Swisher’s new mayor wants to connect with residents about the issues important to them

SWISHER — Swisher elected a new mayor in November, ending a revolving door of partial term mayors and mayoral vacancies that began in 2023 after longtime mayor Chris Taylor opted not to run for re-election.

Daryl “Dusty” Brown won the Swisher mayoral seat with more than 82 percent of votes through a write-in campaign in the Nov. 4 election. Brown, a 42-year-old father and national account sales manager for Georgia-Pacific, has lived in Swisher with his family since 2021.

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Swisher, with a population of about 900 residents, pays its mayor $1,800 per year, plus $40 for every city council meeting they attend.

The Gazette sat down with Brown to talk about how he plans to serve Swisher in the mayoral role.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: Why did you decide to run for mayor?

A: I guess two to three things. One was just the appetite to apply my skill set and comparative advantage to help benefit the community. It's a great community full of a lot of really good people and I like to say that a community is a group of people who agree to grow together. I want to be part of that, and then I felt like my experience could deliver some value to the town and to the people.

My wife and I talked to several friends, and made a decision to start talking to people about running. I wouldn't call it a political thing, but more so motivation to work to make an impact and do that through a public service office. Then being able to kind of wrap all that together as Swisher and the community and the people look to grow, because Eastern Iowa is continuing to grow. We see all the development around town, in town and just how do we work together to build upon the community vision we have, and then, generate the growth that makes the most sense for people and for the next five to 10 years.

So those are kind of the three things that drove me to doing it. And then for transparency, I also understood that there wasn't anybody on the ticket and running for mayor. I had planned to do it anyways, but it was just stepping up and being able to give back to the community.

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Q: You won the office through a write-in campaign, what was that process like?

A: It's a good question. I don't want to say chance, but I think word-of-mouth. My intention was to be on the ballot, and with my work, I wanted to ensure that there wasn't any conflicts serving in a public office, and that delayed it a little bit. I had the 10 signatures ready, and just with the timing of kind of those things, I wasn't able to get in at the right time to get my name on the ballot. From that point it was a write-in campaign and a word-of-mouth campaign moving forward.

Q: Swisher has had a difficult time finding and keeping a mayor these past few years, do you intend on serving the full term?

A: One hundred percent, my intention is to serve this term, and if the community and the people believe I'm doing a good job, then my intention would be to continue to serve in the role as long as I'm providing value to the council, to the community, and to the team here at the city.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish in the role?

A: My principles that I look to apply to this role, are serving the people, driving intentional progress right within the community, within the town, common sense leadership and getting things done. That's the mindset that I look to apply as I get deeper into the role The business world and the public service world is a little bit different but there's a lot of crossover too.

I really want to have fun with it and enjoy it. I would love to get to a point where we continue to have more and more attendance at our council meetings. There's issues that are important to the community and I would love to have them speak to me, speak to the council, as those come up and be a part of the process. And also building upon the Swisher city plan and vision, any good plan or strategy is fluid. In my opinion things change, so we have to adapt and evolve. I would like to work with the city team, the community and the council to get that out into the public again.

Then I just want to collaborate with the City Council, I don't have any budgetary authorities on choosing what we spend where, but I want to be a good partner, and on behalf of the people, the team at the city, on how we manage our budget, and how we work to invest in the future. As we think about some of the big projects and big opportunities, we've got the ever kind of perpetuating question around municipal water and water quality is one of the number one issues in Iowa. So just asking how are we making life better for our people?

Q: Are they any specific challenges you expect to run into?

A: Thinking about the community as a group of people, it's a diverse set of ideals, of standards, of principles, of opinions, of what each individual wants Swisher to be. I think the challenge that I foresee is earning the trust of the community in this role and then working through solving problems and solving challenges to the best of what the collective aggregate interest is. In any community, in any town, any group of people you're going to have a lot of different mentalities, mindsets, ways of going about things. I want to listen to learn and I want to listen to understand. I want to apply empathy. And then, how do we take that, learn from it, address the concern and work to continue to improve things for the town. It's navigating group dynamics and public dynamics.

What I've really set my focus on for the first three months is learning the code, learning the ordinances, working with our amazing team. Everybody's been super helpful and super proactive in reaching out and seeing, what can we do, how can we help, and just making sure that I'm understanding and building that knowledge as I step into the role. And then how do we best navigate on behalf of the community, make good decisions for the town on the growth that's happening around us. I don't feel that as a challenge, I think it's definitely an opportunity, but I think there is going to be a lot of work around that piece.

Q: Is there anything else you want Swisher residents to know about you?

A: While I take the role seriously, my approach is that we have fun in whatever we do. Not fun in a dismissive way. I'd like people to know that one of my goals in the first three to six months is getting connected to the people. What do they want to see? How can we best communicate? Is it coffee at Kava House? Is it having one on one sessions? Is it connecting through social media? I think just more than anything I want to be accessible and be present, to be able to learn from the all the different folks in the town. I’m a very big proponent of mindfulness and living with intention and doing that. My family and I are super fortunate to live in the community and have built some really good friendships, and this is a place we plan to call home for the foreseeable future.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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