Difficult economic times have forced cities to take a hard look at their budgets, the scope of their services, and how they provide them, particularly in Davenport. For that reason, the River Cities' Reader chose to ask two direct budget-related questions of candidates running for municipal offices in the November 4 general election:
1) Build your own city budget from the following city responsibilities (listed alphabetically) by assigning a percentage. The total must equal 100 percent.
a) Administration (human resources, finance, legal)
b) Community and economic development
c) Cultural amenities (museums, etc.)
d) Fire
e) Garbage removal
f) Library
g) Mayor and city council
h) Parks
i) Police
j) Street maintenance
k) Transit
l) Other (specify)
2) Explain how the city can balance a budget when service costs rise more than revenues each year. Be specific, and explain your reasons. Your answer should address, but does not need to be limited to, the following three issues:
a) If revenues need to be increased, would you prefer taxes or fees?
b) What city services would you cut first, if the budget situation required it?
c) If employee cuts had to be made, in what departments or services would you cut?
We promised candidates that we'd print their full responses, and we have - except when they got off-topic. These questions were designed to be narrow in scope, and not a springboard to talk about unrelated topics. Cases in which part of a response has been omitted are designated with ellipses.
Bettendorf
Mayor
Michael J. Freemire
1a) Administration: 28%
b) Community and economic development: 9%
c) Cultural amenities: 4%
d) Fire: 8%
e) Garbage removal: 9%
f) Library: 4%
g) Mayor and city council: 1%
h) Parks: 11%
i) Police: 8%
j) Street maintenance: 7%
k) Transit: 2%
l) Other (information services, health insurance, sewer, etc.): 9%
2a) Whether the government calls the tax a "tax" or a "fee," it is still a tax. I believe that we should call it such and move on. Mayors and councils are more likely to scrutinize a "tax" versus a "fee." Citizens are more likely to hold elected officials accountable for taxes versus fees.
b) Just like business cycles, governments go through cycles. The question is better stated with regard to planning. During the establishment of the budget, priorities should be set regarding the necessary versus the "nice to have." Basic city services should never be compromised. When prioritizing the "nice to have" or expendable services, I would cut the ones that impacted the least users first.
c) I would cut contractual staff and part-time clerical staff first. Further, I believe that difficult times help to promote a long-term healthy environment. What a great wake-up call to live within our means and assess what is necessary and what is a luxury. ...
Richard O'Dell Hughes
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Ann Hutchinson
1a) Administration: 5.4%
b) Community and economic development: 6.3%
c) Cultural amenities: 7.2%
d) Fire: 7.3%
e) Garbage removal: 5.3%
f) Library: 7.1%
g) Mayor and city council: 2.9%
h) Parks: 13%
i) Police: 18.7%
j) Street maintenance: 10%
k) Transit: 3%
l) Other (sewer and storm-water utility, building maintenance, flood control): 13.8%
2) For over a decade the city has been able to manage rising expenses and balance its budget. I would anticipate that, barring future state and federal cuts, we will be able to absorb increasing costs through increases in productivity and property growth.
Ward 5
Larry D. Blunk
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Carolyn Koos
1a) Administration: 20%
b) Community and economic development: 20%
c) Cultural amenities: 5%
d) Fire: 15%
e) Garbage removal: fees 10%
f) Library: 5%
g) Mayor and city council: 5%
h) Parks: 5%
i) Police: 15%
j) Street maintenance: 5%
k) Transit: 5%
2a) Nobody likes taxes to rise or paying fees. Taxes are based on values and are deductible. Fees are based on the services provided and are equitable (which includes nonprofits). We need to look at each issue carefully, and be frugal and well-managed.
b) and c) If called for, the city would need to maintain all essential services first. Then, budgetary responsibilities would have to be assessed equally and how cuts would affect employees and the community as a whole.
Perusing the budget and city documents, Bettendorf appears to be well-managed and practices responsible growth, which is ahead of many communities in these hard times.
