Is Cedar Rapids on the right track?

Greg Eyerly, the Cedar Rapids flood-recovery director, jumped into the Ellis Park Pool last Wednesday to celebrate the completion of renovations at the flood-damaged city facility.

The splash on a cold day tells a piece of the story voters must sort out as they prepare to go to the polls in Tuesday's city election.

Mayoral candidate Brian Fagan, an at-large City Council member who was the city's central face for flood recovery in the first months after the June 2008 flood, has campaigned to tell voters that he and his council colleagues have worked hard and effectively and that the progress on flood recovery is taking place and is now poised to accelerate.

However, Fagan's principle challenger, Ron Corbett, remembers when the City Council in January was pushing to get the Ellis Park Pool open by July 13 in hopes of providing the neighborhood a psychological lift. By April, when it was clear the pool would not open in the summer, Corbett was standing in front of it, citing the pool as an example of what he calls a “culture of delay” that he, if elected, wants to replace with a “culture of action.”

And so it goes, with the Tuesday election set to select who will be the city's second mayor in the still-new council-manager form of government.

Fagan has dismissed Corbett's talk of delay, saying that council, while not handling flood recovery perfectly, was smart to use experienced consultants to methodically document the city's flood damage. Fagan says the city will take in $75 million more from the federal government for its many flood-damaged buildings and facilities than if the city had rushed the job without expert advice.

Corbett says he's seen no substantiation for the numbers, and in any event, he says the city's Eyerly has done as much as outside consultants to save the city money.

Fagan says the city is on the right track, while Corbett says the city is on the wrong track and he can get it back where it needs to be.

Perennial council candidate P.T. Larson, 52, is also in the mayoral race, contending the central issue is the “culture of decay,” with the city needing to fix streets and do more about crime.

Tuesday's election also features races for two at-large council seats - none of the five candidates is an incumbent - and for seats in east-side District 1 and in District 3, which has precincts in southeast and southwest Cedar Rapids.

Some of the discussion during the various campaigns has focused on whether the city's still-new form of government is working correctly. Corbett charges the city manager has too much power. Fagan says the City Council is leading the city.

Corbett has said, if elected, he wants to conduct a 90-day assessment of City Manager Jim Prosser's performance, while Fagan notes that Prosser was named the state's top city manager a year ago. In any event, the mayor is only one of nine votes on the council.

A Gazette Communications scientific poll last week found 55 percent of the respondents had high or some confidence in the City Council, up from the 47 percent favorable rating recorded in a February poll, but down from the 66 percent favorable rating recorded in November 2007 before the flood.

David Redlawsk, professor of political science at Rutgers University and until recently a professor at the University of Iowa, says it is “relatively rare” that city managers become campaign issues in municipal elections. But Redlawsk, who helped advise Cedar Rapids' Charter Commission in 2004-05, says it might not be so surprising that it's happened in Cedar Rapids because the form of government is new and because it has been challenged by recovery from a major flood.