I Endorse Janelle Rettig for Johnson County Supervisor

Captions: 1. A grader grading a trail between Solon and Ely that Jim and I saw along the road as we came back from a bike ride from Ely to Cedar Rapids near the end of April 2018. 2. A graded trail between Solon and Ely. Sure hope the trail eventually continues to Iowa City! Janelle Rettig had a lot to do with this trail happening!

On Saturday I was going to call Johnson County Supervisor Janelle Rettig on my way to a 30-mile bike ride in the Quad Cities, but I was in a hurry and couldn't lay my hands on her phone number. No matter, she, Robin Butler and Janelle's mother were on the ride we were going to! We met up at the Bad Boys Bar in Moline under the 74 bridge. Janelle's mother was wearing a bicycle jersey that said "Hell on wheels." I covet that jersey.

In a sweat about the revelations in the Gazette and Iowa City Press-Citizen revelations about Mike Carberry's past employment history, I wanted to talk to Janelle about the dilemma of a choice between Mike, who apparently has a history of creating a hostile work environment based on sexual harassment, and Pat Heiden, who told me in person at the Johnson County Democratic Convention that she isn't backed by the Farm Bureau. Janelle told me that the Farm Bureau doesn't endorse politicians so Pat was telling me the truth, but tacitly, Heiden probably is backed by the Farm Bureau.

Given that Mike Carberry is an environmentalist, despite the closed supervisor meeting he participated in where all Johnson County supervisors but Janelle Rettig voted to buy Dick Schwab's land with buildings on it, I'd vote for him if he believed in transparency and didn't have a history of sexual harassment. I laughed out loud when I read his alleged comments to a female coworker, but only because I know him. He doesn't seem like an ogre; he's a fun-loving male supremacist if he is one. Is there such a thing as a fun-loving male supremacist? Maybe not. His coworker didn't think his comments or behavior were funny. The male supremacists in my life were and are more of the ogre type or the not funny at all passive-aggressive type.

In any case, the poorly built Schwab buildings Mike Carberry voted to pay for with conservation monies significantly added to the cost of the property. Conservation funds are meant to buy wetlands, woodlands (some woodlands were acquired with Schwab's property), and prairie, not buildings, much less substandard buildings needing work.

The fireplace I so admired at a wedding I attended at the Celebration Barn and on another occasion at a benefit fundraiser, burned down because it wasn't built correctly. So in addition to the money paid to purchase the building, how much is it going to cost to make the barn and its amenities safe and purposeful?

Janelle Rettig opposed the county’s decision to buy land with substantial infrastructure, including an event center, buildings, a home, and more.

“'At $3 million dollars, this one project will take up 15 percent of the 2008 voter-approved conservation bond initiative,'” Rettig wrote in a 3/1/2018 email to a Gazette reporter. She didn't say that one hand washes the other in Johnson County, a one-party rule county, but I'm saying it. Dick Schwab is moving to Wisconsin, and isn't it nice that Johnson County taxpayers are helping him out by buying $3 million dollars' worth of his properties? Dick Schwab has been a good friend to Johnson County Democrats on conservation and other issues.

I'm still debating whether to vote for Mike Carberry. I could target-vote for Janelle Rettig and only Janelle, or I could choose a foolish environmentalist with a checkered past over Pat Heiden and vote for him. Carol de Prosse wants me to vote for Mike Carberry. And she was dead set against buying the Schwab properties. Her opinion weighs with me.