MONTROSE – The county’s budget and property taxes took center stage Thursday night as seven candidates for Lee County Supervisor talked with voters about why they should get a spot on the Board of Supervisors beginning next year.
Incumbents Ron Fedler, a Democrat representing the county’s 1st District, Garry Seyb, Jr. 4th District Republican, and Matt Pflug – 5th District Democrat were challenged at the forum sponsored by League of Women Voters, Mississippi Valley Media, and Pen City Current at the Lee County Career Advantage Center in Montrose.
The challengers included Joey Herren, a 1st District independent challenging Fedler; Ginger Knisley, a 5th District republican challenging Matt Pflug; Denise Fraise, a 1st District Republican challenging Fedler; and Teresa Murray, a 4th District Democrat challenging Seyb.
Fraise said she wouldn’t have a learning curve that most challengers would have coming into board service. She said she knows how hard the departments work to keep costs down and finding places to offset coming budget cuts will be tough work and cutting people would be the last resort.
“These departments do a very good job,” she said. “I don’t know where they could cut. When you look at budgets and where to cut, you look at people. Or can you do it through attrition,” she said.
Fraise said she’d also like to look at possibly outsourcing duties like possibly payroll to save some money. But she said people are the county’s best resource.
“I would hate to think we would have to lay people off.”
She said she has a hard time seeing how state legislators expect counties to maintain services at that level.
Several of the candidates referred back to House File 718 that was signed into law last year and requires counties to be at a general fund levy of $3.50 by 2028. Lee County is currently at $5.27 and cut 58 cents off the levy last year, but was only able to do so thanks to one-time funding like ARPA and some cuts within departments.
Garry Seyb said people have been tough on legislators, but there may be reason. He said working together to solve some of the problems has to be part of any future progress.
“We’ve been hard on state legislators, but we need to work with our legislators on things like unfunded mandates,” he said. “They need to help us there so we wouldn’t need our levies so high.”
But Seyb said some counties are crumbling under the new mandate, including neighboring Van Buren County.
Matt Pflug told the crowd of about 125 that the county used to run on a $3.50 general fund levy, but he said things don’t cost what they used to. Payroll is a big part of the county’s budget.
“This will be very difficult,” Pflug said. “There are a lot of counties out there that are going to be in a lot of trouble."
Knisley said one way to help with costs is for the county to engage in more visioning and strategic planning.
“If you don’t know what your vision is, how can you possibly prioritize spending?”
Knisley also said the county needs to keep a very close eye on the reorganization that’s taking place at the state level. She said the state seems to be regionalizing a lot of departments with health care next.
She said Lee County has a very robust health department and they are strong at securing grants for services so the burden on taxpayers is reduced. But she said the Insight ER facility proposed for Keokuk has to become a reality.
“I want to keep communications open with Insight and key legislators, we have to get that open,” she said.
Murray agreed, saying her husband is alive today because there was a hospital in Keokuk and that needs to be a priority for the county and Keokuk to get that reset.
“It's scary not having an ER in Keokuk,” she said.
Murray, the former Lee County Assessor who retired in 2019, said there are cuts that can be made in the county budget.
“I don’t know where all those departments are at with their budgets, but there are places to cut. There can be shifts where revenue can be moved within the departments.”
Murray said her department never was at a maximum budget levy so there could be some breathing room there to help with budget pains.
“There are ways to shift resources around to save money.”
Murray also said there could be more transparency in county business if accessing regular meetings was easier. The board currently holds regular Monday morning meetings in Fort Madison which are accessible online, but Murray said it’s too difficult to get access to those online meetings and a simple one click link on the county’s website would be more effective.
Herren said he’s been attending meetings online and said more pertinent questions need to be asked during the meetings.
Herren pointed to the ambulance service and the proposal that was submitted to the county before they purchased the service from the Young Family in 2021. Herren said there was a proposal from Keokuk and Fort Madison to run the countywide service with a $1.8 million annual subsidy from the county. That budget now is more than double that annually.
