SULLIVAN'S SALVOS

October 27, 2025

Sullivan’s Salvos 10/30/25

In this edition:

*VOTE!

*Happy Halloween!

*Remembering November 1^st, 1991

*Supervisor Roots!

*Shadow Docket

*Swisher Family

*Did You Know?

*VOTE!

Early voting has already begun! Please swing by the Auditor’s Office (walk in or drive through) or check out the Auditor’s website for more details.

This election is incredibly important! Vote, and be sure all your friends and family do the same! Seriously! Get a couple additional people to join you!

*Happy Halloween!

Halloween is Thursday the 31^st. I have been amazed in recent years by the amount of effort (and money) that goes into decorating homes for the season. When I was young, few homes displayed anything other than carved pumpkins. Now, there are huge blow-up characters, lights, and much more.

As a matter of fact, according to the National Retail Federation for 2024, 72% plan to celebrate Halloween. The planned spending per person is $104. And the total planned spending is $11.6 billion!

Regardless of how you view Halloween, we need to remember a few key things: First, be careful! One thing that has not changed is an abundance of young children in dark costumes excitedly crossing streets. Secondly, you may want to temporarily take down your campaign yard signs. Despite annual accusations to the contrary, I still think most signs that disappear are teen pranks. Finally, have fun! Halloween offers all of us an opportunity to be young again.

*Remembering November 1^st, 1991

Thirty-four years ago on November 1, a UI post-graduate student named Gang Liu killed four faculty members, a student, and himself.

Faculty members Christoph Goertz, Dwight Nicholson, Robert Smith, T. Anne Cleary, and Linhua Shan were all slain. Student Miya Rodolfo-Sioson was shot and survived but was left paralyzed from the neck down. She died several years later from complications due to her injuries.

If you ask longtime residents of Johnson County, most can tell you where they were that fateful day. (I was working my second job - a Friday night shift in a Systems Unlimited group home. The residents of the group home were supposed to go out to dinner that night, but we quickly cancelled those plans.)

I wish I could say that in the decades that passed, something good had come from this horror. Frankly, I simply do not see it. Even bigger mass killings have occurred on other campuses across the nation. Heck, it happens in elementary schools! Our mental health system is not really any better, and our gun laws are even worse. The killings make no more sense today than they did thirty years ago.

I hope you will take a moment to reflect upon one of the saddest days in Johnson County history, pray for the many survivors whose lives were touched by the people we lost that day, and pray that we can do better as a state and country.

If you want to help, please check out the local chapter of Moms Demand Action. They are very active here.

*Supervisor Roots!

(This ran last year in Salvos.)

I have had a wonderful thing happen recently. I have connected with my first cousin once removed, a very nice gentleman named Rich Sullivan who lives in Iowa City. Rich’s dad, Don, was the oldest of a huge Sullivan clan. My grandfather, Tom, was the second oldest.

The generations get a little wonky; Don had children very late for back in those days. So Rich is about 11 years younger than my Dad would be, and about 15 years older than me.

I have really enjoyed reading some family history he left me. One of the cool things I learned? I’m not the first Sullivan to serve as a County Supervisor!

My Dad was Robert Sullivan. His father was Tom Sullivan. Tom’s father was Frank Sullivan. Frank’s father – also Tom – was my great-great-grandfather. That Tom Sullivan served as a Howard County Supervisor from 1881-1888!

I had no idea! How cool is that?

*Shadow Docket

There are *SO* many things about which we need to be concerned right now. It is truly difficult to keep up. But I would be remiss if I failed to mention the so-called “Shadow Docket” of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).

This really makes me sad, because ever since I was a young boy, I have been fascinated by SCOTUS. I still read and listen to everything I can get my hands on. And the current Conservative partisanship of the Court hurts me deeply. (Though it certainly does not hurt me as much as it hurts those more directly affected by their decisions!)

In case you don’t know what the “Shadow Docket” is… Wikipedia says: “The shadow docket (or non-merits docket) refers to motions and orders in the US Supreme Court in cases which have not yet reached final judgement, decision on appeal, and oral argument. This especially refers to stays and injunctions (preliminary relief), but also includes summary decisions and Grant, Vacate, and Remand orders.”

