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Jan. 14, 2010
By Lori Lindner
NORTH LIBERTY LEADER
lori@northlibertyleader.com
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Supervisor candidates Lori Cardella, Jim Knapp and Janelle Rettig square off at a public forum co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters and independent progressive organization FAIR! held at the Iowa City Public Library Thursday, Jan. 7.
(Lori Lindner) |
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IOWA CITY- Despite blistering cold and blowing snow outside, more than 50 people attended a public forum featuring the three candidates running for Johnson County Supervisor on Thursday, Jan. 7.
The forum, co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters and independent organization FAIR!, was held at the Iowa City Public Library to offer a glimpse of the candidates' positions on various county issues before the Jan. 19 special election.
In her opening statement, Republican candidate Lori Cardella, 46, said she was running to offer a different perspective in county government.
"My most genuine desire, if elected, is to rekindle trust and respect in our political process and thus empower the people once again," said Cardella. "I want no more than to represent the will of the people" Cardella led a citizen's petition to hold a special election after the seat was left vacant by the death of Supervisor Larry Meyers in September, 2009, and was subsequently nominated to the candidacy by the Johnson County Republican party.
Janelle Rettig, 44, nominated by the Johnson County Democratic party and appointed by a statutory committee in November to fill the vacancy for the remaining 11 months of Meyer's unexpired term, said her interest in the political process began in high school, and has always believed a person's ability to create change.
"If individuals would speak up and allow their voices to be heard, government has the responsibility to listen to them and try to find common ground," Rettig said.
Candidate Jim Knapp, 69, was nominated by petition. Knapp said his experience in commercial and residential construction and business prepared him for a position in county government.
"My three Cs would be compassion, conservation and correctness in government," said Knapp, "and that's what I hope to bring to the table"
For the remaining 80 minutes moderated by League of Women Voters member Allison Werner-Smith, the candidates answered questions posed by the two sponsoring entities, as well as questions submitted by members of the audience. If opening remarks were somewhat similar in the candidates' desire to be part of a responsive and responsible government, their positions on county taxation, spending, and land use were equally divergent.
Capital spending topped the list of most asked-about topics, beginning with the new Joint Emergency Communications Center (JECC) and how the candidates would support its continued operation.
All three candidates agreed the $17 million project was necessary, but each had different concerns about its operation, with Cardella and Knapp commenting about the current disagreement about who would oversee employee payrolls.
"I hope the various taxing entities come together and make this truly a joint communications center at all levels," Cardella said.
Knapp said he thought cost of operation should be shared among Johnson County and the municipalities served by the JECC.
"The staffing problem should be relegated to each participating community based along the lines of what their tax values are," said Knapp. "It should be shared equally and not just carried by Iowa City or otherwise"
Rettig said she thought the center was a great step in consolidation of services and hoped to see more types of cooperative projects, but she had expressed concerns over the size of the actual building from the beginning.
"At the time, I think people might have reached too far on the actual size of the building and the levy put on taxpayers to pay for it," said Rettig. "Going forward, I think we have to be vigilant that we understand when we do joint projects, it has to benefit us financially as well as (for) infrastructure purposes, and make us more efficient and more accountable"
All three candidates said they would not support the proposed Johnson County Justice Center, estimated to cost around $70 million, but each had different reasons.
Cardella had problems with the way a new Justice Center would be utilized.
"A lot of it has to do with rehabilitation. What role are we trying to fill here? Is it truly a jail, or is it an extension of the University, as far as rehab, chemical dependency rehab? Because a lot of crimes are committed under the influence. We need to look at that"
Cardella also felt there were other ways to deal with overcrowding at the current Johnson County Jail.
"We have lots of vacant facilities around town if we could somehow use those...we are seeing a spike increase due to substance abuse during football games. Those people are sitting- a couple hundred- overnight just to sober up. That results in them just sitting around. I don't know if that justifies a new $70 to $80 million jail. I can't see it"
Knapp said the current jail was built to be expanded upward, so building a whole new facility was not necessary.
"They say they have rendered this building un-expandable," said Knapp. "That is not true. You can go up two stories. The problem is the university covets that property because it is next to them"
Rettig acknowledged the current jail's overcrowding, but was not in favor of the proposed new building because of its price tag.
"A few weeks ago, the jail hit more than double its capacity. We're not double its capacity normally, but we did have a dramatic spike," said Rettig. "We are actually doing the most affordable thing we can do right now, which is maintaining the jail we have, and we buy services from other counties that have overbuilt. That creates its own problems with safety and transportation.
"The study out there now is for a $70 million jail that would cost another $1.4 million to staff. I'm against that," continued Rettig. "I don't think we can afford it. I think we have to reevaluate whether we can expand the current jail. We need to go back to square one"
The candidates were asked several questions about spending to support quality of life in Johnson County, including alternative energies, land conservation, mass transit and bike trails. Of the three, Rettig most strongly supported such projects.
In November, 2008, Rettig was instrumental in helping pass a $20 million Conservation Bond referendum, allowing the Johnson County Conservation Department to purchase land to protect natural areas and wildlife habitats, preserve water quality in streams and rivers, and provide public parks and trails.
Knapp said he supported the Conservation Bond, because protecting the county's waterways and ecosystem is important, but thought it would come at a cost to other services in the county.
"If they just go out and buy pieces of land without any control from the Board of Supervisors, the limiting factor is they have to cut back on other services by the county because they have a limit on their budget," said Knapp. "You have to meet a budget, and if you are going to encroach on county services by doing other things, you're going to have to make a choice. I'm not sure what the right choice is, but we don't want to impact the quality of life in Johnson County in other areas"
Rettig refuted Knapp's logic.
