Supervisor Heather Knebel (R-Traer).

Happy Spring! The month of March was filled with weekly budget sessions as well as union negotiations for Tama County. This takes several hours of time but is critical to ensure the best decisions are made with Tama County taxpayer dollars.

The County has been discussing the possibility of changing the structure of benefits from sick time/vacation to PTO (Paid Time Off). Our outside Auditor advised us that PTO is the best option so that we know exactly what vacation everyone has, and it is more difficult for the county to budget for sick days. Several discussions were had by our HR consultant to ensure the department heads could get their questions answered. The Board of Supervisors did approve changing to PTO, as well as adding Short-Term and Long-Term Disability to the benefits package. At the conclusion of union negotiations with the Secondary Roads Department, they decided to take a lower percentage of increase in salary raises and keep the current sick time/vacation time instead of switching to PTO with the addition of Short and Long-Term Disability coverage. As the system works today, if an employee depletes all of their sick time hours for the fiscal year if they experience a major health concern, they can ask other county employees for a donation of their sick time hours. I feel that each employee should have disability coverage to assist in these circumstances. It is to Tama County’s advantage to have an attractive benefits package when recruiting young families for employment as well as new Sheriff Deputies.

For the Secondary Roads Department, we are still using the County Engineer from Iowa County on an interim basis while still seeking a new full-time Engineer. Nick is doing a great job and helped the Supervisors by reviewing details of the Secondary Roads Department budget for next fiscal year. Two older motor graders were traded in to purchase two Caterpillar 150-15A AWD motor graders to be used in the NW portion of the county. Another older motor grader is being retained for spare parts.

The Board of Supervisors held a Public Hearing to discuss the proposed tax levy. General Basic Levy went down from 3.50000 to 3.46535. Rural Services Levy also went down from 3.74618 to 3.70909, while General Supplemental Levy is staying the same. For the second year in a row, we’ve kept levies either the same or lowered them for the funds the Board of Supervisors are in control of. We are all taxpayers and none of us want a property tax increase, and we are therefore making some hard decisions in regard to cuts or out-sourcing to save money. The State Legislature is currently debating a proposed property tax reform bill that will really limit the growth of counties in Iowa.

The Board of Supervisors (or a Compensation Board) are responsible for suggested wage increases for elected officials, unions, and non-elected employees. Meetings were held that consisted of our HR Consultant, Auditor’s Office, department heads and the three unions represented in Tama County. The Secondary Roads union decided to settle on a 1.5% raise, even though they were offered 3% if they agreed to change to PTO/Short Term/Long Term Disability. They decided to stay with sick time/vacation time and get a 1.5% raise. 911 Dispatch and Jailers settled on a 3% raise and PTO/Short Term/Long Term Disability. Sheriff Deputies settled on a 6% raise and PTO/Short Term/Long Term Disability. Non-Union employees received a 3% raise. Thank you to all involved to make this process successful for all parties!

Elected Official raises for FY27 starting on July 1, 2026, are the following: Attorney 14.794%, Auditor 8.26%, Recorder 3.0%, Sheriff 4.249%, Supervisors 3.873%, Treasurer 3.0%. We met with James and Nan from Marshall County to help us arrive at these percentages. James compiles a Compensation Board Report for the Fiscal Year for a few counties in Iowa, as Compensation Boards aren’t required anymore. This file has detailed information comparing counties by Elected position. Annually, we shall review the compensation paid to comparable officers in other counties of this state and provide a recommendation using documentation that demonstrates the reasoning behind the recommended compensation. Our Attorney is ranked 59th in the state in pay and is considerably below the Sheriff’s salary. The Sheriff’s current salary is due to “Back the Blue” law, which mandates counties set elected sheriff salaries comparable to other law enforcement leaders, city chiefs, and Iowa State Patrol command officers. Tama County has one of the longest-serving county attorneys, therefore it made sense to increase his salary in regard to the Statewide Average pay. The Auditor Office took on a significant amount of workload in the last year due to changes in HR/Safety, and was ranked 63rd for pay, therefore we raised that salary to the Statewide Average. The County Recorder and Treasurer were given the standard 3% raise as they did not take on any additional workload but should get the inflation increase to keep pace with other counties. The Sheriff’s salary was increased to the Statewide average as that is required as mentioned above by the “Back the Blue” bill. The Supervisors were given a 3.873% increase. The background behind this value is that we currently have a salary of $38,724 per year and a mileage/meals/lodging reimbursement budget amount of $2,000. It is legally required to have a mileage/meals/lodging reimbursement option for elected officials in the county, but since the Supervisors haven’t been requesting these reimbursements, we reduced that line item down to $500 and moved $1,500 to the Salary line-item instead. The end result is a line-item “swap” and not a budget increase, resulting in a $0 increase. The five Supervisors have worked diligently over the past year to straighten out so many areas of the budget, and even with this modest salary increase, the Supervisor salaries will still lag behind the Statewide average by $3,400 each. There will be no tax increase to taxpayers with any of these raises. Any tax increases are from Assessed value, schools, or cities.