Here is a very real recent example. An Appeals Court Judge issued an injunction preventing Trump from firing a whole class of Federal workers. An injunction, in this case, makes a lot of sense. *IF* the employees lose their jobs, they lose health insurance, and so do their dependents. They may lose their houses and cars. They may be forced to move to find other work. People’s lives are profoundly affected. That is exactly the type of situation where an injunction is warranted – by failing to intervene, the Court would allow irreparable harm to be done.

In this case, SCOTUS overturned that injunction and allowed firings to proceed. But because it is on the Shadow Docket, they do not have to explain anything. They simply overturn it, period.

Obviously, this leads to a lot of questions. Does this ruling apply everywhere? Does it apply to other classes of workers? Are the fired workers entitled to unemployment? Do they have a right to appeal? The list goes on. And no one is more upset than Appellate Judges. They cannot use precedent if the precedent is not explained.

I recently learned that both the George W. Bush and Obama Administrations went to the Shadow Docket about 25 times each over the course of 8 years. The Biden Administration did so about twice as often – approximately 25 times over the course of 4 years. (Much of that relating to COVID.) The Trump Administration has already been on the Shadow Docket 24 times in 8 months! They are doing this at a rate 5 times that of any Administration in history!

This is a bad, bad process, and it needs to be used sparingly if ever. I hope the current SCOTUS majority will curtail this practice. But I am not holding my breath.

*Swisher Family

The Swisher family has been prominent in Johnson County, Iowa, since the area's early settlement. Their contributions include establishing the town of Swisher, playing significant roles in farming and business, and serving in public office.

Early settlement and founding the town of Swisher

Benjamin Swisher, an early pioneer, arrived in what would become Monroe Township in March 1841.
He settled along the Iowa River and purchased a land claim, a cabin, and a blacksmith shop from a discouraged pioneer.
His marriage to Elizabeth Whitmore in 1841 was the first wedding in the township.
The town of Swisher was later named for Benjamin Swisher, who helped establish the farming community.

Prominent Swisher family members

Scott Swisher (1919–1972) was a notable attorney in Iowa City and a Democratic state representative for Johnson County from 1955 to 1964. During his tenure, he served as minority floor leader and received recognition from the news media as an outstanding state representative.
Benjamin F. "Frank" Swisher (1849–1925), the son of the early settler Benjamin Swisher, made his mark as a master farmer. He developed a new variety of corn known as "Swisher Corn" through selective breeding.
George Swisher (1949–2019) was a longtime Iowa City resident and service technician who served on several city and county commissions. He was also a charter member of the American Motorcycle Association.
Sarah Swisher (Scott’s daughter and my friend) helped to organize SEIU 199 at UIHC, and served on the ICCSD Board from 2009-2013.

*DID YOU KNOW? Halloween originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed the boundary between the living and the dead blurred on October 31, allowing spirits to roam the earth, so they lit bonfires and wore costumes to ward them off. This pagan holiday was later incorporated into the Christian calendar as All Saints' Day (November 1), with the evening before becoming "All Hallows' Eve," which eventually became Halloween. (Source: Wikipedia.)

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

October 21, 2025

Early voting has already begun! Please swing by the Auditor’s Office (walk in or drive through) or check out the Auditor’s website for more details.

This election is incredibly important! Vote, and be sure all your friends and family do the same!

I recently learned that Christopher Merrill will be stepping down as the Director of the UI International Writing Program at the end of the year.

I got to know Chris when we were two of the original Board Members for the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization. It was Chris – more than anyone else – who is responsible for Iowa City’s designation as a UNESCO City of Literature. As a fellow Board Member, I primarily sat back in awe and thought, “This is an amazing human being.” I still feel that way today!

During his 25 years, the IWP has hosted over 1600 authors from over 160 countries. What a blessing to Iowa City and the whole world! Thank you, Chris!

