News : Candidate Forum Summary Supervisor Candidates for District 3 - Bierschenk & Volz

There are two candidates running for Benton County Sheriff. Below are the statements made by our candidates. Questions were asked by the public. If the name was clear on the audio recording of those who directed a question to the candidates the name is included. If it was not the question is just listed.

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Two candidates are competing for the District 3 Supervisor race.

Incumbent Gary Bierschenk spoke first and introduced himself.

He has lived and farmed in Benton County working on the family farm since he was five years old. He barely missed being sent to Vietnam. He's been a supervisor for six years and knows that the county is struggling with money. He said that there are issues with hiring people to do the jobs they are hired to do and "get things filled". He mentioned that there is a new assistant attorney that will be hired at the beginning of the month.

He said there's a "lot of work" and hopes that there won't be a lot of legal problems in the future. "We've got a lot of issues in the county, most of them are not murder, or something like that. We don't need any of that in this county." 

"It's been a struggle to meet employee's demands and necessities. Money is tight all over. It's going to be a struggle to keep the employees well satisfied to do their job. 

"I own farm ground, I know taxes were raised. It's the way it is. I do not want to raise taxes. We want to get things done and get them to a point where  people are satisfied with their job and doing their job in a good way."

Former mayor of Norway, Bruce Volz is competing for the seat that Bierschenck now holds. He and his wife, married for 30 years, lives in Norway. The couple have a son and two daughters and two granddaughters. A 1976 graduate of Norway. 

After 9/11 he and his wife lost both of their jobs in the airline industry on the same day. Neither of them collected unemployment. She was then employed by the TSA and now works in the pharmacy of Hy-Vee. He began a commercial janitorial business with $9,000. He said starting out with a vacuum cleaner, a feather duster and some spray bottles. While looking for a buyer for the business, he took classes on how to sell insurance. He sold the business after 12 years for a quarter of a million and having half a million in sales. Now in the insurance business, he makes a living on commission, so he said, "If I don't work, I don't get paid."

He's been involved in his community and on several boards his whole life. He's been part of the St. Mary's Parish Council, a founding member of Pheasants Forever in Benton County, and serves on the state board. He served on the city council in Norway for three years, and mayor for four. He's never had a budget run in the red. Everything he does he said is in front of everyone and it's on the table. If we can't do it, we don't. If he doesn't know how to do something he finds someone who does.

We might not be able to solve all of the problems, but we will tackle them as they come.

Amy Stourac - You both said they have a commitment to honesty. If elected, how will you handle it if a fellow supervisor does not have the same commitment?

Bierschenk: I don't think that is part of the supervisor's job to reprimand another supervisor. That's the public's job. That's really YOUR job. I can bring it up in a meeting, but there's nothing I can really do about it. Honesty is the best policy, obviously. There is nothing I can do as a supervisor to reprimand somebody for not doing what they need to do. That's all I have on that.

Volz: Unfortunately, the way the system is set up now, with only three supervisors, you cannot go to one supervisor alone because that would be a quorum. That's a problem. If you do want to discuss something,  like that with a Supervisor and say,  "Hey you're kind of leaning the wrong way on this," that can't be done. When the other candidates mentioned expanding it to five supervisors, that can help this situation out.  Then you can have a sidebar with another supervisor and take it from there.

Question: What can be done better as far as Interpretation of code so that we can avoid legal issues?

Volz: I'm not sure which code you are referring to. I know that there are a number of codes. When I was mayor a number of issues came up, some of the ordinances and codes were outdated and needed to be updated to current standards or the language needed to be updated. That does take time. To change an ordinance typically takes three months at the city level. I'm not sure at the county level what that would take. But if there's a code that the wording is wrong then it needs to be discussed with the attorneys and everyone who handles that to make sure everyone is on the same page. 

Bierschenk: The Supervisor's code are not in the towns. The towns are governed by the city council. All we deal with is the rural areas mostly. We don't deal with the towns, we deal with the rural areas for the most part. But the towns are dealt with in the City Councils.

Jill Marlow: How would you prevent members working together outside of a meeting to come to decisions before going to the public meeting, if there were a five person board? (Wifh 5 members two could talk about business before attending the meeting and making a formal decision.)

Bierschenk: To be honest about it, I don't know, I've never been in that situation. A three person board seems to work quite well. If you want to spend more money, start with a five person board, you have more people to pay. I don't know, I don't have an answer for you. I'm sorry.

Volz: Part of the answer to that is the honesty and integrity that we all say that we're going to bring forward.  If I discuss something with someone about an issue, the final decision comes at the meeting. If someone has an idea, or a thought, that's where they should bring those up. Discussing it with someone else as a sidebar, is just maybe to gather information. But it should NOT be to make a decision, but rather to gather information.

That's why the meetings are up here. If that kind of stuff happens, that's a backroom deal, and we can't do that. Backroom deals lead to misdirection, and it makes for mistrust. If you do one, you've lost the trust and you'll never get it back. I wouldn't have an issue with that.

When I go to a meeting, I should only have the information that is on the agenda. I don't have an issue with that. 

