The Greene County supervisors at their May 5 meeting approved the first reading of an ordinance prohibiting sex acts in the unincorporated parts of the county.
The ordinance is similar to what the supervisors discussed the prior week. The ordinance prohibits sex acts in or within the view of a public place, including a road. All definitions come from the Code of Iowa.
A public place is any place, building or conveyance to which the public has access. That would include not only places like parks, but also indoor places such as grocery stores. The participants “could know or should know” they’re in view of members of the public. They do not need to do the act in view of others for their own gratification.
Having sex in public is a simple misdemeanor, punished by a fine and/or up to 30 days in jail. The law will not go into effect until the supervisors hold three readings of it. The second reading is on the supervisors’ May 12 agenda.
The supervisors heard an update about the Multicultural Family Resource Center from MFRC director Sarah Huddleston.
The mission of the MFRC is “to grow the workforce and overall increase the population and quality of life in all areas of the county.”
Huddleston provided a graphic showing how her time has been used during the past year. Serving students and their parents is the largest single use of her time at 30 percent. Of the remaining 70 percent, the largest single use is immigrant assistance at 9 percent.
County attorney Thomas Laehn noted that there’s an immigrant population in the county that is afraid to come forward to law enforcement. He cited a local case in which an adult who was committing sex abuse against a child used the threat of deportation to keep the child from reporting what was happening.
“I want people who are being repeatedly victimized, abused in our county to know they can come forward with Sarah,” Laehn said. He noted a person who has been the victim of a violent crime is protected from deportation.
Margaret Saddoris was at the meeting. She asked if immigrants who are coming to the county are being vetted. Huddleston said the persons she has worked with are all here legally. She said part of her job is to help persons know the steps to becoming a US citizen.
Supervisor Dawn Rudolph opened the meeting by responding to comments supervisor Joe Gannon had posted on social media about funding for the courthouse HVAC project.
She said she appreciated Gannon posting information for the sake of transparency, and noted that she was voicing her own opinion. “We as supervisors can expect to agree to disagree. That’s what makes this a much better board, that we all have our own ideas and feelings about things,” she said.
In Gannon’s post he noted there are two options for funding the HVAC project, either by the supervisors using surplus in the general fund to pay off bonds issued for the purpose; or by the voters calling for an election to set a new levy for the project. That option would allow all registered voters to decide whether or not to approve taking on $2 million in debt.
Rudolph said the HVAC system has been a topic of discussion since before she was elected to the board, and that one of her goals is to see the project to completion.
“The board of supervisors has funded many projects for other groups over the years that have had little or no discussion with large price tags. I’ve voted for those projects, and they were worthy and needed.
“The HVAC project has finally reached the top of the list and I feel we’re walking down the aisle, ready to say, ‘I do.’ … I thought everyone was on board with the project. At least that’s what everyone says, but I don’t think that’s how everyone feels, and I’m not talking just elected officials, but employees as well.”
She went on to say that what she hears is that “the voters voted for us to make good decisions. They support the HVAC project but they don’t want to pay another levy tax for it. If the general fund cannot support the project, maybe we as supervisors need to take a deeper look at the budget…. If a petition is brought up before the supervisors for a vote, which is the democracy way, and if the voters vote ‘no’ to a levy, they need to understand that we can’t go back to Option One and ultimately the HVAC project will fail,” she said. A petition with 488 valid signatures must be received in the county auditor’s office by May 19 to call for an election.
