SULLIVAN'S SALVOS

May 27, 2021

Sullivan’s Salvos 6/1/21

In this edition:

*Masks

*Calling All Democrats!

*Wear Orange for Gun Safety

*Catch!

*Just Pay Your Workers!

*Buying Things

*Did You Know?

*Masks

Johnson County rescinded the countywide mask mandate on Thursday, May 27 -effective Monday, May 31. While it feels good to know that we have made great strides toward becoming a safer community, the Republicans in the Iowa Legislature did not make this easy.

I have heard that some have complained that the county “drug its feet” in reacting to Reynolds new law. I beg to differ. Johnson County followed state law by holding a meeting that was announced at least 24 hours in advance, with an agenda, which is recorded and posted publicly, where minutes are taken, and where the public has an opportunity to comment. The Iowa Legislature passes these laws for every other level of government, but they refuse to follow the same rules themselves. So I am not going to apologize for our process.

What’s more, overnight changes do not always work in your favor. Imagine that the GOP and Governor had signed a law banning the wearing of open-toed shoes at work. Would employees who came to work the next day – unaware a new law had passed – feel good about being written up? I doubt it. We do not generally pass laws at 11:30pm and make them effective immediately. And for good reason!

I really feel sorry for the schools, who were put in a terrible position. Schools ARE a different animal, as most children are still too young to be vaccinated. Most schools had a week or two of school remaining. Why throw a wrench in at this late date?

This whole episode is another example of what the GOP has done to Iowa at the state level: government by and for the bullies.

*Calling All Democrats!

We have a nominee for County Supervisor – Jon Green. Now it is time to get to work and get him elected! Election day is June 8, so the election is basically happening now!

Please spread the word, and encourage your friends to vote early! We need your help, and we need it now!

*Catch!

Happy to say that I am ready to play catch again! Just let me know if you are interested, and we will carve out some time. I have a baseball and/or a softball, and an extra glove. Let’s do this!

*Just Pay Your Workers!

Having trouble attracting workers? I have an idea: improve pay and benefits. You will be amazed!

*Wear Orange for Gun Safety

Join us June 4-6 as we honor survivors of gun violence this National Gun Violence Awareness Day and Wear Orange weekend.

Moms Demand Action is a national group dedicated to ending gun violence. The organization has a strong local presence, so if this is a topic you care about, please reach out!

Meanwhile, just take a look at a few of these gun violence stats. I always find this type of data shocking. Of course, the important thing to remember is that every piece of data here was a human life, complete with friends and family.

*121 mass shootings in the US last year. One every three days.

*About 40,000 Americans die by guns every year. Over 100 people per day. By comparison, about 60,000 Americans lost their lives in Viet Nam.

*About 59% of gun deaths are suicides. 38% are murders. The rest are accidents or involve police.

*Half of all suicides use a gun. 75% of all murders use a gun.

*Every day, 7 children are killed and 12 more are injured with a gun.

*The gun death rate in the US is 6 times that of Canada, 12 times that of Australia, and about 10 times that of most European nations.

*27 people were killed by guns in America on Christmas Day in 2015, which is equal to the total number of people killed in gun homicides in an entire year in Austria, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Estonia, Bermuda, Hong Kong, and Iceland combined.

*Buying Things

I will be the first to admit, I have never been much of a shopper. I use things until they are well past their life span. I do not find shopping particularly fun. The only things I really buy with any regularity are food and books. So perhaps I am the wrong person to write about this, but here it goes…

When I do shop, I have traditionally tried to spend my money in accordance with my values. Which has become increasingly difficult. When you take all sorts of social justice issues into account, there is almost nowhere to shop!

Is the place local or national? Are products made/sold by union employees? Are the company practices racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.? Does the making/selling of the product hurt the environment? How does the company (or owner) spend the profits? Did the company rip off local taxpayers?

Trust me – once you look at your purchases through this type of lens, you will realize just how powerful these big companies really are. They are difficult to avoid!

Back in the ‘80s, I started by boycotting Wal Mart. And in the 36-37 years since, I have only set foot in one on a couple of occasions. (Again, it is hard to avoid completely! For example, a couple of years ago in a small town in Wisconsin, I had to go to Wal Mart to buy diapers for my granddaughter.) So Wal Mart has long been a non-factor in my world.

