SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
April 2, 2024
Sullivan’s Salvos 4/4/24
In this edition:
*Happy Birthday Jordan!
*Pancake Day
*Skip the Bottled Water
*Trans Day of Visibility
*Transparency
*Transparency and the Truth
*Mission Creek Festival
*Did You Know?
*Happy Birthday Jordan!
My daughter Jordan turns 30 on April 8th. Jordan works at a place very similar to Four Oaks (but much larger) called Youth Villages in Memphis, Tennessee. She has worked there ever since she graduated from college. She continues to get promoted, and is doing very well professionally.
In addition, she coaches area youth in basketball and track. Jordan was always a great athlete, and she is really having fun with the kids!
More importantly, Jordan is a really good person. Man, am I ever proud! Happy Birthday, Jordan! I love you!
*Pancake Day
The Iowa City Athletic Booster Club Pancake Day breakfast fundraiser will be held Saturday, April 6th from 6:30 am – 2:00 pm at the West High School cafeteria at 2901 Melrose Ave in Iowa City, IA.
Most people do not realize this, but the Iowa City Athletic Booster Club’s fundraising efforts provide approximately half of each school’s athletics budget and is the first revenue source used to provide each school with the equipment and supplies they need to serve the more than 3,500 students who participate in school sports programs .
*Skip the Bottled Water
It takes 47 million barrels of oil to produce the 4 billion pounds of plastic water bottles used each year. 47 million barrels of oil is enough to fuel 1 million cars for a year. (Source: Physicians for Social Responsibility.)
It is easy to default to bottled water. I am sometimes guilty of it, too. But please try to avoid wasting all that plastic. We all need to do our part.
*Trans Day of Visibility
I have had a couple of people ask me about a discussion the Board had about Trans Day of Visibility. Frankly, it was awful. But you should see for yourself.
All Board Meetings (with just a few exceptions) are available on the County website at www.johnsoncountyiowa.gov.
Just go to the home page, and at the very top you will see Board of Supervisors Meetings and Agendas. Click there, then find the meeting you want to see. In this case, that is March 27, 2024.
Once you open the work session, you can fast forward to 42:30. The discussion goes almost 40 minutes until 1:21:47.
Again, you can use this tool for any Board meeting!
*Transparency
The issue of transparency has come up in the Board Office recently. In the interest of transparency, I am going to be putting out a weekly report on my hours worked. Just a simple Excel spreadsheet containing the hours worked each day and how they were spent. I did one for each of the past two week, and it took 10 minutes, tops. For the week of March 18, I worked 36 hours. (It felt like more, because I also did a lot of campaign work. That doesn’t count!) For the week of March 25, I worked 43.5 hours. Let me know if you want to see the breakdown.
I urge other Supervisors to do the same thing. I also urge the public and the press to request that Supervisors share their schedules. How are they spending their time?
You are paying us handsomely - $92,000 per year. Are you getting your money’s worth? Wouldn’t it be nice to find out?
*Transparency and the Truth
As I noted - You are paying us handsomely - $92,000 per year. Are you getting your money’s worth? Wouldn’t it be nice to find out?
Now I am concerned about how Johnson County residents are supposed to divine the truth. Case in point – I have recently heard misinformation about how Johnson County came to change its eponym.
You may recall that Johnson County used to be named for Richard Mentor Johnson, a former US Vice President and all-around bad human being. In late September of 2020, the Board voted to change the eponym, and instead name Johnson County for Lulu Merle Johnson, a UI scholar and civil rights activist. I am extremely proud that this happened – in part because I brought up the idea three years earlier, in September of 2017. I still have the scars (and some of the hate mail) to show for it!
So who checks this? I don’t know. Gannett, Sinclair, iHeart Media, and other media conglomerations have robbed the people of Johnson County of any investigative reporting. Smaller local outfits simply cannot do everything. So you are stuck. You can believe me, or not. I wish you had better avenues for figuring out what is true.
