Marion’s spirited race for mayor is an intriguing brand of politics

Marion's new 'brand” is 'Reach Higher.” Maybe you've seen the water tower.

But if you've spent much time watching local politics this election season, you might wonder whether a far more ambitious pick might have been 'Reach Consensus.”

'Reach Higher. I just love that,” City Council member Nick AbouAssaly, who is among three candidates running for mayor, told our editorial board. 'It's brilliant because it's proactive. It challenges everybody. It challenges us all to do better.

'Actually, as mayor, that would be one of my main goals, one of my big goals, is to really help that brand to become mainstream in our community,” AbouAssaly said.

Former mayor and now candidate for mayor John Nieland is less enthusiastic.

'The city manager paid somebody … to come in and look at the city and say what should our brand be.” Nieland told our board. 'I think the branding was a big waste of time.”

It's been that kind of campaign. One candidate's brilliant decision is another's wasteful overreach. One of Iowa's fastest-growing cities, depending on who you listen to, is either on a freeway to prosperity or stuck in a roundabout of fiscal irresponsibility.

It's, hands-down, the most fascinating local campaign this fall. And it's easy to lose sight of the big picture.

'People are moving to Marion,” said Council member and mayor pro tem Joe Spinks, the third candidate for mayor. 'Marion is growing. And so the things that we're doing, we must be doing something right.”

Spinks, a retired Rockwell Collins engineer, has lived in Marion for 36 years, although you can still catch a hint of the deep, slow drawl he brought from Mississippi. The second-term council member was the first mayoral hopeful to launch a campaign after current Mayor Allen 'Snooks” Bouska said he wouldn't seek a second term.

Spinks is positioning himself as a bridge candidate, between the development leaders, movers and shakers supporting AbouAssaly and the persistent, perturbed city hall critics backing Nieland. Spinks' slogan, 'Planning to the Future, Preserving our Heritage” reflects his effort to appeal to folks who grew up in a much smaller town and those who only know Marion as a rapidly growing city.

AbouAssaly is the son of Lebanese immigrants who came to Marion 40 years ago 'with five children and $50,” he said at a recent candidates' forum. He was elected to the council in 2013, works as an attorney for a large Cedar Rapids law firm and has served on a long list of local commissions and committees. He was once named Marion's citizen of the year.

'On the council, objective observers would say I am a voice of reason, an independent thinker,” AbouAssaly told the forum audience.

Nieland, who was raised in Marion, is a military man with 28 years in uniform. He still has the booming voice, and subtlety, of someone used to giving clear, direct orders. He told the forum audience that right after his high school graduation, his dad handed him a Samsonite suitcase. 'I don't know what you're going to be doing next week, but you won't be doing it here,” he said, recalling his dad's words. Soon, he was enlisting in the Army.

Nieland is running at the top of a slate of candidates, including council hopefuls Kay Lammers and Dwight Hogan, which staunchly opposes a proposal to tear down the current library and build an expanded facility tied to a mixed-use commercial development. Library plans are still taking shape, but the slate isn't waiting for details.

Nieland served as mayor from 2004 to 2008, drawing headlines and fire for using his last state of the city speech to call for tackling illegal immigration in Marion, particularly among roofing contractors. Criticism he received from local leaders worried about the city's welcoming image is providing some fuel for his latest run.

'I'm just going to be truly honest with you guys,” Nieland told our editorial board. 'There's a group in Marion that I call a shadow government. It's made up of people, I won't tell you their names, I could tell you their names.

'It's made up of some prior political people, obviously people who are on the Chamber board involved in the city and so on. All of the people who got mad as hell at me when I used my last state of the city address to highlight something that I thought was really important,” Nieland said.

'I told my wife, I'm going to take out papers just to harass the shadow government,” Nieland said.

That, and the Fitbits.

'Does that city manager ever find a project he doesn't like? And the one that pushed it over the hill for me was the Fitbits,” said Nieland, referring to the city's decision to spend $19,000 to buy each city employee a fitness tracker. 'When they got the Fitbits, I just couldn't sit there.”

Spinks was surprised Fitbit critics got so exercised.

'If we did something in the city what would save $100,000, would that be worth pursuing? Well, that's exactly what we did with the Fitbits,” said Spinks, contending a healthier city workforce will lead to lower insurance premiums.

Nieland says shadowy forces even urged Spinks to drop out and make it a two-man race. Spinks confirms he was asked to step aside, but he won't go into details. The avid history buff did say he gave them the same famous answer an American general gave Germans seeking a U.S. surrender during the Battle of the Bulge.

'I told them ‘nuts,'” Spinks said.

AbouAssaly rejects the notion of a 'shadow government,” or that he's running to do anyone's bidding.

'In fact, it's the opposite,” AbouAssaly said, arguing that he's been a collaborative public servant willing to listen to all sides. 'I just really care about Marion. I just want to see it prosper. Economic development is part of that.

'I'm very independent. I've tried to make that clear all along,” AbouAssaly said.

Clearly, some of the issues being debated matter. Nieland and Lammers have expressed support for what I think would be an ill-conceived effort to change the city's form of government from city manager to strong mayor. The Nieland slate's alarm bells over city debt don't seem to fit with professional credit-rating agencies who give the city a high bond rating. Flatly rejecting, out-of-hand, the possibility of a new library and commercial/residential development uptown seems reactionary and shortsighted. Victories by Nieland and his allies would tip the current balance of power on the council.

'With this city manager, he and I are going to have a discussion on what can and can't be done,” Nieland said.

But from my perch on Marion's north side, it seems what we also have here is a failure to communicate.

Set aside skirmishes over individual city decisions, and what you have is a debate over who has more influence over city decision-making, Chamber-development types or ordinary taxpayers. I've never lived in a city where development leaders didn't have an oversized say in municipal governing, so this whole 'shadow government” notion strikes me as over the top.

But balance is important, and the best city governments achieve it. Sure, you need to listen to business owners, economic development strivers and the like. But you also have to thoroughly explain and aggressively sell city decisions to taxpayers, including folks too scattered, stressed and busy to follow the intricacies and intrigue in city hall. They need information and a true say in what's happening. The city needs to show it's truly listening.

The library saga is a prime example, with city officials believing that a long deliberative process is occurring out in the open while failing to understand that, for the vast majority of citizens, the library board, its meetings and website aren't anywhere on their radar screens. The board's promise to put the project to a public vote is a sign that message finally has been received.

Without that aggressive selling, informing and meaningful input, you get shadows and conspiracies. So much of what bugs some Marion residents boils down to not understanding why decisions are being made and where they came from in the first place.

Simply blaming those residents for not paying attention doesn't hold water. You can urge people to reach higher, but their leaders also have to reach out.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com