A definite great read..Jim Bean

Answer: Linn County froze the wages of elected officials, management, attorneys, and confidential employees. All bargaining unit members received a wage increase.

As I look at the members of this committee, whose meetings are not open to the public, I see that every person on the committee is either a Supervisor or they work for the Board of Supervisors. Thus, there is no objectivity:
-Supervisors Lu Barron
-Supervisor Ben Rogers
-Gary Jarvis, Linn County Attorney
-Joi Bergman, Linn County Communications
-Garth Fagerbakke, Linn County Facilities
-Dawn Jindrich, Linn County Budget Director
-Steve Tucker, Linn County Finance Director
-Phil Lowder, Linn County IT Director
-Britt Hutchins, Linn County Purchasing
-Lisa Powell, Linn County Human Resources Director
-Darrin Gage, Linn County Director of Policy and Administration
-Steve Estensen, Linn County Risk Management

These people hold their conversations behind closed doors. From the notes you posted, it is obvious that they base their decisions on second or third hand information. The people who work in and receive services from the buildings in question are never included in the conversations, which is extremely inappropriate.

Since the flood, the Supervisors have demonstrated their ignorance over and over again with their ill-informed and short-sighted decisions. Their lack of understanding of finances is truly appalling. A couple of these people, starting with Lu Barron, are just plain stupid. She has been in office for 13 years, and that is 13 years too long.

When she is voted out of office, which she most certainly will be, it will take decades to repair the damage that she and her cronies have done. What a tragedy.

“a living wage and a modicum of respect in professional careers, ie let’s get busy passing EFCA and fair share and thus we can promote our families staying closer. there will be GOOD reasons to stay!! once we do that, the things the younger generations of adults enjoy will follow/evolve”

I’m not originally from Iowa. I moved here 20 years ago when I was 22 years old. I came for a job I had been hired for. I stayed for the educational opportunities and by the age of 26 I had two young children. It is a great place to raise kids. But now my oldest is talking about leaving too.

We as a state need to be more proactive at reaching out and making young people feel more invested.

Talking to and visiting friends who have moved out of state and are experiencing a completely different life style (ie – Cambridge, MA) compared to living in Iowa makes me feel like I missed out on an opportunity to explore. But, I believe that God lead me to the decision to stay in Iowa and I do my best to make the most of it.

So, to answer your question as a 26yr old, I believe the desire to know more than just Iowa would be the number one reason most young people leave the state.

I rewrote a sentence based upon your comment. It now reads:

“Here are the names of some potential candidates in the City of Cedar Rapids based upon requests for candidate information from the City or the Linn County Elections Office:”

I did not mean to imply there were no other candidates. I also don’t want anyone to think that I and/or my office knows who all of the candidates are. We don’t – and we won’t know until September 18th.

Thank you for your comment!

The link below is to the Gazette article announcing that I was running for District 3. I have been out collecting signatures and will turn them in once the time arrives.

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090505/NEWS/705059924

Kathy