(Spirit Lake)– A Dickinson county supervisor is behind a petition that would place a question as to whether or not duties of the County Recorder should be combined with the County Auditor on the November General Election ballot. Mardi Allen tells KUOO news she feels the timing is right, citing the June 30th retirement of Jan Bortscheller as Recorder. Allen says because the retirement occurred prior to August 1st, Iowa law allowed the County Auditor to automatically take over the duties of the Recorder on a temporary basis…(click here for comment from Allen.)
For that reason, and in the event she isn’t successful in getting the necessary signatures to place the issue on the ballot, Allen is still urging anyone interested in taking out papers of County Recorder to do so. Meanwhile she’s working on getting her petition circulated. So far, she says she’s garnered support from one rather influential group in the county…(click here for comment from Allen.)
Allen says merging the duties of Recorder and Auditor would result in what she says would be some significant efficiencies for the county…(click here for comment from Allen.)
Allen says Woodbury and Marshall counties have already combined the two positions.
Some, though, are saying not so fast. They say the volume of traffic in both the Dickinson County Auditor and Recorder’s Offices is too large to be overseen by just one department head.
The deadline to get the required number of signatures to get the issue placed on the November ballot is August 24th.