In the 90s I began avoiding places where cities had recklessly used TIF. I had some nice philosophical discussions with friends over whether it was better to spend money locally where TIF had been abused, or out of county where it had not. There are arguments both ways; bottom line, I had considerably fewer options for buying things.

Since about 2010, the issue has been online retailers, especially Amazon. I can honestly say I have never purchased anything from Amazon. I have bought things online, but not very often. I am old fashioned, I know, but I want to see and touch something before I buy it. I also want to support local retailers when I can. If I feel I have to buy online, I am fine paying some other company more to get the same thing I could have cheaper from Amazon.

So yeah, it is hard to buy things! I had a perfect example a couple weeks ago. We bought bag chairs when the kids were little. We are talking 20 years ago. One was ratty, and the other was missing. So I set out to buy a new bag chair.

It was easy to find all kinds online, but I didn’t want to do that. So I went to 5 local stores before finding what I needed. It was pretty frustrating. I know I could have found it cheaper online and had it delivered the next day, and I would have saved a couple hours of hassle. But damn it, I don’t want to give in!

Let me end on a positive note. There are great local companies out there. For example, I am a proud customer of MidWest One Bank, and have been for 35+ years. MidWest One is a local company that pays their taxes, treats their employees well, and contributes a great deal to our community. They have integrity and great customer service. I LOVE my bank, and I am happy to tell anyone who will listen to bank locally!

I guess I’ll put off my next shopping trip as long as I can!

*DID YOU KNOW? The first minimum wage law was enacted in 1894 in New Zealand. With the passage of The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), the U.S. minimum wage was initially set at $0.25 per hour for covered workers. Since then, it has been raised 22 separate times–most recently, in July 2009, to $7.25 an hour.

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 rodsullivan29@gmail.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

May 20, 2021

As you may know, the CDC shared new guidance on May 13 that no longer requires fully vaccinated people to wear a mask or physically distance in most situations. Johnson County’s current mask regulation is in place until Monday, May 31, 2021.

The mask regulation was originally approved by the Board of Health and adopted by the Board of Supervisors. Any action to rescind the mandate would require discussion and a vote first by the Board of Health, followed by the same action by the Board of Supervisors.

The Board of Health voted to rescind the mask mandate on Wednesday, May 19. The Board of Supervisors will discuss the mask regulation at the work session beginning at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, with any vote taking place at the formal meeting beginning at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 27.

Obviously, Republicans in the Legislature and Governor Reynolds just made mask mandates illegal. So be it. I believe the Supervisors are still going to follow good public process before making any official changes. That means advertised meetings with agendas, minutes, and public participation. Reynolds and the GOP see no need to follow these laws, but we do.

Monday, May 31 is Memorial Day. I hope you have a wonderful holiday, and I hope you spend at least a part of it remembering those who have died while serving our Country. Happy Memorial Day to all!

I am going to share a little story. I was at a good friend’s business the other day, standing in the parking lot talking, when a guy runs up and says, “Call 911! The guy in the bus stop is barely breathing!” So my buddy and I run over to the bus stop. I get about 3 feet away from the guy and I am shouting, “Hey! Can you hear me? Can you respond?” He didn’t say anything, although his eyes opened momentarily. I agreed with the first man; this guy’s breathing was shallow. So my buddy called 911.

An ambulance arrived so quickly it was amazing; probably one minute, tops. A fire truck followed literally only another minute later, and police arrived within 5 minutes. When this guy (we will call him Peter) heard the ambulance sirens, he got very agitated. He stood up, although he was pretty wobbly. I could tell that he had soiled the shorts he was wearing.

Peter ran up to the Ambulance (it was only a few steps) and started screaming “F You!” at the top of his lungs and slapped the window. The Ambulance crew kept their windows rolled up, and a police officer approached Peter. Peter started screaming, “I am a F_ing veteran! I am a F_ing veteran!” The officer did a great job of deescalating Peter (CIT at work!) and got him to sit in the bus shelter.

