Supervisors approve changes to districts

On a 2-1 vote, the Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors approved a redistricting plan for new supervisor districts starting in 2023.

The Legislative Services Agency took over the creation of new county supervisors districts across Iowa to correlate with a new state law. 

•The new First District will include all of Mason City’s Third Ward, Ward Two Precinct Two, and Ward Four Precincts Two and Three. 

•The new Second District includes the communities of Clear Lake, Ventura, Burchinal, Portland, Rockwell, Swaledale, Thornton, Meservey and Dougherty and their surrounding areas.

•District Three includes the rest of Mason City not in the First District, as well as the communities of Rock Falls and Plymouth, and the Falls and Lime Creek-Mason North townships.

Supervisors Tim Latham and Casey Callanan voted in favor of the plan, while Chris Watts voted against it. Watts pointed out the plan has one completely urban district, while previous supervisor districts have typically been a mix of urban and rural areas.

“Part of the elected official’s charges are roads, bridges and drainage, which is mostly in the rural areas of the county. The state plan, while considering equal population in a district, passes over proper representation of these rural areas in my opinion,” said Watts.

The new District One also means that Watts and Latham live in the same district.

After a review of the Legislative Services Agency’s proposal, the county attorney’s office recommended approving the changes. 

The LSA originally had the first two districts with different numbers but the supervisors approved switching the two numbers to facilitate consistency.  County

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Auditor Adam Wedmore explained the current board of supervisor districts are numbered one through three, and the LSA map that was drawn does not take into consideration the current numbering of the current supervisor districts.  The supervisors voted to reverse the names of districts one and two.

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