Gazette Daily News Briefing, January 11
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for January 11, 2024.
According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly cloudy on Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area, with a high near 26 degrees. There is snow in the forecast Thursday night, but it looks like it will mostly start snowing in the early morning hours on Friday. Keep an eye on the forecast because things continue to change as the week progresses.
The entire region should see snow, with heavier snowfall predicted for areas along and north of Interstate 80. Snow accumulation should mostly stay between 4 and 8 inches, although NWS bureau meteorologists have medium confidence that some snow totals could surpass 8 inches. Periods of wintry mix are possible south of I-80.
As of Wednesday afternoon projections, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are respectively 70 percent and 69 percent likely to see 6 or more inches of snow.
My fearless prediction is it will not be fun for anyone needing to drive or fly on Friday.
A new chief integration officer the University of Iowa Health Care has appointed to manage its complex merger with Mercy Iowa City could earn $780,000 this year, according to her professional services agreement.
The hire follows UIHC’s $28 million bankruptcy acquisition of the community hospital.
Deborah Berini of the Pennsylvania-based Berini Consulting Group — chosen in December without an open search — has signed on to serve as UIHC chief integration officer and interim chief administrative officer from Jan. 2 to Jan. 1, 2025, “unless amended by written mutual agreement.”
Her fee is $65,000 a month, amounting to $780,000 for the year. The agreement doesn’t provide expenses for “on-site activity,” include benefits, or cover moving costs. But Berini is in Iowa City for the task of leading Mercy’s transition into the university’s sprawling health care system, UIHC spokeswoman Laura Shoemaker said.
The university used a “sole source purchase justification” to appoint Berini and use her one-year-old consulting group without conducting a search or issuing a public request for proposals due to “emergency need,” according to UI documents provided to The Gazette in response to a records request.
“With the short timeline for the Mercy Iowa City transition, we needed to onboard executive leadership support as quickly as possible, which is why we expedited the process,” Shoemaker said. “We are fortunate we were able to find the right person at the right time.”
Shortages of court reporters and contract lawyers continue to challenge Iowa’s courts, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen said Wednesday — as does low pay for Iowa judges, who are paying more of their salaries into their pensions.
Christensen, delivering the annual Condition of the Judiciary address to the Iowa Legislature, said the judicial branch is working to solve the shortages of court reporters and contract attorneys in order to avoid delayed justice. But more investment and action is needed by state lawmakers to address the crisis.
Christensen was appointed in 2018 by Gov. Kim Reynolds to serve on the seven-member Iowa Supreme Court and became chief justice in 2020.
The state faces a growing shortfall of private lawyers willing to contract with the state’s public defender’s office to represent indigent defendants.
Lawmakers last year approved funding to increase the pay of private lawyers who agree to represent indigent defendants by $5 an hour and provide $35 an hour for travel time, plus mileage, as some spend hours driving around Iowa to court hearings. But Iowa still pays below that of every surrounding state.
She said the problem is particularly acute in Eastern Iowa, where the lawyers can now earn nearly twice as much doing contract work across the river in Illinois.
As for judges, Christensen said an increase is needed for them as well,
Salaries by judges are set by statute. In the last 15 years, judges have received five pay increases. Christensen said Iowa judges make $16,000 less per year than judges in South Dakota and $38,000 less per year than judges in Nebraska.
She said the number of applicants for district court judge vacancies has decreased over 20 years, from an average of 17 applicants per opening to 6.5.
“This dramatic decrease in applicants is deeply distressing,” Christensen said. “Being appointed by the governor to the bench should be the pinnacle of an attorney’s career, not a deep financial sacrifice.”
Christensen also called on lawmakers to make changes to the Judicial Retirement System allowing judges to pay less of their salary into the pension fund, as this only makes the lower salary problem worse.
