Hayek, Wright, Smith and Vanderhoef in the PATV studios before the forum. Seated in order of finish in the primary -- by design? I thought I had a picture of moderator Gary Sanders but I lied. So here's a picture of Sanders with Bill Richardson.
I'm part of an all-press at the PATV studio in Iowa City for the Gary Sanders No Baloney candidate forum. With us are the four contenders for the two Iowa City at large council seats. Incumbent Dee Vanderhoef is coming off a fourth place primary finish. Progressive newcomer Mike Wright was in second, but may have been hurt by the 2900 on campus satellite votes last week that'll be overwhelmingly NO on the 21 bar ordinance that he and Vanderhoef endorse. Anti-21 groups Bloc21 and Student Health Initiative Taskforce were leafletting for the other two contenders, both newcomers. Matt Hayek was the overwhelming first choice in the primary, with double the support of anyone else. He's gotten endorsements from everyone on the Iowa City political spectrum from conservative ex-mayor Bill Ambrisco and uber-landlord Ed Barker to progressive supervisor Rod Sullivan and, well, crazy blogger John Deeth. The other contender with no on 21 support is third place primary finisher Terry Smith.
Will enough students vote on just the bar ordinance and skip the council races -- an often overheard though -- to give Wright a chance? We shall see in eight days. Will this forum persuade anyone? With thousand of votes in the bank, is there anyone left TO vote?
7:30 and Gary is introducing everyone. If you look up gadfly in the dictionary, you'll see a pic of Gary. He has an actual ring of baloney which will be used as a gavel if there is too much baloney from the candidates. Gary hopes for some hostile questions. "The show will end when I think it's boring."
We run a tape from the League of Women Voters forum which banned "hostile questions." Terry is quoted saying: there are substantial differences between me and Wright. Mike's supporters include "Karen Kubby and Brandon Ross, 'activists.' I'm more moderate. My supporters include Ernie Lehman and Terrence Neuzil." (note: In Iowa City-ese, "activist" is code for "lefty.")
Mike cops to being an "activist." But terry says he never was. Terr, what about Public Power? "I was doing my job, I believe it was right but it was part of my employment." Terry: "There's clear differences between Mike and myself."
Matt calls himself an activist but says it's a loaded, code term. Gary cuts to the chase "do we have left wing vs right wing?" Mike: "I think Terry meant it to mean left wing vs. moderate-conservative."
Gary moves to 21 bars. Notes the Mike Porter (Bloc 21) endorsement of Hayek and Smith. Matt: "I'm not in bed with any group." They got my signs from... someplace, we have 500 of them. We didn't think it was appropriate. We want to be completely independent of the referendum, they took the sign off the car. Terry: Matt filled me in on it and my sign came down too. Matt: I don't represent any bar owners in my law practice... my firm might represent one or two. If there were any perceived conflicts I'd check with city attorney.
Gary asks Matt about the ordinance itself. Matt: you can enforce law through liquor license review. Gary: Why did this have to go to a petition? Dee: 21 has been in from of the council for years. "It is impossible to make charges against the bar itself unless the owner is actually doing the serving." Gary: A few years ago at the last minute the council chickened out on 21, what happened? Dee: Ex-councilor Steven Kanner changed his vote and wanted to negotiate something else -- I don't even remember what -- and broke the deal. Gary: "Kanner screwed up."
Smith: "We have laws on the books." Gary: "Why aren't they working?" Smith: enforcement may be easier downtown, but it'll push parties outside of downtown. Dee disagrees: "There's a lot of house parties right before they go downtown. They choose to go to parties, get well on their way, then they go downtown." And then they go to parties again afterwards. Smith: "I'm opposed because we treat 18 year old students as adults." Smith's 20 year old son is shipping out to Iraq next month, and the 21 ordinance is a denial of adult rights. Drinking downtown is a problem, but I don't think denying rights is a solution.
Wright: "Are their rights being denied because the age is 21?" or because of being denied admission. "Part of the solution is we need to find a non-alcoholic venue for students." Dee: "How can a non-alcoholic venue succeed without the (21 bar) law? They cannot compete, the business plan does not work in competition with an alcohol venue."
Gary: If 19 and 20 year olds in a bar worked, wouldn't other cities copy us? Matt: Big 10 towns are split, Ames is doing it but has other issues. Some problems are unique to cities and geography (where students live). Gary: this is a failure on the part of the city. Dee: "I agree, and we've had a split council every single group. I personally support the ordinance but it's time for the citizens to speak."
