By Finch Vandyk, Iowa City
A handful of Tuesdays from now, Johnson County will vote on a deceptively direct bond measure. “Should we build the $124,000,000 new jail proposed by the sheriff?” There are two options: Yes and No.
Emphatic camps have emerged on either side of those options. Yes, we should build the jail and let’s get on with it; No, we cannot allow this jail to be built.
The Yes camp lectures: we can’t put this off any longer, the current jail is in disrepair, the sheriff’s office is the expert on the topic.
The No camp pleads: this is too much money, there are better options, the proposed new jail will cause more harm than good.
Both sides stand resolute behind their convictions. Tension is rising and trust is eroding between community members, elected officials, city-dwellers and those in more rural areas. The discourse between them brings to mind raised voices or even fists. Forget collaboration, even compromise has been forced out of this space.
A movement in the No camp has organized itself under the moniker Johnson County Deserves Better. The movement highlights current failures and preaches the existence of alternatives, though it stops short of proposing a plan to achieve them. It does, however, raise a poignant question:
Is this really what Johnson County deserves?
Division and distrust?
Yes or No, full stop, end of dialogue?
Fair treatment, one may posit, is something we deserve in Johnson County. We deserve dignity, one may argue. Honesty. Safety. One might even contend that we deserve to use the resources we have to govern in the best interest of the entire community — not one side or the other.
So what if we deserve a different kind of conversation? One beyond Yes and No?
What if we deserve an open discussion, grounded in good faith, constructive and inclusive and centered on meeting our community’s needs? What if we deserve a conversation that doesn’t leave bitter hearts and lines in the sand? What if we deserve to start from shared values — to recognize that beneath each argument is a desire to see our county thrive — and make a new plan?
This isn’t a simple proposal. It calls for coordination and a tight timeline, a new survey and meetings and decisions. It calls for open minds, for new ways we might create this fair, dignified, honest, safe Johnson County. It calls for our pragmatism and our imagination, our hard work and an actionable plan.
Most of all it calls for solidarity. It calls for the recognition of what drives us all: a passion for the wellbeing of the county we call home. It calls for us to lay aside our anger and frustration, to define our county’s needs as a community and work toward a shared goal.
It won’t be easy. There is so much conflict to work through. There is so much work to be done and so little time to do it. We are already late; if we want the conversation we deserve, we need to start today.
But this challenging path is a worthwhile one. The effort it takes will pay off. This kind of conversation will lead to the kind of Johnson County we all want to inhabit — one where each resident can rest easy knowing that their needs are met, their loved ones are safe and their community’s best interest is cared for.
So let’s start now, and bring our best to this new conversation.
Johnson County, we deserve it.
