After years of developing her presence in the Iowa City community, Mandi Remington has started her term as the newest Johnson County Board of supervisor. She enters as the board begins developing its 2025 budget with priorities to support housing and climate initiatives.
Remington successfully unseated incumbent Royceann Porter in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election and campaigned with the promise of addressing county issues such as access to essential services like housing and child care and income barriers such as transportation and language.
With her official term having begun on Jan. 2, Remington is only a few short weeks into her time as a Johnson County supervisor.
“I’m absolutely loving it,” she said. “I’m getting to spend time on my workday learning more about the county’s challenges and opportunities and meeting folks who make everything happen. I’m having a lot of important conversations.”
While this is Remington’s first time doing paid community work at this level, she sees it as the logical next step in a history of community assistance.
Remington has chaired the Iowa City Community Police Review Board, the University of Iowa Safety and Security Committee, and the UI Council on the Status of Women.
Remington also founded Corridor Community Action Network, or CCAN, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for residents in the Iowa Corridor, particularly focusing on addressing critical social issues and creating opportunities for underserved and vulnerable populations.
“Over the last five years, I’ve done a lot of work addressing community needs as the volunteer founder and director of Corridor Community Action Network,” she said.
Remington hopes to use her new role on the board of supervisors to improve community engagement with local government.
“One thing that came up over and over again during the campaign is that so many people don’t know what the Johnson County supervisors do, or people didn’t know that there was a primary election happening,” she said.
Remington cited the Feb. 4 primary election for the Iowa City City Council as an example of residents’ unawareness of their opportunities to participate in local government.
“A lot of people want to get involved in these things, and they just don’t really know how, and I think that there is a lot of room in place for the government to step in and improve that,” she said.
Jon Green, now the chair of the Board of Supervisors, voiced his excitement for Remington’s appointment.
“I supported her candidacy,” he said. “I’m excited about the work and all that we are going to accomplish in the next few years.”
Green said Remington’s first few weeks have gone smoothly. He particularly thought her appointment was less chaotic than his, which saw him run in a special election in 2021 and did not leave as much time for training in his position.
“It is fortunate that with [Remington] coming in after a general election, that she gets to avail herself of that training pretty much immediately,” he said.
While Green agrees with Remington’s stances on increased access to housing and climate action, he foresees the Iowa legislature, which recently started its 2025 session, to be a possible obstacle to their ambitions.
“All of the smoke signals coming through the legislature indicate that they want to further restrict local municipalities, both cities and counties, in terms of what we have jurisdiction of,” he said.
Green specifically alluded to House File 295, a law passed by the Iowa House of Representatives in 2017. The law restricts local governments from enacting ordinances that exceed or conflict with state or federal laws, effectively nullifying local minimum wage increases.
Supervisor Rod Sullivan also voiced his approval of Remington’s appointment. Sullivan sees the board’s February county budget votes as Remington’s first significant task as a supervisor but acknowledged her ability to grow quickly.
“I don’t think anybody feels like they have a really good handle on this stuff until they’ve served the whole time,” he said. “But I think that Mandy has demonstrated already that she’s a quick learner and a very hard worker, and those are two really good qualities to bring to the board.”