Supervisor Representation Changed
Currently the voters get to choose for themselves how they are represented by boards of supervisors, using one of the three plans. They can be elected at-large (Plan 1), at-large but in districts (Plan 2), or in districts and voted on by the residents of each district (Plan 3).
The Iowa legislature passed a bill SF75 that would change that. SF75 was signed by the Governor. This bill mandates that large counties (those with 60,000 or more people) must have a two-thirds vote in a special election to switch from Plan 3 to either Plan 1 or Plan 2 and counties with the main campus of a regents school (ISU, UNI, UI) must select their supervisors by district. The counties with regent campuses are Story, Johnson, and Black Hawk. Each district would be of equal population size. Only the voters of that district can vote for that supervisor. This is known as Plan 3. That is why Sierra Club opposed SF75.
There is absolutely no reason to dictate how the large counties or the counties with regent schools select their supervisors. This focus on counties with Democratic majorities blatantly strives to get more Republicans elected as supervisors in those counties in spite of what the voters want. The voters should decide. This is a matter of local control.
- The system for deciding how supervisors should be elected is not broken.
- There is absolutely no reason to mandate how the large counties or the counties with regent schools select their supervisors.
- The voters should decide, as they are currently allowed to in Iowa Code, what is best for their county.
- This is a matter of local control.