Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones, Wednesday evening, administered the Oath of Office to three, current Atlantic Police Officers who have moved up in the ranks due a retirement and promotion of Dave Erickson to Chief of Police. The Oaths were administered to Sgt. Paul Wood, Officers Dustin Pieken and Devin Hogue during a regular meeting of the Atlantic City Council.

Sgt. Paul Wood, who has served the City for almost 13 years, was promoted to Lieutenant, to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Lt. Jon Parsons. Officer Dustin Pieken, who has served the City for nearly 10-years, was promoted to Sergeant, to fill the vacancy created by the promotion of Paul Wood. And, Officer Devin Hogue was promoted to Lieutenant, to fill the vacancy created by the promotion of Dave Erickson to Police Chief. Hogue has been an Atlantic Police Officer for almost 6-years.

DevinHogue

Dustin Pieken

Paul Wood

Atlantic’s City Administrator delivered some unwanted news for residential and commercial property owners during Wednesday evening’s City Council meeting. John Lund said while figuring the preliminary Fiscal Year 2018 City Budget, which is expected to be ready by the next City Council meeting, the process by the Iowa Legislature of beginning to de-appropriate the backfill the City receives from the State, will impact property taxes significantly.

The Governor says he wants to maintain the backfill, but the Iowa House says it’s how they want to solve their budget problems right now. That means a potential loss to the City of around $120,000-150,000.

Lund says he’s had to adjust the budget. The General Fund he says, will be okay, but the Employee Benefits Fund and Debt Service Funds would both show a loss. He said also, if the City were to do another bond next year for some final street projects, we can’t afford to use Reserve Balances. Therefore, he proposes increase the tax levies 1.48-percent.

That translates to a tax rate of $13.93 per thousand dollars valuation in residential property tax, and $22.50 on Commercial property. The move he said “Would restore everything to where we need to be, and it would keep things solid, long term.”

Lund says that’s especially true with the Debt Service Fund. The employee benefits fund would end up being fine, and accommodate for growth, even though the City has had a couple of years of using the balance. But the Debt Service would actually end up going into the red in FY 2021. “That can’t happen,” he says we would eventually have to raise tax levies then anyway. “As a City, we can’t default on those.”

He said “If there was any other way to do it, that’s what I would recommend. If we didn’t have a lot of other bond projects coming up, I would just say to your we could try and weather through it but we still have some streets left that need to get done. They’re expensive streets and we’re gonna need to bond. We can’t have our latest financial statements showing losses across the board. It’s not gonna look good.”

He said if the City waits to increase property taxes until next year, it would hit your wallet even harder.

Iowa legislators are considering a crackdown on smart phone use behind the steering wheel. A bill that would let police pull over vehicles if they suspect the driver is texting has cleared a senate subcommittee. Iowa’s law enforcement community, cell phone providers and insurance companies are urging legislators to go farther, however, and make it illegal to use a hand-held device while driving. Susan Cameron, a lobbyist for the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association, says distracted driving is a top concern.

“We are no longer just dealing with texting,” Cameron says. “Because of smart phones, we’re dealing with all kinds of activities that people can do on their phones.” Governor Branstad supports a “hands free” law. Amber Markham of the Iowa Department of Public Safety is urging legislators to take that step. “We just feel that distracted driving is just far too big of an issue to pass the buck another year and not do something that’s going to make real change,” Markham says.

About 70 percent of fatal accidents in the past three years were caused by a vehicle that drifted out of its lane and Markham says those lane departures were likely caused by a distracted driver. Steve Gent of the Iowa D-O-T says teens today have had a smart phone in their hands long before they ever handled a steering wheel. “The things that my kids and my nieces and nephews do with cell phones is not just texting and email,” he said. “It is Snapchat, Facebook, every other kind of thing that goes on with it and, in fact, most people spend more time on their smart phone than they do with their spouse or their best friend.”

Iowa crash data indicates the number of accidents caused by a driver distracted by a cell phone or other electronic device has “nearly doubled” in the past five years. The lobbyist for Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association says using a cell phone behind the wheel takes the driver’s eyes off the road and at least one hand off the wheel, plus the driver’s mind is focused on the phone, not on driving.

“Driving a vehicle while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated,” Cameron said. “Texting and driving is now the leading cause of death among teenagers, surpassing drinking and driving.” Three senators have endorsed a bill that would let law enforcement ticket drivers for texting and driving. Today, texting while driving is a secondary offense for Iowa adults, meaning police may only issue tickets if the driver has violated some other traffic law, like speeding. The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa is the only group registered in opposition to the bill.

“Iowa already has a huge racial disparity in arrest rates and we don’t think doing anything to increase arrest rates in Iowa is a good thing.” That’s Daniel Zeno, policy counsel for the A-C-L-U of Iowa. The next stop for this debate about texting and driving is the Senate Transportation Committee.

(Radio Iowa)

NEOLA, Iowa (AP) — The former city clerk for Neola in southwest Iowa has pleaded guilty to misconduct after state officials found misspending or mishandling of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reports 56-year-old Deb Schierbrock pleaded guilty Tuesday in Pottawattamie County court to three counts of non-felonious misconduct in office. She was given a suspended one-year jail sentence and three years’ probation.

An audit released in October 2015 showed Schierbrock had misappropriated more than $230,000 in city funds over a five-year period. Schierbrock was fired in August 2013 after a city check written to pay for a firetruck bounced. State auditors found improper overtime payments and numerous checks written to Schierbrock, among other problems.