Coralville candidates hammer on finances

The announcements just kept coming:

John Weber, Chris Turner, Laurie Goodrich, David Petsel, Mark Winkler. Jean Newlin Schnake decided to give it another go.

Six challengers in all, joining incumbents Bill Hoeft and Thomas Gill in the race for three Coralville City Council seats.

Four others, including an attorney who led some local business owners' lawsuit against the city last year, are vying for the mayor's chair - the first open race for that seat in nearly two decades.

Add a couple of rocky recent years marked by historic economic development reaches - some say overreaches - and a slap on the wrist by Moody's, and shake.

City elections might be fewer than seven weeks away, but Coralville's race will almost certainly more than make up for that brevity with intensity.

And consistency. How many ways can you hammer the city government for its debt and financial practices? Challengers seem determined to find out.

Winkler, Director of the Business Solutions Center at the University of Iowa Tippie School of Business, has pledged to bring “an experienced approach toward growing Coralville's economy.” Restaurateur David Petsel says he'll focus on enacting “responsible growth policies” if voters elect him.

Turner wants economic development that doesn't put “taxpayers on the hook for financing it all.” Goodrich wants to make “wise decisions.”

Schnake wants to “get back to the basics.” Only Weber has offered to “continue the (mayor and council's) great work.”

The pressure will be on Hoeft and Gill to make a case for forging ahead even while trying to get a handle on the city's debt.

The race for mayor appears to be more evenly balanced, with current council member John Lundell running for mayor with Fausett's blessing, saying he wants to “expand” the city's growth, and David Kimm Fesler also supporting the city's aggressive approach.

Then there's mayoral candidate Matt Adam, who promises a “vision of greater financial certainty.”

Even 18-year-old Logan Strabala - who was born around the time Fausett began his first stint as mayor - is talking about how frustrated he is over the city's finances.

When even a high school student implies that you've been fiscally irresponsible, you've got some explaining to do.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net