Scenes from the City Council - PLAs, Elephants, Sharp Sticks and Underdogs

The City Council is sticking with its project labor agreement on the convention complex project. But they could also use a project language agreement.

As members wrestled with the implications of their standoff with the governor, words got in the way.

And large land mammals.

"OK, let's get rid of the elephant in the room," Council member Chuck "The Colonel" Wieneke said as the council prepared Tuesday night to award a demolition contract that's subject to the PLA.

Mayor Ron Corbett says a PLA the city forged with local trades is a “contract” that can't be nullified by Gov. Terry Branstad's executive order banning PLAs. Same goes for the state's $15 million I-JOBS award, which was signed even before Corbett took office. A deal's a deal, he says.

“We don't have a contract. We have an agreement,” Wieneke snapped.

“I always thought a contract was an agreement,” Corbett fired back.

Soon, Council member Don Karr joined in. “How can (the governor) break our contract?” Karr asked.

“Maybe it's just an agreement,” Corbett spit. Got a little sarcasm there on your lip, mayor.

It was not the only wordy dispute of the night.

The governor bans PLAs on projects that don't yet have a “construction contract.” But the mayor says the city has a “construction management contract” in place. Same diff. Corbett insists that the state “may” exercise its “option” to keep the $15 million it promised. But there's no dreaded “shall.”

 “It doesn't seem like this is an iron fist coming at the city of Cedar Rapids,” Corbett insisted.

Fist or no fist, The Colonel sounded retreat. He wants a convention complex. He thinks Branstad is wrong. But Wieneke says he will not play poke-the-governor. It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.

“Let's take a sharp stick and poke him in the eye,” Wieneke said. More sarcasm. “This is totally illogical.”

Should the city cut and run? Chuck and Ron could not agree.

“So we're going to roll over?” Corbett asked. “We're not going to stand up for what's right?”

Karr, once hesitant to join the battle between our home team and the iron-fisted elephant, sided with the mayor. “I'm really tired of Des Moines trying to run Cedar Rapids, trying to run the second-largest city in the state,” Karr said.

Welcome to the fight, Cowboy, but, sorry, we really have no idea whether, this time, your side will win. We're checking with he attorney general. Please hold.

Maybe the city will have to back down in the end. Still, Karr's right. This council agonized long and hard over how to scrape together the bucks to pay for this project, and now must agonize over how to pay for it and keep its promises to local workers. Thanks to outside meddling, the city is stuck between a governor and a lawsuit.

Branstad, on the other hand, probably didn't consider nor care much about any of that when he signed his order. He had political points to score and allies to reward. The problems of a second-largest city didn't amount to a hill of beans.

But the council is not yet ready to surrender that hill. And I'm still rooting for the home team underdogs.