I approached the ambulance, and since I didn’t recognize either person, I introduced myself. They told me they see Peter all the time – that is how they know his name. They said he gets hospitalized frequently. Meanwhile, the officer offered to ride in the back of the ambulance with Peter. Peter just sat there, muttering, “I am a f_ing veteran!”

By now, I had spent 15 minutes watching this, and I needed to get to an appointment. So I said goodbye to my friend and left. I don’t know what happened to Peter.

So, the next day, I spoke to Gary Boseneiler, Veteran’s Affairs Director for Johnson County. I mentioned Peter, and asked if Gary knew of him. Gary not only knew of him, but has met with Peter many times. According to Gary, Peter is calm and respectful when he visits Gary’s office. And yes, Peter is a veteran of the US Armed Services.

We talk a lot about how few of our soldiers die in war nowadays. The US has lost 7036 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan over the 20 years of those wars. While 7000 people strikes me as an unthinkable loss of life, that compares quite favorably to the 60,000 lost in 11 years of Viet Nam. But counting deaths does not give us the true cost of war. Unfortunately, all wars seem to lead to many additional casualties.

That is correct. Casualties are NOT just deaths. Casualties include any person who is killed, wounded, imprisoned, or missing as a result of war. And the human costs of our never-ending wars include many broken men and women. People like Peter. People who signed up to serve. He didn’t do this to himself. WE did this to him. WE made him do this. This is OUR fault as a Country. We own this.

As I said, 7035 soldiers have died in our long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the number of veterans who died by suicide in 2018 was 6,435. Our veterans are bringing the wars home.

Let’s get our veterans the help they need. And let’s quit sending American soldiers abroad to come back as casualties of war.

We have a nominee for County Supervisor – Jon Green. Now it is time to get to work and get him elected! Election day is June 8, so the election is basically happening now!

Please spread the word, and encourage your friends to vote early! We need your help, and we need it now!

Many people were commenting on the decision by Senator Bernie Sanders to endorse Jon Green in the Johnson County Supervisor race. This was not the first time a national figure has gotten involved; just over two years ago, Senator Cory Booker endorsed Royceann Porter for the same position.

Whether or not you think this is good or bad, my guess is that it is here to stay. Voters are not very tuned in to local politics, and they seek virtue signaling. These endorsements give voters info they lack otherwise. I understand why some are put off by this practice, but I don’t expect it to stop.

It seems to serve the purposes of both local and national candidates pretty well, so why wouldn’t they keep it going? As with any endorsements, they are only worth so much.

Probably a more interesting thing to watch will be to see if this trend continues if:

I think each of these “what-ifs” will be interesting to follow. I certainly hope I don’t need to worry about B or C. But we have work to do!

Last week I was writing about Special Elections for County Supervisor, and noted that Sally Stutsman had defeated Don Sehr in the 1996 Democratic Primary. In fact, it was Joe Bolkcom, Charlie Duffy, and Jonathon Jordahl who defeated Sehr in that primary. Stutsman and Steve Lacina won the 1994 Democratic Primary.

*DID YOU KNOW? Memorial Day was first celebrated on May 30, 1868. It was observed by placing flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers during the first national celebration. Gen. James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which around 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who were buried there.

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 rodsullivan29@gmail.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!

May 13, 2021

Democrats have chosen their nominee for Supervisor, and the winner is Jon Green. Jon is a former Mayor of Lone Tree, former Press Secretary for the Governor of Wyoming, and currently an IT professional. He grew up in Nichols and Lone Tree, and is a graduate of Lone Tree High.

Jon won *LITERALLY* the closest possible election, defeating Meghann Foster of the Coralville Council 139-137. Talk about every vote counting!

I have known Jon for a while, and I am going to work like heck to get him elected. Jon is a very smart man, and genuinely committed to those who have less. I think he would bring some good ideas to the Board.

I don’t want to let this moment pass without thanking the other candidates. This was a truly exceptional group of people, each of whom could do the job of Supervisor very well. A huge thanks to Meghann Foster, Scott Finlayson, and Susan Vileta. I appreciate your willingness to throw your hats in the ring, and I look forward to helping you in your future endeavors.

The Nominating Convention was a well-run event; thanks to the party leadership and worker bees who made everything click. Now we move on to the main event!

