SULLIVAN'S SALVOS

November 25, 2020

Sullivan’s Salvos 12/1/20

In this edition:

*Please Buy Local!

*Local Elected Officials Get It!

*Supervisor Expertise and Micromanaging

*Did You Know?

*Please Buy Local!

The Christmas shopping season begins in earnest right around the time you will read this. So, before you jump online to get those gifts, please consider shopping locally.

You can shop locally in person OR online! And by spending your money with locally-owned businesses, your dollars circulate many times over. Bank locally, spend locally, and you help your whole community to thrive!

More data to support buying local:

» A local business will generate 70% more local activity per square foot than a big box store;

» Local shops will produce a net annual return of $326 per 1,000 square foot compared to a net annual deficit of $468 per 1,000 square foot for big box stores;

» The money we spend locally will generate three and a half times more wealth for the local economy compared to chain-owned businesses;

» If every U.S. family spent an additional $10 per month at a local shop, the result would be an additional $9.3 billion directly returned to the local economy;

» Nearly 60% of workers at local businesses report a high commitment score to the business compared to only 39% at chains, which results in better customer service and an improved buying experience.

Buy local! You will be glad you did!

*Local Elected Officials Get It!

Last week I complained about Governor Reynolds’ refusal to take questions. And the more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. It really bothers me when elected officials refuse to be accountable to the public.

This can take many forms. Refusing to hold press conferences. Refusing to meet with Editorial Boards. Refusing to attend nonpartisan forums. Refusing to call on certain reporters or media outlets. Fighting FOIA requests. All SHOULD be unacceptable.

There are more sophisticated ways of avoiding the public. Some of them even draw praise when they should be criticized. Look at the so-called “Full Grassley”. While Senator Grassley makes brief appearances in friendly rural counties, he has gone literally decades without answering random questions from the 155,000 people of Johnson County. A friend who would know told me no statewide Republican elected official has been to the east side of Waterloo since WWII.

We have had a terrible run of this with Republicans in Iowa, and unfortunately, I expect it to get worse before it gets better. Voters do not punish them for it, so they are bound to do more of it. There is absolutely no justification for this behavior. But it should be noted that in some places, Democrats do it, too. And it is NEVER acceptable.

You know who understands this? Local elected officials of both parties. State Reps and State Senators can (and often do) hide out. But if you are a member of the local school board? Guess what? You are going to hear what the public thinks. They will email you. They will send you letters. They will call. And often, at public meetings, they will say it for the record. And you will be expected to respond.

And that is good! Yes, there are people in every community who abuse local elected officials. We do not need that. But when you take an oath of office, you take an oath to serve EVERYONE, not just the people you like.

School Boards, City Councils, and Boards of Supervisors of both parties understand and recognize that they have an obligation to take questions from the public. I wish that flowed up to other levels of government.

*Supervisor Expertise and Micromanaging

Every elected official approaches her/his job a bit differently. But at some point, all elected officials have to decide what they believe to be true and act accordingly. School Board members and City Councilors get recommendations from a single point person – the Superintendent and City Manager, respectively. County government is more diffuse, with Supervisors relying upon a series of Department Heads.

You often hear elected officials criticized for being “rubber stamps.” I think this is sometimes fair criticism. Part of the work of elected officials is determining if the recommendations of staff match the needs and wants of the community. If they do not align, the elected officials should definitely act. A bit of disagreement is healthy.

On the other hand, our Department Heads are experts. They have years of education and experience. Frankly, they know more than we do.

The gap between civilian knowledge and professional management is growing. Small cities that used to scoff at the idea of a City Manager now cannot live without one. State and Federal programs have become more complicated; at the same time, volunteer Councilors have less time available to follow along.

So how does an elected official develop trust in appointed managers and department heads? It takes work, plain and simple. You are charged with holding them accountable. You need to talk to a wide variety of people about a wide variety of things.

How are they viewed by people who do the same job in other counties? How are they viewed by their subordinates? How are they viewed by the union? How are they viewed by other Department Heads? How are they viewed by vendors? How are they viewed by accrediting bodies? How are they viewed by regulatory agencies? How are they viewed by the public? Do they keep up with industry trends? Do their actions match their words? Do they follow through? What is the quality of their work? Do they anticipate problems? Do they seem honest and trustworthy?

All of this and much more factors into how much an elected official trusts a manager or department head. Once an appropriate level of trust has been established, the work will look a lot more like rubber stamping, because there will be few disagreements.

The opposite of rubber stamping is micromanaging. Neither is good. In a perfect world, elected officials strike an appropriate balance between the two. I am certain I have been guilty of both offenses at some time during my career.

