Public safety top concern for Iowa City council candidates

Public safety concerns and financial questions took center stage at an Iowa City Council candidates forum Monday.

Violence, particularly on the southeast side of town, has received a lot of attention of late. Also, the city has been making cuts to its budget as it struggles through the recession.

The six candidates in the Nov. 3 election agreed public safety would be their top budget priority if they are elected.

“That's the No. 1 responsibility of local government,” said Susan Mims, 52, a financial planner with Heartland Investment Associates.

Joining Mims in the race for two open at-large seats are Terry Dickens, Jeff Shipley and Dan Tallon.

Also participating Monday were three-term incumbent Connie Champion and Mark McCallum, who is challenging Champion for the District B seat, which covers much of eastern Iowa City.

About 20 people attended the afternoon forum, which was sponsored by Heritage Johnson County Task Force on Aging.

Shipley, 21, a University of Iowa student and the UI Student Government's liaison to the council, called for more neighborhood patrols on the southeast side and criticized the current council.

“It's very obvious that they have been dropping the ball,” he said.

Several of the candidates said part of the problem was the clustering of low-income housing in the neighborhood.

“We've got to spread that out,” said Dickens, 54, co-owner of Herteen & Stocker Jewelers.

“We simply cannot put any more low-income housing in that neighborhood,” said Champion, 69, co-owner of Catherine's clothing store. “It's a beautiful neighborhood and it's being destroyed.”

How to pay for more police and fire personnel is a problem that has vexed the city for years. The current council is

expected to approve

later this year a franchise fee on natural gas and electric customers,

with most of the money going toward hiring more police officers and firefighters.

Only Tallon and Shipley expressly spoke against the fee.

McCallum, 49, a real estate agent who also works on historic preservation projects, said the council needs to look at the city's budget and make across-the-board cuts to all departments except fire and police.

“We have to fund the needs, and we have to look very critically at the wants,” he said.

Tallon, 20, a UI student and a member of the Iowa Army National Guard, said the city needs to become more business friendly to spur economic development.

“The best thing that we can do for economic development is to not increase the tax” rate,

he said.