SULLIVAN'S SALVOS

November 23, 2021

Sullivan’s Salvos 11/30/21

In this edition:

*Race on Trial

*ARPA Part 2

*Unsubscribed from Salvos?

*Did You Know?

*Race on Trial

Sad as it is to say, we still live in a country where a white man can kill a black man and expect to walk free 95% of the time. Just take a deep breath, exhale, and think about that for a moment. In 2021, in the United States of America, a white man can murder a black man and walk away 95% of the time. I hope it bothers you as profoundly as it bothers me.

*ARPA Part 2

In this installment, we will discuss a controversial issue surrounding ARPA: giving bonus pay to County employees.

One thing that many municipalities have done with ARPA money is award bonuses to workers who served the public during the pandemic. This use of ARPA money is specifically called out as acceptable. Personally, I object to using the money in this way. There are several reasons for this:

1. First, I believe that if you are going to do it, you need to do it for everyone. It is simply too arbitrary to go through and decide that the Auditor’s Office staff gets it, but the Recorder’s Office does not. Johnson County had three Departments/Offices request this - Medical Examiner, SEATS, and Treasurer.

Would we really give bonuses to the Medical Examiner’s Office and not include the other emergency responders (Ambulance and Sheriff)? SEATS drivers did everything that was asked of them and more. But would we really give it to them without giving something to the Public Health staff at the center of the pandemic? The Treasurer’s Office saw people throughout the worst of the pandemic. But should they have done so? Perhaps we should have relied much more heavily on the mail? And what about all the folks in all the other Departments/Offices?

The only fair way to do this is to do it for everyone. We have 550 employees in Johnson County. If you gave each one $20,000, half the money is gone. Meanwhile, while you have rewarded employees, you have done nothing to improve the resiliency of the County and the public moving forward.

2. In some cases, other choices could have been made. For example, Polk, Linn, and Scott Counties simply required customers to do Treasurer’s Office business online and/or through the mail. There were no riots there. The Iowa DOT was fine with their approach. And they all serve more people than does Johnson County. But Johnson County’s Treasurer fought tooth and nail to keep his office open by appointment. Fine. But then to turn around and claim your employees deserve hazard pay when you could have simply made a different decision?

3. County employees do not need the money that badly when compared to other community needs. I have already fought this fight with some county employees. I know I am the bad guy – I was the Supervisor who spoke out about not giving bonuses. It is truly not fun to be that guy. But here are the facts:

The lowest-paid full-time county employee earns almost exactly $20.00 per hour. That assumes being hired in at the lowest possible level, and not yet receiving a six-month review. So basically, every single employee earns over $20 per hour. Several earn MUCH more. In addition, county employees have really good health insurance at a very affordable price. There are plenty of other benefits (sick leave, vacation, several holidays, etc.). And to top it all off, county employees are invested in IPERS, a well-managed defined benefit retirement program. County jobs are pretty good jobs. And I’m proud of that! I have worked my tail off for many years to make it so!

The statistics back me up. The very lowest possible county pay of $20 per hour is about 33% better than the median income for a single person in Johnson County ($30,486 according to the US Census). The poorest County employees fare much better than the average county resident. Average County employees do MUCH better. While I appreciate the efforts of my coworkers, they are not needy by any measure.

4. Extra money for county employees is not effective stimulus. I caught Hell for saying this, too, but it is true. As I noted before, most county employees are not in great financial need. They are compensated quite a bit better than the average county resident. So what happens when they get an extra $5000 or $10,000 dollars? Yes, there will be some splurging. But a whole lot of that money is going to be saved. And much of the spending will be done at Disney or other vacation locales.

Poorer people, on the other hand, are fixing cars, buying shoes and clothes, and buying more food. That money stays in our community and recirculates many times over.

My colleague Jon Green tweeted a while ago that we had “failed” county employees by denying bonus pay. Obviously, Jon is entitled to that opinion. Needless to say, I disagree. In the same Tweet string Jon notes that there was insufficient funding for most of the requests we received. Well, imagine how much less the poor in our community would be getting had we spent a few million on employee bonuses! I think one could fairly argue that had we given bonuses, we would have “failed” the poor. And I am not going to do that.