Micromanaging is a quick way to ruin a work environment. All employees, regardless of their jobs, want a sense of agency. As a manager, your job is to give them that feeling while still maintaining accountability.

Where is the happy medium? The answer, of course, is “it depends.” I think the key is having open, trusting relationships between elected officials and staff. As an elected official, you need employees to feel comfortable telling you if you are out of line. In my experience, that can be difficult to achieve. But it is critical. If someone does it well, keep electing her/him!

*DID YOU KNOW? The Iowa City Area Business Partnership has a shop local campaign that offers great incentives! For more information, see: https://iowacityarea.com/shop-local-campaign-aims-high/.

Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-

www.johnsoncountyiowa.gov.

"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 mentioned.

If you do NOT want the weekly E-mail, simply reply to this message, and type "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

If you know anyone else who might be interested, just forward this message. They can E-mail me at rodsullivan@mchsi.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.

As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan29@gmail.com. I look forward to serving you!

---Rod

November 19, 2020

Happy Thanksgiving to Salvos readers! In many ways, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. (Imagine that coming from a fat guy, huh?)

Actually, I love the idea of giving thanks. It is a simple act that does not happen enough.

While I am at it – thanks to all of you who read Salvos each week. And a special thanks to those of you who follow up by sharing your thoughts. I appreciate it! Happy Thanksgiving!

A conservative friend of mine emailed me after the Governor’s address to the state, and asked, “Can I now expect to see some praise for Governor Reynolds in this week’s Salvos?” I wish I could answer that with a “yes”. But I can’t. Here is why:

Her mandate has WAY too many caveats, and those caveats are confusing. Mandates need to be clear to be effective. Can you be unmasked in a grocery store? Apparently, so long as you are there under 15 minutes. And stay 6’ apart. And there are 24 or less people there. So if you are there 12 minutes, and mostly over 6’, but under 6’ for about 3 minutes, and there were 15 people there? Is that OK? What if there were 30 people, but only for 10 minutes? Why are we asking people to do any calculations at all? Just mandate the damned masks!

If she is going to take the heat for doing a mandate, just do a mandate! This is Reynolds being political, and nothing more. Except she isn’t even getting the politics correct. Critics on the right don’t want any mandate at all. So if she is going to be criticized either way, she might as well do a real mandate.

Reynolds knows that the Democratic candidate for Governor already has her/his first campaign plank – Reynolds should have done a mask mandate. Reynolds has seen polls. She knew she needed to be able to CLAIM to have done a mask mandate. So she did the weakest, most confusing thing possible. Now she will try to have it both ways. The problem is, the virus doesn’t care about your politics.

Reynolds says the mandate does not apply to workplaces. Can she explain? The 25 customers in the grocery store need masks, but the 8 employees do not? Do employees still need to observe 6’ for 15 minutes? Does the virus care?

Reynolds failed to address schools and churches. Again, the virus doesn’t care if you are Catholic or Protestant, Jewish or Muslim, or just a non-believer. The restrictions need to apply, period.

The whole timing of the event demonstrates her cynicism. Why hold the announcement at 6:05 pm? I can tell you why; that means local newscasts have already started, and cannot cover it live. Nor can they fact check it live. Also, it was an “address” rather than a press conference. Why? Again, I can tell you why; she does not want to answer any questions.

Finally, she expects us to take her seriously when she spent the whole campaign season maskless while at huge rallies, maskless while hugging donors, and maskless while ridiculing Democratic Party candidates FOR wearing masks. Really? What happened between mid-October and mid-November that might have caused this change of heart? Oh, that’s right – the November 3 election!

People died because she waited until after the election. People died. She clearly put politics in front of the lives of Iowans.

So no, I cannot give any credit to Iowa’s Governor. I wish I could. I truly wish I could. Because she is again putting politics ahead of the health of Iowans. And it needs to stop.

Congratulations to State Senator Zach Wahls of Coralville on being elected as the Democratic Leader of the Iowa Senate! This is a remarkable achievement at any age… but Senator Wahls is still only 29! This will be a challenging role for Zach; I plan to do everything I can to help him succeed! Congratulations again!

Last week’s Salvos got a good discussion going, so I wanted to talk some more about the issues facing Democrats in Iowa.

Let’s start by defining a group of Iowa Democrats that I will call, The “100 Most Important Dems”. You don’t need to like the name of the group, but bear with me. In this group are the 18 Democratic Senators, plus maybe 7-8 recent Senate retirees. It includes the 40+ Democratic House Members, plus maybe 10 recent retires. It includes any Democratic Member of Congress and recent retirees. It includes the State Auditor, State Treasurer, and Attorney General. It includes recent IDP Chairs. Throw in a handful of top Labor leaders, big money donors, and a smattering of others, and you have the “100 Most Important Dems.”