Davenport
Mayor
Niky Bowles
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Charles Brooke
1a) Administration: 4%
b) Community and economic development: 3%
c) Cultural amenities: 2%
d) Fire: 22%
e) Garbage removal: 4%
f) Library: 5%
g) Mayor and city council: 1%
h) Parks: 6%
i) Police: 29%
j) Street maintenance: 10%
k) Transit: 6%
l) Other (debt service, non-departmental expense): 8%
2) Income from the state has declined and service costs (trust and agency costs, primarily health-care costs and pensions, which are state-mandated) are increasing at a large rate. The only way to balance the budget under this situation is to reduce costs or increase income. Many ways exist to reduce costs, like laying off or furloughing employees, cutting services, merging service providers or funding efficiencies, but they are not large income amounts and they run a risk of making Davenport non-competitive.
Some ways exist to increase income, such as increasing user fees (building permit, liquor permit, tobacco tax, etc.) or even taxes. If we have to increase revenues, I prefer fees, because they are open, set, for known services, paid by most everyone (no exempt entities), and calibrated to use; sometimes they are avoidable (some people can reduce or avoid a garbage fee by doing it themselves, for example). Davenport's tax rate has increased 1 percent from what it was 12 years ago. Davenport only gets 40 percent of the tax dollar.
In the long run the only way to solve the problem is to grow so we have more tax base and bring our health-care costs under control
Robert G. Swanson (write-in)
Swanson did not directly answer the questions as requested but provided the following statement:
One hundred percent for basic services: fire, police, sewers, garbage, streets, transit, and parks/golf courses.
Golf courses are the only city unit that is self-supporting.
First off, the last place we would cut employees is fire, police, sewers, street, and transit. Parks could lay back on grass-cutting etc. and look to more part-time than full-time. Since the golf courses pay their own way, leave them be.
I would look closely at the recycling and yard-waste programs to determine the profit and loss of those divisions. Federal mandates have brought these about, so we can't just get silly and cut our nose off to spite our face. But I do want to be sure they are self-sufficient without a lot of waste in time and manpower.
I would look to eliminate duplication of services and combine some administrative functions when possible and practical. Also look to cooperative purchasing with cities and counties adjoining Davenport.
Another thing to check out would be fat in the budget. Every budget I have worked with always called for some fat, so when cuts came you still had sufficient money to do what you needed to do and everyone was happy since you stayed within your budget. No program has been set to award a department head for writing a true budget need and sticking to it - this could be one. Extra week of paid vacation or whatever would work without too much cost.
Alderman-at-Large (vote for no more than two)
Steve Ahrens
1a) Administration: 5.5%
b) Community and economic development: 3%
c) Cultural amenities: 1.5%
d) Fire: 24%
e) Garbage removal: 4%
f) Library: 6%
g) Mayor and city council: 1%
h) Parks: 7%
i) Police: 34%
j) Street maintenance: 7%
k) Transit: 7%
2) Budgetary challenges and solutions that address these challenges are the most important priorities for the City of Davenport. With state action requiring us to balance the budget twice in the same fiscal year, many difficult decisions were made, including employee layoffs. While I disagreed with the manner in which the governor and the legislature acted, there is wisdom in municipalities exploring ways to work together to provide a more efficient delivery of services.
During the budget-reconciliation discussion, I worked very deliberately (across political affiliation) to avoid the implementation of a garbage fee for the current fiscal year. I will continue to aggressively seek alternatives other than the garbage fee, as I believe a better avenue to travel is to merge services with other cities and/or the county. I am excited about the opportunity to serve on a newly created mayoral task force to explore and work to implement these very ideas. Additionally, rather than property-tax increases, I believe that we can grow our tax base by re-developing our existing neighborhoods as well as developing new ones in appropriate areas throughout the city to facilitate population growth. We need to concentrate on the delivery of basic services, while at the same time providing for growth opportunities through expansion of our amenities base. This should all be conducted with careful scrutiny placed on the costs involved to taxpayers. In addition, as health-care costs skyrocket nationally, city employees must be expected to contribute in a larger role than what has traditionally been requested. ...
Douglas Cunningham
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Cheryl L. Draeger
1) The present city budget is 527 pages long, and I have not had time to go over it. It's my understanding that it takes a new alderman six months to begin to grasp it, so at this time I would not change it. ... I have been informed by our city administrator that the city is operating on a fixed income, and the problem is inflation, and negative state laws favoring farms over cities. With new persons running for office in Davenport come new ideas, which is positive.
