Democrat Janelle Rettig Likes Trails, Strongly Opposes CAFOs

Captions: 1. I apologize. My photos of the candidates taken before the debate didn't turn out.

I attended the debate between Democratic Johnson County Supervisor Janelle Rettig, Republican candidate and Iowa City Community School District board director Phil Hemingway, and Democratic Jo. Co. Supervisor Pat Heiden, who retired as CEO of Oaknoll Retirement Residence. The League of Women Voters moderated the debate and Tessa Heeren asked the questions, some of which were submitted by the league and most of which were submitted by audience members, including me. (I submitted three questions, and lo and behold, without men in charge, all of them were asked of the candidates.)

Republican Phil Hemingway started ruffling some feathers in his introduction. He said he was born on a century farm in Johnson County, worked on Roy Carver's farm in Belize, met his wife Anita there, was elected to the school board in 2015, reduced the use of chemicals on ICCSD grounds, involved himself in the Future Farmers of America, and credited himself with the opportunity to debate the incumbents.

"I sought an actual election instead of a coronation."

That was a slam on the Democrats' lock on Johnson County politics, which isn't always that savory, but Janelle had the last laugh. She had a better grasp of the facts.

For example, in answer to a question about support for trails, Phil said, "Sure. I rode my Higgins [bicycle when I was a kid]. But we need to fix the roads. There should be a balance of the two. I was at the Farm Bureau and road maintenance was [discussed]."

Janelle aced him. "It's illegal to use road money for trails. I'm a big supporter of trails. We need to spend more money [on trails]."

Pat Heiden is an enthusiastic supporter of trails. She likes the Hoover Trail, for example, and feels it's an "economic attraction, a lure to attract families, and a great amenity."

Responding to a question about the minimum wage, Phil didn't really answer it except to talk about skill building. He said something about "$50,000 a year or $15.00 an hour," but he didn't commit to a living wage. Pat Heiden did. She said, "I support a livable wage and I applaud the Center for Worker Justice."

Janelle said that the average wage in Johnson County is $10.27 an hour "and we should enforce it." I didn't really understand that last part because -- thanks to the Republicans in the legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) -- the minimum wage was rolled back statewide to $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage, which isn't even half of what it costs to live in Iowa. Forty percent of Iowans don't make enough money to meet their basic needs.

Janelle said it costs "$14 and change to live in Johnson County." I'd say that's too little. It's more like $15.01 according to the Des Moines Register, but she's close. County workers, she said, make $15.00 an hour.

How many supervisors should there be? Phil believes three would be a sufficient number. Pat and Janelle believe that five are necessary for the amount of work to be done in Johnson County. I have another objection to narrowing the number to three. We could have a good old boys' club, all male. I'm definitely against that.