Please understand – I am not judging these folks. Most are really good people. A few are really good friends of mine! They reached this status through hard work. I am not disparaging these people. What I fail to understand, however, is how they seem to almost always arrive at the same conclusion when it comes to endorsements.

Look at the 2020 US Senate primary. Iowa had several really good candidates. How is it that Theresa Greenfield had been endorsed by 95+ of the “100 Most Important Dems” before anyone had ever asked her a question? How does that happen? No knock on Greenfield, but seriously... How does that happen? And how does it happen so early?

It has happened many times before. 99% or more of this group endorsed Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, despite the fact that the rest of the state split 50/50. I’m not making that number up – show me two people in the group who backed Bernie. I’ll wait.

An even higher percentage favored Bruce Braley in his 2014 Senate race; he didn’t even need to have a primary!

The same thing happened (though not to as great a degree) in the 2016 Senate primary, where the “100 Most Important Dems” chose Patty Judge over Rob Hogg. Ditto the 2018 Gubernatorial primary and Fred Hubbell.

Why is this? How does it happen? Do they have a big meeting? Is there an email chain? Do Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decide? Do carrots and/or sticks come from someone in DC? Or, is it just Occam’s Razor, and the best-known person gets some endorsements and it snowballs from there?

Seriously, why is this group able to move forward in lock step when the rest of Iowa’s Democrats do much the opposite? It seems to happen too frequently to be random; perhaps someone can disabuse me of that idea.

Let’s assume for a moment that there are no conspiracies. This is just something that happens. Then the questions become how and why? Is it a good phenomenon, bad, or indifferent? To me, it is indicative of some type of herd mentality or groupthink. I can’t see much good coming from it. Again, I am happy to be proven wrong!

I think getting to the root of this issue would significantly assist Democrats in Iowa in moving forward. There is a disconnect between Party Leaders and the rest of the Party that should really be examined. Open and honest discussion of this phenomenon would be a great start.

*DID YOU KNOW? The annual tradition (which I detest) of a “Presidential Pardon" for a turkey began under President Reagan.

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 mentioned.

If you do NOT want the weekly E-mail, simply reply to this message, and type "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

If you know anyone else who might be interested, just forward this message. They can E-mail me at rodsullivan@mchsi.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.

As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan29@gmail.com. I look forward to serving you!

November 12, 2020

Just after the election, Iowa reporters turned their attention back to COVID-19, which continues to rage unchecked. Unfortunately, the editors at Iowa’s newspapers came up with some terrible headlines.

“Reynolds Pleads with Iowans to Take Precautions” read one. Bullshit! That is like lousy parent pleading with a two-year-old to leave a store. You have the authority. You pick them up and carry them out. If they have a fit, so be it.

Governor Reynolds doesn’t need to plead. She can JUST DO IT. And she should quit blaming Iowans and do so.

Lyz Lenz took to Twitter several weeks ago, and claimed she was fired by the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The Gazette has been silent about that incident since.

Lenz was arguably the most important media voice in Eastern Iowa. Now she is gone. Gazette subscribers deserve to know why. How about some other outlet pursuing this? Press Citizen? Daily Iowan? Little Village?

Please get both the Gazette and Lenz on the record. Because honestly, if this was a capitulation to the bullying of Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann, I am cancelling my subscription. And you should do the same.

Democrats struggled through the 2016 postmortem. Why did Clinton lose? Was it an archaic, racist Electoral College? Yes. Racism? Yes. Sexism? Yes. Economic anxiety? Yes. Russia? Yes. Comey? Yes. Because she was deeply disliked? Yes. Because she ran a bad campaign? Yes. All are legitimate reasons for her loss.

The reason Democrats nationally have had such a difficult time with this is really pretty simple: We want a silver bullet. We want there to be one thing we need to fix. We refuse to recognize that multiple things can be true at once. Until we recognize this, we will not improve our performance.

Nationally, places like Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas look promising. Demographics in those places are moving in the favor of Democrats. Iowa? It is pretty much the opposite. So how do Iowa Democrats move forward?

I do not pretend to have all the answers. But I do have a few ideas. Like I noted earlier, nothing I say here is a silver bullet. But I do think some of these things will help. So here it goes – a Letterman-style Ten Things Iowa Democrats Should Do:

1. As I noted above, multiple things can be true. Do we need to capture more of the rural vote? Yes. Do we need to champion policies that support African Americans? Yes. Can you do things to help both rural and urban residents? Yes. Multiple things can be true at once.

