0:00. Minutes of last meeting approved.
1:10. Approval of consent agenda.
1:31. Linda Juckette – The reason for this meeting is to discuss a request from sheriff Barnes for sheriff’s office salary increase recommendation for 2027 in regards to the Back the Blue legislation.
3:30. Comparing Sheriff’s salary to other counties
5:14. Breaking Iowa code by not raising salary.
6:00. 23% increase in salary required to be within the law.
6:45. “Going backwards” if we don’t get him up to where he deserves.
7:30. Sheriff Barnes explains “this isn’t for me, this is the sheriff’s office.”
8:00. There is some discussion to give the raise incrementally as opposed to all at once.
9:02. Jennifer Stover asks about county comparison to cities with similar populations.
10:55. Competing with other counties salaries.
11:21. The Sheriff‘s attorney, Michael Keener discuss Iowa code 331–77.
13:15. Question is asked if the board of supervisors is obligated to follow and the attorney replies “it is code of Iowa, everybody is.”
13:45. In order to follow Iowa law, there must be a recommendation of salary that falls within the code.
14:15. A motion is made by David LaGrange: a 23% increase in salary recommendation.
14:29. Second by Stover/Juckette
14:41. A 23% increase would be from $117,659 to $144,715.
15:17. Attorney Steve Swanson comments “I would support raising Jason’s, the sheriff’s department’s pay by 23%. However, one thing that probably should be addressed as well, I know it’s not on the agenda, is that the county attorney making 20,000 less than the sheriff would be a rather unusual situation to be in. So, I don’t know if it’s possible to discuss that as well.”
16:10. Roll call vote for sheriff increase unanimous, and motion passes
16:51. Jennifer Stover, “can we make it clear to the board of supervisors to conform with the state code because we don’t care to be in another lawsuit?”
17:21. The board discusses the County Attorney’s salary.
17:57. County Attorney Swanson comments “mine is at $128,000 and would be unconventional to say the least for the sheriff to have a higher salary than the county attorney and would be difficult to hire assistant county attorneys without more money- in many surrounding counties, the assistant county attorney is making more than me(County attorney Steve Swanson)”
19:11. There is some discussion discussing the matching of the two salaries, sheriffs office, and county attorney
21:00. Linda Juckette suggests a written request be submitted by County Attorney Swanson.
23:00. Linda Juckette wants more information since this topic was not on the agenda.
24:54. The decision is made to table the discussion of the County Attorney salary until the next meeting on January 19, 2026 at 6:00 PM.
27:50 the meeting concludes with the Sheriff’s 23% salary increase to the board of supervisors as a strong recommendation and will continue to gather more information from the County Attorney for his salary increase.
28:20 meeting is adjourned
