Editor's note: Offensive language appears in portions of this story.

IOWA CITY

A revised proclamations procedure was on the docket for the Johnson County Board of Supervisors at its work session Oct. 4.

Easy, right?

Well, no.

A lengthy discussion focusing, in part, on respect spiraled downward into a screaming match between Supervisor Royceann Porter and a few members of the public attending the meeting, resulting in Board Chair Lisa Green-Douglass repeatedly slamming her gavel to call for a recess and two supervisors leaving the room as the yelling echoed into other parts of the building.

A day later, during the Board’s formal session, Supervisor Jon Green of Lone Tree called for Porter to be stripped of her committee assignments and lose her traveling benefits for professional conferences. As Green talked, Porter laughed.

Green said one of Porter’s objectives was to “berate and abuse your fellow supervisors, fellow elected officials and county staff.”

“If you were an employee of this county, you would probably be discharged for cause,” Green said. “You would probably be liable for having established a hostile workplace.”

When it came time for Porter’s turn to talk in her weekly report, she took issue with both Green and Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz.

“You don’t have no place to put me nowhere,” Porter said, responding to Green. “I was elected by the people, not you.”

“You all can go to hell. Today,” Porter added, her voice raising. “I mean it from the bottom of my heart. You didn’t put me in my position and the only way you’re gonna get me out is to run somebody against me.”

No action was taken on Green’s recommendation.

The clear irony was that the Board’s proclamation program was paused for a month while supervisors and other county staff considered ways to reduce disagreements or bruised feelings while proclamation topics were discussed.

In early July, a proclamation presentation honoring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Awareness Day produced a verbal tussle between Porter and Sikowis Nobiss, founder and executive director of the Great Plains Action Society. Nobiss was also at the Oct. 4 work session and spoke to the Board.

“I’ve been the public example of like the harm that is caused by these proclamations,” Nobiss said.

“Let’s be honest,” she added, “this building, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, everything that goes on around here, mostly goes on to uplift systems that were built in white supremacy. We all know this, right? This country was built on stolen land, on stolen labor. And so, we have issue with that.”

Fixmer-Oraiz attempted to calm the waters.

“When the public comes to us, how welcoming do they feel?” Fixmer-Oraiz asked. “How do we respond when harm happens? There was a lot of harm that happened yesterday [Oct. 4].”

“I really do hope that moving forward, we can find those places of healing and I want to say that I’m here for that,” Fixmer-Oraiz added. “I’m really, really here for that.”

Pointing her finger at Fixmer-Oraiz, a first-year supervisor who was sitting beside her, Porter responded in her weekly report: “It’s been hostile since January. It’s been hostile since you come in! January, our whole board of supervisors office was a shithole.”

“You want to talk about healing? Heal yourself!”

Hidden among all this verbal jarring, the Board decided at its work session that the proclamations program would swing out of its pause and back into the Board’s formal sessions.

One more chapter to the dramatics of last week’s session emerged Tuesday, when the Board’s communications office sent out a press release saying that videos of the Board’s meetings will be paused immediately when the chair calls for a recess with a gavel slam.

Greater Iowa City

Sarah Thompson, the head of rural development for the newly created Greater Iowa City, Inc. group, credited Lone Tree’s improvements in an update at the work session Oct. 4.

Thompson and other members of the Iowa City Area Development (ICAD) group toured Lone Tree and other small communities in a number of walk-arounds last spring.

“I was really pleased to see all of the communities kind of take that information in stride and not go against it,” Thompson told the Board. “In Lone Tree, they have washed their water tower and done a lot of great work in their parks. They’re painting murals on their bathrooms, getting stuff done.”

ICAD was rolled into Greater Iowa City, Inc., as of July 1, along with the Iowa City Business Partnership.

Board Action

The Board approved a pair of public health staff job descriptions.

The Board approved a five-year masters service agreement with Aureon of West Des Moines for phone and internet services.

Next meeting: The Board’s next formal session is at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 12. The monthly night meeting will include a number of rezoning and subdivision applications.