County OKs workforce board merger plans

(Article corrected to reflect only deputies in Treasurer's office and Recorder's officer were sworn in Tuesday. July 2, 2025 - 8:14 a.m.)

LEE COUNTY – Lee County Supervisors gave the Mississippi Valley Workforce Development board the county’s support in an effort to merge local workforce development efforts beyond the eight-county region.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting, the board voted unanimously to support the merger as officials worry about state intervention in local workforce development efforts.
Funding cuts to the programs nationally have put extended pressure on some of the regions in Iowa, including the western half of the state. Miranda Swafford, executive director of the MVWD board, said four regions in that half of the state have already succumbed to budget constraints and are now joined into one region called Iowa Plains that now has state oversight. The state still has four other regions aside from Mississippi Valley and Iowa Plains. Those include East Central, Northeast, Central and South Central Iowa. The current merger plans would join South Central and MVWD.
Without the proposed merger, Swafford said budget constraints could force other local boards out of operations, as well.
Supervisor Chuck Holmes, who is the supervisors' liaison to the MVWD, said all eight counties in the region have to sign on for the mergers to take place.
“In order for this merger to happen, every single county has to be in agreement with this. If one of the eight counties in the Mississippi Valley region doesn’t agree with it, it’s not going to happen,” Holmes said.
Supervisor Garry Seyb asked what the difference in service would be under the merged regions. Swafford said services would remain the same, but efficiencies could be found in administrative costs.
“The services would stay the same because we still would have local subcommittees to kind of help with that local control,” Swafford said.
“Because instead of it being the eight counties, now it would just be the larger area with CEOs meeting. They would really get to dictate how that support is delivered, so it really would be increasing the administrative efficiencies to maximize the funding that we are receiving because that is going down,” Swafford said.
Supervisor Ginger Knisley asked where the saving would be realized.
She said service staff would remain the same, but administratively, they can use the same accounting person for both regions rather than two different staff.
Swarfford said the frustrating part in the grand scheme of things is that the other state regions didn’t have the funding to operate and fulfill their federal responsibilities, even though the services are federally funded.
She said the support staff is struggling in the western part of the state and results are poorer than the autonomous regions.
“Services over there are struggling and all their outcomes are lower than the rest of the state," Swafford said. "If you look at the number of people they are serving, those numbers are very low. And their placements are very low and they're really struggling to run this at the state levels."
The county board also approved a new one-year agreement with Iowa State Penitentiary to have lunches prepared and picked up for inmates at a cost of $3.25 per meal.
Sheriff Elliott Vandenberg said the relationship isn’t sustainable, because he didn’t have staff to continue running to the prison to pick up the meals daily. ISP would only provide lunches and bread, while another vendor would be providing dinner meals at a rate below the prison’s $3.25 per meal, bringing the average cost per meal to $3.14.
Vandenberg said the county will be moving to bring the meal service internally with the assistance of the other vendor. The move was approved with a unanimous vote.
Vandenberg said some upgrades will need to take place, but he said the savings on the one-year meal deal would create the needed funding.
The board also swore in deputies in the treasurer, and recorder’s offices.