Fact-checking in Cedar Rapids’ at-large council race

CEDAR RAPIDS - The three candidates running for the at-large city council seat share concern about the condition of city streets.

In a Wednesday evening debate, candidates Justin Wasson, 23, and Carl Cortez, 66, were generally critical of post-flood decisions made by the city council, while candidate Ann Poe, 58, defended the post-flood spending on the downtown library, saying, "you can't have a good apple if the core is rotten."

Here's a look at some of the claims made by the three candidates during the debate and whether the statements were fact, mostly factual, half true, mostly fiction or fiction.

Issue: Is the new library too big, expensive?

Claim: Wasson thinks the city is building a downtown library that is too big, too nice and too expensive. He said the city is getting a "giant" library downtown that is "significantly bigger than the older library" In the end, with the cost to maintain the building, "I'm going to be paying off this library for the rest of my life."

Determination: Mostly fiction

Why: The city's former downtown library at 500 First St. SE was 84,000 square feet in size. The new library will be 94,000 square feet, with more space for children and teens, library officials said.

The new $49 million library is being built without local property taxes. The money comes from a mix of federal disaster funds, a state I-JOBS grant, private donations and $4 million in revenue from the city's local option sales tax, which already has been collected.

Bob Pasicznyuk, the city's library director, said Thursday the operational costs at the new library will not be any larger than the operational costs at the old one, and may be less.

Issue: Should the city buy Westdale Mall?

Claim: Wasson, a recent graduate of Iowa State University, and Cortez, a retired IBM service technician, both said the city should not have bought the long-struggling downtown hotel from its creditors and, instead, should have paid more attention to the long-struggling Westdale Mall and bought that from its creditors. Poe, who was the post-flood community liaison with the Rebuild Iowa Office, did not advocate buying Westdale Mall but said the city should name a task force to figure out a future for the mall.

Determination: Mostly fiction

Why: Memories are short when it comes to City Hall's interest in the long-struggling Westdale Mall.

The City Council and then-City Manager Jim Prosser spent much of the pre-flood year of 2007 trying to figure out a better future for Westdale Mall. The city's intent was to take care of some initial planning and lure a private developer to bet on the mall property. By December 2007, though, the City Council tossed in the towel after failing to attract any private sector interest. Along the way, the mall owner, some Westdale shoppers and some local Realtors criticized the city's involvement.

Issue: Can a flood wall be built more cheaply?

Claim: Cortez suggested the city could build a flood wall protection system for well under $100 million if it simply built flood walls at the same per-mile cost as Quaker did for the flood wall around its plant.

Determination: Fiction

Why: Quaker could not be reached to comment, but the building permit it obtained in April 2011 called for a "2,043-foot permanent sheet steel cutoff wall" valued at $3.05 million. That's 0.39 miles, or one-twentieth of the length of the city's 7.74-mile "preferred" flood protection system. (Part of the wall is not along the riverbank.)

Twenty times $3.05 million equals $61 million, far less than the $375 million estimated for the city's "preferred" flood protection system, which would protect both the east and west side.

For one thing, Quaker, no doubt, owns the property where its wall was built. The city budgeting $56.2 millions for property acquisition.

Also, the city's preferred plan protects to the height of the 2008 flood, which exceeded a 500-year flood. Quaker's flood wall protects against a 100-year flood, according to Army Corps and city officials.