Cedar Rapids flood director now reports directly to City Council

CEDAR RAPIDS - Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, wakes up today as an employee of the City Council and not of City Manager Jim Prosser.

On a 7-2 vote, the council decided to have Eyerly report directly to it - a move that last year's council, which had three different members, refused to do. The previous council decided it had a city manager as its chief and didn't need another top manager reporting to the council.

Member Kris Gulick asked “why” to those on the council in favor of moving Eyerly's position, and Mayor Ron Corbett said the move was not a “power grab” on his part. He thought Eyerly could pick up the pace of flood recovery and let Prosser focus on running the city government and creating jobs in the city.

Gulick and Tom Podzimek voted “no.”