Professional management The vast majority of the actual background work needed for the supervisors to be able to perform the duties mandated by law is done by others – either employees reporting to other elected officials or by employees managed by the 12 department heads who directly report to the supervisors or a related board or commission.
Those department heads oversee roughly ½ of Story County’s 350 employees. The other five elected officials oversee the rest.
With so many employees and yearly budgets currently between $36 and $40 million dollars, not many entities - government or private - would opt for three policy-makers with differing levels of management skills, interests and experience over a trained professional to run daily operations.
Local governments have been tightening their budgets for several years. With each increase in costs and reduction in revenues, policy makers seek ways to get more value, more efficiency from every dollar spent. One proven way to do that is to fill the workplace with the best trained, the most experienced employees an employer can afford.
Story County needs to apply the same philosophy to the board of supervisors’ office. Day-to-day administration and coordination of departments should be handled by the best we can afford to hire, not the victors of elections every four years.
No special election is required to hire a professional manager of daily operations. What we do need is a willingness for the three supervisors – whomever they may be as of January 2, 2015– to delegate their administrative duties to a professional manager and accept compensation more in line with part-time policy makers.
The majority of the $215,000 total compensation then could be reassigned to the compensation package for a professional manager. Maintaining some compensation to supervisors would assure that we have a plentiful and varied group of elected supervisors creating policy and representing citizens.
Again, I am not alone in my opinion. The May 2012 Report of the Government Restructuring Committee, which was formed by the current supervisors in 2011 in response to increased interest in change from the public and changes that have already occurred in other Iowa counties, came to the same conclusion.
$66,302* each per year A “permanent job” is exactly what the elected position of Story County Supervisor has become. The three supervisors elected in Story County are now each paid $66,302 per year. With another $6,900 each in flex benefits, the three collectively cost Story County taxpayers over $215,000 per year.
By comparison, city council members in Ames, the county's largest municipality, are paid $7,200 per year. And state law prevents all pubic school board members from receiving a salary or stipend.
The supervisors’ primary duties as mandated by Chapter 331 of the Iowa Code are:
- Establish and approve the county budget, including determining the funding for the departments under control of the other elected county officials. - Establish and authorize county property tax levies/bonding. Establish county policies and ordinances. - Perform or direct the duties of the legal entity known as the county. - Work with auditor's office to keep detailed expense and revenue records. - Pay for services for mental health, intellectual and developmental disability services. - Maintain roads and bridges in unincorporated areas of the county. Provide county employees with a range of employment, wage and benefits assurances such as collective bargaining, workman’s compensation insurance, etc. - Appoint citizens to various boards, commissions and specialized functions.
- Serve on regional governance committees created by intra-agency agreements called 28Es or required by elsewhere in state law.
Any other duties they currently perform, such as completing job evaluations on non-elected county department heads, acting as development advisors on staff projects, and serving on boards and committees not required by state law are ones they have chosen to perform themselves rather than assign to trained, paid staff.
Yet, voters have not necessarily chosen the candidates with the deepest overall exposure and understanding of local governments or the most extensive managerial training and experience.
* The supervisors pay rate, and the pay rate for the county’s elected auditor, attorney, recorder, sheriff and treasurer, is set by the Story County Compensation Board. The compensation board members are appointed by the elected officials themselves. Last year, the supervisors appointed the compensation board members, - most having served already for several years - to another six-year term. One has since had to resign as he also serves on the Ames School Board and a new board member was named.
The board recommends the maximum the supervisors may pay themselves and the other elected officials (whose pay tends to be higher if they must bring a specific skill set into the job or manage more employees.) The supervisors are always free to turn down any recommended increase or reduce the amount of their compensation so those monies can be used elsewhere, for example in paying a hired manager.
A PHILOSOPHY ON LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICE
Ten years ago respected attorney and former Ames mayor Don Newbrough invited me to his office to discuss possible coverage of a client’s bequest to the City of Ames. The conversation shifted from specifics of the city-related transaction to the more general topic of local officials and their roles related to good governance and good government services. Mr. Newbrough and I were in agreement that local elected officials, in fact most elected officials, should focus on policy and leave the management of staff and programs to professionally trained, appropriately skilled staff. The exceptions were elected officials required by law to have special skills or training for the job such as county attorney and sheriff. The best way, we decided, to assure that our elected leaders could come from a variety of educational, life and work backgrounds was to make certain that they didn’t necessarily need highly developed business public management skills. Others in the community agreed, judging from comments I’ve heard over the years criticizing elected leaders of local government entities for “unnecessary micro-management” of what appeared to be well run, functioning services. Mr. Newbrough and I weren’t in agreement, however, on whether local public officials should be paid a stipend or wage for their service. He believed that local officials should serve for free, receiving compensation only for their actual out-of-pocket expenses. I felt, and still feel, that some pay is necessary so that citizens from all economic backgrounds can serve as elected officials, especially those whose public service time might cause them a financial hardship. But both of us believed that when compensation is awarded, the compensation shouldn’t be so much that public service turns into a job, tempting elected officials to focus more on maintaining the administrative status quo than creating new policies and organizational systems which better serve their constituents.
