Here’s where Cedar Rapids City Council District 3 candidates stand on issues

CEDAR RAPIDS — While five of the nine Cedar Rapids City Council seats are on the Nov. 2 ballot, races for mayor and District 3 are the only contested ones.

District 3 encompasses much of southeast Cedar Rapids, including downtown and NewBo, plus parts of the southwest quadrant including Kingston Village and Czech Village.

Council member Dale Todd — regional director for development for Hatch Development Group, which creates mixed-income affordable housing throughout Iowa — faces Tamara Marcus, sustainability manager for Linn County government.

Throughout a four-year council term — a part-time role that pays $19,420.70 a year — Marcus told The Gazette’s editorial board she would look at how to create better avenues to hear people and their needs, and also to address the barriers they face from getting their needs met.

“People deserve to understand how decisions are being made,” Marcus said. “I think that especially for people who are disproportionately impacted by those decisions, we need clarity about the process of how that decision was made and to ideally provide ways for those who are disproportionately impacted by those decisions of the council to be part of that process.”

Marcus is co-founder and president of the Advocates for Social Justice, which successfully pushed the city to create a citizens’ police review board after George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police in May 2020.

Todd, once the commissioner of parks and public property under the city’s previous form of government, told the editorial board he is a connector who links residents throughout his district and beyond to services they need.

He has championed the revitalization of Cedar Lake and helping bring the long-held citizen dream to life through the grassroots ConnectCR effort. The $20 million project recently broke ground to transform the urban lake and build a pedestrian-bike bridge across the Cedar River south of downtown.

“I think I'm the perfect person to make those connections, and to put plans and programs in place that lift us all up at the same time,” Todd said.

Candidates’ platforms

A climate scientist and Ph.D. candidate in environmental studies at the University of New Hampshire, climate action is key to Marcus’ vision, which focuses on:

• Disaster recovery: COVID-19 and derecho resiliency planning

• Jobs: Green jobs and training opportunities, prioritizing those most impacted by COVID-19 and the derecho

• Community-driven reform: Citizen-led climate action planning, prioritizing voices of color

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Currently chair of the council’s Public Safety and Youth Services committee, Todd’s primary issues are:

• Public safety: Common-sense law enforcement to prevent violent crimes and gun violence, as well as improved transparency and communication between law enforcement and the community

• Youth engagement: Jobs, recreation and after-school programs to provide opportunities for youth

• Stabilized neighborhoods: Neighborhood-improvement campaigns to address nuisance properties and negligent landlords

• Urban development: Efforts to fill the community with quality trails, parks and other recreation opportunities

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Derecho response

Marcus said the nonprofit Advocates for Social Justice became a point of distribution in the aftermath of the 2020 derecho — to help with wellness checks, food deliveries and transportation. Having that on-the-ground engagement informed her approach to disaster response.

Marcus told the editorial board she envisions nonprofits being a key part of the infrastructure needed to effectively respond to a disaster and said those organizations need to be empowered so they are ready when needed.

“We need to spend that time developing that infrastructure — both the physical and the social — in the interim, so that when we need it, it's ready to go,” Marcus said.

Todd told the editorial board some nonprofits the city typically relies upon in an emergency had capacity while others did not. Within days, he said, the city had stood up several Neighborhood Resource Centers throughout town. He said no one had anticipated a storm with the force of a hurricane slamming the city and county, but Cedar Rapids got creative while communication barriers remained in the aftermath — for instance, the police chief drove around town to deliver to-do lists to council members.

Ultimately, Todd said entities involved in disaster response need to keep practicing and communicating, and additional infrastructure is needed to ensure that continues.

“It's my belief that it's the city's role to really drive these outcomes to make sure that when people say they can provide housing, or food or support, that that gets done,” Todd said.

Affordable housing

To address affordable housing needs, Marcus said she supports policies and incentives that encourage infill development and the use of accessory dwelling units — or secondary residential units on the same lot as a detached single-family home.

Additionally, Marcus supported policies that were in line with the city’s Community Climate Action Plan, including encouraging landlords to disclose the average utility bills to prospective tenants to encourage efficiency upgrades, as well as revolving loans for people to make those upgrades.

“These are really practical ways to encourage the kind of development that we really do need, and also save people money, and also move us closer to our climate goals,” Marcus said.

If elected again, Todd said he looks forward to pushing further conversation on affordable housing solutions using his expertise as a developer.

He pointed to Sixth Avenue Brickstone, a project in the works between his company and Foundation 2 that will provide 44 housing units, with 10 geared toward young adults who are aging out of the foster care system.

“Developers will do that, but what scares them away is the supportive services piece, the management piece,” Todd said. But not-for-profits such as Foundation 2 and Four Oaks can help make these developments happen.

He noted that “nobody's building affordable housing for poor folks, or folks who might have been in the criminal justice system or have barriers to access. Those are the folks that are falling through the cracks in not being able to get affordable housing.”

City-county communication

While Johnson County has regular joint meetings for officials of elected bodies throughout that county, Linn County does not have such gatherings.

Marcus said she envisioned a joint task force or commission being a “valuable structure” to work through details for issues such as funding for Cedar Rapids’ $750 million permanent Flood Control System.

“The more that we have these entities talking, communicating and distributing shared messaging, I think ultimately we get to avoid some of some other tense points that have arisen,” Marcus said.

Todd said he trusts city staff to work through collaborative processes with the county. But he said he tries to “stay out of the politics” and is willing to help people no matter who they are.

“If you want to bring Dr. Phil in, I'm fine,” Todd said of his position on joint entities meetings. “ … At the end of the day, we take care of people. We move projects. We don't have time to wallow in the politics of the moment.”

Learn more

Visit marcusforcr.com for more information about Marcus. For additional information about Todd, visit daletodd.com.

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com