Marion mayor Nick AbouAssaly chosen as mayor of the year

Marion Mayor Nick AbouAssaly was named the Iowa mayor of the year Wednesday among cities with a population of more than 2,000, according to a news release from the city of Marion.

The award was presented by the Iowa Mayors Association at a business meeting Wednesday, held during the Iowa of League of Cities Annual Conference & Exhibit in Cedar Rapids.

This is the first year the mayor of the year award has been given out. It was awarded in two categories — cities with a population under 2,000 and cities with a population over 2,000. Mayor Allen Hadfield of Treynor won in the Under 2,000 category.

The award “was created to recognize individuals who have provided extraordinary public service to their community, the League, the Iowa Mayors Association and local government,” the release states.

AbouAssaly was first elected as mayor of Marion in 2015 after serving on the city council for more than two years. He was reelected in 2019, and his current term will expire at the end of this year. His salary as mayor for fiscal 2023 is $11,335.

Before serving on the city council, AbouAssaly served the Marion community in various other positions, including on the Planning and Zoning Commission and on the Uptown Marion-Iowa Main Street Community board of directors, according to his bio on the city website.

He has lived in Marion since he was 8 years old, when he immigrated with his family from Lebanon due to civil war. He previously told The Gazette that he is excited by how the city has grown in the past several years from being merely a suburb of Cedar Rapids to becoming its own community and a known part of the region.

AbouAssaly was mayor during the 2020 derecho and the COVID-19 pandemic and formed a disaster recovery team and a COVID-19 community recovery task force in response to each of those events.

“He is an advocate for progress while honoring the community’s history, and he challenges his colleagues to think bigger and go the extra mile,” the news release states.

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