Supervisor Chapman facing two GOP primary challengers

Squaring off in June’s Republican primary election for the third district Dallas County Board of Supervisors seat will be the three-term incumbent, Supervisor Kim Chapman of Adel, and two challengers for the nomination, businessman Bob Greenway of Van Meter and former Dallas County Auditor Gene Krumm of Earlham, who retired in December 2016.

Chapman is a U.S. Air Force veteran and an active member of the Adel American Legion Post 464. He has been the president and CEO of a private ambulance service in Des Moines for 34 years.

“I am running for another term because I believe there is more work to be done,” Chapman said. “I have fought to reduce property taxes, to eliminate wasteful spending and to make Dallas County the premier location to live, work and raise a family.”

Chapman counts lower taxes and prudent financial management among his major accomplishments as a Dallas County Supervisor. Under his leadership, the Countywide and Rural Services tax levy rates was cut from $9.59 to $6.65, and the county’s credit rating went from a Moody’s rating of D to its current rating of Triple-A.

“This is the best credit rating to be achieved,” Chapman said. “This was accomplished by using sound conservative fiscal management principles and having increased property valuations in Dallas County.”

He also helped transform the former Dallas County Care Facility into county office space and a 911 dispatch center. Complementing this repurposing was “the transformation of the Dallas County Farm from a financial loss center to a profit center by creating new educational opportunities for our future farmers by partnering with the Des Moines Area Community College,” Chapman said.

“Through this agreement, DMAAC rents approximately 570 acres of farmland from Dallas County. They manage and operate the county farm while teaching their students agricultural skills,” he said.

The restoration and remodelling of the Dallas County Courthouse is another accomplishment Chapman helped direct. The project corrected structural problems in the 116-year-old county icon, leaving the building ADA compliant and with 30 percent more square footage of useful space.

“Some of the challenges I believe Dallas County is facing today or will face in the next few years,” Chapman said, “are the continued explosive growth in our population, increased demands for county services, providing adequate mental health services on a regionalized basis and maintaining and improving county roads and bridges. There is also a need to provide additional space for the courts and the driver’s license department as their workload increases.”

Appealing for voters’ support in June, Chapman said he “will continue to work hard and keep county taxes low while providing services that exceed the taxpayers expectations.”

Robert Greenway, Chapman’s fellow Republican, is an independent insurance agent in Van Meter and a former member of the De Soto City Council. He earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

“I feel I already have made a positive effect in Dallas County,” Greenway said, “through promoting the LOSST (local option sales tax) with many other volunteers from Perry, Dawson, Dexter, Van Meter, Linden as well as the rest of the county. The present board of supervisors gave no help and in some respects hindered the initiative. One board member abstained in putting it on the ballot.”

Greenway also supported the financing and construction of the new Dallas County Law Enforcement Center, approved by county voters in May 2017.

“The Board of Supervisors took four times to get this passed,” he said. “I believe, along with other concerned citizens, the law center would have been passed by at least the second time if not the first.”

Greenway has ideas for reforming the office of county supervisor. He proposes cutting the $57,440 supervisor salary by 20 percent and possibly increasing the number of board seats to five.

“This appears to be a part-time position at full-time pay,” he said. “If an ongoing initiative to increase the number of supervisors from three to five succeeds, then my proposed salary reduction would be a large benefit to the county residents. I will not oppose the move to go to five but will not promote it.” Greenway said he “can do the job better and on a more reasonable salary.”

He said he also cares about county roads.

“Roads have always been and should continue to be a priority,” Greenway said. “Nothing is perfect. Weather is always a challenge, and so will be the care and maintenance of the county roads. Over time, adequate equipment and qualified personnel are just part of the answers to that goal. I believe this issue has taken a back seat to many other projects in this county.”

Establishing a county-level position of Dallas County Fire Marshal is also on Greenway’s priority list.

“If elected,” he said, “I will continue by research and survey of volunteer fire crews to see if a paid Dallas County Fire Marshal would be worthwhile. That position would help in recruiting, training and continually looking for cooperation among the many fire departments. Cost would be handled from both the county and participating towns.”

Greenway said he will run as an Independent in the November general election if he fails to secure the Republican primary nomination in June.

Rounding out the Republican primary ballot, former Dallas County Auditor Gene Krumm seeks a return to county government after his Dec. 31, 2016, retirement following 12 years of leadership in the auditor’s office.

Asked the motive for his latest campaign, Krumm said, “In my whole 12 years there, I guess my main goal and point was in being a fiscal conservative, and I’m still that way. I think there’s probably areas where money can be saved.”

Krumm noted the solid fiscal basis of the county’s current financial position.

“We have a continuing rise in tax base within the county,” he said, “so we’re going to have money coming in all the time. So I think it’s up to the supervisors to save as much of it as they can in as many ways as they can and still give the services to the taxpayers that they deserve.”

One concrete proposal Krumm advanced for saving the taxpayers money is through a merger or consolidation of the auditor and recorder offices of county government.

“One way to save money, and it’s something that other counties have done, is to combine the recorder and the auditor and putting the recorder’s office underneath the auditor,” Krumm said.

The move would produce “gains in efficiency,” he said, “and the cost of the recorder’s salary, the elected people’s salary, is getting up there pretty good now, and I think that would be one area where we could save some money. The recorder himself has suggested this in the past, combining those two offices. However, he thought they ought to be under the recorder, but every other county that’s ever done it, they put it under the auditor.”

Krumm also thinks it “is probably a good idea” to increase the size of the Dallas County Board of Supervisors to five seats.

“I think for what they’re getting paid,” he said, “they should be able to talk amongst themselves without having to convene an express meeting or set up bogus committees to go serve on so that they can be together at the same time.”

The livestreaming of board meetings is another suggestion Krumm offers for improving the function of county government.

“The boardroom is set up for both visual and audible recordings, and I think all board meetings ought to be recorded,” he said. “A lot of counties do that, and they put it out on the web. I suggested it a couple of times over the years, and the board would never let me do it.”

No Democrat or Libertarian nominees filed for a spot on the ballot by the March 28 deadline, but the parties could still produce candidates for the general election in November.