(Atlantic, Iowa) – (UPDATED) A motion to request or recommend to the Atlantic City Council, an increase in the Hotel-Motel Tax died for lack of a second, during a meeting of the Parks and Recreation Board, Monday evening. The measure would have proposed increasing the Parks share of the tax from four-to seven-percent. It’s expected the Board will make it’s request or recommendation to the Council, at a later date, so that they can vote on whether or not the matter should be placed before the voters, in November. Ashley Hayes explained the current seven-percent tax is a COMBINATION of state, county and city sales tax rates (Local Option sales tax funds), with three-percent directed CADCO and the Chamber of Commerce.

That was passed about six-years ago, she said. Hayes said also, Atlantic is the lowest in the State, with regard to the Hotel-Motel Tax.

When it was passed in 2010 it was designated for “improving, repairing, operating and maintaining parks and recreation facilities and grounds for the city of Atlantic.” Since then, it has netted the Parks Department $463,199. Hayes crunched the numbers, and said if the Parks Department had received the full seven-percent of the tax instead of just four-percent, it would have generated $810,599 to be used for various parks projects.

A number of local hotel-motel owners expressed their opposition to raising the tax. None were opposed to the Splash Pad concept, but at the same time, they didn’t want to raise the tax on their guests if it was to be used specifically for the Splash Pad. That rumor, or misconception – that the tax increase was only for the Pad – according to Ali Pieken, with the Splash Pad Executive Committee, was news to her.

The City of Atlantic has already agreed to chip-in $50,000 for the Splash Pad, with the remainder to be accumulated through fundraising. Hayes acknowledged getting money from other sources, such as grants and fundraising, is not as simple as it sounds.

Ali Pieken presented to the Parks and Rec Board final renderings of the proposed Splash Pad Project from Crouch Recreation from Elk Horn, Nebraska, and Vortex Aquatic Play Solutions. The Board was overwhelmingly in support of using the renderings from Crouch Recreation as the impetus to move forward in garnering interest for fundraising. The difference between the two renderings was like night and day, even though both had most of the elements the Committee was hoping to add to the facility.

In other business, the Atlantic Parks and Rec Board agreed to support a request from Frank Saddlemire, who was instrumental in designing, raising the money and building a very popular Disc Golf course to Sunnyside Park. Saddlemire will be allowed to write a grant for new signs at the course.

Saddlemire produced data that show how many people come to town for all-day tournaments and casual play. The data was “mined” through U-Disc, a scoring app. Attendance for Disc Golf has increased each year, except for the last, due to an increase in gas prices and people less willing to travel, he said.

The Atlantic Parks Board, Monday, announced plans for a Park Party, that will take place June 17th from 10-a.m. until 2-p.m., at Sunnyside Park. Additional details will be released in the months to come.

Des Moines, Iowa – Gov. Reynolds, Monday, signed SF 181 into law, a bill that clarifies the rollback calculation for residential and multi-residential property and delivers $127 million in property tax relief to Iowa homeowners.

(Will be updated)

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is calling for an end to the legal limits in Iowa law on the pay for top state administrators. The salary ranges for state agency directors and other top administrators have not been changed since 2008. The governor’s plan to shrink the number of state agencies to 16 includes a provision that would let Reynolds set the salaries for those 16 agency directors. Jacob Nicholson, the chief operating officer on the governor’s staff, says it’s a recruitment and retention issue.

“It’s very difficult to go out on a national search for instance right now and say: ‘Hey, we need someone to run our Department of Health and Human Services that oversees 4000 people. It’s a significant enterprise effort,'” Nicholson says, “‘and by the way we can only advertise this position for $154,000 a year.'” Nicholson says in some larger state agencies, there are 20 to 30 employees whose salaries are higher than the director who is their boss. The governor has provided bonuses in some of those situations.

“She’s forced to do that in order to recruit top talent into the state, in order to retain top talent into the state, but that process is just not transparent enough for our current governor,” Nicholson says. “She would like to be able to set her agency (directors) salaries and have that transparent for all to see.” Some Democrats like Representative Amy Nielson of North Liberty say they’re concerned the proposal removes all limits on the salaries of top agency directors.

“The governor could just go out and offer somebody — let’s just throw out some numbers — $300,000 to be the director of the Department of Human Services,” Nielsen says. That would be nearly twice the salary being paid to Iowa’s current H-H-S director. Nielsen says the salary guidelines for all state employees should be evaluated.

“So we are recruiting the best and the brightest, the top of the crop in all areas of the government,” Nielsen says. Zach Goodrich is executive director and legal counsel for the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. He says the board has been asking lawmakers to raise the salary for the position for several years.

“I am the third director in just a little over three years,” he says. “…I often joke that when I was hired, the salary played into the fact that the board ended up with a 25 year old as director, although I hope that’s not the only reason they ended up hiring me.”

A group of House members have started hosting public hearings this week on the government realignment plan Governor Reynolds submitted to the legislature.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – A public hearing for patrons of the Atlantic Community School District will be held 5:30-p.m. Wednesday, in the Atlantic High School Media Center. School District officials say the Board is considering extending the current Instructional Support Levy (ISL) for another five (5) years as allowed by Iowa Code. The ISL may be used for any general fund purpose. Notice was published on Feb. 8, 2023 in the Atlantic News Telegraph, that a hearing for the public to appear and present objections to, or arguments in favor of, any part of the Instructional Support Levy.

Following the Hearing, Wednesday, the Atlantic School Board will convene a Special Meeting for the following discussion and action items:

Discuss Items:

• Food Service Update by Natalie Ritter
• Strategic Plan Update

Action items:

• Resolution – Continue participation in the (ISL)
• Contract Recommendations for: Naela Thornton, 7th Grade ESL Teacher, & Kenneth Christensen, Washington School Day Custodian.

The Board will conclude the meeting with a reminder about upcoming date, including their next regular Board Meeting 5:30-p.m on March 8th, and a March 22nd Board Work Session (which may be rescheduled due to Spring Break).