Cedar Rapids’ Corbett says community focus on flood recovery not as certain as it had been

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mayor Ron Corbett says he thought the honeymoon period for him, now 14 months into office in the midst of a recovery from a historic flood, would have lasted longer.

But the honeymoon is over, Corbett told a crowd of more than 500 at the annual State of the City Address on Wednesday as he said the most surprising part of his time at City Hall has been the difficulty in keeping a coalition of people together to work on the city's ongoing flood recovery.

“People move on with their lives with other issues,” Corbett said during a question-and-answer session after his 40-minute address. “ … But I thought we'd have a little more - in politics, they call it a honeymoon - a little more of that community esprit de corps. It's started to get a little disjointed. And that's surprised me.”

The 50-year-old Corbett spent much of his address at the annual event, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Cedar Rapids/Marion, working to make the case that the city needed join together more than ever now and extend its 1-percent local-option sales tax for 20 years to help build a flood-protection system to protect both sides of the city from the Cedar River. Residents vote May 3 on the tax extension.

In the luncheon address, titled “Are we our Brother's Keeper?,” Corbett explained how he, the City Council and City Hall's professional staff had gone around and around trying to sort out how to come up with funds to protect the city against future disastrous flooding.

He took the audience through a series of questions: Do we protect? Do we protect both sides of the city? How do we get local matching funds for the Army Corps of Engineers' plan for the city, which proposes only to protect most of the east side of the city? And beyond that, how does the city find money to build the more comprehensive system to protect both sides of the river?

In the end, Corbett said he leaned on thoughts from The Book of Genesis and Mother Teresa and decided that the central question was a “moral” one: Are residents willing to contribute to a flood-protection system that protects residents and businesses on both sides of the river even if individuals didn't need the protection themselves?

The mayor said he has concluded, “I am my brother's keeper.”

“I believe with all my heart and all my mind that we need to protect our community - both sides - and give the business community confidence to invest and create jobs,” Corbett said. “The question is, ‘Do you and does the community believe we are our brother's keeper?'”

Corbett said the city had limited options to raise revenue, and he said the 1-percent local-option sales tax was a better way to raise the money than raising property taxes.

The mayor also sprinkled his address with references to Ronald Reagan, Jerry Brown, the ‘70s and ‘80s rock band Queen and Michael Jackson.

A dozen times the audience laughed on cue as Corbett worked his way through the speech, which began by chronicling what the city's flood recovery had accomplished to date and by reminding people how much they trust city government to deliver on the basics of everyday like. Among the crowd's biggest applauses came for eight veteran city snowplow drivers that Corbett had positioned at one of the luncheon tables.

Corbett quoted President Reagan as saying, “Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”

Much of what city government does, he said, is just the basics of protecting people and, as a result, he said it falls to city government to make sure the city is protected from future flooding.

Corbett turned to City Manager Jeff Pomeranz for a quote to drive home another part of his message about the tax-extension referendum on May 3 - that Cedar Rapids residents needed to do more than participate, they needed to take the lead to finance a flood-protection system even as the city works to secure federal and state funding to help out.

“Our city manager is always telling me, ‘Nobody ever washes a rented car. It's about ownership,'” the mayor said.

“On May 3, the community will have a chance to take ownership in the future of Cedar Rapids,” Corbett said.

With the third anniversary of the 2008 flood coming in June, Corbett said the city was “turning the corner and coming to the straight away” in its flood recovery. He noted that the some 3,000 flood-damaged homes have been renovated and some 200 new ones would be built in the city's flood-damaged neighborhoods. At the same time, the city has bought out nearly 800 flood-damaged homes with another 400 or 500 to go, has demolished 800 flood-wrecked ones and is preparing to buy out 115 flood-damaged businesses, he said.

He said that the city will be breaking ground this year on a new library, Central Fire Station, riverfront amphitheater and Convention Complex while renovation takes place at the U.S. Cellular Center, the Paramount Theatre, the Five Seasons Hotel, the Veterans Memorial Building and the former federal courthouse, the new home to City Hall.

In addition, the mayor noted that Physicians' Clinic of Iowa will begin work on its new medical building at 10th Street SE, Mercy Medical Center will do the same on its new cancer center and renovations were taking place at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library and Legion Arts' CSPS venue. He said Theatre Cedar Rapids is renovated and open and the city has a new Human Services building downtown. He said Rockwell Collins is moving 400 jobs into the downtown and a handful of other businesses are adding jobs as is Rockwell Collins. More good news is to come, he said.

“There are seven to 10 other major companies that will be announcing expansions later this year,” he said.

Corbett quoted Gov. Jerry Brown of California, who has said it can be good for elected officials to “get out of their comfort zone.” Corbett said he is a little uncomfortable with his and the City Council's decision to buy the Five Seasons Hotel from its creditors as a way to make sure it gets renovated.

“We are not being reckless,” he added. “None of us wants to put the city in financial ruin.

“ … When it is all said and done, you will walk into the newly remodeled Paramount, the convention center, the library, the year-round market, the fire station, the hotel, the amphitheater and City Hall and you will be proud of each of these community accomplishments.

“ … To suffer the largest disaster in the state of Iowa's history and to come back is something to be proud about.”

In answer to questions:

Corbett said he thought the city likely could forget about state funding and perhaps federal funding for a flood-protection system if the city's May 3 sales-tax referendum went down to defeat.

He said he would like to see the annual RAGBRAI bike ride across Iowa make a stop in Cedar Rapids, and he suggested 2013, the five-year anniversary of the 2008 flood, might be a good time.

He said he hoped to offer Gov. Terry Branstad a “compromise” in their dispute over the city's uses of a project labor agreement on its Convention Complex project.

He got a good laugh when he said the City Council was like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid because they've been “holed up” at Hiawatha's City Hall to conduct meetings. The council returns downtown on April 26 to a new council chambers in what will become the city's new City Hall, the former federal courthouse.

He said he was not a fan of a so-called “strong-mayor” form of government with a full-time mayor. Most communities have the form of government that Cedar Rapids has had in place since 2006, a council-manager form with a part-time mayor. There's ample opportunity for mayoral leadership without a strong-mayor government, he said.