Five Supervisors & professional management
Lauris Olson for Story County Supervisor
The Democratic Party's nominee for the 4-year seat
Leading the effort
Change is difficult for most people and previous discussions on conversion to a paid manager has already drawn concerns from many county staff and other elected officials. The conversion will go much smoother if it is lead by supervisor who
- has knowledge of and experience working with a variety of local government models and
- has spent significant time observing and analyzing the successful operations of county government using a professional management and public policy - focused, part-time elected supervisors.
I am the candidate who offers both.
Have a question or comment? Please contact me at laurisolson@gmail.com or 515-451-7293.
Expanding the candidates pool Story County’s current structure impedes many citizens from being able to serve as a supervisor.
In 20 years reporting and studying local government, I’ve found that elected bodies whose individuals possess a wide range of experiences,. priorities and skill sets tend to create more innovative, insightful public policy than more homogenous boards and commissions.
Unfortunately, most Story County residents cannot bring their experiences, needs and skill sets to the Story County Board of Supervisors right now without risking setbacks in their chosen professions.
A quick profile of those who have been elected as supervisor since 2002 reveals the current limitations.
We have elected or reelected six supervisors since 2002. One was retired from the Iowa Department of Transportation. One was on an extended leave of absence from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. One previous and one current supervisor were former teachers. Another current supervisor is a retired Story County sheriff���s deputy. The third current supervisor has experience as the director of a collegiate athletic conference.
The public and non-profit sectors seem to have been over-represented. Half of the supervisors have been retired at time of election.
Residents under age 45, those still interested in working for many more years in their profession and those with regular daytime obligations they cannot easily give up have been virtually absent for decades. Private sector employees, for-profit sector employees, those who work second and third shifts and small business owners have also been missing.The current structure has made a seat at the board table inaccessible for so many. How many innovative ideas, new approaches to problems will never be heard or put to use before we recognize the most significant role of the 21st Century supervisor is as a policy maker, not an operations manager?
Five instead of three The Government Restructuring Committee also recommended switching from electing three supervisors at large to five by districts, preferably in conjunction with transferring day-to-day management to a professional manager.
Story County, they said, was getting too big to have just three supervisors.
Again, we agree.
Story County had 4,501 residents in 1860, seven years after the county government was chartered with three supervisors, each elected countywide. Today, Story County’s population tops 90,000. Having so few elected officials represent so many citizens is contrary to what many would consider local government. The government restructuring committee heard multiple comments from county residents living outside of Ames who said they felt three supervisors elected countywide didn't give the rural areas and smaller communities adequate representation on the board. Increasing our representation to five, the maximum Iowa law allows, also increases the number of ideas, perspectives, skill sets and areas of interest and expertise present on the board.
The five would be elected by district, rather than at-large, guaranteeing at least two would come from outside of Ames. Pay for the five part-time supervisors would be about $1,000 - $1,500 per month.
Dynamics among board members would change, possibly leading to more discussion, fewer unanimous votes and decrease the likelihood one supervisor could be shut out, as Supervisor James Strohman alleged happened to him during his 2006 to 2010 term. Certainly, we know that long-term alliances that dominate policy and budget decisions are easier to form and perpetuate when only two people have to maintain the dynamics. Five supervisors decrease the likeliness of long-term, dominant alliances.
Having only three supervisors also increases the risk that a discussion or information exchange between two supervisors will unintentionally violate Chapter 21 of Iowa code - the open meetings law. (Please see the website pages on Public involvement and Best Practices for more on Chapter 21 and this specific board of supervisors.)
The risk is much lower if the presence of a third supervisor is necessary to create a quorum, thus triggering the advance notice requirements of the law. The likelihood drops more if the supervisors would be "part-time," as they usually would not be together unless a properly announced meeting was about to or had occurred.