Additionally, random bonuses are not how you care for employees. You do that every day by negotiating fair contracts and upholding them. You do things like my recent efforts to add 5 days of vacation to beginning employees at no additional cost to them. Or Royceann’s efforts to add Juneteenth as a holiday without taking away another day. The constant small efforts to make things better matter. They do not grab headlines, but they require a dedication to our employees.

ARPA is that incredibly unique opportunity to make everyone hate you. I know many County employees hate me for it, but I could not justify giving them extra pay in a county where 19,000 people are food insecure.

In the next installment, we will discuss funds for excluded workers.

*Unsubscribed from Salvos?

I have had subscribers to Salvos occasionally find themselves knocked off the list. Unfortunately, a friend of mine has had trouble with this lately. Here is a little background, in case it happens to you.

When I first started sending this, people weren’t victimized as frequently by spam. But as spam became ubiquitous, email servers began refusing emails that go out to large groups. My weekly email goes out to about 500 people, and that number has barely changed in twelve or thirteen years. Each year approximately ten people drop off, and approximately ten new people join.

Anyway, I was having to send about 25 separate emails of about 20 names each. It was becoming unwieldy. Obviously, I was not alone, because then these “mail services” popped up. I use Mailchimp, because it is free. And it has made doing this 100 times easier.

The problem is, Mailchimp is very sensitive to the spam issue. (Makes sense; it is the environment in which they were created.) So a person can ask me to unsubscribe them, and I do. If they want to be added back in, I can add them. But if a person unsubscribes themselves, Mailchimp does NOT allow me to resubscribe them. They assume the person wants no more email from me.

So if a person accidentally unsubscribes themselves, Mailchimp will not allow me to add them back. They have to resubscribe themselves. I think the easiest way to do that is Google the word “Blogger.” Go to that site. Once on Blogger, search for Sullivan’s Salvos. It should show up, and allow you to subscribe.

I am really sorry about any hassles! Thanks for reading!

*DID YOU KNOW? The postal code for the state of Iowa, IA, uses the first and last letters instead of the first two, so it doesn't get mistaken for a number 10.

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

November 18, 2021

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!

Congratulations to Danelle Essing who retired after 35 years at the County Attorney’s Office! For many years, Danelle has been the glue that keeps things together. She is a smart, talented, thoughtful person whose presence will be greatly missed.

It stings to lose great employees like Danelle, but I am very happy for her. Congratulations Danelle! Enjoy your retirement!

Big news from the Fath/Sullivan household....After almost 21 years at 2326 E. Court Street, we are going to be moving. We just purchased 514 North Linn Street in Iowa City and will be moving in early 2022.

The new house is really cool, and the location is exciting. Think three blocks straight north of Pagliai's. I refer to it as an "estuary" where the fresh water of University influence hits the saltwater of townie living. That will be a big change for us!

While moving is exciting, every change has positives and negatives. The toughest thing, honestly, will be leaving Dan and Beth Daly, who have become two of our best friends over the past 20+ years.

That is about it for now. Those of you who know me well know that I get pretty emotional about these types of things. So I'll leave it at this for now.

You have probably heard that Johnson County and all our cities have received generous funding from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). In the case of Johnson County, we are getting just over $29.3 million dollars, half of which has arrived, and half of which is coming next May.

I am going to write about ARPA funding, but it will take the form of a five-part piece. In today’s first installment, we’ll discuss big picture considerations as to how the money gets spent.

The decision as to how this money is spent lies with the Board of Supervisors. The question of how to spend the money is a bit of a hot topic in the community. Needless to say, there are many approaches we can take.

There are about 153,000 residents of Johnson County. We could just take the $14,600,000 we get this year, and write every person a check for $95. Then we could do the same thing next May. I think you can see that by doing so, we would achieve almost nothing. There is strength in collective action, and there is strength in collective funding efforts.

On the other hand, you could take the 100 poorest residents, and give each one $146,000. That would be really good for those 100 people. But it would not improve things very much for the 152,900 residents who were left out.

Obviously, a balanced approach is the way to get the best bang for our buck. I think it is also critically important that we focus upon those most in need. That leads to another question – who, exactly, is the neediest among us?