2a) The city council presently doesn't wish to raise taxes. The city administrator says also that taxes cannot be raised. My preference is to raise a small tax over adding elaborate fees. ...
b) There is no need to cut any city services. ...
c) The candidates and present aldermen have had their heads together, and some of us agree (since our budget is $86,526,809 a year, which sounds like a substantial amount to work with) that if the city goes with a different health/major-medical-insurance company for its employees, or stays with the one it presently has and makes it optional, some money can be saved. Some city employees' spouses may have major-medical insurance from a different source and not need a second insurance package. Also, another place Davenport can save money is administrative costs; however, I personally do not condone laying off any more city employees, as unemployment will hurt the city. With the insurance cut mentioned above, and maybe a few other shifts or adjustments in the budget (that all of us have been working on together) we may save enough money to get our Youth Park Board Program back, and have enough left over for the 40 or so new police officers that we so desperately need. We also need to go through the budget and look for any waste, and see if there is some other little thing that we can do to cut corners. There are about three aldermen, and one or two candidates, that have been working together on this. The Ward 5 alderman is a math whiz and is behind almost all the mathematical adjustments.
All this above is about math. There is more to a city than doing calculus. A city is made up of people, and that is where I would concentrate my efforts. With my graduate educational background I'm more of a social worker, and that is what is needed for an at-large candidate, as they work with neighborhood groups and people. A politician is a policymaker. We have a city accountant that works out the numbers. ...
Jamie L. Howard
1a) Administration: 5.5%
b) Community and economic development: 3%
c) Cultural amenities: 1.5%
d) Fire: 24%
e) Garbage removal: 4%
f) Library: 6%
g) Mayor and city council: 1%
h) Parks: 7%
i) Police: 34%
j) Street maintenance: 7%
k) Transit: 7%
2) Davenport's financial outlook is challenging to say the least. Federal and state fiscal crises are trickling down to city governments. State mandates make for a steady decrease in the amount of revenue we see from our property taxes. Each year we continue to see an 18-to-21-percent rise in health-care costs. If these trends continue, it threatens our (city officials') ability to deliver and maintain basic services and may cause additional burden to the taxpayers.
I feel we must continue to challenge our state legislators to assist us by granting cities like Davenport more fiscal authority that helps to promote a financial system and/or process that meets the needs of the citizens of Davenport. If local authority is what they are shouting, then actions speak louder than words. I also feel that as we look to address the rise in health-care costs, the increase may have to be more absorbed and shared by those who participate in the city's health-care benefits.
Again, fiscal problems at one level of government affect all other levels of government. Because of this, local taxpayers face budget shortfalls that result either in cuts to services or increases of taxes and fees. I will not support an increase in property taxes. I will support exploring options of additional fees and exploring opportunities to merge services.
The City of Davenport must continue to develop strategies that generate revenue that would have a positive impact on the budget. Since 9/11, we have been in an economic downturn. We must continue to aggressively market our city and the greater Quad Cities as a whole and continue to introduce incentives to retain and recruit businesses to our community. Projects like the Prairie Heights proposal are concepts that are supportable within the marketplace and do demonstrate financial benefit to the City of Davenport. As we move forward toward a better and revitalized Davenport, the opportunity for growing Davenport is real. As Davenport grows, we can expect our tax base to do the same.
Ward 1
Roxanna Moritz, Dan Vance
Candidates did not respond to survey.
Ward 2
Donna Bushek
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Lyle L. Wiggins
1a) Administration: 6%
b) Community and economic development: 2%
c) Cultural amenities: 3%
d) Fire: 7%
e) Garbage removal: 2%
f) Library: 1.97%
g) Mayor and city council: .03%
h) Parks: 3%
i) Police: 10%
j) Street maintenance: 7%
k) Transit: 3%
l) Other: Trust & Agency, 17%; sewer, 13%; debt service, 13%; parking, sales tax to various elements, airport, housing, and special-revenue funds, 12%
2a) I would prefer taxes. Taxes allow some deductibility on federal and state income taxes. This is especially good for young families with house debt. It is also good for elderly with a lot of medical expenses and moderate-sized pension programs.
b) I would investigate how the city was staffed against the workloads for various departments. Some of the work could be contracted for and reduce costs. This latter part needs to be investigated closely. Maybe some contracting people from SCORE could do a cost-comparison review of outsourcing versus in-house work.
c) I would look at the public-works department because some of the engineering work could be contracted out. I would also look at the pay structure in the city. I think we have a high supervisor-to-worker ratio. Again, a good review by manpower people is essential to come to a staffing level. The human-resource director believes that this review is needed for information that I have been able to glean.
