Voters will decide if it’s OK for Polk supervisors to keep day jobs

Voters will decide if it’s OK for Polk supervisors to keep day jobs | Opinion

Posted by author February 2, 2025 Jobs

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The Register’s editorial
| Des Moines Register

In some other elected jobs, low pay is a barrier to running.
Polk’s new supervisors could stand out merely by being professional.

While the news that newly sworn in Polk County Supervisors Jill Altringer and Mark Holm are keeping their day jobs was surprising, the only judgment that matters on the propriety of their choices is that of their bosses.

That would be voters. Performance reviews come up in four years. (They’ll also assess the supervisors’ personnel choices and their toxic powder keg of a workplace; a word on that in a moment.)

Saying that voters will decide about having two jobs isn’t to deny that the situation raises eyebrows. Taxpayers are compensating Altringer and Holm $150,000 annually, surely as much an indication of full-time work as the county website’s reference to being available on a “full-time basis.” Holm has another six-figure government job, for the Iowa Department of Transportation, while Altringer works as a lobbyist.

Unless secondary employment presents a conflict of interests, elected officials shouldn’t be forced to shed their day jobs. Voters will decide whether they’d prefer all of their representatives’ professional efforts going toward governing.

The kerfuffle has established that Polk County at least makes running for county supervisor seem like a viable choice for any citizen. Too many elected jobs pay too little to make campaigning a smart choice for a person without established wealth.

In some other elected jobs, low pay is a barrier to running

Most state legislators, for instance, make $25,000 a year plus some benefits and expenses. Their workload lessens during the eight-ish months of the year the Legislature is not in session, but it doesn’t stop. A bill to increase the base pay to $35,000 failed last spring.

State Rep. Gary Mohr, a Bettendorf Republican, was frank about the reason for the proposal: “We have a number of members, particularly younger, members who are not running for reelection because they say they simply can’t afford to run,” he said then. The ranks of legislators include many retirees; while their commitment to give back to public service is welcome, those perspectives are disproportionately represented in the House and Senate.

The Des Moines City Council two years ago increased its members’ pay to $35,000, about a 20% increase. Its members conventionally keep their day jobs.

It’s fine if some Iowans find it unseemly for a county supervisor to have two well-compensated jobs. But paltry pay that implicitly discourages some Iowans from seeking office at other levels of government is at least as big an issue.

Supervisors could stand out merely by being professional

Holm and Altringer joined a board with a history of poorly restrained interpersonal conflict, and the discord has exploded in sometimes-embarrassing ways during their first weeks as supervisors.

Just after being sworn in, Altringer and Holm voted with Board of Supervisors Chairman Matt McCoy to put John Norris, the county administrator, on paid leave (Supervisors Tom Hockensmith and Angela Connolly voted no). They have not disclosed explicit reasons for that move.

Law enforcement officers were called to the county building Jan. 3 because of an argument about Norris’ job. Hockensmith told the Register’s Lee Rood last week that he acted unprofessionally then.

Rood also reported on new, sometimes personal barbs being traded between Hockensmith and McCoy. The inability to get along either publicly or privately would be bad enough on its own, but the acrimony has also led to lawsuits and costly settlements.

If the majority of the supervisors want a change in leadership, it’s their prerogative to choose a county administrator, and to judge whether they believe moving on quickly from Norris is worth paying six months of his salary as severance. Polk County residents deserve better, though, than to have sheriff’s deputies playing hall monitor for simmering supervisors and the courts refereeing interpersonal matters.

The best contribution newcomers Altringer and Holm could make has nothing to do with their other work. Instead, they should insist on professionalism in the workplace. It would go a long way toward demonstrating to voters the benefits of having them in office.

Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board

This editorial is the opinion of the Des Moines Register’s editorial board: Lucas Grundmeier, opinion editor; and Richard Doak and Rox Laird, editorial board members.

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