SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
October 30, 2026
Sullivan’s Salvos 11/5/26
In this edition:
*RIP Mel Sunshine
*Happy Birthday Rachel!
*Enough Input?
*VOTE!
*A Very Bad Idea!
*The Smell
*Election Day Trivia
*Department Head Evaluations
*Consequential – Drive Through Voting
*Did You Know?
*RIP Mel Sunshine
One of the things that makes Johnson County great is the culture of volunteerism that runs throughout the population. One of the folks who epitomized this was Mel Sunshine.
Mel volunteered for many good causes for many years. He was also an accomplished scientist. RIP, Mel. Your work is appreciated!
*Happy Birthday Rachel!
Happy Birthday to my oldest daughter Rachel, who turns 35 on the 6th! I love you, Ray!
*Enough Input?
Irony must be dead. Seeing elected officials who vociferously oppose the jail bond, claiming there has been a lack of public input, urge folks to vote for the Kirkwood bond, which has had virtually zero public input – sigh.
For what it is worth, I hope you all vote yes for both Kirkwood and the Jail and Sheriff’s Office!
*VOTE!
Election Day is upon us! Vote, and make certain everyone you know votes! There is a lot at stake here!
If you still have a ballot, do NOT mail it in! Please take it to the Auditor’s Office unless it is actually Election Day. Then take it to your polling place! But you must have it with you! If you have other voting questions, call the Auditor’s Office at 319-354-6004.
I will admit; I am scared. I have never been more worried for my country. All I can do is try my damndest to get as many people as possible to get out and vote!
*A Very Bad Idea!
At the end of the Board’s October 28 meeting, Supervisor Fixmer Oraiz suggested that the Supervisors set up quarterly meetings with the ICCSD Board to “assist them with their financial struggles.” They even mentioned “pausing property taxes.”
Supervisor Remington had left the room just before this discussion, so she did not participate. Supervisors Green, Green Douglass and I all expressed no interest in heading down this path.
Frankly, I cannot imagine a worse idea. Let me count the ways:
1. The BOS has its own problems. People in glass houses!
2. The BOS does not have time to do this. I would guess that same is true for the ICCSD.
3. What particular knowledge or experience would you bring to the ICCSD? How does your involvement help? Do you understand how schools are financed in Iowa?
4. What history do you have of creating countywide coalitions to achieve big countywide accomplishments?
5. The very suggestion is insulting. I cannot imagine the indignation with which the BOS would react if the roles were reversed.
6. The BOS represents a County that has parts of 11 public school districts. Big swaths of 7 districts. The ICCSD is the largest, certainly, but they are not the only school district in the county.
7. The mention of “pausing property taxes” indicates a serious and disturbing lack of knowledge of how local governments are funded.
8. That potential “cure” would be much worse than the disease!
I know every member of the ICCSD Board. They are all more diplomatic than I am, but my guess is that they would all politely decline this offer. As well they should.
I hope the Johnson County Board of Supervisors will choose to focus on the many things for which the Johnson County Board of Supervisors is responsible. That is plenty!
*The Smell
(This ran in Salvos a few years ago. Though Kim Reynolds decided against running for reelection, it remains relevant today!)
Downtown Iowa City is at least 3 miles every direction from any farm fields. You should not be overwhelmed by the smell of hog manure in downtown Iowa City. But the smell has been pretty bad of late.
Why? The crops are coming out of the field, and farmers are in the midst of the annual ritual of overapplying hog manure to those harvested fields. You read that correctly. They are *overapplying* manure.
Just to be clear – the fields don’t need all this additional manure cover. It is an excess of nitrogen, which ends up in our groundwater, streams, rivers, and lakes. From there, it harms human health in multiple ways. (See the increasing cancer rates unique to our state.)
So why do it? Because we have too many hogs concentrated in too small an area. The manure has to go somewhere. And Iowa law allows the manure to go pretty much wherever the farmer wants. Their economic well-being is placed FAR above the health of Iowans.
