Pottawattamie County supervisors record split roll call on county engineer grievance

During a meeting of the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors, the board considered a motion to deny the grievance of County Engineer John Rasmussen. A roll call included Chairman Bell and Supervisor Jorgensen recorded as voting “aye” and Supervisors Miller and Shea recorded as voting “nay”; the transcript provided does not clearly capture Supervisor Witten’s vote.

The matter drew extended discussion before the vote. One speaker identified in the transcript only as “Supervisor (unidentified)” said: “I think we've got the opportunity to press reset on this and we have through the technical glitch that occurred last Monday we got an opportunity to change our vote, to reinstate the county attorney or the county engineer. We have received a DOT letter with instructions on some guidance for hiring and replacing and the responsibilities of a county engineer, so we have a whole lot of homework we need to do. We have not received any applications to date from experienced county engineers and I just want to go on record as my disappointment, and I should really like to reinstate the county engineer.”

Another speaker, recorded in the transcript as “Supervisor (unidentified 2),” said: “Go along with that. I think we're gonna lose a lot of money as a county, and I think it's wrong. John was trying to follow policy on a road and that seems to be the issue here.”

A different participant stated they had been advised by legal counsel not to comment because the county “could be facing lawsuits,” though that speaker also said they were “willing to do that at this point.” The transcript does not identify that speaker by name.

The motion to deny John Rasmussen’s grievance was made and seconded on the record; the roll call that followed recorded the individual votes cited above. The transcript does not unambiguously show the final disposition of the motion (the vote of Supervisor Witten is not clearly recorded in the provided excerpt). The discussion also referenced a Department of Transportation letter providing hiring and county engineer guidance and noted that, as of the meeting, no applications had been received from experienced county engineers.

The board moved on to adjourn following the roll call. The transcript excerpt supplied to this report does not include additional materials such as the DOT letter text, supporting staff reports, or a clear statement of the motion’s final result beyond the roll-call entries captured here.