Simple, tasteful oath-of-office ceremony has a Corbett subtext: Return city government to May's Island

For a few moments on Saturday morning, the city got a glimpse of what it might be like to have city government back downtown in the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island.

With 150 family, friends and others filling the historic 82-year-old building's towering lobby, new Mayor Ron Corbett and five other City Council members took the oath to start their four-year terms in office.

Each of the six made brief comments after each, in turn, recited the oath administered by Pat Kane, the executive director of Crossroads Mission.

In his remarks, Corbett said the City Council that came before the new one confronted more than it ever bargained for what with the Flood of 2008 and the national economic downturn that followed.

The same is not true, though, for him and his new council colleagues, he said.

“See, we go into this with our eyes wide open,” the new mayor said. “We know exactly what the tasks at hand are. We know the magnitude - that we need to continue in our flood-recovery effort. And we see firsthand the impacts of the recession on the people of this community.

“So when you go in eyes wide open, and you know and you can see the challenges that you're facing ... that allows us to have a focus.”

That focus, he said, will be on flood recovery for individuals and small businesses; job creation; expanding the city's tax base with an attitude, “We're open for business;” budget restraint; and public safety.

“It's a focused agenda, and it's an agenda focused on people,” Corbett said. “And I suspect that people are counting on us, just as they will hold us accountable - as they should - to deliver results.

“ ... As mayor, I'm limited in what I can do. But as a community, we're unlimited in what we can accomplish.”

At-large council members Don Karr and Chuck Swore, who like Corbett were not part of the last nine-member council, and three returning council members - District 1 council member Kris Gulick, District 3 council member Pat Shey and District 5 council member Justin Shields - also took the oath of office. Three other returning council members, at-large council member Tom Podzimek, District 2 council member Monica Vernon and District 4 council member Chuck Wieneke, have two years left on their four-year terms.

Swore, who served for two years on the council in 2006 and 2007, said he was glad to be back. He promised he would not “let us get too enamored with ourselves,” and he promised to own up to any council mistakes.

Shey noted that he took Corbett's seat in the state legislature 10 years ago when Corbett gave it up to become president of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, a position he held before moving to his current position as vice president of trucking firm CRST Inc., in 2005. Shey said he looked forward to working with Corbett on the council.

Gulick said sitting on the council is a way to serve the public, and he said he's glad he gets another four years to do that. Shields, who ran unopposed, said he hopes four years from now that people will say, “Wow, I can't believe the change in this city.”

Karr promised “real change,” and he said one first act of change would be to get city government back into the Veterans Memorial Building where it had been for 82 years before the flood.

Corbett picked the setting, designed the program and presided over Saturday's simple, 30-minute ceremony. Corbett's daughter, Ana, held a Bible as he took the oath of office, and other council members also had family members do the same.

It wasn't clear earlier this week if all five other council members beginning new terms would participate in the Saturday event, but they all did.

After the last of the Saturday crowd headed into the below-zero cold, Corbett took a tour of parts of the Veterans Memorial Building, the first floor of which took on less than 12 inches of water in the June 2008 flood.

Corbett's tour included the third-floor - home to the mayor's office and office of the city manager and city clerk - and the fourth-floor council chambers. It all sits as it did the day of the June 2008 flood.

“There are no signs that there was a flood (above the first floor),” said Corbett, who wants city government to return to the building. “Obviously you can tell it wasn't used as dust collects on the furniture. I think this furniture is all usable.

“ … I know I have a case to make to the City Council because I think some of them would like to see a new government building. I'm not in favor of that. I'm going to make my case, and hopefully people will be behind me on this one.”