I used to work with people with intellectual (and other) disabilities. I know people who cannot breathe without mechanical assistance. I know people who cannot eat without mechanical assistance. I know people who require around the clock nursing care.

Most of these folks are dirt poor. (One has to be poor to qualify for Medicaid, which covers most of our long-term care.) However, just a few of these folks are wealthy. So, I ask you – who is needier? A person who has some money but can neither breathe nor eat without assistance, or a person who has no money but can care for themselves? Does it matter if the person with disabilities is housed if the other person is not?

If you use Maslow as a guide, you might first provide help to those who need food, then shelter. That is actually a decent place to start, but it oversimplifies situations that are usually more complex, and it does nothing “upstream” to prevent future cases of hunger and homelessness.

Do we invest in seniors, to whom we owe a great debt, or do we invest in children, hoping to prevent future problems? Should we invest in job training or substance abuse counseling? Mental health care or domestic violence prevention? Services for immigrants or food pantries? How do all of these groups stack up against environmental concerns, which might just kill us all?

The answer is pretty simple: All of these concerns are extremely important. And Johnson County works really hard to address them all.

Assuming we do take a balanced approach, we will not completely solve any single problem. To illustrate: We could spend the whole $14,600,000 on building affordable housing. That might build about 100 units, which would be an incredible improvement. It might purchase 200 existing units. But 100 units will not end the affordable housing crisis in Johnson County. Nor will 200 units. There are a couple thousand names on the waiting list for Section 8 in Johnson County alone. To completely address our affordable housing crisis, we need the coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal governments.

Unfortunately, the State of Iowa under Kim Reynolds has done next to nothing to help those in need. The Federal government had not done much either, until ARPA came along. I know that as a county, we are constantly asked to pick up the funding for something that the State of Feds decided to cut. And to be honest, we just don’t have the resources.

Local government cannot afford to make up for everything the Feds get wrong. We should have universal health care coverage, but the County cannot fix that. We should have universal free childcare, but the County cannot fix that. We should universal paid sick leave, but the County cannot fix that. We should include all workers in unemployment insurance, but the County cannot fix that.

I was recently in some conversations regarding sick leave. The State of Iowa made local ordinances addressing sick leave illegal. That happened as part of the same local control bill where they revoked our local minimum wage. So we cannot mandate businesses offer it. If we could, I would vote for it.

What the County CAN do is take this generous sum of one-time money and make investments that improve the lives of our residents. And it is up to the Board of Supervisors, after listening to residents from all walks of life, to make those decisions. We will not make everyone happy. But we are going to do our best.

*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 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!

November 11, 2021

Another Legislative shoe dropped this week with State Representative Mary Mascher announcing her retirement after 28 years in the Iowa House.

I am getting old, and I have been involved in local politics for quite a while. When I think back to the people who are still active from when I started in the late ‘80s, Mary Mascher stands out. As everybody knows, Mary was a teacher. She was also a political activist who chaired the Johnson County Democratic Party.

I remember talking to some elected officials from western Iowa at a statewide conference. They said that at all the big fundraising events, speakers would say, “Do you want to turn over control of the State to radicals like MARY MASCHER?” They would really over-emphasize her name, like the deep-voiced radio announcers. And the crowd would vociferously boo at the sound of Mary’s name.

You know why that is? Because Mary has guts! She doesn’t take crap. She challenges those guys (they are almost all guys) and calls them out. If they dare debate her, she crushes them.

Understand – not every State Rep does this. Many avoid conflict. Others aren’t rhetorically capable. Many don’t care deeply enough. Not Mary! Mary fights the fight and she wins the fight!

I have always appreciated this about Mary. It is also worth noting that Mary’s seat is extremely safe. The people of Iowa City SHOULD have a Representative who pushes progressive legislation and fights hard for progressive causes. And for 28 years, Mary has delivered.

This is a huge loss for the people of Johnson County. But I also want to acknowledge that Mary has served long and well. She deserves to retire on her own terms. I am happy for her, and wish her all the best. Thanks, Mary, for an amazing, triumphant Legislative career!

I cannot prove this, but I imagine this is the first time Iowa City has had an open State Senate seat and two open State House seats since the Legislature went to one person, one vote in the 1960s.