There is much talk right now around the country as to whether or not Democrats are doing enough (or doing the right things) when it comes to fighting back against the lawlessness of Donald Trump. Nowhere is this argument more front of mind than the ongoing government shutdown.

Hey – I’m not going to sit here and pretend to have all the answers. I do not. But I do think it is worth mentioning the uneven playing field upon which Democrats are fighting.

What do I mean by this? First, Republicans in Congress do not mind breaking the law. Almost any law. Secondly, Republicans in Congress do not care if people get hurt.

Imagine a basketball game where one side is free to foul at will with no consequences. Seems pretty unfair, right? That is similar to the situation facing Democrats right now.

Don’t get me wrong – I definitely do not believe Democrats have done everything right. But I do believe we need to think about the ramifications of operating like the GOP.

I recently had a bit of a Facebook tiff (I know, I know!) with a friend. She was critical of local governments for failing to do more about childcare issues; critical of the cities for focusing Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) dollars on affordable housing; and critical of local human services agencies for – pretty much everything.

I was quite frustrated, and I sent the following response. It has been edited a tiny bit, mostly to protect her identity. But it explains many of the frustrations I feel.

Residents *dramatically* overestimate the ability of local governments to solve problems of this scale. Our abilities to tax and spend are limited by the State.

Look at it this way: the combined budgets of Johnson County, Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty are less than $500 million. That is everything, all in. Water, sewer, garbage, streets, everything. There are about 6,000 kids in Johnson County aged zero-kindergarten. (So this does not even include before and after school care, which is also operating in a state of crisis.)

Daycare is about $1500/month. $6000 x $1500 equals $9 million/month. Times 12 months is $108 million/year. That is more than 25% of all the tax revenue taken in in the whole county.

Want to adjust for incomes? 70% of parents have trouble paying for childcare. So drop the number by $32 million to $76 million/year. That is still over 15% of all the tax revenue collected in the whole county.

And you are only talking about childcare. While I acknowledge childcare is a critical issue, I *absolutely* rank it below health care, mental health, and affordable housing in terms of priorities.

So how you gonna reconcile that? We are short 10,000 units of affordable housing. That carries a price tag of about $2 billion - with a "B". Should we ignore that? You criticize cities for putting LOST toward affordable housing? It is a bigger concern!

Under current restraints, it would probably require a billion (there is that "B" again) to provide healthcare to the whole 160,000+ residents of Johnson County *every single year*. Want to adjust for inflation? Call it $500 million every year. Should we ignore that?

Mental health? Who the hell knows? I'm guessing we would need a solid $50-75 million annually. Should we ignore that?

Those are all bigger priorities, in my opinion. So add a couple billion each year to your $76 million per year, and we are getting close.

Oh, whoops! We didn't pay for anything else! That water, sewer, garbage, streets, etc. that I mentioned earlier? That is still close to $500 million/year. So we need to add that in.

So, for $3 billion per year, we can fix everything. But we don't have $3 billion per year. We have less than one sixth of that.

Local governments can move the needle on these issues. They should do what they can. And we do! But we cannot solve every problem. And candidates or electeds who disingenuously claim we *can* fix these problems should be called out for it! They are making promises they cannot keep!

Prevention? Of course we need to spend money on preventative services. We do this now. Do we need to spend more? Yes. But future and present needs often collide. The food banks cannot tell a person in need, “Sorry, we are spending money on prevention so future generations do not need this service.” That person needs food now!

Some problems are of a scope and scale that we require significant State help. Some are of such a scale and scope that we need significant Federal help. All of the abovementioned problems fit that mold.

I have been a voter for a long time. I have always voted for candidates who support addressing these issues. But you know what? They haven't won very often. When they have won, the opposition has been able to stop a lot of their progress. I am open to any ideas you have in terms of how to do this differently. I don't know what else to do, other than knock as many damned doors as I can.

See, this is my problem. Your post insinuates that all local elected officials are just lazy, stupid, evil, or some combination of those characteristics. And while there may be the occasional person who fits that bill, most local governments are busting their asses to serve the people of their communities. And they don't need this type of criticism; they need help! Come with workable solutions. Offer to help. Rather than inflame others in the public, educate them. If you come to me with an idea, I will listen. I promise!

