SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
May 11, 2023
Sullivan’s Salvos 5/16/23
In this edition:
*RIP Rebecca Reiter
*Loneliness Part 2
*Supervisors as Employees
*Did You Know?
*RIP Rebecca Reiter
I was sorry to hear of the passing of Rebecca Reiter of Iowa City. Rebecca was a very dedicated scientist who pushed hard for young women to join her in the field.
I met Rebecca through her work for both the Johnson County League of Women Voters and Johnson County Democratic Party. Rebecca served several years as Secretary for the Dems, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2013.
She was a smart, kind, caring, hard working individual who will be missed. RIP Rebecca!
*Loneliness Part 2
I am an extrovert. I enjoy talking to people. I can go to a party where I do not know anyone and have a marvelous time. Obviously, some people are introverts, and feel exactly the opposite. But in both cases, Americans are much lonelier than in the past. What is going on?
Like SO many of our problems, this has multiple pieces. The pandemic obviously made things worse. But statistics show the loneliness epidemic started before that. Cell phones? Undoubtedly part of the problem. Social media? Yep. Lack of time? Yes. This only scratches the surface.
So what can we do about it? Experts do offer several tips. These are from Scientific American:
1.) Be the friend you’d like to have. Say yes to invitations, be reliable, respond to texts, e-mails and voicemail messages in a timely way. Consider volunteering your time for worthy causes, which will position you to help others who may also struggle with loneliness. Provide instrumental and emotional support and give your friends your full attention. Celebrate their accomplishments. Remember their birthdays and other important events. Listen to their troubles and provide a shoulder to cry on, when needed.
2.) Make yourself vulnerable and be the first to show trust. Share something personal about yourself and be courageous enough to extend the first invitation to an event or social outing (know that you might get turned down, just like when pursuing a romantic relationship).
3.) Be compassionate with yourself. Expect to make a few mistakes when trying to establish new friendships. No matter how hard you try, you’ll eventually say or do the wrong thing. Keeping that in mind can help you to stop being your own worst critic. Try to be as understanding of your own missteps as you are of others’ minor blunders. If appropriate, apologize. Then, move on. A little self-compassion will make the whole process easier, especially when a budding friendship fizzles (you won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s okay).
Please allow me to just add a couple things. If you are reading this, I’d be happy to chat with you. On the phone or in person. We can have coffee, play catch, sit on my porch, whatever. Reach out. I am game.
Look for me to be reaching out to you as well. I am going to fight this loneliness epidemic. I will not go quietly into this good night!
Finally, please seek out help if you need it. All you need to do is pick up any phone and dial 988. Professionals will pick up, ready and willing to help. There is help out there!
*Supervisors as Employees
As time goes by, it seems I am finding fewer and fewer areas of agreement with my Republican friends. There is one topic that comes up every election where I do agree, however… I think Johnson County Supervisors are overpaid.
Yes, I am talking about myself and my colleagues. In FY23, Supervisors were paid $89,129. That ranks third in Iowa; Polk County Supervisors are paid $135,423, and Linn County Supervisors are paid $124,967. Story County Supervisors are right behind us at $87,549.
There can be some significant differences between counties… Polk has 5 Supervisors plus a County Manager; Linn and Story have just 3 Supervisors and like Johnson, have no County Manager.
$89,129 puts us somewhere around the 17th or 18th percentile nationwide in terms of income; in other words, 82% of all Americans earn less, while 18% of Americans earn more. The median household income in Johnson County is about $67,000. So we are doing just fine.
Why do I feel this way? As you probably know, I have been a Supervisor for a long time. When I started, the Board Office had two employees. It now has 15 employees. In fairness, most of these employees serve the whole county, not just the Board. But it is still a fact that there are a lot more people working for the Board than ever before.
When I started, if you wanted a proclamation done, you had to do it yourself. If you wanted to apply for a grant, you had to write the grant. You filled out your own paperwork. There was nobody to do things for you, so you did things for yourself. A lot of that has changed.
Don’t get me wrong; some of this is good. We get many more grants now that we have a talented Grants Manager on staff. In fact, we have done well enough that we had to hire a Grants Assistant to keep up with the workload. But the net is definitely a positive for the people of Johnson County.
So, the job of Supervisor has less paperwork than it used to. Isn’t that good? Doesn’t that just free you up to do higher-level planning and problem solving? In theory, yes. The problem is, I’m not sure we are doing any more of that higher-level work than was done previously. We are about to engage in some strategic planning, so hopefully that will change.
There are other pieces to the Supervisor job that I think are worth discussing. Supervisors do not punch a clock. How does one put a price on that? Basically, there are two meetings every week that require your attendance – three or so hours on Wednesday, and maybe two hours on Thursday. There are several additional things a Supervisor should attend, but there is really nobody watching. So a Supervisor could, in theory, slide by working 5-6 hours per week and still earn $89,000 per year.
That has only happened once since I have been on the Board. But there have been pretty significant differences in how much time different Supervisors felt they needed to put in. Personally, I have done three different time studies since I joined the Board. Each was two weeks long, each was at least two years apart, and in each case, I spent right around 40 hours per week at the job. I have served with at least one person who spent more time than that. I have served with many people who spent less time. The guy who spent the most time, in my opinion, was not very good at the job. So quality matters more than quantity. But quantity does matter!
One place this shows up is when people are rarely in the office. When the public wants to speak to a Supervisor, they speak to who is there. If a Department Head wants to bounce an idea off someone, they speak to who is there. Being present is part of the job. Employees know who is around and who isn’t, and it makes a difference in terms of staff morale.
Then there is the issue of how you spend your time. To some people, spending time talking to AFSCME members is important. Others are not interested in that, but feel touring our many conservation areas is important. Still others think we should be driving gravel roads. Some think we should be visiting folks at the Free Lunch Program. Others feel you should have an online presence. Some people simply think you should be in your office, available to whomever needs you. In my opinion, all of these can be valuable. All should be done, but also done with some semblance of moderation.
Many years ago – in the ‘70s, if my sources have it correctly – Johnson County instituted a policy that employees who were hired at ¾ time were entitled to full benefits. So the Supervisors at that time decided they were ¾ time employees. (I honestly can’t say I blame them; health insurance was and is critical, and if we want people to do jobs, they have to have insurance.) Johnson County has not had that policy for some time, but the idea that Supervisors are ¾ time has stuck around. Yet this is not a policy, and never really was.
The ¾ time thing did reemerge during some budget battles a few years ago; there was a conscientious effort to get the salaries of Supervisors to equal ¾ the salaries of the Treasurer, Recorder, and Auditor. I always found this to be very arbitrary. It was not based upon any type of market study, just an old decision from the 70s.
I do believe that Supervisors need to earn a decent wage. We need to offer a position that can attract high quality candidates. I do not think you will get that at $50,000. Then your whole candidate pool would be either people without enough real-world experience or retirees. And in many counties, that IS exactly who serves in the office of Supervisor – retired folks.
If $89,000 is too high and $50,000 is too low, what is the right amount? I guess I’d just like to see salaries frozen for a couple of years. Everything has grown quickly, and I think Supervisor salaries have grown too quickly. Perhaps our strategic planning efforts can couple the pay discussion with a discussion of expectations. That would be a very good thing, in my opinion. Maybe it isn’t so much the pay; perhaps the expectations are simply too low.
What are your thoughts? Are Supervisors paid too much, too little, or just about right? What expectations do you have for a person who serves in the office of Supervisor?
*DID YOU KNOW? 68 Iowa counties have 3 County Supervisors, while 31 have 5 County Supervisors.
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 @ 9:31 AM
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