SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
March 1, 2023
Sullivan’s Salvos 3/7/23
In this edition:
*U of I Financial Impact
*Former Supervisors
*Mike Lehman
*Sally Stutsman
*Did You Know?
*U of I Financial Impact
The University of Iowa just put out some incredible information regarding the financial impact of that organization on the State as a whole. Check out a few of these stats:
*The University of Iowa provides 1 out of every 19 jobs in the State of Iowa!
*The UI provides $8 billion in added value to the State.
*Every dollar spent on the UI provides a $3.50 return on investment.
*The UI makes up 4% of the total State GDP.
You would like to think that statistics like this would lead to greater State investment in the UI. That would be logical. But not in this environment. Despite the evidence, to many Republican State Legislators, the UI is somehow bad.
We need to fight this perception. But we are not getting that from UI Administration. The whole group seems completely cowed by Kim Reynolds. There are doing their best to quietly serve her while our University loses prestige and opportunities.
They are not going to stand up for the UI. So the rest of us need to!
*Former Supervisors
I wrote last week about my thoughts on the job of County Supervisor. So I decided this week to write about a couple of folks that I think did the job of County Supervisor very well.
*Mike Lehman
Mike Lehman came from a large Catholic family that farms just south of Iowa City. He held a few different ag-related jobs in addition to being a partner in the family farm. Mike served on the Johnson County Board of Supervisors from 1998 until 2006. I started as a Board Member in January of 2005 on a Board that included Mike, Sally Stutsman, Terrence Neuzil, Pat Harney, and myself. So my career as a Supervisor only overlapped Mike for two years.
But boy, did I learn a lot in those two years! For starters, Mike was very kind, and took the time to explain things to me. One difficult thing in the job of a Supervisor is that there are several duties that only come around once every year. Still others happen every two or four years. It really important to have someone who can walk you through this, and Mike did that for me.
He instilled all sorts of wisdom that I still swear by today. Here are some examples:
*If you need to meet with a Department Head or Elected Official, offer to meet at their office. First, you need to spend some time on their turf. Secondly, be observant, and check out their environment. Thirdly, it is good for their staff to see you outside the office.
*Don’t embarrass staff in public. You may have a very real concern or complaint. Whatever that concern is, it should be dealt with privately. Don’t ask a “gotcha” question in the Board Room if you could have asked it earlier in private.
*Take the time to occasionally ask staff questions about their budgets, claims, or reports. It shows you pay attention and shows you care.
*Contrary to the old saying, the customer is NOT always right! Far too often we get a member of the public accusing a staff person of doing something wrong. And far too often, Supervisors respond by assuming the member of the public is right. In my experience, public complainants are right less than 50% of the time. So I deal with these situations the same way Mike did; I don’t jump to any conclusions. I try to hear both sides, then try to get both sides involved in solving the problem. Those are just a few examples.
Mike also has a great sense of humor. We would take a bathroom break after a couple of hours of intense discussion, and he’d say, “What did we just decide?” He was very self-deprecating, and usually made jokes at his own expense.
Mike got beat when he ran for reelection in 2006. That was largely a result of the infamous “Newport Road” fiasco. But the politics were much different here in 2006. People today would not even recognize it.
One of the things that hurt Mike in that election was one of the things that made him so good at the job: he never pandered. Mike was a farmer, but he sometimes voted against the ag community if he thought they were wrong. Conservatives helped get him elected, but he disappointed them on issues like spending on social services, supporting labor, and supporting LGBTQ rights. Similarly, liberals expected him to vote with them every time, and he just wouldn’t do that. So when the time came for reelection, everyone had a bone to pick.
Mike was honest, fair, humble, kind, smart, hard-working, and just a very good person. I really enjoyed serving with him, and I strive every day to be as good a Supervisor as he was. Thanks, Mike!
*Sally Stutsman
Another Supervisor that helped me a lot along the way was Sally Stutsman. Sally grew up in Fort Dodge and attended Iowa State. There she met Roger Stutsman, a local farm kid from the Sharon Center area. They married and settled on Roger’s family farm, where they still live today. Sally held a few different positions in human services prior to running for Supervisor.
Sally was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1994, and served for 18 years. She then got elected to the Iowa Legislature, serving 6 years (3 terms). Sally’s time on the Board and mine overlapped for eight years, and I think we accomplished some very good things during that time.
In my opinion, the 1990s were the most important era in the history of Johnson County government. If you looked at County government in 1870 and again in 1970, you wouldn’t see much difference. But by 1990, Johnson County was about 100,000 people. Not only was Iowa City a fully-fledged urban area, but Coralville and North Liberty were as well. Johnson County was no longer a rural county. It was no longer a lily-white county. Johnson County had urban county problems like traffic, homicides, housing issues, poverty, and much more. The old way of doing things was no longer working.
So the Supervisors in the 90s took huge steps. They put Supervisor meetings on tv. (That was a huge controversy!) They started an HR Department, and began doing performance evals. They professionalized every department. There was an increased focus on human services, public health, and mental health. They invested heavily in technology, and moved almost every county function to computers. It was a lot. It was necessary. And Sally was a big part of all of it.
But one thing that gets overlooked through all of this? Sally had to deal with a lot of bullshit! The misogyny was deep, even by the time I joined her on the Board. Sally was not the first female Supervisor, but it was still rare. And men sometimes openly told her that they didn’t care what she thought. Other times it wasn’t so overt, but it was definitely there.
In addition, Sally was a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights, and a longtime supporter of a woman’s right to choose. She took some serious hits over this! Remember, local politics in Johnson County were VERY different just 20 years ago! Through it all, she never wavered.
Looking back, I don’t think I ever gave her enough credit given how much harder she had to work. Johnson County would not be the place it is today without Sally Stutsman’s work. I am honored that I got to serve with her! Thanks, Sally!
*DID YOU KNOW? The first female County Supervisor in Johnson County was Lorada Cilek, elected in 1972. Cilek served until her death at the end of 1980. In 2019, Story County became the first county to have an all-female (3 member) Board. That same year, Johnson County had 4 women and one man (me).
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 7:57 PM
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