Do you know any of these people? Are any worth electing to the City Council?

Nine residents, all men, have taken out nomination papers to run for City Council in the Nov. 3 general election.

Taking out papers and getting citizen signatures on them and turning them in are two different things. But getting papers shows interest. After all, you've gone to the trouble to go to the City Clerk's Office or the Linn County Auditor's Office to pick the papers up.

The only name of the nine on the list to date that is easily recognized is Jerry McGrane's. McGrane is the incumbent District 3 council member who has said he intends to seek reelection.

Andrew Murrow, 800 15th St. SE, noted that he, too, was interested in running for the District 3 seat.

Three people said they were interested in running for mayor: Nick Olinger, 1620 Fourth Ave. SE; Steve Almond, 5641 Kirkwood Blvd. SW, #8; and Jeff Allard, 1439 Wolf Dr. NW.

Others taking out papers but not identifying which council seat they might seek are: Mel Hayes, 2210 C St. SW; Robert Bates, Cedar Rapids; Calvin Busch, 1334 C St. SW, #3; and Daniel Schloss, 1500 Bever Ave. SE.

To date, only one candidate has announced publicly that he is running for city office. That is Ron Corbett, a vice president at trucking firm CRST Inc. and a former state legislator and former president/CEO of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. Corbett is running for mayor.

Six of the council's nine seats are on this year's ballot. The incumbents in those seats are Mayor Kay Halloran, District 1 council member Kris Gulick, District 3's McGrane, District 5's Justin Shields and at-large council members Brian Fagan and Pat Shey.

Halloran has said she will announce her intentions after the end of the Iowa Legislature's session this spring.

Back in 2005 -- the first election in the city's then-new government with a part-time council and a city manager -- nearly 40 people ran for the nine seats.

Three of the seats were open in 2007 to create a stagger so not all nine seats would be up for election the same year. In 2007, two incumbents, District 2's Sarah Henderson and District 4's Chuck Swore, were defeated by Monica Vernon and Chuck Wieneke. At-large council member Tom Podzimek won reelection in 2007.