Iowa City candidate lineup lacks diversity of current council

IOWA CITY - The 10 people running for City Council in Iowa City are diverse in their opinions but not in their backgrounds - nearly all of them are white and most are men.

That is particularly striking when considering the three members who will leave the council later this year. Ross Wilburn, a black man, Regenia Bailey, a woman, and Mike Wright, who is gay, all chose not to seek re-election.

All three said they were disappointed in the lack of diversity among the candidates.

“I've been a little bit concerned that women haven't been stepping forward,” Bailey said. “And not for the sake of a woman running to have a woman on council, but a woman who's interested in leadership that way.”

The 10 candidates in this fall's City Council election, vying for fours open seats, are eight white men, a man whose parents were born in India and one woman. None of the candidates who responded to an inquiry identified themselves as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, or LGBT.

Of the three council members whose terms are not up, two are women, one is a man and all are heterosexual and white.

In large part because of the presence of the University of Iowa, Iowa City has a reputation as being a liberal and diverse community, and in recent years the City Council has reflected that.

The 2010 Census found Iowa City is more racially diverse than the state as a whole. Iowa City had the highest rate of same-sex couples in the state, according to published reports. Iowa City also has slightly more women than men.

There's a lot of research on the effect of having racially diverse legislative bodies, and the data shows it has the biggest impact at the local level, like city councils and school boards, said Rene Rocha, a University of Iowa political science professor who studies race and politics. Elected bodies with minorities on them produce policies and have jurisdictions with greater levels of racial equity, he said.

Some researchers argue that having just one minority on a board can make a big difference for minority interests, he said. Even if the other members are sympathetic to those issues, people from marginalized groups think of inequality more often and see it in a different way.

“And not having those people may make the body less concerned with inequality, and not purposefully,” Rocha said.

Wilburn said it's possible just his presence on council could have influenced some debates, like one in 2001 when the council required the Police Department to examine traffic enforcement to ensure racial profile wasn't occurring.

He said diversity of all types, not just race, benefits the council because it brings a range of experiences and opinions.

“We may come to the same agreement but come at it in different ways. That's diversity,” he said.

Wilburn was Iowa City's first black mayor and has said he believes that led more minorities and young people to take an interest in city government.

He said he has spent the past couple of years trying to talk people of color into running for council, but with no luck. Wright has done the same in the LGBT community.

Wright said that while not many LGBT-specific issues come before the council, the LGBT community plays an important role in Iowa City.

“A different perspective is a different perspective,” he said. “That's what I think you lose when you have such a homogeneous group running for council.”

Bailey said this can show up in something as seemingly simple as a city parking ramps. Iowa City has built a couple in recent years and has another planned, and she said she, as a woman, has safety concerns in ramps that a man may not.

Bailey, who served a term as Iowa City's mayor, cares deeply about the issue of women in leadership roles, and she said society in general still holds certain gender-role expectations and has mixed feelings about strong women.

A database kept by the Iowa League of Cities shows that there are 3,575 male city council members in the state and 1,189 female.

Of 947 mayors, only 128 are women.

Candidates and current council members say they are committed to representing all residents of Iowa City.

At-large candidate Josh Eklow described himself as an “ally” of the gay community. At a forum, District C candidate Jim Throgmorton said he believes black people are treated differently than white people in Iowa City and that should be addressed. Mayor Matt Hayek, who is seeking re-election, speaks Spanish and spent time in the Peace Corps in Bolivia.

Council member Susan Mims, who is not up for re-election, is married to and has children with a black man. She said having people from different backgrounds on the council is important because their experiences color the lenses of how they see things.

“You can be sympathetic. You can be empathetic. But you can't see it entirely the same way because you haven't lived it,” she said.