Reorganization to make Henry County Attorney’s Office more accessible

MT. PLEASANT — Henry County Assistant Attorney Blake Vierra says his office is reorganizing to give the public clearer, more consistent access.

According to Vierra, these changes will cost the county “almost nothing.” The department will use furniture already in the offices to create the new flow. The only item that will require funding will be new decals on the doors to clearly denote which doors are which and when office hours will be held.

“For those of you familiar with our office, we have three doors that lead to our office right now,” Vierra told supervisors. “Currently, if you’re staring at the office front, the far-left door was typically reserved for authorized personnel, law enforcement to come in if they needed to in our office. The middle door remained locked at all times, and the far-right door was for access for when we have meetings with victims or witnesses, and generally, the public would come and knock on that door if they needed something.”

That will change this month.

“For our reorganization, what we are going to have is the middle door will now be an access point for the public,” he said. “We’ve moved [a] large kind of front desk area. So, the public will be able to walk in a little bit into like a foyer area, and we’ll have that desk there. We’ll have that door open typically for office hours from 9-11 a.m. … people can walk in, and someone will be there to assist them if necessary.”

Other times will still be by appointment.

“The far-right door is going to be reserved for when we’re meeting with victims and more important meetings,” Vierra said. “We hope that will accommodate some things and make it clear to the public which access points are easy for them to get in.”

While Vierra stated that a majority of the County Attorney Office’s work revolves around scheduled work or working with other lawyers and law enforcement officers, the goal of the rearrangement is to help where they can.

The change comes after public comments earlier this year about the inaccessibility of the county attorney’s office and questions about the department’s role. Residents also asked the county attorney’s office to join other department heads in presenting monthly reports to the board — a practice now in place.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com