Two council members compete for same seat

CEDAR RAPIDS - In Tuesday's runoff in City Council District 3, voters will return a current council member to office for a new four-year term.

The reason: At-large council member Pat Shey is challenging Jerry McGrane, the current District 3 council member, for the seat.

McGrane said he takes no offense that Shey has taken him on. Even so, McGrane has done some jabbing at Shey via advertisements and fliers, which Shey said “completely distort” the facts.

The retired McGrane, 70, said Shey, 50, has missed too many meetings. Shey argues that running two businesses prevents him from always getting to extra meetings that the part-time council holds during the workday.

McGrane conceded that his campaign's questions about Shey's ethics “didn't come out exactly the way I wanted.” In that regard, Shey noted that he was the one who sought advice from the city's Board of Ethics on two different issues.

In the general election vote Nov. 3, Shey garnered 1,714 votes, or 43 percent, to McGrane's 1,505, or 38 percent. A third candidate, Kathy Potts, won 16 percent of the vote and has endorsed Shey.

District 3 is the only one of five council districts with precincts on both the east and west sides of the Cedar River.

McGrane achieved some attention during a decade as president of the Oakhill Jackson Neighborhood Association, and he used that platform four years ago to help win the District 3 council seat.

“We've got a whole city that needs a whole bunch of common sense work done,” said McGrane of 1105 Eighth Ave. SE. “And I think I'm a pretty good voice for that.”

McGrane and his wife, Judy, saw their home on Second Street SE wrecked by the June 2008 flood, and McGrane said the other flood victims in the city and the city's overall flood recovery still need his voice on the City Council.

McGrane said his passion is neighborhood housing and safety, and he wants to see the city re-energize its Enhance Our Neighborhoods initiative. He's also pushing a buy-local effort.

Shey, of 501 Knollwood Dr. SE, said he is running for the District 3 seat because the territory is familiar. He served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1999 through 2002, and much of District 3 is in his old legislative district, he noted.

Shey said the council has done much to lay the foundation for flood recovery. “I think the worse is behind us and the best in front of us,” he said.

He said the city will see billions of dollars of redevelopment, both public and private, in the years ahead, and he wants to be on the council to help shape the rebuilding of neighborhoods and downtown and the development of the riverfront as a key city “amenity.”

Shey also said he would continue to push for creation of a Neighborhood Finance Corp. similar to one in Des Moines, which he described as working like a non-profit bank to provide mortgages to neighborhoods that need investment. At the same time, the city would provide forgivable loans of up to $10,000 per property to help owners make improvements, which would increase property values in neighborhoods.

Shey is an attorney and owns a small construction firm and a green insulation company with council colleague Tom Podzimek. Shey and his wife, Nancy, have three school-age children.

Also on the Dec. 1 ballot is a runoff for an at-large council seat between Don Karr Jr., 64, the longtime owner of Affordable Plumbing and Remodeling, and Aaron Saylor, 28, an investment Realtor with Iowa Realty Commercial.