Tim Goodwin's resignation means no senate election for Des Moines County in 2022
Des Moines County will be one of only a handful of counties that won't have a senate election this year.
With the resignation of Tim Goodwin from the Iowa Senate, Jeff Reichman will serve as the state senator for the southern half of Des Moines county.
"Initially, I thought there would be two senators in the district and I thought there would be an election," Des Moines County Auditor Terri Johnson told the county supervisors Tuesday during their regular meeting.
Johnson said in cases where there is only one senator in a redrawn district, and it's not up for election that year, there is no need to hold an election as that senator will finish their term.
Other county- and state-level elections will move forward. This is because state representatives are elected every two years. Therefore, regardless of the number of incumbents in the district, there would still have been an election.
As for county offices, only two people had submitted their affidavit of candidacy papers. Those two were treasurer Janelle Nalley-Londquist and recorder Natalie Steffner. However, those with county offices still have more than two weeks to file their paperwork. The office of county attorney is also up for election.
"Candidates have until March 25 to file their papers," Johnson said.
Union negotiations complete
Union negotiations are officially finished for Des Moines County after the Communication Workers of America Local 7176 contracts were approved by the supervisors.
Even though the CWA represents both the sheriff's office and the clerical and custodial staff, they exist as two different unions. Sheriff's deputies have more rights when it comes to union negotiations than other employees, as are all other public safety employees.
The clerical and custodial contract stayed essentially the same except for an agreement for a 3.75% raise, a substantial decrease from the 7% that was initially requested.
The agreement between the parties was once again a three-year contract, such as what was agreed to in the 2019 bargaining process.
The contract for the sheriff's deputies, including the corrections officers, included substantially more changes. One big change was about when correctional employees are able to take leave.
Deputies and corrections officers are allowed three personal days per year. However, under the 2019 contract, only two corrections officers were allowed to take a personal day on the same day. Now the contract reads only one officer per shift is allowed to take a personal day.
A second officer on the shift may be able to take a day off only if a replacement can be found. The contract requires the jail to try to find a volunteer to cover for the second officer, but the jail will not mandate an employee to cover that shift.
This is also required for any time corrections officers ask to take time off.
The only major change for sheriff's deputies was to give officers who work in plain clothing an annual clothing allowance.
Under the plan, officers whose uniform is plain clothing will receive a $200 clothing allowance for being assigned to the department and an additional $375 allowance at the start of every fiscal year thereafter.
If the employee decides to wear their personal clothes that are then damaged, the county will not have to reimburse the employee for damages.
A similar program exists for attorneys for the county attorney's office, though the county attorneys, who are not unionized, receive a substantially larger clothing allowance.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Goodwin's resignation means no senate election for Des Moines county
