The Cass County Board of Supervisors met this (Friday) morning, in Atlantic, for their regular, end-of-month session. During the meeting, the Board approved a motion pertaining to the filling of a vacancy in the Recorder’s Office, with the upcoming resignation (previously announced), of Joyce Jensen, who is retiring. Auditor Dale Sunderman said the Code of Iowa spells out how the position is to be filled, but there are exceptions.

The Code says a County office can be filled by the Board of Supervisors, which has already occurred in Cass County. The appointment in that case would be valid until the next pending election, which would be the General Election. Sunderman says it’s too late for the matter to be placed on the General Election ballot. The other option is to hold a special election to fill the office for the balance of the unexpired term.

He says as soon as the Recorder retires, the person she selected to replace her…in this case, Mary Ward, whose name is on the ballot…would automatically assume the office November 15th. If Jensen hadn’t have resigned, Sunderman says the position would be filled January 2nd.

Cass County Attorney Dan Feistner concurred with Sunderman’s assessment of how the position should be filled.