Iowa City Council candidates talk economic development, business

IOWA CITY – Iowa City's business climate was debated at a City Council candidate forum Monday.

How to encourage economic development and resolve Iowa City's reputation of being difficult for businesses and developers to work with were among the items discussed.

The forum was sponsored by the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce and had a small audience of just a few people, not counting the candidates and members of the news media.

Four of the council's seven seats will be filled in the Nov. 8 election.

Seeking the two at-large seats are coffee shop owner Jarrett Mitchell, attorney and current Mayor Matt Hayek, student Raj Patel and MidAmerican Energy operations supervisor Michelle Payne.

Running for the District A seat is University of Iowa physician Rick Dobyns and radio station owner and host Steve Soboroff.

The lone candidate in District C is retired UI urban planning professor and former council member Jim Throgmorton.

The need to support economic development is hardly a new campaign talking point in local elections, but that and the city's budget have taken on added significance this fall given the poor economy.

Soboroff said Iowa City has “too many socialists” and the council has often “pandered” to a small but vocal part of the community. Citing Von Maur's likely move to Coralville, a fight several years ago over a proposed Wal-Mart store and last year's 21-only bar law, which the council passed and voters approved, he said Iowa City's anti-business reputation is not a perception.

“It's reality. Change your attitude,” he said of the city and council members.

While other candidates did not go as far, there was broad agreement the city should do things like make the permit process run more smoothly and improve city staff's interactions with business owners and developers.

“The most important thing is, you tell someone I care about you, I care about your business, and I care about what your business can do for the community,” said Dobyns.

Payne, who sits on Iowa City's Planning and Zoning Commission, said zoning codes promote orderly growth, but she said the red tape needs to be cut out.

“We need to become more efficient in dealing with people who want to grow their business,” she said.

Hayek, the only incumbent in the race, said the City Council had recently cleaned up some of the zoning-code language, the economic development team is being giving more tools to work with and City Manager Tom Markus is reaching out to developers.

“The tone, I think, has changed, and that is starting to emanate through the city's operations,” he said.

Throgmorton said he'd like the city to explore creative ways of investing its money, like in funds to build homes and to improve older single-family homes.

Mitchell said his perspective as a small-business owner would benefit the city and said his focus is on sustainability issues and urban farming.

“It is going to be something that will bear financial fruit in the long term,” he said.

Patel's family owns and operates hotels across Iowa and he spoke of the importance of creating jobs. The 20-year-old also said he is the candidate able to represent a “broad cross-section of the community," a reference to the more than 30,000 college students who live in the area.

Patel announced Monday he has withdrawn from the UI because his busy campaign schedule made it too difficult to maintain good grades. He said he would continue to take classes at Kirkwood Community College.

In other issues limited to yes or no answers, all of the candidates said they would do nothing as council members to reverse the 21-only law, and all said they support the “judicious” use of tax-increment financing.