For Sylvia Schoer, the time has come

Photo by Russ Mitchell Ken Chalstrom, chairman of the Clay County Board of Supervisors, presents Sylvia Schoer with a clock honoring her 20 years in office as a member of the board. Schoer's fifth term came to a conclusion at the end of the year and supporters filled the Clay County Administration Building on Tuesday to wish her well. [Order this photo]

These days, Sylvia Schoer would like to go down to Des Moines for a state tournament basketball game instead of a committee meeting on mental health.

The proud grandparent thinks about the five players on the court more than the five people in a board room or the five terms she spent as a member of the Clay County Board of Supervisors. It was time, she decided, to swap out the meeting agendas for the high school sports schedules.

Tuesday, they could have used a high school gymnasium to house all of the area residents who wanted to wish her well in her retirement. The hugs and handshakes continued nonstop for the hour leading up to a 3 p.m. program at the Clay County Administration Building. She called it a great day in her life.

"When you have something like this and you've been involved in public service, you really kind of wonder if you have any friends left," she said. "When I first got on the board, I read a Bill Cosby statement that was down in the engineer's office and it said 'I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.' That's very true."

She continued: "I appreciate that you had enough confidence in me to let me proceed and represent you in the county. It's been a learning process every day. I learned something today that I didn't know before. I just appreciate everything I have learned. I realized that I had to get out of this business because my head is too full."

A new county board will be sworn in at the start of the new year. Schoer, whose father was a Clay County Supervisor in the 1970s, remained the only Democrat of the group in a Republican-leaning county. She was also the first woman to become a county supervisor in Clay County.

"She's enjoyed the 20 years she's been in," her husband, Don, said. "She's going to miss the people an awful lot. She's met a lot of people from the state, down in Des Moines, but she's going to enjoy retirement too. There will be a lot of ballgames."

"We're not travelers, so we'll stick around," he added.

Don credits his wife's longevity in office to her personality, saying: "Well, she knows a lot of people and to get elected, she's got to be pretty well-liked."

One of her fans is Del Brockshus, who will begin his fifth term on the board in January.

"She has a lot of integrity. She just is a person who thinks through various projects and events that are going and formulates good decisions," he said. "One of the things I admired about her as much as anything is: Even when she had some question about the decision, or maybe didn't agree with the way everything went, she was always supportive of that decision once it was made. That's really important. … She is as caring a person as I know."

Some members of the reception audience remember Sylvia as Sylvia Mason, a farm girl who stood up at a Greenville-Rossie school assembly to speak on behalf of Adlai Stevenson in 1952. She took a bank job in Spencer right after high school. Her marriage to Don sparked an occupation she was familiar with. Don and Sylvia's farm was just north of Goat Hill and about four miles away from where she grew up.

The Schoers moved to Spencer about five years ago.

It was the stories from her grandparents that helped shape her political leanings over the past 20 years. Sylvia's grandparents nearly lost everything in the Great Depression and they credited the decisions of Democrats for getting them through the tough times. The lessons also nudged Schoer to committee work that focused on some of the most basic roles of county government: Caring for those who can't help themselves and monitoring the county's system of roads.

"I don't have a lot of compassion for the people who don't do the things they're supposed to -- if they've made bad choices," she said. "But I do have a passion for the people who have not been able to make the choice and have had their lives changed by things they did not choose. I've been fortunate to be on the ground floor of a lot of those things that deal with those kinds of people."

Ken Chalstrom, chairman of the Clay County Board of Supervisors, said he took note of Schoer's seniority when he arrived on the board.

"That was the person to watch and mimic, if you will," he said. "It has been a pleasure working with her. I admire how dedicated she was to her committees, her work and doing things to help the county."

Linda Swanson, who is midway through her first term as a supervisor, also saw Schoer as a mentor.

"Without the tenure of the other board members, it would have been a very challenging thing to step into a position like this," she said. "Sylvia, I have found working with her, is such a compassionate person and wants the best for Clay County."

Chalstrom also appreciated her candor.

"She always said what she thought and that was really nice," he said. "Whether or not you want to hear it, it's nice to know where people stand. I think that's important."

Jack Kibbie, the president of the Iowa Senate, made the trip from Emmetsburg to wish Schoer well on her retirement.

Clay County is much better because of her, he said during the program.

"When you talk about human services and mental health -- those are extremely tough issues at the capitol and at the county level," Kibbie said. "The last several years, I see Don around the capitol reading the paper or eating ice cream or having coffee and, well, you knew Sylvia was there someplace at a committee meeting."

"It's been a great 20 years and I never would have made it through without Don following me around and waiting for me," Sylvia said, later in the program.

County board member Burlin Matthews joined Swanson as a first-term board member in 2006. He heard praise about Schoer long before he began his campaign.

"Once I was elected and sat on the board, I realized that she serves Clay County, not just locally, but statewide," he said. "She sits on several different committees and boards and she has provided an invaluable service to the residents of Clay County. She will be a hard person to replace because of the extent of her knowledge on those boards and committees she sat on."

Even if Schoer's had her share of government, apparently government isn't quite done with its longtime public servant.

"My next job will be to serve jury duty -- I start Monday," she told her audience. "Can you believe it? Don't tell me they draw those people randomly."