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Burlington Iowa Letters to Falcon West Burlington

County Attorney Duties

Falcon:

In Lee County the County Attorney is to follow these few bullet points in the carrying out of his duties:

The County Attorney Does:

  • Prosecute all violations of state criminal laws and county ordinances.
  • Provide legal advice to the Board of Supervisors and county and township officers   concerning county matters.
  • Represent and defend the state, county and its officers in officially related cases.
  • Recover all monies (debts, fines, penalties, etc.) owing to the state or county.
  • Present all mental health commitment proceedings and all juvenile delinquency and child  in need of assistance cases.

There are both full-time and part-time County Attorneys in Iowa. Roughly two-thirds of all  County Attorneys are part-time and may handle private legal work in addition to their official duties.

Under the above bullet points I could not find where it says a person applying for a fine repayment plan can be thrown out of the process by the County Attorney without a reasonable exclamation of why.   I know of one such person that was told it would take two weeks after calling the Lee County Attorney’s office and requesting a plan be drawn up for payback of fines owed to the State of Iowa for previous driving violations; so this person could take a job that was promised but required a driver’s license.

A month later the person called the office as requested the status on the repayment plan and was insulted on the phone by the secretary for the County Attorney who bluntly told my friend it wasn’t completed after there was a request to call back, this person had waited a month to check on it.  After a period of time the County Attorney called back telling my friend he was not going to process the repayment plan and the person could just forget about asking again.  No reason was given for this action by the County Attorney; so it’s assumed the attorney had some sort of a vendetta against this person based on hearsay from his secretary.

Since when does a County Attorney have the power to select who will and who won’t receive a repayment plan to pay off their fines to gain employment based on some personal vendetta by an elected official who we know in government circles are seldom held unaccountable for their indiscretions from their superiors or to the people their suppose to serve.   The sad part of the decision to crap on this person is it can make or break their ability to support themselves, a person who has been put on hold now for over 16 months by this Lee County Attorney who never indicated what the problem was.

I’m sure the State of Iowa would like the repayments to start but a lone wolf County Attorney can prevent the payment to Iowa for personal reasons having nothing to do with the law.  These are the types of public servants Iowa doesn’t need holding office.  There was no reason for not working out a repayment plan for this person who has gone jobless now for over 16 months forcing the taxpayer to pick up his living expenses when this person could support themselves were it not for this lone wolf County Attorney’s office in Lee County.  The victim in this case took all the mandatory pre-repayment classes required, that weren’t free by any means, yet the repayment process was used to stifle his job chances and ability to earn a living.

I would think anyone the Lee County Attorney has thrown out of the fine repayment plan deserves a truthful reason why they were sentenced to a lifetime of taxpayer support and no chance of driving again in Iowa to secure employment because one County Attorney has named himself judge and jury over people’s lives.  When a public servant lets his or her personal life gets in the way of his or her job performance, then it’s time for them to leave public service.

FH