Seems stupid, doesn’t it? Why should hog producers get to freely offload their environmental problems on the rest of us? That is a very good question. Ask Kim Reynolds in 2026!
*Election Day Trivia
Federal law requires Election Day to be “the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.” So you could never have Election Day on Tuesday, November 1 – there was no Monday first. In that case, the election would be Tuesday, November 8.
This means elections are always held between November 2 and November 8 of each year.
*Department Head Evaluations
Johnson County changed the way we do Department Head evaluations last year. I thought I’d explain both the new and old ways.
First, Johnson County has long used a system of “liaisons” to supervise Department Heads. This process goes back much further than me, so I do not know who deserves the credit, but I feel it is pretty ingenious.
Each Department Head is assigned two Board Members as liaisons. (Because three Supervisors would constitute a quorum, this is the most group attention Sups can give without putting an item on the agenda.) One liaison rotates off each year, so there is always a liaison who has been in that role a year or more, and another who is newer to the position.
We have twelve Department Heads that report directly to the Board of Supervisors and only to the Board of Supervisors. Each of those Department Heads gets two liaisons, so that is 24 spots. It does not quite work out exactly, but each Supervisor is responsible to be a liaison for about 5 Departments. Right now, I have two liaisons where Lisa is the other Sup, two where V is the other Sup, and one where Mandi is the other Sup. I have none with Jon. It is mostly random in that way.
Liaison meetings are typically monthly, although that can vary. During liaison meetings, Department Heads simply give updates to their liaisons – what is going well, and what is not? How are employees doing? How does the budget look? Are you completing your goals? How can we help you?
I have been in liaison meetings where there was shouting. I have been in them where there was laughing. I have been in them where there was crying. None of that happens often, but it does happen. Sometimes life and death matters get discussed, though that is not typical. These are private meetings, and they are always different.
After liaison meetings, Department Heads type up a report and send it to all 5 Sups. These reports are typically very accurate descriptions of what was discussed, but as you might imagine after reading the last paragraph, often things are sanitized, and sometimes personal details are omitted completely.
Once per year, the two liaisons meet and create a draft performance evaluation for their Department Head. These drafts are then discussed in closed session by the whole Board. After the Board has created a final eval, it is presented to the Department Head in a second closed session.
So what has changed? We used to do these evaluations approximately on the Department Head’s anniversary of employment. So there might be three one month and none the next, but it was an average of about one per month. Now we are doing them all on a calendar basis, so evals happen in November, with associated raises hitting at the start of the year.
Is one better than the other? Not really. Each model has pros and cons. It is certainly all made easier by the fact that our Department Heads are fabulous employees who are great at their jobs!
*Consequential – Drive Through Voting
Many of you have probably taken advantage of Johnson County’s drive-through voting. If so, I hope you have enjoyed it! I think it is a really cool option, particularly for folks who cannot handle standing in lines. People absolutely love it!
To be clear, drive-through voting was not my idea. That credit goes to former Auditor Travis Weipert. But I figured out how to get it done. Here is the story:
Auditor Weipert suggested that perhaps during COVID cars could pull up through the alley that runs on the south side of the Auditor’s Office. Then staff could duck out the back door of the office, get the person voted, and get them on their way. But frankly, the logistical barriers were just too daunting.
By law, the alley cannot be blocked as long as would be necessary. The area where you would pull up is much too short, and only one voter could be served at a time. It was clear that it would block traffic on busy streets to both the east and west. It was simply unacceptable to public safety professionals, and for good reasons.
So I suggested that we route voters through the first floor of the HHS parking ramp. This allowed for three lanes, with space for cars to cue up. And the whole thing happens under roof, so rain and snow are not a problem!
All we had to do was temporarily remove about 20 public parking spaces, and move about 20 County vehicles up one floor in the ramp. I think that has been an easy trade-off.
And people really love drive through, especially people with mobility issues! I think drive through voting has been a pretty cool addition, and I am glad I played a role!
*DID YOU KNOW? In many smaller counties, elected County Attorneys maintain their private practices.
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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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 1:11 PM
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