🗳️ Have you thought about running?
Not everyone will have time, but now is the time to start thinking about it.
January 15, 2020 | Letter No. 23
I keep hearing I was late reporting that Susan Mims wasn’t planning to run for a fourth term on Iowa City Council.
Last Saturday, she mentioned that 2021 was her twelfth and last time adjusting the property tax levy. But people keep telling me how among other councilors and staff Mims has been clear that a fourth term wasn’t in the cards.
Propriety dictates that councilors and those that would-be councilors maintain a — frankly exhausting — will-they-won’t-they attitude with the prospects of public service.
You saw it in 2018 when U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, and U.S. Rep Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii hobnobbed with Johnson County Democrats, dutifully eating barbeque to raise money for the local party. That was back when only Andrew Yang — who also was at the BBQ — was the only person willing to say he was there to be president.
For a president, maybe propriety has its merits. But I find it obnoxious to see this on the local level.
Leading up to the City-School election in 2019, I put together a long file of all the people who were and were not running for office in Johnson County’s city councils and school boards. I spent the better part of three days tracking down phone numbers and having electeds hem and haw over whether they would or whether they wouldn’t run.
While maybe not as easily recognizable or even namable, these are the electeds deciding whether the new gym or the new bus fleet additions are the priority. They decide whether park improvements or a bridge project are worth our time. At their root, they decide this or that.
And let’s be clear, very few people decide on who fills the role. Johnson County saw high rates of participation in presidential and gubernatorial election years: 2020 had 84,198 total voters, 2018 had 68,262, 2016 had 77,476, and 2014 had 52,959. By comparison, city and school elections were barron: 2019 City-School election had 13,491 total voters (Iowa City Councilor Pauline Taylor won her seat by 4,884 votes), 2017 city election had 10,752, 2015 had 8,635, 2013 had 15,431, and 2011 had 11,072.
The magnitude of participation is huge. And there are many reasons for this, but I can’t help but see this propriety over who is running when as playing into it.
These are not glamorous jobs. The work they do is rarely popular with the people they hear the most from. But they are necessary. They make time to do work others won’t.
We have many months before the November City-School election. Two at-Large seats and Mims’ District B seat will be open.
Residents have plenty of time to decide whether they want to run. And I think they start thinking about it now.
Your friendly neighborhood reporter,
Zachary Oren Smith
Take Five
🌇 The Big Projects - I put together a small list of Iowa City’s most expensive projects in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan.
🏛️ The Legislature’s Model for Pandemic-era Responsiblity - The pandemic is on. The Republican-controlled legislature has decided to not make CDC recommendations the expectation during this year’s session. State Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, made a stink about it.
🎒 Hybrid-model Schooling Woes - Iowa City student grades are suffering. Overall, students in the Iowa City Community School District finished the first trimester this fall with more 'F' grades than in 2019, but improved significantly in the weeks before winter break.
📚 Nightbitch is Coming! … in July. Deeply upsetting, but you can preorder here. AND you can read about it and her recent movie deal in this Press-Citizen this week:
"You could say that this book is an artifact of the Trump era, brought into being by questions so many people have been asking themselves over the last 4 years: Why are things the way they are? And why can't they be different?"
🏛️ The House impeached President Donald Trump Wednesday. U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks was not in favor of this move, but her predecessor, former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, a Republican, said it was the right response to a “blatantly authoritarian” president.
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Zachary Oren Smith writes about government, growth and development for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach him at zsmith@press-citizen.com, at 319 -339-7354 or on Twitter via @Zacharyos.