Treasurer: ‘I do not feel valued’

By Nick Joos

Express Editor

Jones County Treasurer Amy Picray believes she, and work her office does, is underappreciated by the county’s supervisors and told them as much during a meeting last week. 

Picray was at last week’s supervisors meeting to present her office’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget and while doing so, read a prepared statement explaining her discontent with how she believes her office is treated by county officials. 

“My morale is at an all-time low, and I feel no matter what I say or do, it doesn’t matter,” Picray said. 

Picray, who has been the Jones County Treasurer since June 2006, said she believes her office’s work is under appreciated and pointed to the revenue that her office gathered in 2025 from driver’s license convenience fees.

The number of driver license credentials issued in 2025 by the Jones County treasurer’s office -- available data covers January through November -- far outstripped the five counties above and below Jones County in population ranking in Iowa. Picray said the county sees these higher numbers due to its proximity to Linn County and the Cedar Rapids metro, residents of which often cross over the county line to conduct business in the Jones County Courthouse for convenience and ease of access. State law says a county treasurer can charge a $10 convenience fee on top of standard fees to any out-of-county resident to whom it issues a driver’s license. 

Between January 2025 and November 2025, Picray’s office issued 3,811 driver’s license credentials to Jones County residents and 6,668 to non-county residents for a total of 10,479. That total is more than double what any of the five counties below Jones in the population ranking produced, and at least 2,400 more than any of the five counties above Jones. 

This helped boost her office driver’s license-related revenue to $145,590 in calendar year 2025, according to documents Picray provided to the supervisors.

“We blow other counties out of the water,” Picray said. “These convenience fees are something that you all know was important to me for a long time.”

The average driver’s license revenue of the five counties above and five counties below Jones County in population ranking was $49,874.

“That is not passive income. That is not interest earned on money sitting in a bank,” Picray said at the meeting. “That’s (from) work that I am doing, work that my staff is doing. And it is something we nurtured over time and have grown … I am proud of it, and I wish it was something this board valued more than they do.”

She also highlighted the other duties she and her staff perform. 

“We have the highest traffic of any office in the county,” she said. “… I am the custodian of all the county’s funds, which includes collecting and receiving revenue, implementing internal controls and checks and balances to deter fraud.”

She said she struggles to “convey the complexities of working in the treasurer’s office. I relate it to a mechanical clock. You see these two arms rotating around and it doesn’t look like there is a lot going on, but in the background, there is a lot.”

Like budget presentations given by other department heads, Picray’s included a discussion about her salary, which this fiscal year is $86,717.62.

She said the method the board used last year to determine elected officials’ pay raises following the disbandment of the county compensation board used “arbitrary figures with no clear justification for the values assigned.” 

The county last year used salary comparisons from those counties with similar populations while formulating the current fiscal year’s budget. 

Supervisor Joe Oswald told the Express he “felt like that was a fair comparison.”

Picray argued this method “did not recognize increased workloads or expanded responsibilities. We talk about making changes to attract and retain staff, but I do not feel this is being done for elected officials in the county. Last year was a punch in the gut for me. Last year’s decision was deeply demoralizing. Actions speak louder than words, and I do not feel valued by this board.”

Picray received a 4% salary increase last year tied for the lowest of any elected official save for the supervisors.

“Amy, you are ranked 25th in the state (in terms of salary),” said Supervisor Jeff Swisher after Picray’s presentation. “Where do you think you need to be to be happy?”

“It’s not about the money for me anymore,” Picray responded. “It’s about the message that it sends … I’m fed up.”

She told the Express she also felt slighted by neglected maintenance needs in her office, such as overhead lights that flickered during work hours. 

“Due to the daily exposure to this condition, my staff and I experienced headaches, eye strain and nausea,” Picray said. “It took seven weeks along with repeated follow up for repairs to begin.”

She also shared concerns with the Express about malfunctioning radiators in the courthouse and said “an incident in my office posed a burn hazard to both employees and the public.”

Oswald, who serves as chair of the Board of Supervisors, was in Des Moines with fellow supervisors Jeff Swisher and Darick Hall Thursday to talk policy with legislators. In a joint call with the Express, they said they were caught off guard by Picray’s comments. 

“From my perspective, I would say the board appreciates everything that all elected officials and county staff do for our county,” Oswald said. “I don’t think anyone is underappreciated … in my opinion, every office goes above and beyond.”

“We were caught off guard for sure,” Hall echoed. “This is the first time this fiscal year that we have had this conversation.”

Board member John Schlarmann acknowledged to the Express that the work Picray and her staff do to bring in revenue to the county is important. 

“I don’t know, besides saying we appreciate their work and compensating them the best we can, how we can show that. We have all been appreciative of it,” Schlarmann said. “It’s their job and they do it well.”

Supervisor Jon Zirkelbach declined to comment.