As for the criticism of our local nonprofit sector - well, I simply do not know how you could be more incorrect. Most of our local agencies are staffed by people with *national* reputations for their subject matter expertise. They work incredibly hard for lower salaries and worse benefits than they could get in other sectors. Most get assessed by peers and/or accrediting bodies every few years; all of them come out of these assessments with rave reviews. We are so unbelievably lucky to have them in our community!

And frankly, it really pisses me off that you go after them. It is completely unwarranted. Come for elected officials all you want; I guess we signed up for it. But don't call out our nonprofit sector and expect me to sit back and fail to defend them! These are my heroes, and you owe them an apology.

Whew! That was the post. I should note – this does not help me in any way. It is much easier to not challenge this person. I’m certain she is now squarely against me, and will do whatever she can to ensure I lose this job. That is why you so rarely get anything but platitudes from elected officials. But I think it is critical to have real, fact-based discussions about issues. Salvos readers, I am curious as to your thoughts.

*DID YOU KNOW? The largest mass casualty event in Johnson County history was an 1859 tornado that killed at least 6 people.

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!

October 13, 2025

The harvest season is upon us. It is a beautiful time of year, but it can also be dangerous. There is a lot of large, slow-moving equipment on the roads. Please be careful and leave a little extra time.

Fall is upon us, and there are many opportunities now for you to get updated COVID and flu shots. PLEASE do so! I got mine!

Yes, I wish these shots were still free; our healthcare system never fails to frustrate me. But PLEASE take advantage of these opportunities. You may well be making a decision that saves your life, and/or the lives of others.

Johnson County recently went live with Workday, a platform for managing HR, Capital, and Finances. Workday is used by thousands of entities around the world, and comes highly recommended.

Implementing Workday is the type of thing that has been a *very* big deal to County employees, but if our implementation continues to go well (so far, so good!) the public will never know anything happened.

Workday essentially takes a lot of the daily tasks of HR and Finance and moves them from paper to online. It is going to ultimately save Johnson County a lot of time and money, and many employees will see processes that used to take them a couple hours each week reduced to minutes. In addition, it makes all sorts of data readily available; something we have been sorely lacking.

Upfront, however, has been a huge investment of time and money. My sincere thanks to the folks who have led this charge, and my thanks to the County employees who have had to adapt to new ways of doing things. It is going to be a very good thing for taxpayers once we get it fully implemented.

You may have heard news reports lately that mention Posse Comitatus. Unfortunately, this law is back in the news due to the illegal actions of President Trump. There is also an interesting local twist, which I will get to a bit later.

First, some background: Posse Comitatus is Latin for the “Power of the County.” The Posse Comitatus Act was signed into US law in 1878 by President Rutherford B. Hayes. The act limits the power of government to use the military in law enforcement efforts.

The origin of Posse Comitatus goes back to the period of Reconstruction. In the wake of the Civil War, some southern groups used violence and intimidation to suppress the vote among newly freed African Americans. President Grant sent the US Army to various locations to see to it that voting could go on unimpeded. Much of the former Confederacy was “occupied” by federal troops during elections.

And those elections, held under the watchful eye of the US military, resulted in a wave of African American elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels. Over 1,500 African American men, most former slaves, served in public office at all levels of government, holding positions from local sheriff to U.S. Congress. Key figures included Hiram Revels, the first Black U.S. Senator, and Robert Smalls, who served multiple terms in the House of Representatives. But this would be short lived.

In 1876, the Presidential election was a dead heat between Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes appeared to have won the popular vote, but there were many tales of election fraud. (Sound familiar?) Tilden appeared to have won in the Electoral College, but 4 states sent two opposing groups of electors to the event. (Sound familiar?) The country appeared to be headed for another Civil War, just 11 years after the end of the last one.

