SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
April 26, 2026
Sullivan’s Salvos 4/30/26
In this edition:
*Dems Hall of Fame Event
*Shooting in Iowa City
*Real Response to Shooting
*Budget Games
*Did You Know?
*Dems Hall of Fame Event
The Johnson County Democratic Party is holding our Annual Hall of Fame Awards on Saturday, May 16 at 6:30 pm at the Holiday Inn in Coralville. 2026 marks the 16th consecutive year that the Johnson County Democratic Party has held a separate Hall of Fame event.
Please join us for coffee, desserts, and plenty of old war stories! A cash bar will be available.
The Hall of Fame inductees for 2026 are: Terry and Laurie Dahms, Linda Yanney, Joan and Tom Cook, and Mike Owen. We hope you can join us in recognizing this remarkable group!
Tickets are available for a $50 suggested donation. People who cannot afford that amount should still feel welcome. Sponsorships are available.
*Shooting in Iowa City
Downtown Iowa City was home to a shooting early Sunday morning, with 5 people injured, including 3 UI students. Needless to say, this is absolutely tragic. Like everyone else, I am praying for the best possible outcome for all the victims.
I really do not spend much time looking, but I am truly disheartened by so much of the response I have seen. Legitimate news organizations like KCRG and KWWL that allow comments on news stories are filled with vile, hateful stuff. We simply must do better.
This type of tragedy always strikes me a little bit differently on a personal note. My cousin was shot and killed by his wife when I was in high school. It was in Kansas City, Missouri, and the story is so tragic it does not even seem real. Both Perry (my cousin) and his wife struggled with mental health and substance abuse issues. She shot and killed him while my aunt stood ten feet away, holding the couple’s two small children. Again, tragic.
I will never forget the shootings that occurred on the UI campus on November 1, 1991. Like everyone who lived here at the time, I remember exactly where I was when I heard about it. It really felt at the time – and still feels today – that Iowa City was forever changed that day. There really was an innocence lost.
There was a local gun violence prevention group that arose out of that tragedy – the November 1st Coalition. My wife Melissa is a very active member of Moms Demand Action. The Moms folks would like to connect with anyone who was involved in the November 1st Coalition. If you are one of those people or know someone who was, please email me.
There are direct victims of violence. There are also many indirect victims. We just noted Crime Victim’s Rights Week. I wish we had no need to do so.
*Real Response to Shooting
There are many people in Johnson County government working in response to the shooting. I appreciate all their work. What I do not appreciate is political grandstanding.
On Thursday, April 23 the Board discussed a proposal from Supervisor Fixmer Oraiz to create a committee to address the shooting. In their memo, they said they had “spoken to community members and leaders” who thought the committee would be a good thing.
Interestingly, between the time of the shooting and the time I got the memo from Supervisor Fixmer Oraiz (3 days), I spoke to:
Six of the seven IC Council members; 3 Christian clergy and a Rabbi; two leaders of the local African American community, and numerous other local folks. I spoke to the Sheriff and the County Attorney. I attended the vigil that was held, and literally sat and stood amongst about a dozen members of the local gun violence intervention group Moms Demand Action, including my wife. I spoke to Directors of two nonprofit organizations that both serve a lot of minority youth. I also spoke at some length with the two employees of our Community Violence Intervention Program (CVI) – a program Supervisor Fixmer Oraiz voted against.
I spoke to over 30 people, all of which have a very vested interest in this topic. And they all can name things that need to be done. But you know what none of them asked for? Another committee.
CVI already has an advisory committee. Moms meets monthly. Johnson County has a Juvenile Justice and Youth Development Committee that has met monthly for 30 years!
We need to support these folks in what they do. Each group would be happy to have a few more people show up. But creating a new committee at this point is just politics. And it has real consequences; it takes time and energy away from the people already doing the real work.
What do I mean when I say support them? I have a lifetime perfect record on gun issues as a candidate. I have voted to fund CVI, and have spent years recruiting members for JJYD. I attend every Moms Demand Action public event. Support happens places other than the Boardroom.
Not counting suicides, there have been 21 people shot in Johnson County since the day Supervisor Fixmer Oraiz took office. They never suggested a committee after any of the first 16 shootings. They voted *against* the CVI program. Suddenly, the topic needs a committee? It is all just a bit too convenient for my tastes.
*Budget Games
Supervisor Mandi Remington recently introduced a spending measure that the Board discussed on Wednesday, April 22. The proposal was in response to a last second letter from Escucha Mi Vos demanding that Johnson County change our budget and hand money over to them. Supervisor Remington’s plan would not necessarily change our budget per se, but it has significant budget ramifications.
I have to say, I found this action to be extremely reckless! Allow me to explain why.
Let’s start with some background on our budgeting process. Johnson County has been working on the FY27 budget (which begins July 1, 2026) since December of 2025. Supervisors have had approximately 150 days – almost half a year – to bring up any budget item they wanted. I brought up several. Yet Supervisor Remington waited to discuss this issue until the day before the budget vote. I find this to be remarkably irresponsible.