“But that cat’s outta the bag on that one and now we need to be more efficient,” he said. “We could’ve kept that number in check.”
Herren said the salaries are very high for some of the people in the service and there are times when there are a lot of emergency crews standing around for a minor injury.
The Fort Madison fire chief said in 2008-09 they had budget crunches in the city and everyone had to multi-task to help get costs under control. That same philosophy should be applied to the county budget.
“When you start doing things, people will let you know. We had to wear more hats to get things under control. Most of your budget is people and that’s where you can save,” he said.
Fedler said the county did the right thing with the ambulance and the service has been working well.
“The levy for the ambulance service is like your house or car insurance. You pay the premiums, but you hope you never need it,” Fedler said. “But they are doing a great job. I was at church when a woman needed help and the ambulance was there in West Point in 15 minutes.”
Fedler said Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements aren’t enough to cover the costs of the service and the levy helps offset some of those costs. The county also gets additional reimbursements from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services through Ground Emergency Medical Transport program based on the number of low income transports.
Fedler also said the county needs to keep a close eye on eminent domain issues going forward. He said district 1 voters oppose any eminent domain and the Iowa Utilities Commission should be more accountable.
Seyb agreed, saying that eminent domain is not agreeable to most of Lee County and the state should require a minimum 93% voluntary sign off for the procedure to even be considered by the IUC. He also said the county needs to keep working to unite and cited the recent joining of Fort Madison Economic Development Corp. and Keokuk Economic Development Corp. with Lee County Economic Development Group.
“Things that are good for Keokuk are good for Fort Madison are good for Lee County,” he said.
He said he also liked an idea presented by Fraise that would create multi-year budgets rather than annual budgets.
But Murray said the county needs to keep its compensation board despite legislation allowing county boards to set salaries of elected officials.
“We need to keep that compensation board in place. They do an important job and there’s a reason for that. I’m shocked that our legislators did that,” she said. The 4th district challenger also said she supported speed cameras on 27 and would support an appeal to the decision by the Iowa DOT to not approve the county’s permit.
“I travel that road a lot and they pass me like I’m standing still.”
Pflug echoed those comments.
“We’ve received more than a million dollars in speeding fines in that fund,” Pflug said. “Why would you shut down cameras on one of the most dangerous stretches of roadway in the state?”
The 16-year board member said he would continue working with state and city officials in Keokuk to get the Insight Rural Emergency Hospital up and running.
Herren said he could bring some insight into consolidation in the county as he helped usher in the PSAP consolidation in the county from three different dispatch centers into one, saving the county substantially. He also agreed with another Murray suggestion to turn county speeding tickets into county revenue instead of state revenue. The City of Fort Madison made that change in 2023.
Fraise addressed the two courthouse situation. With the 2023 property tax bill came an amendment that allowed Lee County to consolidate court services, which could in turn, lead to a single county seat.
Fraise said the county shouldn’t close either courthouse, but said she also couldn’t justify putting any more money into either structure.
“I can’t justify closing either one but I may have a different opinion in four years.”
She also jabbed at state legislators saying they are taking too much control away from local governments and stepping on Home Rule. She said bills like House File 718 are taking away Home Rule.
“They deal with billions of dollars, that's billions. I honestly don’t think they know what it takes to run a county,” she said.
Knisely said the budget is an issue in Lee County but said visioning will help define the outcomes.
“But what are those outcomes we’re looking for? We need to know,” she said.
She also agreed with Seyb’s comments on uniting Lee County.
“I’ve sat on many coalitions and working together is extremely important,” she said. “We need to look for more grants and we need to see what we can move to the private sector.”
Fedler said he wants to serve one more term to help the county work through budget issues as debt falls off and other revenues such as energy taxes from the solar field and anhydrous pipeline come on line.
A final debate being sponsored by the Lee County Republicans will be held on Oct. 15 beginning at 6 p.m. at the FMHS auxiliary gym. That forum will feature both sheriff candidates, Stacy Weber and Elliott Vandenberg, and both auditor candidates, Sherri Yasenchok and Roslyn Garcia.
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