The Story County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 2 unanimously adopted a proclamation recognizing January 2025 as Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month and urged residents to report suspicious activity.

The proclamation, presented by Supervisor Fazel and read into the record, notes the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery, says modern slavery most commonly appears as forced labor and trafficking, and calls for increased community education and vigilance. "We do hereby proclaim January 2025 as Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month," the board said before voting aye.

The board then heard extended remarks from George Balitzos of the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking and Slavery, who said the statewide nonprofit is seeking legislative funding for survivor services and tracking increasing incidence and prosecutions. Balitzos said the network will ask the Iowa Legislature for $1,000,000 to support eight agencies that provide services to trafficking survivors and highlighted gaps in state funding. "We still have no funding from the state of Iowa directly for services provided to the survivors of human trafficking," Balitzos said.

Balitzos summarized state-level training and enforcement activity cited in materials he provided to the board: Department of Public Safety training has certified about 23,000 lodging employees and nearly 600 lodging facilities to recognize trafficking indicators, the number of law enforcement trainings has increased, and the State Patrol is expanding training for officers. He also described recent prosecutions and convictions tracked by the network, and pointed to a recent federal plea in which an Ames man, Carl Markley, pleaded guilty to multiple trafficking counts; Balitzos said sentencing is scheduled for March 24, 2025 before U.S. District Judge Stephen Rose.

Balitzos also provided victim-services statistics in the packet, saying the statewide survivor services fund served 536 victims and that civil settlements and labor‑trafficking cases have also been reported in Iowa. He invited supervisors and the public to a Story County event at the ISU Memorial Union later in January marking the month and distributed a flyer.

The board voted aye on the proclamation (no roll-call counts beyond the unanimous voice vote were recorded in the transcript).