Shey, McGrane in runoff for District 3

Council incumbents Pat Shey and Jerry McGrane will face each other in a Dec. 1 runoff to see who will fill the Distrct 3 seat on the City Council.

With all  precincts reporting, Shey had 43.1 percent of the 3,965 votes cast in the district.

McGrane had 1,504 votes, for 37.9 percent of the votes cast.

The third candidate Kathy Potts garnered 633 votes, for 16 percent of the vote

Calvin Busch, who suspended his campaign, had 105 votes for 2.7 percent.

The runoff is required because neither Shey nor McGrane won more than 50 percent of the votes cast.

District 3 straddles the Cedar River, covering precincts in southeast, southwest and northwest cedar Rapids - much of it hit by the flood.

Shey, 50, owns and runs two small businesses and is raising three school-age

children. The 70-year-old McGrane is retired. Neither candidate favors building a new City Hall.

McGrane has said the council/manager government isn't working like he envisioned. The city manager has too much power, and the city needs a stronger mayor to fix things, he said.

Shey, who left his at-large council seat to run for McGrane's District 3 seat, said the financial health of city government is “very strong” even during recovery from the June 2008 flood. He said the city recently retained the top Aaa bond rating - proof, he said, of fiscal soundness.