(Atlantic, Iowa) – Iowa Senator Tom Shipley from Nodaway, and Tom Moore, from Griswold, appeared on Zoom, Saturday morning (Feb. 5th) to answer questions from their constituents. The two men were part of a legislative coffee hosted by the economic development organization P.R.I.D.E (Progressive Rural Iowa Development Enterprise).

A number of southwest Iowa residents, including Atlantic Superintendent Steve Barber, Denise O’Brien, SWIPCO’s C.J. Petersen, and others, joined in on the electronic forum. One of the last questions posed to the legislators, was with regard to the “Back the Blue” law, and how it’s structured, relative to how law enforcement is paid. Senator Shipley said he had not heard anymore about the bill, but added to his knowledge, “it does not have to be a one-year deal.”

Representative Moore said he too is not aware of any committee movement on the subject, but is aware of a situation in Cass County (IA), where Moore says “The Chair of their Compensation Board is saying that they [The Supervisors] have acted illegally by reducing all of the salaries by half. And I don’t believe the Back the Blue bill affected their ability to do by law, what they’re capable of doing, which is if they reduce one branch of the government salary, they have to reduce al branches by the same amount.

Rep. Tom Moore on Zoom (Ric Hanson photo, 2/5/22)

So I believe what Cass County did was reduce that 26% that they were asking for the increase in the Sheriff’s salary [but] reduced that by half, I believe, to 13% and did the same for all the others. And so, I think they’ve acted legally.” Moore said he received a call about the matter Friday, when he got home, and that he will be checking on that the first of this week (Feb. 7-11), “just to make sure that is a part of the Back the Blue Bill, but I don’t believe it is.”

Cass County Board of Supervisor’s Chair Steve Baier also attended Saturday’s Zoom meeting. He confirmed what Rep. Moore said “In good faith, our Compensation Board, with very little guidance in the bill, took what they thought was ‘comparable,’ and that’s how the 26-percent raise for the Sheriff came about (as well as the 6-percent for the other, County-elected officers).” Baier said “We did cut the 26% proposed raise to 13% and cut the other departments (Treasurer, Auditor and so forth) by 50% to 3%.”

Cass County Board of Supervisor’s Chair Steve Baier on Zoom, 2/5/22. (Ric Hanson photo)

He went on to say, “Because of the structure of how we pay road deputies, chief deputies and so forth, the salary raise for the sheriff ended-up being about $12,000 at that reduced rate – a one-year jump of $12,000 – and our other chief deputy, investigating deputy, road deputies ended-up getting in the range of Seven-to Nine-thousand dollar increases. So the pot  for law enforcement went up considerably.”

“Although the Back the Blue didn’t spill over into jailers and dispatchers,” Baier said, “They also got – again, because of the way things are structured – considerable raises. Maybe some of these were justified, because of where we were, comparable to – again, whatever comparable means – so that part of county government got much larger increases in salaries, than the others.” Bair added, “The budget process isn’t over, but we had to settle those things to meet deadlines, really from a practical standpoint, by the end of [Feb. 4th]. So, that’s where we are with that, locally.”

We’ll have more on this weekend’s legislative coffee Monday, on KJAN. The next legislative coffee will take place Saturday, March 5 at 9:30 a.m., hosted by P.R.I.D.E. Vice-President, Clarke Gerlock, at the Cumberland Fire Station for an in-person gathering. The final coffee will take place Saturday, April 2 at 9:30 a.m. at a location TBD. Save the date!

The Progressive Rural Iowa Development Enterprise is an economic and community development nonprofit whose purpose is community growth and engagement through education.