County treasurer proposes replacing deputy designations with leadership roles

Jasper County Treasurer Doug Bishop feels it is unfair for his deputies to not receive a pay increase just because he may not get a pay increase since their salaries are essentially tied together. To avoid overspending while still giving his staff raises, Bishop proposed removing their deputy designations.

Instead, they would be delegated to leadership positions in their respective specialties in the county treasurer’s office, which covers driver’s license and motor vehicle services and the payment of property taxes. Bishop pitched the idea to supervisors at their Dec. 2 meeting at the courthouse.

“I know money gets tight,” Bishop said. “We’ve generated a lot of revenue over there, and I know there has been talk about a zero coming. Personally, for myself, I’m not opposed to that. I make good money. I know I can go nowhere else and make the money I’m making right now. I’m happy with what I’ve done.”

However, Bishop noted no raise for himself would also mean no raise for the deputies in his office, and to him that is not right. In Iowa, treasurer deputy salaries are capped and are relative to the county treasurer’s pay; they can earn up to 80 percent or 85 percent of Bishop’s salary.

“They have really stepped up,” Bishop said. “…My thoughts are if we could have a discussion on taking the deputies out of that scenario. And I kind of had a brief phone call with everybody just to give an idea as to what I was thinking for my department, and (I’d instead) call them ‘team leaders’ or a ‘working foreman.’”

Bishop said other counties in the state, like Scott County, implement similar methods. He clarified the county would not be creating new positions but rather replacing the deputy positions with supervisor or leadership positions. Bishop said it also gives the staff protection following an election of a new treasurer.

Supervisors and other county officials responded positively to the proposal from Bishop. Jasper County Recorder Denise Allan said something like this feels like a long time coming, noting other counties utilize “assistants” rather than “deputies.” She said it is definitely worth looking at. Supervisor Brandon Talsma agreed.

“I’m not opposed at all,” Talsma said. “I greatly appreciate you coming and having this conversation with us, just like I greatly appreciate you willing to double down and rearrange … I know you understand, especially from your role in Baxter, too, the constraints that we’re under.”

Talsma appreciated Bishop’s willingness to work with the board of supervisors to try and increase revenue while also not increase costs to the taxpayers.

“I think this is the next step in our direction,” Talsma said, acknowledging that there have been years where elected department heads have been open to taking no pay increases but feel obligated to so as not to hurt their own deputies. “…For a lack of a better word, it punishes them. I like the idea, Doug.”

BACKGROUND & REASON FOR PROPOSAL

House File 718, a law that, among many things, has limited revenue growth for both cities and counties and consolidated certain tax levies, is in large part driving Bishop’s pitch and the discussion he wanted to have with supervisors. He anticipates the property tax reform law is only going to “keep squeezing.”

Of top concern? Providing services to residents without the proper taxation. Bishop acknowledged that supervisors and other county officials want to keep the county’s share of property taxes low for citizens. As a result, the treasurer’s office has made strides in maintaining services with fewer staff.

Despite his office’s role as a department of motor vehicles and its ability to make a significant amount of revenue for the county, Bishop noted a while back a decision was made to not fill an extra position. His staff hunkered down, Bishop said, and generated a lot of revenue while making a name for themselves.

Cross-county services has worked wonders for the Jasper County DWV crew. The office sees a lot of out-of-county customers, particularly from Polk County. The short drive and quick response time resulted in the driver’s license department issuing over 16,000 cards last year.

“We have had so many come in from outside the county to do that that we pay one full salary and benefits just off of our outside cards coming in,” Bishop said to supervisors. “The motor vehicle side has skyrocketed this last year, and that’s where the real revenue comes from.”

Even car dealerships from the metro area have started transferring their title work to Jasper County to alleviate any issues.

“We’ve now had our third dealer that has come to us and asked that we do all of their title work,” Bishop said. “…We have a major business that started bringing title work to us, and we said absolutely. And we were told last week, ‘You were on probation; we were just testing you. That was one clerk’s work.’”

Now, the business is bringing in the work of four clerks. Bishop reiterated his staff has worked hard, and some of the work has transitioned to the employees in the property tax portion of the office. Even Bishop is going to be working directly with the motor vehicle side of his office and sharing the workload.