Iowa City votes to hire lobbyist

IOWA CITY – The City Council Tuesday night voted 7-0 to hire a Des Moines-based law firm to serve as a lobbyist for the city with state lawmakers.

The city will pay the Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts law firm an estimated $25,200 annually for the work.

City Manager Tom Markus has said having a professional lobbyist could help Iowa City as it tries to get the state to support a Chicago-to-Iowa City Amtrak line, goes after state grants and seeks legislation concerning a recent Iowa Supreme Court decision that clears the way to for apartment buildings to convert to residential cooperatives, which pay half the property taxes of a commercial apartment.

Nine cities in Iowa had lobbyists in the 2011 legislative session, including Cedar Rapids and Coralville, according to the Iowa General Assembly website.