2. There is going to be a lot of discussion about whether Democratic candidates need to be more moderate or more liberal. I actually don’t believe that is the main issue. I think Iowa Democrats need some candidates with some pizzazz!
I felt really good about both John Norris and Diedre DeJear, neither of which was a candidate of the far left. But they were fun and exciting, and made things feel important.
We need candidates who are less scripted by DC and more genuine. I don’t think you have to be a leftist to call out Kim Reynolds’ mishandling of the pandemic. But her response SHOULD piss you off! Almost two thousand Iowans are dead! Let’s put forth a candidate who feels something about that! I’m ready to have someone pound a fist on a table! Show some emotion!

3. Weed. The Democratic Party needs to get some gumption (I had another metaphor here earlier) and embrace legal marijuana. Yes, there are downsides for a certain percentage of people. But those are more than offset by the health and legal benefits that accrue to many others. This issue alone will win a swing district, but Democrats only tiptoe around it. Don’t let the GOP beat us on this issue because we are too timid. We have 2-4 years before we lose our opportunity on this issue. It is good for Iowans and good electorally. Just do it.

4. You can’t “outfarm” Rita Hart. She couldn’t be more of a farmer. Other than a few years at college, she has lived and worked on the farm her entire life. Yet she lost the farm vote overwhelmingly to an opthomologist. Knowing the price of corn does not matter. 90% of farmers are not going to vote for Democrats. Period.
But most rural and small-town residents are NOT farmers. We need to talk to rural residents and find out what matters to them. It may not necessarily be at odds with the desires of urban voters. Take healthcare, for example. It is a big problem in both rural and urban areas.

5. Door knocking still matters. I understand why Democrats from top to bottom did not knock doors. But the strategy hurt badly. Look at Johnson County. Rita Hart got about 68% of the vote. Joe Biden got 71% The difference between those two numbers is about 2000 votes. That puts Hart in Congress. I am convinced that she failed to get those votes because she was not allowed to meet people.

6. We need to move to texting rather than calling. I made literally thousands of phone calls this year. Literally 90% of those calls did not lead to a conversation. When I talk to younger people about this, they look at me as though I am from Mars. They say, “Of COURSE they didn’t answer. You need to text!”
Look – I am an old dog. I grew up with a party-line phone, for God’s sake. I prefer phone calls. But I am not the future. In 2022, we should only call people 55 and older. Everything else needs to be a text.

7. Let’s get back to the basics. Let’s get County Democratic Central Committees involved in hyper local races. Recruit and run candidates for city councils, school boards, and township trustees. Most of these races are uncontested in small towns. Let’s contest them!
Go even one step further down the ladder and recruit people to serve as volunteers on local P&Z commissions, library boards, and other appointed positions. This is how people gain experience. This is where candidates come from. This work is not “beneath” us. We MUST do it.

8. Similarly, run candidates for courthouse offices. Joni Ernst was a County Auditor. Kim Reynolds was a County Treasurer. Recruit candidates, help them with voter contact, and help fund their campaigns. $500 just might win the County Recorder seat in a small county. Again, too many of these races go uncontested.
Also, these candidates and their teams will be out knocking doors! A Democratic candidate for Recorder can drop off the lit for the Democratic candidate for Governor. I repeat: this is how people gain experience. This is where candidates come from. This work is not “beneath” us. We MUST do it.

9. The people in charge at the Iowa Democratic Party need to talk to the people who already hold office. I have received about a quarter million votes in general elections during my time in office. Nobody from the IDP has ever asked me my opinion about anything. Former Chair Troy Price would visit the County for events, and he always made me feel really good when he did so. But I wish the IDP saw me as a resource.
Sure, I have nagged them about things, and on some occasions, they have assigned a person to hear me out. But I wish I was viewed as an asset and not a liability.
Instead of writing off elected officials as anomalies, perhaps the IDP could engage us. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to have the Chair and Executive Director invite a person like me to lunch. I would love to be taken that seriously.

10. Finally, we need to be decent to each other. Moderates need to lay off progressives and vice versa. We cannot move forward as a team until we buy into the fact that we ARE a team. If you are a moderate and see another moderate hammering AOC, please call them out. If you are a liberal and see another liberal hammering Biden, please call them out. We need each other. Respect each other. Be kind.

Most of these fixes are not short term. In fact, it is much the opposite. It will take a great deal of investment and patience before it bears fruit. This is all going to take a long, long time.

*DID YOU KNOW? The 27% President Trump received in Johnson County is the lowest percentage for a major party candidate in modern county history.

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 mentioned.

If you do NOT want the weekly E-mail, simply reply to this message, and type "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

If you know anyone else who might be interested, just forward this message. They can E-mail me at rodsullivan@mchsi.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.

As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan29@gmail.com. I look forward to serving you!

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