he thought the supervisors should not just hand over the facilities operation to Fagerbakke without an open application process. But Oleson agreed with the four other supervisors to do so on Wednesday.

Miller, without success, on Wednesday asked the supervisors to let others compete for the job.

Supervisor John Harris, the board's chairman, read from an August 2008 note from Miller that said that Fagerbakke could return to his job as facilities director once his temporary assignment as construction manager ended. That's what is now happening was Harris' point.

Miller didn't agree with that either. He said he loaned Fagerbakke to the supervisors for two years and after the third year of the loan eliminated the job and assumed the duties himself.

As on Monday, a couple of citizens on Wednesday told the supervisors that they were stealing the vote they cast for Miller as auditor in November by taking part of his job from him. A couple of people who work or had worked for Miller spoke against him.

Supervisor Linda Langston has said Miller still has plenty of duties even without the facilities operation. As auditor, he will continue to manage about 20 employees and oversee payroll and bill paying, elections and real estate matters as well as handling the clerk duties for the supervisors.