Cedar Rapids councilman's news conference a significant marker

From my Sunday, June 13, 2010, column in The Gazette:

Cedar Rapids city government, it seems, has attained official news conference status.

That's the level politics produces in large cities, where strong personalities make pronouncements in formal settings, thereby giving that news prominence.

Municipal leaders in this neck of the woods haven't gone there much, unless protocol demands it – a mayor making an obviously big announcement on behalf of a city, for example.

But as last week drew to a close Cedar Rapids Councilman Chuck Wieneke had something to say about efforts led by Mayor Ron Corbett to lure Go Daddy's planned Hiawatha center to downtown Cedar Rapids' former MCI building. So he called a news conference for Friday morning, where he denounced Corbett's moves.

Wieneke could have made his views known at a City Council meeting. Or he could have pulled a reporter aside – Rick Smith, who covers for The Gazette, is the only reporter consistently at council meetings– and told his views for a story.

Instead, he used a news conference, a structture that can draw bigger attention to his comments from a perception standpoint if something interesing is said, which happened, and also to distinguish himself from Corbett.

That's real politics and perhaps an indication that Cedar Rapids is evolving into a world with this council-city manager form of government, in which individuals use formal approaches to persuade the public and create support for policy.

That's different than the old-fashioned way of calling people on the phone and telling them what you think or, as happens in smaller towns, seeing someone at the grocery store, a service club meeting, restaurant or school function for your kids and bending that person's ear.

 The Gazette would have had a story about Wieneke's comments regardless of whether he had held a news conference or just talked with us in a less formal setting. This is a good story because of its impact on Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha, the Corridor in general and the personalities and because of the policies at play at the City Council level. I'm sure we've not heard the last of it.

Former Cedar Rapids Mayor Paul Pate started his turn leading the City Council in 2002 with a rapid-fire series of news conferences. Pate, a former Iowa secretary of state, legislator and gubernatorial candidate, was accustomed to that world. The multiple news conferences seemed a bit much, though, for local government and their frequency thinned out over time.

For certain, other council members, elected commissioners then, were not holding news conferences to point out differences with Pate.

Cedar Rapids wasn't ready, yet, for that kind of approach to municipal government.

We'll see if it is now.