The Board had three budget “votes.” In that process, we go person by person on spending measures. If the measure gets at least three Supervisors to agree, it stays in the budget. We do that three times, at which point the question is asked, “Do we have a budget every Supervisor can support?” If anyone answers no, we continue to negotiate. That question was answered in the affirmative by each Supervisor on March 3 of this year. We could have kept talking, but every Supervisor agreed we had created a budget they could support. So we stopped negotiating, and let the Finance Department put on the finishing touches.
No one – including Supervisor Remington – gave any indication whatsoever that they wanted to discuss additional items. Had it come up, it would have been discussed. But it did not. It feels as though we were lied to.
Supervisor Remington has made the argument that this is not a budget issue. That is because she proposes spending from our projected financial reserves. Let me address this point.
Johnson County maintains a healthy reserve fund. I actually worked with former Supervisor Janelle Rettig, former Treasurer Tom Kriz, and a couple others to develop the policy. And it has served us well! We have endured floods, tornadoes, COVID – all instances where having ample reserves came in handy.
I am often criticized for referring to our history, but I think an awareness of our history allows us to better serve the public. I am sure Supervisor Remington is unaware of this, but we also had a large fire once. We suffered major losses in our Secondary Roads Department. Despite having good insurance coverage, our insurance did not completely cover replacement costs for buildings and vehicles. We went through a lot of extra reserves that year. The point is, you have reserves for a reason.
Supervisor Remington argues that she is proposing to spend additional money “above and beyond” our reserve policy. That is untrue. Our reserve policy is a minimum. We may not go below it. That does not mean we should never exceed it.
What’s more, we still have no idea what Governor Reynolds and the Republicans in the Iowa Legislature will do to us. Remember, they are still in session, with a commitment to cutting property taxes. All we hear, frankly, is cutting property taxes. What does that mean? No one knows for certain. All the more reason to have some extra money in reserves.
Most importantly, this distortion of our budget process is very problematic. Elected Officials and Department Heads had several items they asked to have funded, and they were told no. Then at the 11th hour, a Supervisor proposes to vault something else past all their requests in importance. That does not build trust or good will. Departments Heads and Elected Officials feel undercut by this proposal. These folks are our most valuable resource, and Supervisor Remington just crapped on their efforts.
It is not simply the things we denied, either. We asked Department Heads and Elected Officials to be frugal in anticipation of a tight budget year. And they did as they were asked. That means there are important things that never even got requested. Supervisor Remington should know this. She and I were the liaisons in 2025 for our Social Services Department. In October, November, and December the Department Director told us there were things she might have requested otherwise, but that would not ask because of our directive to keep spending down. Our Social Services Director did EXACTLY as she was asked to do. She told us she was doing it. And in return, Supervisor Remington proposes funding something completely different in the Social Services area.
This subversion of our processes is a slap in the face to the Department Heads and Elected Officials who did what they were asked to do. I am certain that this damages the trust between them and the Board. Our people deserve more respect than this. They deserve an apology.
I have things I would like to spend money on as well. For example, we need $200,000 to institute a much-needed Mental Health Court. We are not fully funding Community Violence Intervention (CVI). All the Supervisors showed up when the cameras were running at the vigil following the recent shooting; will they show up with funding for CVI? We need more navigators to help folks access Social Security, Medicaid, SNAP, state childcare assistance, and other benefits. We desperately need more money for eviction diversion. People are losing their housing. All of our pantries need more food. Shelter House is in desperate need of funding. If we really have the extra Supervisor Remington thinks we have, we could just fund Shelter House.
But none of these things gets to be considered. The only thing we voted on was the proposal from the person who failed to follow the same processes as everyone else. How fair is that? None of the things I mentioned above got a vote, because I followed the rules.
I heard one person in the crowd say, “He cares more about process than people.” In fact, people – our most vulnerable people – are the ones who would suffer if we fail to follow processes. It is SEATS riders. Folks getting services at GuideLink. Ambulance patients. General Assistance recipients. Kids being seen in a WIC clinic. Folks who get services from Shelter House, CommUnity, and other social service providers.
Finally, and I know this is more history, but I would urge Supervisor Remington to learn a bit about Steven Kanner. I knew Steven pretty well. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2015 at the tender age of 55. Kanner served on the Iowa City Council from 2000-2003. Steven was very progressive. He was also probably one of the 3-4 least effective councilors in the last 50 years.
Kanner had a big heart. And every year, just before the vote on the budget, he proposed budget changes. And every year, supporters and opponents alike shared their frustration with his tactics. The staff hated him – not because he was unkind. They hated him because he never followed the procedures – including those he himself had introduced.
History can teach us a few things. I hope future Supervisors will respect the budget process, respect their fellow Supervisors, and respect our Elected Officials and Department Heads. They all deserve better than this.
Meanwhile, in voting to take this action, Supervisors Remington and Fixmer Oraiz have demonstrated that they are unfit to hold office.
Here is the link to the video. It starts at 1:23 and ends at 2:05 – 42 minutes total.
https://johnson-county.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=3639
*DID YOU KNOW? 84% of Iowa’s land is used for agriculture.
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 11:09 AM
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