"The debt levy does not have a cap on it and this is a bond. The two levies the county has caps on are general basic and mental health; thus the conservation bond does not affect human services in any way. The bond issue was passed by the taxpayers who were interested in investing their money in conservation. We are each paying 18 cents per $1000 assessed valuation of our house for this, and I think that is a wise investment"
Rettig also pointed out that Cardella spent $36,000 of her own money opposing the bond issue, and wondered why.
Cardella opposed the conservation referendum because it was a "nicety, not a necessity," she said.
"It was presented five months after the most devastating flood in our state's history, not to mention at the peak of our country's second most economic collapse. It wasn't an appropriate time. Everyone wants clean water and clean air, but does it have to be subsidized by the taxpayer?" Cardella countered.
Cardella also challenged a proposed $750,0000 bike trail from Mehaffey Bridge to Sugar Bottom Road.
"What's preventing people from jumping on their bikes and getting on a road now?" Cardella asked. "Put a helmet on...why do we have to incur $750,000 for a 2.8 mile stretch of trail? We have to know the difference between a want and a need"
Rettig said calling it a bike trail was a misnomer because trails are used for more than just biking.
"As a county grows, roads sometimes become unsafe for people who are walking, jogging, or learning to ride bicycles. I think recreation and commuter trails are very important to the future of this county. We cannot live in a car-only culture. Sometimes, we have to have government invest in getting people off the roads and reducing carbon emissions"
Knapp said he supports bike trail projects, but they need to be examined closely as they come up, and such projects should be bare-bones in order to curb unnecessary spending.
Knapp was of the same mind when it came to the role of the county in providing transit systems to rural and poor communities to facilitate jobs and access to medical care.
"We're a large metropolitan area, which includes Cedar Rapids. There's no reason to not to have a good joint transportation system that can be operated efficiently, if we spread the administrative costs around, and have a transit system that will promote people to ride rather than driving individually"
Rettig agreed. She said studies on combining transit services in Johnson County have concluded it won't work because there are too many different levels of services provided by existing transportation entities, but she didn't think the studies had investigated all options.
"I have always been skeptical that we couldn't combine services, make it more efficient, make it more flexible, give people more opportunities to seek alternative transportation and still make it cost effective," said Rettig. "As our communities continue to blend, I think we should consolidate our bus services. It is possible to provide different levels of service based on capacity needs of certain bus routes"
Cardella said mass transit is better left to private companies.
"My first question would be, is there a need?" Cardella began. "I think private industry is always more competitive when we provide a service. I don't know that public service, especially transportation, when you look at large metropolitan areas, they're largely out of balance as far as financial, because they have to then rely on advertising dollars. They do everything to try to support their service and it is often running in the hole"
The candidates were asked about their positions on the Iowa Supreme Court's ruling upholding the legality of same-sex marriage, and Johnson County's human rights ordinance, which includes equal protection based on sexual orientation.
Knapp offered a two-sided perspective, saying he was an evangelical Christian and his religion tells him same sex marriage is "a sinful situation," but he has a beloved niece who went to California to marry her partner, a woman.
"What people really need is to have a civil union in this country that does not interfere with religion, and still have all the rights a married couple has. Just because two people are of the same sex and are in love, does not mean that they shouldn't have all the rights and not be able to live together and have respect," said Knapp.
There was no equivocation from the other two candidates. Rettig said she has been in a committed relationship with her same-sex partner for 21 years, but "in the eyes of my government, we are still strangers"
While she supported the court's ruling in Varnum v. Brien, Rettig said, the decision protects civil unions, which are different than religious marriage, leaving religious institutions to marry or not marry whomever they choose.
"I was brought up to believe that when my constitution says freedom and justice for all, it actually included all of us. But the fact of the matter is that it is not including all of us. I am discriminated against every month when we pay our health insurance...because our government does not recognize we are a married couple"
Cardella said she is Catholic, and her religion dictates that marriage is between a male and a female.
"Our founding fathers, and tying it in with our Christian-Judeo values, we are all supposed to love each other, respect each other, regardless of the choices that we make. I do believe marriage is between a man and a woman. They can produce children. If people love each other, that's cool too, but you can't force things upon other groups of people. Just love and respect life. That's all I got to say"
Finally, the candidates were asked to discuss their fiscal priorities, if they would support a pay raise for supervisors, and whether taxes should be cut.
Cardella, whose campaign is based on limiting spending and taxation in the county, said that if private sector companies are asking employees to take a pay cut, public governments should do likewise. She also suggested increases in the county budget were questionable. Of 41 departmental funds, all but seven increased by double percentage points, she said, and the capital projects budget increased by 506 percent due to renovations to the county administration building, a new secondary roads building, the JECC, a new Health and Services facility and other projects.
"We need to justify why there was that increase," said Cardella. "I would also like to look further into the impact of the 83 TIFs (tax increment financing districts) we have in Johnson County and the role that plays as far as assessed value and tax abatements. We have a lot of layers of government," she concluded, referring to local and regional government councils, "and who's getting paid? I would really like to know"
Rettig said she would also be "disinclined" to approve elected officials a raise in the next fiscal year, though setting salaries for public servants is complicated because it sometimes impacts the people who work under them. Rettig also said the county needs to hold the line on taxes.
"I think the JECC is the first and primary thing we as citizens should be vigilant on the levy they are going to put in," said Rettig. "We should also scrutinize the budget line by line looking for efficiencies and other ways to do things"
Knapp said he sees a great disparity between the way properties are assessed between cities and unincorporated areas, which affects tax revenues in the county. He also said the county should "hold the line on human services, look at the JECC, and tread lightly until we can get the financial crisis in this country resolved.
The candidates wrapped up with closing statements, all encouraging people to vote early by absentee ballot or at the polls Jan. 19.
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