The sticker that says, “Ketebi,” which means thank you in the Meskwaki language, and has a picture of Meskwaki Chief Taimah who Tama County is named after. The sticker was designed by Kiyanna Pushetonequa and will be put on the door of every county building.

This week’s Tama County Supervisors meeting was like a family dinner, several hours long, filled with conflict, and everyone and their uncle got to give their two cents on the issues. The meeting was expected to be a long one, as Supervisor David Turner made a new house rule that there be a bathroom break every two hours; however, the supervisor only made it an hour and a half before nature called for an intermission.

The main subject of the day was once again wind. The county took a turn in its Don Quixote-esque fight against the turbines by agreeing to go into negotiations with Salt Creek, AKA NextEra Energy. But even the decision to go into negotiations was in itself a negotiation.

When the negotiations discussion started, the supervisors were asked what they would ask for as concessions in the negotiations. Chairman Mark Doland answered this.

“I think that certainly, we would want to know from you, from the public, what kind of concessions we would want. I would like to have my money back that we paid on this lawsuit, for sure. I’d like that to be restored to the county. I believe that’s not an unreasonable request,” he said.

Supervisor Heather Knebel brought up that just because the last court ruling wasn’t in their favor, it doesn’t mean they’re out of the game. She also referenced the Worth County wind case, which she stated is now in appeals court.

“Just because there’s a loss, I would say, its not looking like we’ve just, we’re done and out, right? There’s always opportunities. It looks pretty, a good path with the supreme court too, so just trying to clear up the, yes there’s a bad ruling it doesn’t mean (that) at the end of the day it’s not going to win,” Knebel said.

Discord among Doland and Knebel saw them debating the topic passionately. Among other details of the issue, money was a factor that was batted around. It had been stated that the county had been spending $2,000 to $3,000 a day on legal fees during this litigation.

“I am the risk pool trustee, and I gained $50,000 out of our surplus at the risk pool. Mark didn’t mention that in his Facebook post, that we do have $50,000 that we’ve been able to use on legal fees. So, I wanna be a little careful that, oh they’re spending all this money, we only went over budget $92,000, I think it was, for last year,” Knebel said. “Just to clear up, there is some more that we’re doing there, and we’re balancing the budget that’s what our job is to do.”

Mahaska County was brought up during this debate of the supervisors, as Doland served as a supervisor there previously, and there was litigation over the desire to build an airport. Doland talked about how the two situations aren’t exactly the same.

“Just to be frank, in Mahaska we had like $18 million in our bank. We have, like, negative $1.5 million projected, and we came out on top because of budget cuts, and we cut all of these services that actually ended people’s jobs in order to fight this lawsuit. It didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to, and I think that we are at a point where we need to make a determination, do we want to spend a whole million dollars and go further in the hole when we’re barely floating by right now. We just took a million-dollar loan from our health insurance fund in order to float the general fund,” Doland said. “When I borrow money, I was raised fairly poor, and my mom would have to borrow money from her mom sometimes, and we were making sure that we had food and gas so my mom could get back and forth to work. We weren’t out spending it frivolously. I’m not saying legal fees are frivolous; however, I think that we have a pretty good idea how the court is gonna rule in their final determination.”

Knebel went on to talk about how the supervisors didn’t borrow the money for the lawsuits.

“I want to be careful there how we word that because we’re in this because prior boards we came into this mess of the money situation,” she said.

Knebel also took umbrage at Doland’s presumption of how much it would cost to keep with the litigation. Knebel stated that throwing out numbers like a million dollars is to “scare” the public. She also stated that the large amount Doland mentioned wasn’t what their lawyer said it would cost. Doland responded to this.

“Well, it cost over a million dollars with every other case that every other county has taken to the Supreme Court. I don’t care what the attorney said (about) how much it’s gonna cost-” Doland’s sentence was cut off as a member of the public interrupted his and Knebel’s back and forth. He then stated that their debate was good and healthy.

Local citizen Cole Langenbau asked the supervisors if they knew anyone at Salt Creek to contact, and if they were in the room. Knebel stated yes, and that they were. He then asked why didn’t they just talk to them after the meeting?

“Why do they have to come to you on everything? Like, you know who to contact,” Langenbau said. “You guys are kinda sitting there on your hands like, oh well, you come to me while $2,000 to $3,000 a day is being spent on this.”

Assistant County Auditor Michelle Schroeder stood up and spoke.