So operatives from both political parties began negotiating. Ultimately, Democrats agreed to allow Hayes the Presidency, but in exchange for an end to federal troops overseeing Reconstruction. The Republicans agreed, and basically started the Jim Crow era that lasted another 90 years.

One more thing happened to bring about Posse Comitatus. In 1877 Republican President Hayes used federal troops to end the Great Railroad Strike. Southern Democrats did not want to see federal troops interfering with their racial supremacy. Northern Democrats did not want to see federal troops used to put down the growing Labor Movement. Though northern and southern Democrats did not agree on much, they agreed that the military needed to stay out of domestic politics. So when Democrats took the House and Senate in 1878, there was broad support to pass what became the Posse Comitatus Act.

There have been a couple exceptions made to Posse Comitatus in US history. President Eisenhower used an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, derived from the Enforcement Acts, to send federal troops into Little Rock during the 1957 school desegregation crisis. The Arkansas governor had opposed desegregation after the US Supreme Court ruled in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated public schools were unconstitutional. The Enforcement Acts, among other powers, allowed the president to call up military forces when state authorities were either unable or unwilling to suppress violence that was in opposition to the citizens' constitutional rights.

Very recently, the lawsuit Newsom v. Trump raised constitutional challenges under the Posse Comitatus Act in response to the domestic deployment of U.S. Marines and National Guard troops in California. On September 2, federal judge Charles Breyer ruled that the federal deployment of the National Guard in California violated the Posse Comitatus Act and issued an injunction against it.

So Posse Comitatus is in the news. Interestingly, Johnson County had its own Posse Comitatus discussions back around 2010. As you might recall, 2010 was the height of the Tea Party movement, and the Board of Supervisors began getting hate mail from some county residents. Some of this mail claimed that Posse Comitatus had been violated.

Frankly, I never understood this. We had no federal military presence. None. I spoke at length to County Attorney Janet Lyness about this, and all we could discern was that the complaining citizens did not understand the law.

Meanwhile, some of them sent letters to the Treasurer and Supervisors claiming they were not going to pay property taxes in protest of this. (In the end, they all paid.) We got other letters that were vaguely threatening that mentioned Posse Comitatus as well. Again, the reference did not really make sense, but the threats seemed real enough.

The Sheriff and Chief Deputy met with Elected Officials to copy records and create files. We were all a bit more cautious. The Sheriff’s Office only knew of two people for sure who were involved, but they were trying to determine just how deep things went. There were a couple handwriting samples that were clearly the same people. It seemed to be focused on just a handful of people who lived south of Oxford and north of Kalona, though another participant lived on the east side of the county.

Finally, things came to a head at a county meeting. There was a large Pubic Hearing on changes to the Zoning Code. The changes caused a lot of anger in the ag community, though I think the opposition was ridiculous.

The opposition centered on Johnson County instituting a Property Maintenance Code. This required property owners to meet some very basic health and safety standards for rural homes. We said it would rarely be used, and it rarely has been. In retrospect, it has been a very good rule change. It went exactly as we said it would.

But the people in the room that night felt otherwise. And one guy in particular said he was going to take action himself to make sure Supervisors did not vote for this code change. Luckily, a Sheriff’s Deputy was in attendance. He removed the person from the meeting.

As it happened, this guy was one of the two main Posse Comitatus leaders. In the wake of this meeting, the Sheriff’s Office went door to door to the handful of people they knew to be members. They explained that they knew who the Posse Comitatus members were, that threats were unacceptable, and that the Sheriff’s Office would be watching them.

The threats stopped. One of the people in question moved away. And we never heard anything else about Posse Comitatus.

I still don’t understand how they arrived at that name for their group. It never made any sense, and still doesn’t. But I certainly do recall the threats. And I definitely was reminded of that era as I hear Posse Comitatus being invoked in DC, LA, and Chicago. The current Posse Comitatus violations are probably the most significant breach of law by a President in our nations history!

*DID YOU KNOW? The willful use of federal military forces for civilian law enforcement is a federal crime under the Posse Comitatus Act.

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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SULLIVAN'S SALVOS

October 27, 2025

October 21, 2025

October 13, 2025