Gary: could the city council revisit this? (He gets a fact wrong: an amendment that's gone to the voters can't be considered for two years by the voters.) Gary asks about admitting under-21 with a military ID. Terry: "Since these people are already breaking the law, is it really going to be effective to put one more law on the books?" Mike: Chief of police says he'd rather check out house parties than bars. Dee says it's about "problem residents."
Gary: "Regenia Bailey says old people shouldn't be making laws about young people's fun." He's amused. Smith: base law on majority, and old people don't necessarily support the ordinance. Everybody agrees it's a problem, disagree on solution.
Gary: if students carry this, what will they demand next? Hayek: "elimination of grades? Seriously, this is a difficult issue with good intentions on both sides." Gary attacks faculty senate for not taking a stand. Hayek: "This'll let us put this one subset of the issue to rest," and look at the rest of the problem. Matt: we'd all favor ramping up enforcement. Gary: Is there $ for more cops? Dee: No. Matt: stiffer penalties, some of which is local.
Gary: nobody's had more than a slap on the wrist on this. I came close on the baloney a couple times.
Moving on to TIFs. Dee, do you support the TIF for Mercy? Dee: still looking at details. Terry: this project is a new trend and will come to IC whether it's TIFed or not -- so we don't need to TIF. Mike more or less agrees. Matt: a prudent and cautious answer, I'd use a similar test.
Hieronymous project? Matt: That's a good example of a decent TIF, nothing was happening on that property. Dee: I voted for that, the developers could have done a smaller project w/o a TIF, but could maximize with a TIF. Mike: It had some issues, has been sitting for years. I probably would not have supported. Do we need another downtown luxury hotel? Dee: what's luxury about it? I did not vote to support The Towers, it was supposed to have a hotel. I feared the hotel rooms would be made into condos and the conference space into offices.
Gary: why DO we give property tax breaks to people who can't make the deal with private funding? Dee: Hieronymous will bring spouses of convention goers to shop downtown. Smith: In year one of Hieronymous, the city gains tax $ even with the TIF. This is a mix of housing and not just what the market wants (which is student housing student housing and student housing). He likes the square in the middle too. Where's the downside? Mike: something was going to get built anyway. Whatever happened to venture capitalism? TIFs slow real economic growth. Citys without TIFs invest more in the community. Hayek: TIFs are one of a number of economic tools. So is infrastructure, and arts and culture. Iowa City needs to pursue economic development more aggressively, and we have slow, steady, barely with inflation growth. We need to grow long term. Gary: "I was going to vote for you until you used 'incen' as a verb."
Gary: "Dee, I don't see any of your council colleagues with your signs." Dee; Connie Champion does. Gary: "have you alienated anyone like Steve Kanner?" Dee: not that I know of. Gary: you seem to have less support. Dee: If I hear anything, it's that's you've had 12 years and it's time to turn it over.
Gary: "A number of Midamerican employees running for councils in Eastern Iowa. What's happening here?" Smith: "There's two including myself. That's not uncommon at all. Midamerican has always encouraged employees to be active in the community, and utilities work closely with city govt." Gary: is this the fox guarding the henhouse? Matt: you do what's right and check with city attorney (he sounds OK with it.) Wright: "I won't have too many conflicts from my employment side." As for Terry, "I'd be fine with Terry if we hadn't just put the (Midamerican) franchise agreement out there." Hayek: discusses a conflict case he worked with as an attorney. Wright: "It looks funny, that's the best I can say."
Gary throws it open. Matt asks: "How do we pay for what we've talked about?" He sees three options: "Make cuts in other areas." Dee: "or reallocating staff." Matt "second option is some sort of tax increase, and one option is local option sales tax which has been voted down twice." Smith: or the new emergency dispatch levy. Dee: Almost a shell game unless we explain it carefully. Smith: The city has $50 million general fund but $167 million total.
Gary: why is this stuff so boring? Smith: "until a few years ago I didn't follow local elections so closely." Gary says people understand Iraq or global warming, but not the city budget. Wright: "this is the stuff that affects my daily life." Hayek: with the exception of students, Iowa City has a very engaged local electorate. "We're a society that watches television and increasingly lives on cul de sac and backyard focused homes, increasingly less engaged in the public sphere."
Gary tongue in cheek (?) so should students vote? Hayek: "you can't fault the system when people vote." He gives me a shout out and calls it a night?
Candidates exchange notes about dealing with colds eight days before election.
Gary says the local press is not engaged in the horse race aspects of local politics, and Hayek adds the lack of institutional memory in local press.
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