Dobyns to make another run at Iowa City Council

IOWA CITY – Rick Dobyns is taking another shot at this whole Iowa City election thing.

The clinical professor of family medicine at the University of Iowa has announced his candidacy for this fall's City Council race.

In 2005, he lost a bid for an at-large seat on the council by just 194 votes. In 2007, he led the petition drive that resulted in a public vote on whether to ban people younger than 21 from bars at night. Voters defeated the proposal handily.

He was new to campaigning in 2005 and said the experience will serve him well this time around.

“I was a pure neophyte” in 2005, he said. “Now I'm just a relative neophyte.”

Dobyns, 55, of 950 Calvin Ave., will seek the District A seat being vacated by Ross Wilburn, who is not running for re-election. The district covers western Iowa City and portions of the south side.

Four seats on the council are up for election. Matt Hayek is the only incumbent running, meaning there will be at least three new people on the seven-person council. Dobyns is the first newcomer to declare.

He said the 21-only law, which the City Council passed last spring and voters upheld in the fall, is no longer an issue and has nothing to do with his candidacy. Some of its aftereffects may, however.

Dobyns said the most important issues to him are the development of downtown and the area to the south called the Riverfront Crossings district. City officials see an opportunity post-21-only for downtown to leave behind its reputation as a bar district. And the city has been planning for a major redevelopment of Riverfront Crossings.

Dobyns said he'd like to see more businesses, parks and other projects in the two areas.

“It's kind of already getting started,” he said of the planning efforts, “but the new council … is going to start engaging with the community on that very subject.”