Steve Spiedel: We have a Land Use policy that hasn't been reviewed since 2006.  Are we going to be looking at that and as a supervisor, what can you do to change the ordinance so that we can expand like Cedar Rapids?

Bierschenck: On the west end of the county, for a gas station, I'm not sure what the use would be. Now when I go to Cedar Rapids, there's no place to fuel a truck, there isn't really any place to fuel a car really, outside the city limits, but you can't go into those places with a truck. I thought that there would be a good place somewhere between Cedar Rapids and Tama to fuel a truck, but right now there is not unless you go off of Highway 30. If you go into Blairstown or I guess if you have a car you can go into Norway or Linn Co-op. I suppose you could go into Atkins. Now if that's something the public wants, I'm not against it.

It's interesting that whenever we go down to see my daughter in Texas, we fuel in southern Missouri. It's not that big of a deal. 

Volz: Land use, small towns in Benton County are shriveling up, unless you have a subdivision. In Norway we are not allowed to build one because the infrastructure like the water system cannot handle it. We are in the process now of a $1.5 million upgrade so that we can add another faucet. What we can do is with the houses that are existing, if they are falling down, we can tear them down and build something new. 

I would like to see some of the land use go toward rehabilitating some of the small cities and areas. I'd like to see some of the businesses brought back into the small communities. If you did I'd like to see a Dollar General, but that's not going to happen because our population is 550 you gotta have 800. 

As far as expansion goes it I think it has to do with the infrastructure of the city and if can actually support it and each is unique on its own. I don't know where Benton County is on dealing with that but that's one of the issues. 

Spiedel: Can I ask a follow up? This has nothing to do with the city, this is rural. We have a policy that has not been under review since 2006. I'm talking about rural development. My question is, especially along Highway 30, you can see what Cedar Rapids has done and we've missed all of that because of our land use policy.

Volz: I would have to look at that code, because right now I do not know what that code says. I don't think it would be proper for me to address it when I don't have any knowledge of it. I know that trying to convert farmland into something else is very near and dear to people. A lot of comments that I hear is, " now, there goes another farmfield, what are we going to go for grain?"

I really do need to look at the code to give you a solid answer.

Bierschenk: First off can I see a show of hands of how many would like us to look at land use policy? There's a few of you. Thank you. That's all I have.

Question: What is your strategic vision for the county?

Bierschenk: First off the towers that are around Benton County, there are some in Iowa County, I can see them from my farm. As far as I'm concerned, I don't want them. Because if you're applying a field, cropdusting a field, there is a three mile limit. If there is a cell tower, they won't fly over your field. The second thing is, I've been told, I'm not sure if it's true, there's no way to take them down. Say they are obsolete in 20 or 30 years there's so much cement under the ground that you can't take them out without putting more money in than what they paid out in 30 years. As far as I'm concerned, they are not welcome here because of those reasons. 

I guess that's all I have on that. Thank you. 

Volz: One of the things that I think would be paramount is to get the budget to where it's in the black. Infrastructure has to be at the top of the list. Once we get those things under control,  then we can look at where we are spending our money and where can we bring more in. Getting the employees on board, Maybe looking at some of the budgets we can make a dump truck last a year longer rather than replacing it. Maybe we can drive a patrol cars a bit longer. But maybe that's a way to bring more of those things into control, I believe that's the way to look at it.  Operating in the red isn't a good situation. Becoming fiscally responsible and then once we get that done, we can look at other areas.

Wayne Siela for Bierschenk on redirecting a 61st St. to help divert traffic away from the school: Will the culture change concerning road development? Will the culture change from "I don't want to so I don't have to."

Bierschenk: I don't know about the culture but know that road is important because of the school. That really needs to change. We need to have that road open so that you can take trucks and wagons up that road so it doesn't go past the school.

Siela: What have you done? Give me a progress report.

Bierschenk: Really we haven't done much,

Siela: That's exactly correct.

Bierschenk: At least not lately, and I'm sorry for that, I really am. That road needs to be done, it needs to be at least gravel. 

Siela: One more question: What are you doing to properly fund the position of Weed Commissioner?

Bierschenk: We've got a weed commissioner and he should be working at it.

Siela: Is it an army of one? I'm absolutely disappointed in what the supervisors have done in regard to things like that. 

Bierschenk: He has people on his staff.

Siela: So what's the stumbling block? It seems like the three of you guys go to the meetings talk about stuff, promise things and nothing happens. What's going on?

Bierschenk: Well, we're putting in new radios and they cost...

Siela: Don't get me started on that, just answer the question I asked. 

Bierschenk: Well, we're out of funds is basically what it boils down to. 

Siela: Ya know Gary, when the assistant county engineer quit, his salary over the last four years would pay for at least half that road, you know that? 

Bierschenk: Well, I'm only one of three. We've got to get it done. I'm sorry. I am. 

Volz: I don't have any specific response to the question. I drive a school bus so situations with roads I am aware of. Some get pretty narrow, especially with a bus or semi. If there is something, as the mayor of Norway, I felt like something shouldn't be on the agenda more than three times. If it was, I felt like I wasn't doing my job. So something like that should be addressed and not allowed to fall through the cracks. Maybe handling the situation like that would prevent something like that happening.