Wasson, 23, seeks Cedar Rapids council seat

Twenty-three-year-old Justin Wasson, armed with a bachelor's degree in finance from Iowa State University and a black belt in tae kwon do, is running for the at-large City Council seat on the November election ballot.

Wasson, a 2006 graduate of Kennedy High School and an ISU graduate in December 2010, currently is vice president of operations at a small pressure-washing and cleaning company, once owned by his dad, which requires him to do some of the cleaning despite the business title.

Wasson is seeking a City Council seat first and foremost because he thinks City Hall is little different from the federal government in one way - It spends too much, he says. He favors a smaller, more efficient government, he says.

His focus on spending cuts, he says, stops short of membership in the Tea Party, though he says he's attended meetings of the local Tea Party and "appreciates" its focus on cutting spending.

"The council seems to feel it has a blank check and they can buy what they want with it," says Wasson.

He also says the current council's priorities are misaligned.

"We keep hearing about (the need) for a flood wall, and we don't have money for a flood wall. But we have money to pay for a new convention center and hotel. So the real question is where are our priorities?" he says.

Police, fire and streets should be a priority, not the convention center and hotel, he says. He says he will fight to contain and lower taxes and he says he will search for "better and less expensive" flood prevention for the city than the flood-protection system proposed by City Hall. He also wants the city to be more transparent with its budget.

"I think there needs to be a simplified version of the budget that has specific lines, such as how much the convention center is costing, how much the hotel is costing, how much we're spending on roads," he say. "It just needs to be simpler to understand, simpler to read, so more people can react to it. The more transparency you have in government, the more accountability you'll have also."

Wasson says he's asked himself if he hates government when he sees money taken from his paycheck for taxes.

"If I'm going to be running as a politician, can I hate government at the same time? And I realized that I do not hate government," he says.

He says government plays an important role in society, though it has "overstepped" the role. Government should promote liberty, build infrastructure and promote the well-being of this country, he says.

At 23, Wasson says he isn't uncomfortable speaking in front of groups, a fact he attributes to his years of teaching tae kwon do to small and large classes of students. He holds a third-degree black belt.

He is currently buying a home with a friend at 1621 Washington Ave. SE, with a goal of paying off the mortgage yet this year. As a student at ISU, he worked delivering Jimmy John's sandwiches throughout the school year, including the winter, on a bicycle, he reports.

Ann Poe, 58, of 2560 Country Club Parkway SE, and Carl Cortez, 66, of 4118 Paradise Ct. NW, previously announced that they will seek the at-large council seat held by Tom Podzimek, who is not seeking re-election. He's in his sixth year in office.