I looked around the Democratic Convention Wednesday night, and saw almost 300 people. Those 300 people took great care in choosing between 4 very different but very qualified candidates. And I thought to myself, “People care about this. They want their voice to be heard.” I could not imagine 3 people going to that group and saying, “Here – we picked someone for you.”

So, whenever someone says the County should have just appointed someone for two years and saved the $20,000 election expense – I don’t think that reflects the will of the people. The people clearly want to vote on who is going to represent them.

We have a nominee for County Supervisor. Now it is time to get to work and get them elected! Election day is June 8, so the election is basically happening now!

Make no mistake - Republican candidate Phil Hemingway is a strong candidate! He has served in elected office. He is well-known. Many Democrats like him. It will take a full-fledged campaign to keep this seat in Democratic hands!

Please spread the word, and encourage your friends to vote early! We need your help, and we need it now!

There have only been two elections since 1960 where a Democrat did not win, and both were Special Elections. Interestingly, Sally Stutsman was involved on both ends.

On April 12, 1994, Don Sehr lost the vote at the Democratic Convention to Pat Gilroy, then ran as an Independent and defeated Democratic nominee Gilroy in the Special Election. (The GOP wisely did not field a candidate.) Sehr filled the unexpired term of Betty Ockenfels until 1996, when he was defeated by Sally Stutsman in the Democratic Primary.

On March 5, 2013, Republican John Etheridge defeated Democrat Terry Dahms by 193 votes in a Special Election that saw several inches of snow the night before, and all the county schools closed. Etheridge then filled the unexpired term of Sally Stutsman until the 2014 General Election, where he was defeated by Mike Carberry.

The June 8 election is set. And I think it is not only fair but important for Johnson County voters to ask the GOP candidate some very serious questions. Here are ten questions that I believe will tell you a lot:

2. On January 6, 2021, an insurrection took place at the US Capitol. What are your thoughts on the events of that day? Should former President Trump be held accountable for inciting this insurrection?

3. For the first time since 1856, the GOP did not craft a platform. Instead, they adopted this statement: “The Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.” Does this statement reflect your views?

5. Do you believe it is a good idea to be vaccinated in general, and against COVID specifically?

10. Have you ever disagreed with your Party? On what issue? Were you public about it?

This is it. These questions should tell you most of what you need to know. I sincerely hope the League of Women Voters and every other organization that gets an opportunity to question Republican candidates will ask these questions. Voters, I hope you will do the same!

Then use these same questions when you are looking at candidates in 2022. These issues will only go away if we let them go away.

These are not “gotcha” questions. These are basic questions about how an individual views the world. They matter DEEPLY in terms of the way you would govern as a County Supervisor. And we need to know the answers!

Congratulations to Becci Reedus, who is retiring after an eventful run as the Director of CommUnity Crisis Services (formerly the Crisis Center).

A native of NE Iowa, Becci came to CommUnity during the 2008 floods. Quite a welcome! Over the next 13 years, she proceeded to work long and hard to ensure that the neediest people in Johnson County got important help.

I have gotten to know Becci well during her time at CommUnity, and I really like and respect her. She is a very good person who has done very good work. Congratulations on your retirement, Becci!

CommUnity is pleased to announce the selection of Sarah Nelson as its new Executive Director.

Sarah grew up in Iowa City and left to go to Colorado after college. There she worked for a non-profit organization with a large breadth of services including a basic needs assistance program and food bank. After returning to Iowa City, she joined Foundation 2 in Cedar Rapids as their Chief Operating Officer. She has been instrumental in their growth and prides herself on creating a positive and constructive workplace culture.

I am particularly pleased, because Sarah is the granddaughter of two of the finest people I know, the Reverend Bob and Eunice Welsh of Iowa City. I am certain they are very proud!

Sarah's first day will be Monday, May 10. We are thrilled to welcome Sarah to the team and look forward to the wonderful work CommUnity will continue to do.

*DID YOU KNOW? Former State Representative and County Supervisor Sally Stutsman served more years as a Supervisor than anyone in the modern history of the office. Stutsman was first elected in 1995, and was subsequently elected 4 more times. She then resigned in 2013 after winning election to the Iowa House of Representatives. So Stutsman was elected as a Supervisor 5 times, serving 18 years.

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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