Mayoral candidate Brian Fagan -- A Profile

At-large council member Brian Fagan says he is running for mayor on a record of hard work and success over four years in office - a term defined by a 2008 flood disaster and 16 months of flood recovery.

 The single 37-year-old, who is the only member of the nine-member council under age 50, uses two words, “vision” and “foundation,” as he talks about council accomplishments.

He and his council colleagues, he says, have a clear vision and a firm foundation to ensure that Cedar Rapids will come back from the flood and a recession better than ever. It's not time to change horses in midstream, he says, and not a time to retreat from the progress the city has made.

Mayoral opponent Ron Corbett charges that the current city manager has most of the power at City Hall and that the City Council rubber-stamps his agenda. Fagan says that's not so.

 Fagan calls “silly” Corbett's assertion of the City Council's “culture of delay.”

Certainly, Fagan says, the council has not handled flood recovery perfectly. But he says the council took the correct action in using experienced consultants to methodically document the flood damage, which he says might bring the city some $75 million more than it would have gotten if it had rushed the job without expert advice.

“My opponent (Corbett) would have left millions and millions of dollars on the table with his approach, and that would have punished the taxpayers of Cedar Rapids and impaired our recovery short- and long-term,” Fagan says.

Maybe it is a tough time, he says, for a council incumbent to run for mayor, as the city is recovering from a historic flood in the middle of a historic national recession.

Fagan, though, says Cedar Rapids residents have a knack for understanding exactly what confronts the city today and will make their election decisions based on those realities.

“They see how we've come through this as a community,” he says. “And they see how we are poised for a huge reinvestment in our community with state and federal resources coming into Cedar Rapids in an unprecedented manner to help us rebuild.”

Linda Michalec, 66, of 2201 Second St. SW, says she is supporting Fagan because he came through and continues to come through for her, her husband, Larry, and the other flood victims in the city.

“We lost our home in the flood, and every time we were at a meeting, Brian was there,” Michalec says. “We had a lot of people tell us they'd get back to us, and they never did. We heard from Brian every time. Not once did he not follow through.”

As importantly, she says Fagan's time on the City Council has given him an understanding of all of Cedar Rapids and its needs.

“He works tirelessly, and I think he will in the future. Because we've got a long way to go,” Michalec says.

 Fagan enjoys referring to himself as a hometown boy, and he's one who ventured off to get an education and then came home to live and work.

A 1990 graduate of Regis High School, he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa in 1994 and joined the Cedar Rapids staff of former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach. He worked in Cedar Rapids for 2 1/2 years, then moved to Leach's Washington staff, where he worked part time while completing a master's degree in international political economy at The Catholic University of America.

He entered Drake Law School in Des Moines, graduating with honors in 2001. He spent two years clerking for Michael Melloy, a federal judge in Cedar Rapids, and then joined what is now the Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman law firm in Cedar Rapids.

He ran for council in 2005, easily winning one of three at-large seats on the city's first part-time City Council. His council colleagues then named him mayor pro tem.

In running for mayor now, Fagan says he has no time to speculate if the leadership of the Mayor Kay Halloran, who is not seeking re-election, might somehow hurt his effort.

“I'm not the mayor right now, and I have a very different leadership style,” Fagan says.

He says he will be an active and visible mayor, not unlike the way he was after the June 2008 flood.

“I stepped forward to be an advocate for Cedar Rapids and to be the face and voice for Cedar Rapids during a critical time when we needed resources and the attention for what was occurring here,” Fagan says.

As mayor, he says, he will aggressively push for economic development and will work to build partnerships with the private sector, educational institutions and governments in the region and in Des Moines and Washington.

Fagan says it's time to remain “disciplined” to the vision and plan and not a time to tear down people or Cedar Rapids. He says he's running to make his hometown better.

“I've pushed myself to learn, and I've never stopped learning from any and all the experiences I have had,” Fagan says. “And that's not part of any agenda. That's part of an upbringing. Just like community service is part of an upbringing.”