Muscatine County Board of supervisors digging deeper

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Editor:

Well, here we go again. I started out with a quote from Yogi Berra a few weeks ago to review all of the less than competent actions of our current (Muscatine) county board of supervisors. One would have assumed that the bottom of the barrel had been hit, but the board of supervisors astonished me and started to dig. So, let’s take a look at what levels they have dug to:

First of all they installed an interim county attorney who has had multiple disciplinary actions against him by the states of Iowa and Missouri. He had his license to practice law suspended in both Iowa and Missouri. Even though his license was restored in Iowa, no record exists that it ever was restored in Missouri. His actions as county attorney in Cass County, Iowa were so egregious that the residents in that county took him to court and had him removed as county attorney.

This is the person that our board of supervisors said was the best candidate for county attorney. Now, Supervisor Nathan Mather said that only one person applied and that this candidate was really sorry for his bad behavior in the past, but I say to Mr. Mather: “Advertise the position again with professional organizations such as the local and state bar and get qualified candidates.”

Now, for the second level they have dug to: They approved a consulting contract to hire the county attorney who just resigned, Alan Ostergren, to perform work the county attorney is supposed to perform. Their reason was that Alan was needed to train the interim county attorney they had just appointed. So I ask Supervisor Mather: “Why hire two attorneys to perform the job of one?”

One would hope that this group of supervisors would hit a layer of rock before January 2021 and stop digging. But, don’t hold your breath. So again, we are asking the voters of Muscatine County, vote to remove the supervisors you can and put in supervisors who are not digging deeper such as Ed Askew and Henry Marquard.

Edward F. Askew

Candidate for Muscatine

County Supervisor District 3

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