Eight compete for four Cedar Rapids council seats

CEDAR RAPIDS - Eight candidates will be on Cedar Rapids election ballots Nov. 3 as four of the nine City Council seats are up for a vote.

The ballots also will ask voters to approve or reject a levy of 27 cents per $1,000 of taxable valuation to help operate the city's two libraries.

Among the eight candidates who filed before Thursday's deadline, Scott Overland, vice president of investments at Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust Co. and chairman of the City Planning Commission, has all but been elected. He does not have an opponent in the east-side District 2 race where two-term incumbent Monica Vernon is running for Congress and not seeking re-election to the council.

Five candidates will be competing for two at-large council seats. They are one-term incumbents Ann Poe, 2560 Country Club Parkway SE, and Susie Weinacht, 1211 A'Hearn Dr. NE; Carletta Knox-Seymour, 1902 J St. SW, a member of the City Planning Commission and a former council candidate; former council member Wade Wagner, 136 Tomahawk Trail SE; and newcomer Bridgett Wood, 1602 Bever Ave. SE.

In the District 4 race on the city's west side, one-term incumbent Scott Olson, 6467 Quail Ridge Dr. SW, is being challenged by Lisa Kuzela, 341 Carter St. NW.

Kuzela is under a restraining order from Linn County District Court that directs her not to communicate with Assistant City Manager Sandi Fowler and to stay away from Fowler through Nov. 20, 2017. The order came at Fowler's request after Kuzela was accused of assaulting her in the lobby of City Hall on June 26, 2012, during the public open house as the city celebrated the renovation of the building.

Kuzela pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in 2012 in the episode.

Overland said Thursday his move to get out early in February to announce his candidacy and to begin to actively campaign in District 2 must have played a role in keeping others from running for the seat.

'At the end of the day, people who know me and who know me in the district must think I'm qualified to do the job,” said Overland, 320 Crescent St. SE.

In District 4 race, Olson is a commercial Realtor and chairman of the council's Infrastructure Committee. Challenger Kuzela is a frequent City Council critic.

In the at-large field:

Poe is chairwoman of the council's Flood Control Committee and had worked for the Rebuild Iowa Office as its Cedar Rapids liaison during the first years of the city's flood recovery.

Weinacht, who has been on the council since 2014 and serves on the council's Public Safety and Youth Services Committee and Development Committee, has been caught in a one-time change that will enable the city to move from six races in one election cycle and three in the next to a 5-4 split. The current two-year term of Weinacht's council seat will move to four years like the others after this election.

Knox-Seymour is the owner of small businesses. Wagner, a former television news and farm reporter who served as parks commissioner and council member from 2002 through 2005, heads his own consulting firm that provides opportunities for foreign students who are looking to attend college in Iowa. And Wood is an account technician in the Linn County Auditor's Office.