“In listening to everything, the one thing that I keep thinking, as I listen to everybody arguing about this or that, what’s right or what’s wrong, when it comes to our budget, and where we’re at and continuing to spend, what bothers me is the names. Garrison Reekers, Joanne Husak, Katherine Ollendieck, Tammy Wise, those are jobs that are gone, those are departments we have completely cut. Those are real people of our county that no longer have jobs, that, yeah, you guys did great, you cut the budget,” Schroeder said. “You got it back where it needs to be, but we’re gonna continue spending that money in a lawsuit that, as it’s been said, as I see it too, has been lost. I’m not saying the turbines are right or wrong, but to continue to spend money that you cut jobs to save to bring back the county into the black just seems wrong to me.”

It was also discussed how negotiations would happen, if they happened. Knebel was in favor of including their attorney in all negotiations with Salt Creek. Doland and Turner had the opposite opinion; they wanted to meet without lawyers, face to face, to arrange a deal before finalizing it with lawyers.

One of the reasons given to meet without a lawyer was that a lawyer would take at least 30% of any deal struck, and they are trying to save money, the supervisors stated. After another lengthy back-and-forth, it was decided to go forward with negotiations without lawyers present.

Then came the decision of who was going to be the negotiator. They agreed that only two supervisors would represent the board in negotiations, so it wouldn’t create a quorum. Knebel felt strongly that she should be one of the two to represent the county because phase one is in her district, and she’s the most knowledgeable on the issue.

Doland thought it would be good to have someone representing the county who was unbiased. A discussion ensued that seemed to have no end in sight until Supervisor Curt Kupka took the mic and broke his legendary silence.

“I don’t say much, I sit here and I take it all in, but I’m tired of fighting this thing,” he said.

Kupka moved for Turner and Doland to represent the supervisors in the negotiations and said, “It would be different if we had $15 million laying around.”

It went to a vote, and Turner and Doland were approved with three votes. Knebel voted no, and Hilmer abstained, saying, “Why not have two people on there that see different views?”

In other news, Tama County Engineer Ben Daleske reported that they’ve been working on the culvert and doing ditch work on F Avenue and 280th Street; weather permitting, they should finish it up this week. They will soon be starting on the bridge located on H Avenue just north of E69. They’ve also been rocking, grading, and will get out a truck attachment to take care of some edge ruts this week. A utility permit was approved, as well as a street closure for the Chelsea Car Show.

The supervisors approved a resolution declaring July 13 Meskwaki Nation Proclamation Day in Tama County. This is in recognition and celebration, and remembrance of July 13 1857, when the Meskwaki people first purchased land in Tama County.

“I have a good relationship with Meskwaki Nation, I don’t know if this has ever been done before, just to reach out and say you’re part of our community, you’re part of our county. A bunch of the land they own is in our county,” Doland said. “We are in the community together, many of them live in the cities, and I just think it’s an olive branch to show that, hey, we need to get together and get along, we are in the same communities and recognize all of the great things that they offer as our county’s largest employer.”

Doland then went on to talk about how he got an idea from this book entitled Everything You Wanted To Know About Indians But Were Too Afraid To Ask, to put a sticker on the door of every county building that said, “Ketebi,” which means thank you in the Meskwaki language. After having previously been ignorant of this fact, Doland thought it was interesting that Tama County was named after Meskwaki leader Chief Taimah. So, Doland acquired a hundred stickers designed by Kiyanna Pushetonequa.

Turner stated first about how he is relatively new to the county, but has been attending church locally for two decades before speaking in support of the stickers.

“There’s that tension between us and the Meskwaki tribe, and most people do not realize they are their own nation. And they do a lot of good things for us and with us, and I think this goes a long way to helping us to join together. There is a gentleman that walks down the street every day past my house, and his name’s Waylon, Waylon Whitebreast, and we speak every day,” he said. “Usually in one direction because I’m not necessarily there in the second direction, but he walks into Tama every day, and uses one of the gyms and walks back to the settlement. So, reach out, meet these folks, they’re really good people.”

Jim Roan spoke to the supervisors about restoring the Toledo bandstand, which sits on Tama County-owned land. Roan gave a history lesson on the bandstand and informed them of the funding and the plans. The supervisors approved Roan to move forward with the project.

Marty, with the Region 6 Housing Trust Fund, talked to the supervisors about their continuing assistance. $21,017 was being requested for the next fiscal year. The supervisors approved the request.

The supervisors approved the law enforcement 28E contracts with the cities of Clutier and Elberon, although they are still waiting for the paperwork from Elberon.

The supervisors approved Knebel to look into combining regions for the South-Central Iowa Workforce Region. The Auditor’s and Recorder’s quarterly reports were approved.

Multiple tax sale re-assignments were approved in one motion. Due to property insurance, claims were high this week, totaling $913,920.85.