IOWA CITY

Danielle Pettit-Majewski was in tears.

She attended the Johnson County Board of Supervisors’ formal session April 3 because the Board was celebrating Public Health Week with a proclamation.

But with up to 20,000 public health workers and researchers being dismissed by the Trump Administration, the realities had overcome Pettit-Majewski, who became Johnson County’s Public Health Director during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Public health is under attack. Right now,” Pettit-Majewski said as her voice cracked with emotion.

“Folks who do research in cancer, folks who helped us respond during the Covid-19 pandemic, folks who make sure that our food is safe, our water, folks who track data in maternal and infant mortality rates. I think about this a lot. We won’t know what we lost because we don’t have the institutional memory to understand a world without the NIH (National Institutes of Health), without the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), without the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). We do not know.

“But it will be catastrophic.”

Said Supervisor Rod Sullivan: “When you start to lose your faith in science, you’re starting to lose your faith in reality. And if we’re not working in reality, what are we doing?”

“The arsenal of democracies has never been the ships or guns,” Supervisor Chair Jon Green said. “It’s the people.”

And the people are being lost.

“We will continue to advocate, we will continue to educate,” Pettit-Majewski said. “We have to have hope.”

Supervisors Oppose Bill

During a work session held April 2, Board members voiced their opposition to state legislation that will change Johnson County’s government from five at-large supervisors to five district supervisors serving specific districts.

The Board intended to send a letter to Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.

“I think we should at least say that we are opposed,” Supervisor Lisa Green-Douglass said.

Black Hawk (Waterloo/Cedar Falls) and Story (Ames) counties will also be affected. They are all home to state universities.

“It’s just not fair to Johnson County and Black Hawk and Story County voters to have something hoisted on them that’s not hoisted on everybody else,” longtime Supervisor Rod Sullivan said.

The Republican-controlled State Senate passed the bill by a 65-33 vote, sending it to Reynolds for final approval.

Johnson County’s five supervisors are currently elected to four-year terms on an at-large basis. The new law will require them to be voted as district supervisors with only those residing in a district voting for one supervisor seat every four years instead of voting on five seats spread to elections held every two years.

The bill was co-sponsored by Dawn Driscoll (R-District 46) of Williamsburg.

While legislators say they wanted the change to help rural voters, such as those in Hills and Lone Tree, Green-Douglass said the end result may work in reverse.

“Right now we have an interest in everybody,” Green-Douglass said. “We hopefully will continue to have that interest in everybody even though we’re in districts. But it won’t necessarily be that way when you look at personal self-interests, political self-interests and being re-elected.”

Board Action

The Board approved raising Johnson County’s suggested minimum wage to $13.02 an hour, beginning July 1. It is not enforceable by law.

The Board issued proclamations honoring Fair Housing Month, County Government Month, Crime Victims’ Rights Week and Public Health Week.

Next meeting:

The Board’s next formal session is at 5:30 p.m. April 10. This is the monthly evening session that includes rezoning and platting applications, along with public hearings.