Mayor-elect Corbett and Culver both applaud their talk in the governor's office

Mayor-elect Ron Corbett said he and Gov. Chet Culver had “a real good discussion” and “saw eye to eye” on all issues during Corbett's meeting with the governor in Des Moines on Thursday morning.

For his part, Culver called the meeting with Corbett in the governor's office “a very productive conversation” when Culver appeared in Cedar Rapids later in the day.

After catching up with Corbett on Friday, the mayor-elect said his talk with Culver centered on flood recovery and job creation.

Corbett said Culver is particularly concerned about building housing to replace what  was lost to the flood in Cedar Rapids. At  the same time, he said the governor expressed concern about keeping the price of demolitions of flood-damaged homes under control. Those costs have been especially high for the first demolitions in Cedar Rapids because the houses were too unsafe to enter to remove asbestos and so the demolitions had to be handled in a special way.

Corbett said he talked to Culver about the need for the state to be extra-aggressive in recruiting jobs to the state because other states are doing that. Corbett also said he recommended that a Cedar Rapids area person be considered for the state's economic development chief's post that is now vacant.

In addition, Corbett said he told the governor to anticipate that he would continue Cedar Rapids' push at the Iowa Legislature to get support for flood recovery, and he said he asked the governor if he felt some legislators had developed “flood-recovery fatigue” and might be less willing to support Cedar Rapids' needs. The governor answered by saying that Cedar Rapids' recovery is important to the state, Corbett said.