*Mission Creek Festival
Mission Creek Festival returns live and in-person on April 4 – 6, presenting an array of world-class and home-grown artists to celebrate the finest of music and literature. Check out the full lineup at missioncreekfestival.com.
Presented by: The Englert Theatre
Title Sponsor: Green State Credit Union
Partners & Sponsors: Hancher Auditorium, SCOPE Productions, City of Iowa City, Think Iowa City, Tuesday Agency, Spare Me!, Goodfellow Printing, Graduate Iowa City, Iowa Public Radio, James Investment Group, Little Village, Phoebe Martin Realtor, Reunion Brewery, West Music, Dr. Suzanne Stock
EARLY BIRD PRESALE – from December 8 to January 11
20% off your full 3-day pass with early bird pricing!
MUSIC: Neko Case / Osees / Indigo De Souza / George Clanton / L’Rain / Armand Hammer / SG Goodman / Sunny War / Nadah El Shazly / Hatis Noit / Pelada / 24thankyou / Anthony Worden / The Blake Shaw Big(ish) Band / Boot Camp / Dave Helmer Band / M Denney / New Standards Men / Single File / sqvce / Strangers of Necessity / Subatlantic / YXNG RASKAL
LITERATURE: Hanif Abdurraqib / Live Wire Radio / Jessamine Chan / Morgan Parker / Thea Brown / Hadara Bar-nadav / Zachary Pace / Cindy Juyoung Ok / Tisa Bryant / Frictions Media + Ui Nonfiction Writing Program
FEATURED PRESSES & JOURNALS: Sarabande Books / Dorothy, A Publishing Project / Two Dollar Radio / Fonograf Editions / Container / Split/lip Press / Rescue Press / Flood Editions / The Iowa Review / American Short Fiction / Europa Editions / Arrowsmith Press / Meekling Press Perugia Press / Promptpress / Brink / Cleveland Review Of Books / Long Day Press / New Moon Magazine / flexible Press, LLC / Feral House / MWV Press / earthwords: The Undergraduate Literary Review / Ink Lit Magazine / 508 Press / Quartet / Middle West Press LLC / The Mad Duck Coalition
*NEW* Insider Pass – $195.00 + fees
Early Bird Full Pass – $95.00 + fees
Student Full Pass – $65.00 + fees
Regular full passes, day passes, and festival merch will go on sale February 2. Stay tuned for more information!
Members of The Englert are guaranteed early bird pricing until the festival weekend.
*NEW* INSIDER PASS
Elevate your festival experience! Insider Access includes:
» Access to every festival event for all 3 days
» Guaranteed entry to performances at The Englert & Hancher
» Entry to private pre-show celebratory toast at Hancher on Thursday
» Access to exclusive lounge at The Englert on Friday and Saturday with complimentary snacks and refreshments
» A free ticket to the Live Wire literary capstone event on Saturday evening
» A free commemorative MCF T-shirt
» 2 free drink tickets, redeemable at The Englert
Pass Rules & Regulations
» Passes are issued in the form of a wristband. Patrons must wear their wristbands at all times for entry to events.
» A pass grants access to all corresponding events, but all patrons are subject to any age restrictions or capacity limit a venue chooses to enforce.
» Entrance to The Englert Theatre and Hancher Auditorium is guaranteed at all times for pass holders. Entrance to all other venues is subject to capacity. Once a venue is at capacity, additional entry will be prohibited until capacity is freed. This includes the Live Wire Radio event.
» All festival patrons are subject to any age restrictions a venue chooses to enforce, regardless of pass type.
» All venues are general admission; seating is not guaranteed.
» The festival lineup and performance times are subject to change.
» All pass purchases are non-refundable, no exceptions. Wristbands are the responsibility of the patron — the festival cannot replace lost, damaged, or stolen wristbands.
*DID YOU KNOW? West Branch native Herbert Hoover was the first US President born west of the Mississippi River.
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.
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As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan29@gmail.com. I look forward to serving you!
---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 10:37 PM
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