Candidates running for the Johnson County Board of Supervisors answered questions about their campaigns and their visions for the county at an event hosted by the League of Women Voters of Johnson County on Tuesday.

The event at the Iowa City Senior Center featured four of the five candidates running for the two county supervisor seats: Democrat incumbent Jon Green, Democrat V Fixmer-Oraiz, Republican Jammie Bradshaw, and Republican Phil Hemingway. Eric Heick was invited but did appear at the event.

Candidates answered questions on a variety of topics, including solutions to the affordable housing crisis, how the county should combat climate change, and how they would avoid deadlock if elected.

When asked if they were concerned about law enforcement, Fixmer-Oraiz and Green both agreed county law enforcement has equipment that is too militaristic in nature, including vehicles that could be compared to a tank. 

During his response, Hemingway said the vehicles were there to keep law enforcement safe. 

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The event ended with closing statements from each candidate. Tensions briefly flared two times during the closing statements. 

The first was when Hemingway commented on Supervisor Green’s salary. 

 “[I found] it informative that Jon Green makes $120,000, so I think that’s interesting, I’m sure the IRS wants to know that too.” 

Fixmer-Oraiz implied that Hemingway and Bradshaw are hesitant to receive vaccines, among other things. 

 “There are really only two candidates here that believe in science that climate change is here and happening, [and] that vaccines save lives.”

Hemingway — who waited until after Bradshaw gave her closing statement — responded to Fixmer-Oraiz’s claim.

“In the closing comments by V, there were statements made with no basis to make the assumptions, because none of those questions were asked at this forum,” Hemingway said. 

This in turn elicited a response from Green, who said, “I did not attempt to rebut your slander about the IRS needs to know something about my income.”