SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
October 25, 2013
Sullivan’s
Salvos 10/29/13
In this edition:
*Thank You Don Saxton!
*Iowa City Human Rights Awards
*Jail Population
*Jail/Courthouse Future Plans
*A Lighter Jail Note
*Did You Know?
*Thank You Don Saxton!
An
era is coming to an end. In a week, voters in Oxford will go to the polls. And
for the first time in forever, Don Saxton will not be on the ballot.
Don
Saxton is winding down a truly remarkable career in elected office. Six years
on the City Council and 38 – that is correct, 38 – years as Mayor. To three
generations, Don Saxton IS Oxford!
While
Mayor Saxton’s career is impressive in terms of quantity, it is even better in
terms of quality. No mayor has worked harder. Power outages, fires, cars that
won’t start, snowstorms, stray dogs … Don responds to everything. No complaint
is too small for Don. He listens to them all. And he does so in that kind,
gracious, manner that is Don’s alone.
Don has served on every imaginable committee, most for several
decades. Emergency Management, MPO, Conference Board... whenever the committee
called for a Mayor, Don responded.
It
is kinda funny – you all know of Oxford resident Peter Feldstein’s outstanding
work, “The Oxford Project”. Feldstein photographed every single resident of
Oxford, first in 1984 and again in 2005. Folks laugh that Don’s photos look
almost identical; I’ve heard people joke that he’s probably wearing the same
shirt.
While
this is funny, it also gets to the heart of what makes Don so wonderful –
consistency. The sun will rise in the east, and Don Saxton will do his job as
Mayor. It is CLASSIC Iowa. Nothing fancy, just get the job done and refuse to
accept credit or thanks.
To top it all off, you will not find a finer human being. Don
Saxton is a true gentleman. Oxford has been blessed – for over 40 years!
Congratulations, Don, on a well-deserved retirement!
*Iowa City Human Rights Awards
I
have said it before, and I’ll say it again: Iowa City’s historic commitment to
Human Rights is one of my favorite things about that city. It was a huge factor
in my decision to live there.
As
I have noted in Salvos many times, the current Iowa City Council risks throwing
all this away. The cavalier disregard for human rights demonstrated by this
Council should be a deep cause for concern. It should be an issue in municipal
elections.
With
this concern as the backdrop, I attended the 30th annual Human
Rights Breakfast. I go every year, but this was a very special event, as it was
also the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Human Rights
Commission.
Award
winners were: Kafi Dixon (Linda Severson Award); Working Group Theater (Rick
Graf Award); Misty Rebik (Kenneth Cmiel Award); Yashar Vasef (International
Award); Bob Welsh (Isabel Turner Award); Center for Worker Justice of Eastern
Iowa (Bill Reagan Community Award); A. Mori Costantino (Lifetime Achievement
Award); Jean Lloyd-Jones (Lifetime Achievement Award).
A special nod to my friend Bob Welsh, who won for his 50 years
of advocacy for - well- just about everyone who is disadvantaged in any way!
You will never find a kinder gentleman. Bob Welsh is simply amazing!
The Center for Worker Justice
and Misty Rebik rocked my world! Fantastic example of how to walk the walk!
And how cool that every
speaker touched on either racial issues and/or affordable housing? Those are
the issues we are facing, folks!
Thanks to the Iowa City Human Rights Commission for its efforts,
and for putting together this event. And congratulations to this outstanding
group of honorees! Keep fighting – we need you now more than ever!
*Jail Population
I
have been doing some thinking about the population currently housed in the
County jail. Deputy Brian Kahler works overnights at the jail, and he has been
doing “snapshots” of who is in the jail on any given day. The results are
interesting, and I commend Brian for all his extra effort.
He
has done the statistics for a couple of different days, the most recent being
September 28. There were 140 people held that night, about 90 here in our
facility and 50 shipped out to other counties.
Perhaps the most interesting bit of information is the fact that
the average number of prior arrests for that group was about 5.5. I want to
spend some time dissecting this number. (I did not check with Brian, so I’ll be
making some assumptions. Please bear with me.)
If
we take 5.5 times 140, we get 770 previous arrests. I think it is probably safe
to assume that several people are there for the first time. My previous work in
this field taught me that many folks change their behavior after a second
arrest; they felt the first was some type of fluke, etc. So prisoners who have
zero and one prior arrest are probably going to be a fairly large percentage of
this group.
Let’s
assume that 30 people are in for the first time, and another 30 for a second.
That amounts to 60 people with 30 previous arrests. That means the other 80
prisoners had 740 previous arrests – an average of better than 9 apiece!
My
guess is that if we really dig into this, there were a handful of individuals
who were arrested that night who have been arrested 20 or more times each.
These are the folks who really skew the numbers.
Let’s
keep my first and second time numbers, and also assume there are 10 people who
have been arrested 20 times each. Now you have 70 people remaining that have 540
previous arrests – an average of 7.7 apiece.
Granted,
this is all speculation on my part. But it is informed speculation. There are
both very low users and very high users contributing to our average.
More
importantly, these people with 20+ arrests are the “frequent users” we talked
about a few weeks ago. We desperately need to address this group of people who
take up so many resources. We are not serving them well. I look forward to
continuing to work with Shelter House to adopt the “frequent user” model here
in Johnson County.
*Jail/Courthouse Future Plans
The
Johnson County Board of Supervisors, Sheriff, and County Attorney met on
Monday, October 14 to discuss future plans for the jail and courthouse.
I
left the meeting extremely frustrated. I really encourage folks to listen for
yourselves. I think you’ll find it enlightening. Audio from the meeting can be
found at: http://www.johnson-county.com/auditor/min/min.htm#Board%20of%20Supervisors%20Minutes%20and%20Agendas
The
first 90 minutes of the meeting is rehashing the past two elections. The final
115 minutes is where the real discussion occurs.
Another
meeting was held 1:15pm on Thursday, October 24th. Still, nothing
was decided. Now we move to Wednesday, November 6 at 4:30 pm. Stay tuned!
*A Lighter Jail Note
Lori
Lindner and her husband Doug do a great job covering County news through the
two papers for which they work – the Solon Economist and the North Liberty
Leader.
Lori
made my day when she sent the following link: http://archive.org/stream/leadingeventsin00aurngoog#page/n534/mode/2up
As
you can see, the idea of a new jail was controversial then as now. Thanks,
Lori, for sharing this piece of our history!
*DID YOU KNOW?
Mayor Saxton lived his whole life in Oxford, with the exception of a
couple years being away at college.
Anyone
interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the
County website-
"Sullivan’s
Salvos" is sent once per week to any interested party. It will give a
brief update on issues of interest to Johnson County residents.
These messages
come solely from Rod Sullivan, and neither represents the viewpoints of the
whole Board of Supervisors nor those of groups or individuals otherwise
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As always,
feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan@mchsi.com. I look forward to
serving you!
---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 4:07 PM
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