This is the classic situation that is both a threat and an opportunity. I expect several candidates for these seats. I will be looking for a number of things in a candidate:

The candidates need to be progressive, smart, honest, genuine, and brave. They need to be focused on looking out for the neediest among us. They need to have paid some dues in the community and in the Party.

Perhaps most importantly, the people who occupy these seats cannot simply sit back. They need to push the envelope. They must play a role in Iowa similar to the roles played by Senators Sanders and Warren in the US Senate and Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Jayapal in the US House.

That does NOT mean our Reps need to be the furthest left, though they certainly need to be left of center. What this really means is they have to have guts. They have to lead on labor, healthcare, and education – issues important to everyone. They have to stand up against the rich. They have to be willing to reach into areas that make some folks uncomfortable. Again, they have to have guts. These are the seats that MUST play that role. If you cannot play that role, please do not run!

I know I am committed to making certain that we get the best possible people elected. I hope you are, too.

Last week the ICPD arrested Truth and Reconciliation Committee Chair Mohammed Traore at Harvat Hall as he spoke to fellow commissioners following a meeting.

Apparently there has been a warrant out for Traore for a couple of years. Was he aware of it? I don’t know. Should he have been aware of it? Probably, yes. Traore does not deny that he broke the law.

But the ICPD royally screwed this up. It is not as though Traore has been hiding. He has been one of the most high-profile members of this community over the past couple of years. Police could have simple called him, reminded him of the warrant, and given him an opportunity to turn himself in.

This is just such a boneheaded move in this racially charged environment. F-ing stupid, really. The ICPD had an opportunity to show a bit of grace to a young leader in the black community, and they chose to humiliate him instead. It is clearly retribution.

When people call this out as racist? It was. It was a stupidly racist decision. It’s shameful, and as a resident of Iowa City, I am thoroughly disappointed in my local police leadership. Come on, ICPD. You need to do better.

I am not sure what the City Council can do about this. The City Charter really insulates the Police Chief from the Council and the public. (By the way, I have applied to serve on City Charter Commissions in the 90s, 00s, and 10s, and been rejected each time. I will be applying again in the 20s.)

So, I believe citizens need to push Council members to do what they can. Like I said, I do not necessarily know what that amounts to. But we should not be satisfied with zero action.

I have to admit, I got it wrong when I incorrectly predicted that Republicans in the Iowa Legislature would go to a third map and gerrymander it. In fact, the second Legislative maps passed the Senate 48-1 and the House 93-2.

Obviously, the second map was just about perfect for the GOP. But it could have been a tiny bit better. I figured that there was nothing preventing them from going for it all, and just ignoring yet another norm.

The analogy I used with my friend John Deeth included two junior high kids at lunch: The kid about to be bullied just approaches the bully and says, “Here. Just take $4 of the $5 I have for lunch.” Does the bully accept the $4 and walk away? Or beat the kid up and take all $5? I fully expected the Republicans in the Iowa Legislature to go for the full $5.

But, I was obviously wrong. Let’s be clear – I don’t think the Republicans in the Iowa Legislature deserve a gold star simply because they didn’t break the law. That is a pretty low bar.

Now we will see how the various districts shake out. I remain pretty dubious when it comes to the GOP members of the Iowa Legislature, but I am happy to have been proven wrong here!

November has been named National Adoption Month and November 20th National Adoption Day.

The need out there is tremendous. In Johnson County alone, there are between 100 and 150 kids in foster care every day. There are nowhere near enough foster and adoptive homes to meet the need.

As many of you know, Melissa and I are the parents of three adopted children. We also served as foster parents to 50+ children, stopping four years ago.

It has been a life full of tragedies and triumphs. It has not always been easy, but it has been indescribably fulfilling. Along with marrying my wife, it is the best decision I ever made.

If you or someone you know is interested in foster care and/or adoption, please let me know. I am always happy to speak with prospective parents.

*DID YOU KNOW? November derives from the Latin root novem- meaning “nine,” because in the Roman calendar there were only 10 months in the year, and November was indeed the ninth month. The word November was first recorded before the year 1000.

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!

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