The Carroll County GOP hosted a town hall last night (Thursday) at Swan Lake for primary voters featuring the candidates in the only contested local race for Carroll County Republicans. The forum was moderated by District 11 State Representative Craig Williams (R-Manning) and featured incumbent Supervisor Stephanie Hausman and Carroll County Sheriff Ken Pingrey, who are both seeking the party’s nomination for the District 4 seat. The first question of the evening’s programs concerned the candidates’ approaches to compensation for elected officials and county staff. Pingrey says it’s a balancing act between a reasonable budget and quality, qualified employees.
According to Hausman, budget season is the most challenging part of being a supervisor, and she says she tries to keep taxpayers in focus for every decision.
Later in the town hall, the question of future government consolidation was raised, along with what the supervisors should do to keep Carroll County relevant in the region. Pingrey says some services are easier to consolidate than others, and it will take years to implement.
Hausman says Carroll County already participates in service-sharing agreements with other counties, including housing prisoners from Polk County and sharing IT and environmental health staff time.
The supervisor candidates answered more than a dozen questions at Thursday’s forum, and a video of the entire event is available through the Carroll County, Iowa Republicans Facebook page, a link to which is included with this story on our website. Early voting for the June 2 primaries opened May 13.
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