County board turns down supervisor land swap plan

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

An offer by a Floyd County supervisor to clean up county-owned property in return for the title to the land was cut short Tuesday morning when another supervisor expressed concerns.

The county had advertised for bids to demolish an abandoned house, remove materials and perform other cleanup tasks on property at 1726 Woodland Drive, between Floyd and Charles City. The county had acquired the property through a treasurer’s deed for unpaid property taxes.

Two of the three bids to do the work contained dollar amounts, for $11,800 and $13,895.

The third bid was from JAK LLC of Charles City, which offered to perform all the requirements of the bid specifications in exchange for the deed to the property.

JAK is majority owned by Jean Ann Kamm, the wife of Supervisor Doug Kamm, who said he owns 49 percent of the corporation. Kamm also owns Kamm Excavating Corp., and they own other property near where the county property is located.

Kamm recused himself from the discussion and decisions on the bids, but the other two supervisors spent considerable time on the question at a planning session Monday and again at their regular meeting Tuesday.

Assistant County Attorney Randall Tilton had advised the board Monday that there was nothing in the bid specifications that precluded the offer of swapping work for the deed, but he said if the supervisors wanted to consider that offer they should notify the other two bidders and hold a public hearing.

Supervisor Linda Tjaden on Tuesday made a motion to do just that, but the motion failed on a 1-1 vote with Supervisor Mark Kuhn voting against and Kamm abstaining.

Tjaden has said Kamm’s proposal was an opportunity to both clean up the property and put it back in private hands. She said she was concerned that even if the lot was cleaned up that no one might want to buy it and it could remain the county’s property.

Kuhn said he wasn’t as concerned with the details of this specific proposal as he was with the way it might look and the precedent it could set.

“It’s pretty important,” Kuhn said. “We opened up bids. It’s an open public process. We have a bidder who’s the chair of the board of supervisors who is making a bid that is an exchange or a swap and it’s not normal and customary.

“This gets us into a little gray area I’m just not comfortable with,” he said. “I think the integrity of this public bidding process is probably more important an issue than the specifics that we just discussed.”

Kuhn initially suggested putting the job up for bids again, with the stipulation that a swap would not be considered, but Kamm pointed out that wouldn’t be fair to the other bidders, because it had already been announced what the initial bids were.

“I just thought it was a way to save the county some money and (save) a step in the process,” Kamm said Tuesday about his proposal, and then suggested a way to quickly end the issue.

“I think you’re making it way too complicated,” Kamm said. “Just call (the JAK bid) unresponsive and take the low bid. Be done. Otherwise you screw around and you’re not gonna get it done this year.”

A motion by Kuhn to accept the bid of $11,800 from Cole Excavating of Greene passed 2-0 with Kamm again abstaining.

Kuhn said that once the property is cleared it could be purchased by Kamm or by anyone else interested.

“Anyone can come in and make a bid on a piece of property that the county owns, and if the Kamms want to purchase it they can certainly do that in the normal procedure,” Kuhn said.

Also at the board meeting Tuesday, the supervisors:

• Tabled a request for county approval to install an anhydrous ammonia storage tank at Norwood Pork LLC., 3030 180th St., Charles City, to give the county zoning board a chance to hold a public hearing on the proposal.

• Held a public hearing on a proposed county ordinance regarding dangerous dogs. The ordinance sets rules for determining if a dog is dangerous and how to deal with it. There were no public comments during the hearing. The supervisors passed the first reading of the ordinance and set the second reading for the next regular meeting.

• Set a public hearing for 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10, regarding an urban renewal plan amendment for the Southwest Bypass Urban Renewal Area for an expansion project at the Cambrex facility.

• Approved the sale of a small parcel of county-owned property in Rockford to Stacey Jones for $250. No one spoke at a public hearing held before the decision was made.