Q&A with Cedar Rapids City Council candidate Scott Overland

Scott Overland is running for the District 2 seat on the Cedar Rapids City Council. He is an incumbent. Here are his answers to a survey we sent to all of the candidates.

Occupation & Employer: VP investments Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust

Why are you seeking a seat on city council?

The city has made significant progress in recent years towards council goals such as construction and financing the flood control system, keeping our city safe through investments in police and fire as well workforce development in assisting local companies expand and bringing new companies to Cedar Rapids. In addition huge progress has been made in repairing our streets through Paving for Progress with the emphasis now on neighborhood streets. In running for re-election I intend to continue the progress in these areas.

What are the three largest issues facing the community and what will you do to address them?

Several ongoing challenges for the city is to maintain and accelerate funding support for affordable/workforce housing including the unhoused, maintaining funding/buying power for infrastructure projects and streets with rising costs of materials and labor, and providing investment in our older core neighborhoods.

The city must continue to both prioritize and be creative to get the most value out of each dollar spent on projects and look for funding from non local taxpayer sources where possible. More housing requires city support for affordable housing in the form of new projects but significant time, attention and funding in our city core to maximize utilization of quality housing on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis.

What do you see as the greatest affordable housing needs, and how could the city facilitate more affordable housing options for homeowners and renters?

Certainly the Neighborhood Finance Corporation, NFC established in 2019 has capacity to help homeowners in the city core to remodel and improve their home with city incentives. In addition the city should look at how to best help the existing older supply of affordable rental units by looking for ways to help landlords improve their property to make it more cost effective for lower income renters to rent a quality place to live that has been updated with energy efficiency in mind, especially air conditioning in all units.

As homelessness increases in Linn County, what solutions would you plan to explore to expand or streamline services and housing access for those experiencing homelessness?

As our homeless population has expanded, we have many services available to them. One is a transitional housing program to give homeless and near homeless time to find a sustainable future and job opportunities. The city, county and agencies are working to create permanent housing options versus overnight shelters. We have landlords and non-profits willing to offer housing with long term government rental funding to those who are willing to move from the streets to a permanent space of their own. Even with our increasing numbers, a program like this will dramatically help many of those who are homeless.

What do you see as priorities when it comes to the city's economic development? In what areas do you think the city has growth potential? What's most at risk and what would you do about it?

The city has an aggressive and growing talented economic development team in the city manager’s office. By teaming with other agencies like the Economic Alliance, we can continue to grow our community in a variety of diverse sectors. An even bigger issue is filling the many job openings, due to our growing industrial/business sectors and retiring baby boomers. Cedar Rapids is ranked as a top 15 fastest growing midsize cities in American. To continue that trend, we need to create and attract additional workforce.

As local partners work to finalize the updated Downtown Vision Plan, what would you say are the greatest needs to revitalize Cedar Rapids' downtown? How would you propose taking action?

The downtown, after the pandemic, does require a much needed update to the Vision Plan. It is likely that less people will work downtown and more people will live there. With over 1,000 apartment units coming on line through renovations and new construction in the next 2 years in our downtown core, evening and weekend amenities will be developed as evidenced by the First on First development. In my opinion, older areas of the core need improved maintenance so that people working, living and visiting downtown have a positive experience.

The city needs to provide resources to maintain public infrastructure teamed with the SMIDD and downtown property owners to maintain our services and amenities. To be a successful city, we need to have a quality, vibrant downtown core.

Since passing its community climate action plan, which calls for net zero carbon emissions by 2050, Cedar Rapids has taken steps to implement the plan such as creating community gardens. Are there other things you'd like to see the city do to address climate change?

The city was one of the first in the state to have a climate/sustainability staff member. His effort in 2021 to develop the city’s first Community Climate Action Plan is making a difference to city efforts to address climate change. The city is pursuing solar on public buildings, creating more energy efficient buildings, planting trees and making all of city equipment more energy efficient. I believe we are a powerful example to the state and nation.

City Manager Jeff Pomeranz is 65, and has not indicated any plans to retire yet. It seems possible the council members elected this year would be involved in appointing his successor sometime during their term. How would you approach the task of selecting the person who runs day-to-day operations of the city and implements the policy you set on council? What traits are most important to you in the next city manager?

As we have with any city department directors and their key staff, we set the expectation high and search the state, region and nation to attract top talent. That will be a tested city process through a selected recruiting firm to bring us the best and brightest candidates. The next city manager will need to show creativity, experience, management talents for a city with diverse business base and the ability to manage a team while building employee skills. Our successes in Cedar Rapids under Jeff will make this future job opening very attractive to national city manager talent.

Recent state legislation has challenged local governments' budgets. If you had to cut the city's budget or reduce proposed spending, what areas would you look to for savings and why?

The new state legislation will be limiting future city budgets throughout Iowa. To meet the demand for services needed in a growing city, it will require cost saving measures in all facets of city government. We have the right team in place to bring creative ways to address reduced funding without jeopardizing the quality of services our citizens expect. It will create hard decisions for the city council and staff but we have shown - through floods, a derecho and a pandemic - that we are up to the task.

What options do you think the city could pursue to fill gaps in the transportation network (buses, bikeways/trails, streets), especially to support low-income households, those without easy access to a vehicle, and/or people with mobility issues?

We have long adopted the Complete Streets program that emphasizes a creative and complete network of sidewalks and bus access that services all our citizens. The city is providing a strong transit system that is constantly adjusting routes and timing to serve those needing transportation in cooperation with Linn County’s LIFTS program. All of our buses are designed to serve those with mobility issues. Working with Linn County Trail Association and others, we are continuing to expand access to bikeways and trails for all our citizens to enjoy while planning for future connections to make it even better.

The Corridor MPO is funding the cost of a scanning unit that will allow us to measure trail conditions annually so we keep the ever expanding system well maintained and safe.