MUSCATINE, Iowa – After an emotionally charged presentation Monday by Muscatine county attorney Gary Allison, the Muscatine County Board of Supervisors is planning its next move to discuss the position.

Board chairman Wayne Shoultz said there seems to be agreement on creating a small group or committee to review the possibilities of the position going from part-time to full-time, an idea that was on Monday’s Board agenda and which brought Allison to the meeting.

Allison, a Republican, gave a roughly 30-minute presentation detailing why he thought the idea was a bad one, at times accusing Board members of poor research and bias, and also leveling charges of politically motivated vendettas. He argued that increasing the position to full-time would not be an economically sound decision.

Supervisor Kas Kelly said there is “absolutely no political motivation” behind the discussion of a full-time attorney. In fact, Kelly said Supervisor Dave Watkins, a Republican, put the item on the agenda.

“I’ve talked about it, asked for it to be put on the agenda,” Watkins said. “Prior to his re-election, I had thought about it probably three years ago. Scott County got into problems with their county attorney with the private practice he had and they decided to have a full-time attorney, and did so. I had looked at it a year ago. Over a time, individually, I asked board members and they all sounded interested.

“Why I decided it needed to be done now is to let those people who may want to run next year for county attorney, to let them know if it’s a full or part-time position. March 1 is the latest we can make it.”

For her part, Kelly said her goal “is to look to see if we can save tax dollars. With a committee, we might be able to see if we can. If we can’t, then it stays the way it is.”

Added Shoultz: “We need to examine  costs, savings and the current workload. One thing I don’t want to do is hurt the productivity of the county attorney’s office, so I don’t want to change that. If there’s money to be saved, we’ll look at that and weigh that on Monday [Nov. 9].”

Kelly said in addition to a possible committee reviewing data like cases won, costs and office workload, she would like to see the county attorney’s office at the Board of Supervisors meeting more often.

“Other department heads come in and talk to us, we don’t get anything from that office,” Kelly said.

Allison has argued the position should be “further discussed” and not pressed for a decision by March 1.

“I believe that with the timing of this and the politics of this that the whole purpose is to affect the outcome of the upcoming election,” Allison said, adding he would like to see it take affect for the 2014 election, in which he does not plan to run.

“If they make it effective for the following cycle, then that issue goes away,” he said.

Allison said he would like to see policies and economics discussed by the committee, of which he hopes to be a part. Kelly said she is hesitant to put him on the committee, but hopes he is present for any meetings or discussions that the committee has.

“I am very open minded and I seriously want the numbers. This is not politically driven,” Kelly said, adding she would like to be on the committee, if formed.

“I think we should have at least one or two attorneys, a taxpayer — just an interested person. I don’t care if they’re Democrat or Republican, green, purple or red. We need people that are open minded.”