CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS The Marshall County supervisors appointed Joel Phillips as the new Marshall County Sheriff and Jordan Gaffney as the new Marshall County Attorney during the regular Tuesday meeting. The appointments went into effect immediately. Both positions will be on the November 2022 general election ballot.

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors was busy at the regular Tuesday meeting, even though the meeting was relatively short.

First, they appointed Joel Phillips as the new Marshall County Sheriff, which took effect immediately. He will serve in the role until November 2022 and then will be up for election.

“It was an interesting and good time we had going through the interviews,” Supervisor Bill Patten said. “Joel’s background and his work gives him an edge because he’s done this before. We’re excited to have Joel.”

Phillips has been acting as sheriff since Steve Hoffman resigned from the position on March 15 and accepted a job as chief with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

At first, three candidates were up for the role, but one eventually withdrew. Phillips was the only one who was public with his application and Marshall County Auditor Nan Benson said the others requested confidentiality.

Phillips was present at the meeting and found out when the supervisors said his name, that he had gotten the job. When asked what his reaction to the announcement was after the meeting, he said he was confident in his abilities.

“I do not know who the other candidates were, but I was confident I could do the job,” Phillips said.

Hours after the decision was announced, Phillips email and voicemail was inundated with messages of congratulations – not just from Marshall County residents, but from others across the state.

Now that he is officially in the position, Phillips plans on continuing the communication efforts between his department and the public. He also wants to improve the technology and infrastructure and will address the challenge of recruitment.

“We need to maintain high standards in not only recruiting employees, but retain employees,” Phillips said. “We need to make sure there are good benefits and that this is a quality workplace where staff are happy to be.”

The new sheriff, who is a registered Republican, does plan on running not only in 2022, but also in 2024.

“I look at this as a probationary period and the vote will evaluate my performance,” he said. “I am the type of individual who is all or nothing. So, I set short-term and long-term goals for myself and the election in 2024 is a long-term.

“This has been a rewarding process,” Phillips said. “I like to look for doors and walk through them and embrace the opportunities. That is what I have done in my career. One thing I am afraid of is failure. I have never believed in it. That is not an option, so I have to work hard.”

Minutes after the supervisors appointed Phillips, they named Jordan Gaffney as the new Marshall County Attorney, which also went into effect Tuesday. Gaffney will serve in the role until November 2022 and then will be up for election.

Patten said the interview process for the attorney’s position was close.

“I think we learned a lot from the interviews because they had ideas we had not heard before and I am excited going forward with those ideas,” he said.

There were two candidates for the attorney, with the other being Assistant Marshall County Attorney Sarah Tupper. The position was opened on March 18 after Gov. Kim Reynolds appointed then Marshall County Attorney Jennifer Miller as district judge of District 2B.

After the supervisors meeting, Gaffney said, “I am thankful and honored to receive the appointment by the board of supervisors and thankful for the opportunity to serve our Marshall County community as the county attorney. The challenges in serving as an assistant county attorney over the past ten years have been very rewarding, and I hope to build on that experience in serving as county attorney. Marshall County is a special place to call home. I look forward to serving this community.”

Supervisor Dave Thompson said one thing that stuck out the most in the interviews for both positions was the integrity each candidate had for the job.

“The interviews were very informative and, honestly, I don’t think we could have made a bad choice,” he said. “Either one would have been very good. It’s just one scored slightly higher on the matrixes. You got to go with that.”

Supervisor Steve Salasek said he has interviewed and hired a lot of people through the years and these were the toughest decisions he ever had to make.

In other business:

The board also received an update in the emergency communications system upgrade. Marshall County Auditor Nan Benson said county officials met with a landowner about acquiring some property to build a tower on. She said the land is right next to a hog site, which means there are no people living nearby and farmers do not have to worry about working about the tower.

Patten was concerned about putting a tower in the middle of a field, which would be inconvenient to the farmer.

“Your comment at the last meeting about 24-row planters trying to work around something like that — it’s actually in a corner, so it’s going to be a nice space,” Benson said.

She said county officials will meet with Mike Miller, owner of RACOM, to discuss the project. The county signed a contract with RACOM to upgrade the 911 system after it became evident the system in place was rapidly failing and emergency calls were getting lost.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com