Corbett recalls Mount Pleasant mayor’s murder

CEDAR RAPIDS - Many local elected officials in Iowa over age 50 remember the irate homeowner angry over a sewer backup who shot and killed Mount Pleasant Mayor Edd King and wounded two council members in 1986 at a City Council meeting.

In the wake of Tuesday's violence at a Jackson County Board of Supervisors meeting in Maquoketa, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said the Cedar Rapids City Council periodically reviews the security protocol for council meetings and for the broader operation of City Hall and the city's other public buildings.

In the past, Corbett said council members have discussed installing metal detectors at City Hall, but then dismissed the idea, concluding that other security measures in the building and at council meetings are working without detectors.

'Council members have tried to balance public access to the building and safety for council members, employees and the general public,” the mayor, 53, said. 'Council meetings can have a variety of people, civic groups, students, Boy Scouts. So it isn't just about council members. It's everyone.”

At every Cedar Rapids City Council meeting today, the police chief or another top commander is present as is a second uniformed commander or officer who stands at the side of the council dais in front of the audience.

Often, too, a plainclothes officer is in the audience, Corbett said.

The mayor said council members periodically participate in drills so they know what to do in the event of a threat of violence. The council, which sits behind a formidable dais, also has a 'safe room” to retreat to as well, he said.

Corbett said he understood that some council members in years past may have carried a concealed handgun to meetings. But he said he doesn't own a gun, and he said Police Chief Wayne Jerman has recommended that council members not carry guns at meetings.

'That's why we have law enforcement to handle those situations,” the mayor said.

Corbett said he has been 'a little concerned” in the past at City Council meetings when a person has yelled at him or council members or made threats against him or them.

'I've had to throw people out of the council chamber, but not very often,” he said. 'But I prefer not to get to that level.”

'I suppose one of the hazards of being an elected official is you run into constituents sometimes who are very angry,” Corbett continued. 'I've tried to learn over the years how to diffuse issues so they don't escalate to the point where someone feels they should use violence.”

Ralph Davis, the 1986 murderer of Mount Pleasant Mayor Edd King, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died there in 1999 at age 81.