County Supervisor Candidates Field Questions At Forum

MALVERN - Nearly 100 citizens came to the Charles E. and Florence M. Lakin Community Center Saturday to hear from Mills County’s three Republican candidates for county supervisor share their ideas for effective and efficient county government.

Peter Bencker, David Farmer and Sandi Winton will be on the GOP ballot in the June 2 primary election for the county supervisor seat currently occupied by Richard Crouch, who is not seeking re-election.

The three candidates gave opening statements about themselves and their reasons for wanting to be on the board before answering questions submitted in writing by members of the audience.

Lower property taxes, fiscal responsibility and transparency were common themes in the message from all three candidates.

Bencker, who moved to Glenwood 20 years ago, said property taxes “are squeezing families, farmers and retirees harder every year.”

“Our taxes have grown faster than inflation and population growth,” said Bencker. “People deserve better value for their hard-earned dollars. Every dollar must be justified with taxpayers who pay the bills.”

Farmer, a 1979 Nishna Valley High School graduate and 50-year county resident, said the county needs to do a better job of explaining how it’s spending taxpayer dollars.

“I understand that the board of supervisors controls the purse strings for the county and we do need oversight, transparency and accountability,” he said. “I would like to see more transparency so people in the county understand where their money is going.”

Winton, who has lived in Mills County since 2003, said she believes elected officials should focus on needs over wants.

“I’m running for Mills County Supervisor because this county deserves leadership that is practical, transparent and never forgets the decisions impact household budgets,” she said. “I believe in community-driven leadership. Decisions should start with the people who live here, not behind closed doors, not after the fact and not without public input. When residents are part of the process, we get stronger outcomes and better trust.

Transparency and consistent communication is a requirement and not optional.”

Bencker said transparent county government “ means more than just posting documents online.”

“It means explaining decisions clearly, making budgets understandable and being clear about what the county actually versus what the state law requires,” he said.

Bencker, Farmer and Winton all have ideas on how the county can reduce spending.

“We need honest conversations about staffing levels, overtime, prioritizing essential services while still meeting state mandates and protecting what matters most,” Bencker said.

Farmer said the county may need to make tough personnel decisions if it wants to continue providing the services residents want and expect.

“People have come to expect the services we have, I see one of the only ways this going to happen is if we can keep the same services, we may have to cut wages in the county and/or positions,” said Farmer. “The salaries of all the departments need to be looked at very carefully and the benefits that these positions get.”

Winton said she would seek input from department heads to determine where spending cuts could take place.

“To cut county spending, I don’t want to just go in with a knife and start slicing,” she said “That’s every inefficient, it’s inappropriate and it’s not fair to all the departments, the county or the taxpayers.

“I want to spend some time with each of the department heads learning what is helping them, what is working for them, what is not working for them, seeing if there are some inefficiencies, seeing if there are some technologies that could streamline things, that could make things cheaper for that specific department to run.”

The three candidates answered several questions regarding the Loess Hills Landfill and the potential for the county to collect fees and additional revenue from the owner of the facility

“I’d like to see some sort of road-use tax because of the trucks that are damaging our infrastructure,” Farmer said. “Not sure what that would look like and if that’s possible.”
Winton said the landfill is here to stay.

“We have to figure out how to work best for a win-win solution for them, the county, taxpayers and everyone who travels that road,” she said.. “Legally, if we can tax them, if we can get more support for the roads they constantly tear up and people that need to go out and clean the sides, then absolutely we need to tax them. We also need to work with them and negotiate with them to possibly use the methane that they are burning to bring in more income to our county.”

Bencker said the county is limited on collecting revenue from the landfill because it operates under the oversight of the Iowa Department Of Natural Resources.

“We can only applies fees to the landfill that are equitable to what it’s actually costing the county,” said Bencker. “That’s something we can look at, but as far as gaining vast amounts of revenue, we going to have to get really creative and I’m not sure what that would look like, yet.”

Bencker also said as a measure to keep dust down, he would support the planting of native grasses and trees on areas of the landfill already used to maximum capacity.

Economic development, tourism, EMS services and renewable energy were among other issues discussed the forum.

NOTE - The Opinion-Tribune will be publishing profiles of Mills County’s supervisor candidates in May.