Iowa City Council District B race begins to take shape

IOWA CITY — The Iowa City Council races are beginning to take shape a few months out from the November city elections.

Voters will elect three council members in November: two at-large seats and a representative of District B, which includes the east side of Iowa City. Each seat is for a four-year term that expires in 2030.

In District B, incumbent Shawn Harmsen plans to run for re-election against challenger Amy Hospodarsky, the director of Crowded Closet, a nonprofit thrift store in Iowa City.

Council member Megan Alter and Mayor Bruce Teague, who hold the two at-large seats, are planning to run for re-election.

In Iowa City, the mayor is elected by council members every two years, when a new council meets at the beginning of the calendar year. As of now, no challengers have publicly announced a campaign.

Iowa City residents who intend to run for office cannot file paperwork with the Johnson County Auditor’s Office until Aug. 11. The last day for candidates to file is Aug. 28.

If three or more people file to run for the District B seat, a primary must be held. Only residents of District B would be able to vote in the primary.

A primary is required for the at-large seats if five or more candidates file to run. In that case, all Iowa City voters would be able to vote in the primary.

If necessary, the primary election will be held Oct. 7.

In the November election, all Iowa City voters can vote for both the District B and at-large seats.

Amy Hospodarsky

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Hospodarsky has lived in Iowa City since 2009 with the majority of that time in District B. Throughout that time Hospodarsky said she’s stayed engaged with local politics and held a variety of professional roles that allowed her to interact with different members of the community.

Now, with the District B seat up for election and Hospodarsky having the time required to serve on city council, she’s looking to run.

“In a lot of ways, it just seems like a logical next step in my community service. You know, of being able to kind of lend my talents and insight and experience in a new way … so much of my perspective of Iowa City is really shaped by where I live and where I have lived, so district representation feels right to me, and the timing just feels right,” said Hospodarsky.

If elected to council, Hospodarsky would hope to continue the city effort’s to address affordable housing and explore other community safety options, but take more expedited action. She said Iowa City should work with local municipalities help to lead the charge to explore having mental health professionals dispatched from 911 across the county.

“I think there's a pretty big portion of those calls that could probably be answered by social workers and mental health professionals and have better outcomes and less need for additional police officers. It takes the burden off the already existing emergency responders. But that's going to have to likely, in some way, shape or form, be a county initiative,” she said.

Through her professional experience, Hospodarsky said she has the skills to work with other council members and city staff to make thoughtful decisions for the city.

“I understand what governance is, I also understand how to take direction from gov, from oversight, and turn it into action as a director … I think could be really useful with my other councilors, because I think they all have great thoughts and care a lot but how do we pull all those together and actually go forward,” said Hospodarsky.

Shawn Harmsen

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Harmsen, who was elected to his first term on Iowa City Council in 2021, is running for re-election. If reelected, Harmsen said he’d like to continue to work toward expanding affordable housing and ensuring Iowa City is a desirable community to live in.

“After being on the council and thinking about it and loving this community and feeling like I still have something to offer, I felt like the right thing to do was to keep working and keep trying to represent the community where I live the best that I can, and hopefully having the best outcome.”

From his first term, Harmsen said he’s most proud of the city’s fare free transit initiative. The city began a two-year pilot program, where the bus was free, funded through pandemic relief funds. Throughout the pilot program, ridership increased and the city received positive feedback from residents. The city council has since voted to make fare free transit permanent through an increase in franchise fees and parking rates.

“I'm most proud of that, not only because of the wonderful thing it's provided for our community, and it has, but also because of the way that we did it, where everybody really pulled together to make it happen … that's kind of one of those things that not only is it a good outcome, but it was a good process. To me, it was sort of a good example of what happens when everything works like it's supposed to work,” said Harmsen.

Throughout his first term, Harmsen said he’s taken it upon himself to learn as much about the city as he can through meeting with city staff and talking to residents.

“I want to keep serving this community, because there are so many good people that live here, people I don't even agree with all the time … I think we have to be able to make the distinction between disagreeing with our friends and fighting with our enemies, and making sure we're clear on the line of who's our friends that we just disagree with and who are enemies that are really trying to hurt us. That is what I bring to the table, and that desire to do that,” said Harmsen.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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