LEE COUNTY – The 2024 local election landscape got a little more interesting Tuesday when Fort Madison Fire Chief Joey Herren announced his candidacy for the Lee County Board of Supervisors.
Herren will be wrapping up a 27-year career with the Fort Madison Fire Department, 18 in his current role as Fire Chief. He plans to retire in April of 2025 and, if elected, would be sworn in in January.
Herren told Pen City Current Tuesday that he isn’t done working and thinks he can bring a fresh look to the board as an independent on the ballot.
He will be challenging Democrat incumbent Ron Fedler and Republican challenger Denise Fraise, the county’s current Auditor.
Herren, who’s spent most of his life in emergency services, aside from a stint at Exide in Burlington, said that experience has exposed him to many aspects of local government critical to elected office including finance, leadership, and collaboration.
This is the first time he’s ever had his name on the ballot.
I didn’t want to run in the primaries and I wasn’t 100% sure. But after that, I think I want to give them a third choice,” he said.
“I am kind of independent. I’ve never declared a left party or a right party. There’s probably good on both sides and I’m kind of a run-in-the-middle kind of guy.”
Herren said the parties are so polarized now that having someone in the middle providers voters a fresh option outside of the current political climate.
“The way the parties are right now it seems they are way separated. I don’t see things that way, I see it in the middle. That’s why I’m independent,” he said.
He said communication is one of his top priorities and politicians today aren’t very good at it.
“They counter so extreme to one another, and they can’t talk to each other. Communication, you can ask my guys, sometimes we forget to communicate - to sit down and talk things through,” he said.
One of the issues that stands out to Herren is the current lawsuit the board of supervisors has voted to file against the City of Fort Madison over 302nd Avenue near the P.O.R.T. trail.
“I would never have voted to sue people that voted me into office,” he said.
Herren said Fraise jumping parties from Democrat to Republican to run, and then Fedler changing his mind at the last minute to seek another term, points to the sporadic nature of the current political system.
“That’s also why I’m kind of in the middle here,” he said. ”I think there needs to be a change. Someone on that board that understands emergency services better. I don’t think we have that.”
He said communication is paramount to getting to the right decisions as a city department head, and that goes for elected officials as well.
“I like to solve problems by digging into them. I’ve been through the bad part of Fort Madison’s budget when I first became chief. We learned to multi-task and put on different hats to make the budget work,” Herren said.
He said when he took over the fire department in 2006, staff was cut to 13 full-time and he had to cut EMS services because he didn’t have the people to do it. The community got upset with that change and the city put 5-man shifts back in place.
“I’ve been through the bad budget thing and I think the county is getting ready to go through the same thing, so my experience there can be helpful in the process,” he said. “Going through those tough times will bring some ideas to the table. I’m not sure I’ll have answers for everything. I will dig into it and try to find the best outcome.”
Herren said he’s been following county board meetings, and it seems as though the board isn’t asking a lot of questions of people or digging into all of the issues.
“I think I would dig into stuff deeper than what seems to be being done. Maybe they’re doing it in the background. They just don’t show it publicly and they don’t seem to have a lot of people in the meetings.”
Transitioning into a supervisor role doesn’t intimidate Herren with the different tasks he’ll have as a supervisor compared to the day-to-day fire operations. He said wearing different hats is not new to him.
“I do that now,” he said. “I’m the maintenance man, oversee the building department, I do vacant property inspections and rentals. How many hats do you want me to tell you I wear?”
He said that gives him name recognition and exposure to more moving parts in the city than in the county.
“We have water, sewer, roads, public safety. I get to see it all, and they way we’ve done it the last 10 or 15 years is we have staff meetings once a week and we all kind of help each other. We run it as a team. I’ve learned so much about water, sewer, streets and roads having conversations with these other department heads. We work a lot together.”
Herren said he doesn’t really have a feel for how his independent candidacy will impact the District 1 race. Fraise and Fedler both have decades of service to the county and he’s had close to three decades within the City of Fort Madison.
“I don’t know, I’ve talked to a lot of people and I really don’t know how this will all shake out.”
The general election takes place on Nov. 5 with absentee voting beginning on Oct. 16. The first day to file an absentee ballot request with the county auditor is Aug. 27. Monday, Oct. 21 at 5 p.m. is the deadline to request an absentee ballot be mailed. In-person absentee voting deadlines Monday, Nov. 4.
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