Bill would wipe out townships, trustees

NOT ASKING

What they’re doing now is looking down into the county level and saying, ‘We’re not asking anymore’. We need to be watching this bill as it would absolutely require more staffing at the county level. But there would be more funds.”

Garry Seyb, Lee County Supervisor

LEE COUNTY – A study bill that’s advancing through the Senate in Iowa would sweep away most of the responsibilities of townships and township trustees throughout the state.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Lee County Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Garry Seyb brought the bill up during his supervisor report.
“Basically, it’s eliminating an entire system of government underneath the county,” Seyb said. “An entire layer.”
Seyb said legislators were looking for feedback from counties and encouraged other supervisors to visit the bill and provide that feedback. He said his understanding of the bill is that, if signed into law, effective July 1, 2027, there would be no township trustees in the state.
There are 16 townships in Lee County and elected trustees in those townships solve fencing disputes of landowners, provide fire and rescue services, and they mow cemeteries that aren’t designated pioneer cemeteries.
Seyb said the fire service  to the residents in the townships is the bigger issue. There are a few townships in Lee County that collaborate with other townships for that service. He said there are also others that standup their own fire service.  Those townships hold funds in reserve for purchases of equipment and maintenance.
“We’ve got at least one that works with a city and the city provides funds as well as the township to provide fire service for the township and the city, at least.”
He said his gut reaction to the bill was, “No way.”
The county would take over the levying ability of the townships to provide for the services they current levy for.
The bill got through an initial subcommittee and is now eligible for a vote from the Local Government Committee.
Supervisor Chair Ginger Knisley said things are moving very rapidly in the legislature this session.
Supervisor Chuck Holmes asked what the motivation was and County Engineer Ben Hull weighed in saying legislators were also concerned about transparency with township boards.
Hull said there’s more to the townships' responsibilities where it pertains to his department, as well, and there could be additional responsibilities for the county along those lines.
“As of  right now you cannot spend secondary roads funds on non-secondary roads,” he said.
Hull said some cemetery roads are not considered county roads and are private, but asked if the county took over maintenance of cemetery roads, would that be considered.
Seyb said there is another bill that requires cities under 6,000 to conduct studies on combining law enforcement with another agency. That would then need to be on the next odd year’s city election to let voters decide.
Knisley said there are several bills out there looking at regionalizing services across the state. One of those was childcare services. Knisley said that bill was tabled. She is the Lee County Director for Children First and follows childcare legislation closely.
“If we’re paying attention and looking at what’s going on in the state, I think there is talk around the state regionalizing and has been for a long time,” he said.
“What they’re doing now is looking down into the county level and saying, ‘We’re not asking anymore’. We need to be watching this bill as it would absolutely require more staffing at the county level. But there would be more funds.”
State Sen. Jeff Reichman said it's been the legislature's priority to streamline government as evidenced by the restructuring of state departments over the past few years. Now he said it's time to do that locally.
"Local government, cities, counties, and townships need to be more creative about cutting costs, combining services, and ultimately being better stewards of taxpayers' money.  How many IT departments do we have in Lee County, how many school boards, curriculum managers.  How many do we need?" he wrote in response to an email from Pen City Current.
"Everyone at every level needs to figure out how to stop squeezing people out of their homes and running people out of southeast Iowa with property taxes and levies."
He said Iowa has more local elected officials than any other state in the country. And Lee County has been given the opportunity to consolidate judicial services and they haven't moved yet.
"We still have two courthouses and are still in paralysis by analysis.  We know that needs fixed, we know that we are spending twice as much money that needs to be spent.  What other areas can be improved?" he wrote.
He cited Keokuk's efforts around real conversations about where they are and what they need and said he understands it's a challenge, but opportunities are out there.
"If SSB3009 forces people to have that conversation, then it’s a good start.  I have already had questions that tell me that process is starting," he wrote.