Here are some facts on how we got out of the financial situation we were in at the beginning of last year when the prior Board of Supervisors budget was a negative $950,000. We eliminated the Safety Department as it’s very rare for any county to have a specific Safety Department. We outsourced HR to a Consultant with some responsibilities moving to the Auditor Office (several counties have their entire HR Department responsible in the Auditor Office). We outsourced Economic Development by partnering with the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce with a dedicated person for Tama County for a fraction of the cost, but with the resources of a full team to assist. A substantial amount of money was budgeted back from E911 for a building that had the possibility of being proposed in the distant future. The Board of Supervisors also received a $1.2 million settlement from NextEra Energy. Department heads did a very good job in keeping costs focused on critical needs and improving efficiency. Supervisor David Turner has helped in the interim as the IT Director and is finding several ways to reduce costs and streamline processes.

When we five Supervisors took office in January 2025 our General Basic Fund had $360,707 and was slated to have a negative balance after payroll was run the next week. Our General Basic Fund one year later in January 2026 was $2,073,117. We did have $500,000 that we temporarily borrowed from our Health Fund Account, so with that reduction the fund balance was $1,573,117. This drastic improvement is largely due to the $1.2M settlement as well as reduced spending by county departments. The General Supplemental Fund in January 2025 was $351,499, and that same account in January 2026, was $1,908,204 plus the $500,000 borrowed totaling $2,408,204. The Rural Services fund in January 2025 was $799,691, and in January 2026 the fund balance was $1,223,5778. Total Funds across the entire county went from $14,449,524 in January 2025 and $17,054,416 in January 2026. It’s amazing what strong leadership can do when County Supervisors and Department heads decrease expenses and increase revenue for the County. I’m proud to be on the 5-member Board of Supervisors who have worked so hard since coming into office. With the reduced expenses and realized additional income, we have more than offset the $150K salary plus benefits per year for two extra Supervisors. With a Board consisting of five members, two Supervisors are free to discuss and brainstorm, tag team a project, etc. without violating open meetings laws. The five of us all have our strengths and we find that “dividing and conquering” is a huge benefit.

The Public Health/Home Health Budget situation continues to be a large topic of discussion. Per Iowa Code, Public Health is required. Home Health is not required but is something Tama County has had for many years. We had taxpayers requesting for this service to discontinue at taxpayer expense. This would reduce what needs levied substantially, but at what cost to our most vulnerable people who need care in the County. We are still in discussions about possibly adding in a budget item that would cover people in our County that are not able to get care from private providers. We have requested from Public Health officials and the Board of Health, an estimate of what the dollar amount to take care of those individuals might be. There is also the potential to possibly sell the Home Health component or continue with Home Health but in a more efficient way to do so to lower the cost. I would prefer to keep all of our existing services, but the downward pressure on budgets from the State will continue to make it more challenging for counties to operate as is with non-required services. More to come on this topic in my next month’s column with the final decision. In the meantime, you can review the Tama County meeting minutes from Supervisor meetings posted online or in the newspaper or reach out to me for an updated status on the topic. Thank you to everyone involved during this stressful time for everyone.

Jake Buchanan, Tama County Economic Development, is doing a fantastic job familiarizing himself with the job. He and I attended the Gladbrook and Traer City Councils as well as the Traer Chamber of Commerce. Jake and the Marshalltown Chamber Tourism employee, Dylan, toured Tama County and stopped at a few local establishments. Jake is always willing to meet new business leaders and groups, and I feel that Tama County has a promising future with this agreement in place!

As usual, please reach out with any questions or concerns.

Supervisor Heather Knebel (R-Traer), the first elected female supervisor in Tama County history, represents District 3, including the townships of Spring Creek, Crystal, Perry, and parts of far northern Carlton (excluding Garwin) and Howard. She can be reached at 641-481-2532 or hknebel@tamacounty.org.