Friese Aims to Please; Sullivan Preens and Sulks

Captions: 1. Kurt Friese, owner and chef at Devotay Restaurant on North Linn Street, Iowa City. He also helped to build New Bo Market in Cedar Rapids. 2. Rod Sullivan, incumbent, originally from Sutliff. 3. On left, Pat Heiden, current executive director of Oaknoll, soon to retire; on right, incumbent supervisor Lisa Green-Douglass, who replaced Terrence Neuzil, former supervisor who moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan to be a city administrator. 4. On left, Jason T. Lewis, Director, Writing and Humanities Program, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine; on right, Mike Hull, medivac helicopter pilot, born on a farm on Sand Road.

Six candidates came to the Johnson County Supervisor Candidate Forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters (LWV) at City Hall in Iowa City April 27th, 2016. LWV’s Gail Wobeter announced that the forum would be rebroadcast on Mediacom’s channel 4 and live the night of the event on channel 5.

The incumbents are Supervisors Rod Sullivan and also a short-timer, Lisa Green-Douglass, who took over when Terrence Neuzil, former Johnson County supervisor, moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan to take a position as city administrator.

Wobeter started candidate introductions with Kurt Friese on the right side of the stage. Kurt said he’s a lifelong progressive Democrat.

“Early voting starts tomorrow [4/28] and you can vote for three candidates… Affordable housing is in crisis. We need safer union jobs. We also must stop pouring concrete on our farmland. I seek civil governance,” he added.

The phrase “civil governance” is important to me, and it’s a phrase that Pat Heiden, executive director of Oaknoll, soon to retire from that position, also mentioned.

Rod Sullivan is a perfect example of the supervisor who needs instruction on civil governance, but I don't think he'd tolerate instruction on that or any other issue. Sullivan is correct on the issues of raising the minimum wage, creating bicycle trails, completing the streets, and many other issues, but conducts himself in governmental meetings and informal gatherings in a notably uncivil way. The ends don’t justify the means, and that’s a sentence Rod Sullivan should say to himself every day.

He listed his many accomplishments as though he had done everything that had ever been done right in Johnson County. And who knows? He could be correct. But it’s how he does what he does that makes me determined to never vote for him again. I can’t vote for a bully who refuses to hold an open vote to decide on a new chair in a subcommittee meeting and says, "we'll vote by email instead." There was no vote by email, either. That was Rod's idea.

Background: When Kingsley Botchway got a job with the Iowa City Community School District, he stopped coming to the subcommittee on disproportionate minority contacts. Rod Sullivan tried to make himself chair without voting on the matter. I objected, and a surrogate, Andy, the administrative assistant to the Board of Supervisors, became chair instead. This was not accomplished by a vote that I know of. Sullivan credited me indirectly for keeping him from being chair because "objections were raised," but the subcommittee no longer meets or it meets and I'm not invited.

Sullivan said last night: “If I’m turned out [of office] for raising the minimum wage I’ll be a proud man. If the private sector had done what they should have done, we wouldn’t have had to do what we did.”

To me, that's a fig leaf in advance for why he might be turned out of office if he's turned out of office. People who operate the way he does are bound to make a lot of enemies.

We need civil governance with rules. No bully-boy stuff, no voting by email when committee members are present and available to vote openly and transparently.

Mike Hull, a medivac helicopter pilot who was born on a farm on Sand Road, seems like a very nice, upfront guy, but I worry about his stance on the minimum wage. I was for him until he mentioned that a friend of his said he wasn’t going to hire the kids of his employees for summer work because of the increase in the minimum wage. I want progressive candidates who are strongly supportive of increases in the minimum wage because wages have been stagnant since 1976. Everyone needs a livable wage, including kids who are probably worried about whether they can even afford to go to a community college, given how tough it is to pay for college in today’s economy for the lower and middle classes. As Bernie Sanders says, 99% of the wealth in this country is going to the top one percent, and that's true.

Jason Lewis described himself as a progressive and a poor kid who comes from a broken home. He also said he’s an alcoholic whose parents were alcoholics. I could say I was a poor kid with emotionally abusive, violent parents and therefore I deserve to be elected, but I didn’t stand on the stage, bare my soul, and follow up by saying, "I’m a weirdo.” Jason did. What kind of pitch is that for a credible candidacy? Am I supposed to vote for him out of pity?

Lewis also said he’s a 10-year resident of southeast Iowa City who lives on Taylor Drive. He said his home used to be a Parade of Homes house.

“What happened?” he asked.

I could tell him what happened. Former Iowa City Mayor Ernie Lehman told me personally that the land was "flat and cheap" south of Highway 6, so that’s where they built affordable housing projects. Some people might call that redlining. Later, Mayor Lehman confessed, he realized that was a mistake.

Taylor Drive is south of Highway 6.

What Iowa City has done to southeast Iowa City has made me a strong supporter of inclusionary zoning. I want Section 8 housing in former Mayor Matt Hayek's neighborhood, not just in my neighborhood and Jason Lewis' neighborhood on the southeast side. Jason Lewis supports inclusionary zoning and there may be other candidates who do as well. I just couldn't find them in my notes.

Several candidates, including Lisa Green-Douglass, talked about regional transportation in Johnson County, including Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty. A questioner from the audience wanted to know if SEATS, a paratransit service for handicapped and elderly persons, could serve employees working second and third shifts who don’t live near a bus stop. My guess is that this would not be possible since SEATS is a paratransit service, not a taxi.

As for a regional transit service, there would have to buy-in from Iowa City and Coralville Transit. North Liberty might have poor zoning and other issues that might make a regional transportation service impractical at this time.

Lisa Green-Douglass seemed complacent to me. Not a ball of fire. I want someone who’s willing to stand up to bullies and make them behave, should we be unfortunate enough to reelect one. So far, my money’s on Pat Heiden and Kurt Friese. Successful business people know you can't treat people the way Rod Sullivan treats people who aren't in his fan club.