What is the overall problem of providing service? I believe that the problem exists because of the rollback on residential assessment on which taxes can be collected. We need to discuss this matter with our Iowa legislators and soon. We also need to have them change the tax structure to place some of the fees as elements of property taxes. These items would be sewer fee, storm-water fee, and separate out garbage and maybe fire and police. By including these elements under property taxes, they become deductible on state and federal income taxes. This provides some return to the taxpayer by lowering tax due or providing additional refunds. This could be important to young families, middle-income people, and elderly.
Business firms can deduct a fee as a cost of doing business and pass them on to consumers for the most part. That is, if they have a profitable business.
The sales tax should be used for capital projects just like the school districts.
Ward 3
John L. Frueh
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Keith E. Meyer
Meyer did not answer the questions as requested but provided the following statement:
It is not clear what you want included among the categories that you list. ... Leisure services include parks but I think the RiverCenter is losing too much money and parks do not have enough funds. What happened to the proposal for rec vehicles (trailers at Credit Island)? This could actually make money or at least pay for itself. ...
The council is definitely underpaid at $290,000. The mayor's office is overpaid at $97,000. I definitely think the economic-development department should be slashed. The director should be eliminated and replaced with someone who can recognize something besides a hundred-dollar bill and trees made of circles in a row.
We should look at a regional library with Bettendorf at 18th Street. Help them open the library on Sunday. ...
The budget has hundreds of unnecessary expenditures. Why did we pave the road to the building at Nahant Marsh and install a fence? Why don't we get the pothole fixed on Marquette Street at the railroad tracks? Why are there not enough police to walk the trouble spots of Ward 3? Do you realize how many empty houses there are in Ward 3?
We gave the Putnam $2.5 million and destroyed the nearby neighborhood, closed the school. Disgusting. The people who made these decisions should have to walk and talk to every family in Ward 3. Meet them up-front and personally.
What are we going to do with the LeClaire Mansion, the Collins House, the Littig Center, Roosevelt Center besides spend money on them? Why not move the city administrator into the LeClaire Mansion and not give him a raise? Sell some city property.
Council members should find the excess budget items but they don't. Employees who find them should be rewarded as the county does its employees.
I don't think we should increase taxes or fees. Fees often make it difficult to start new businesses. The city will never have enough money. We have a sales tax for the city and the schools. A recycling tax. A sewer tax. A tax for our great sky bridge and for the parking ramps to replace the ones that the city and the Blackhawk Hotel tore down. A hotel tax, a gambling tax in addition to the property taxes that go up each year and bring in more revenue than increasing expenditures for police and fire.
We put millions into the baseball stadium in the decade before we tore it down.
You should look at the increasing numbers of people unable to pay property tax. Sure hit them again with garbage and storm sewer while Lujack's paves the Duck Creek flood plain, even without permission.
The Riverboat Development Authority gives away millions of dollars to nonprofits who don't pay taxes. Is that fair? I think not.
We should definitely wean DavenportOne, Chuck Ruhl, Dana Waterman, Lee Enterprises, Estes Company, and all the TIF companies from the hamburger lot by the back door of city hall. ...
Do we need to spend millions eliminating to the Mississippi Hotel and taking yet another property off the tax roll, pushing people out of their small quiet lives? Count the number of properties that have gone from profit to non-taxpaying status downtown.
Basically we should spend the nickel where it is needed not where the developers want it spent.
Ward 4
Raymond A. Ambrose, Dianna Pilla
Candidates did not respond to survey.
Ward 5
Wayne Hean
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Bill Lynn
1) I will not respond to specifics in this case. Too much needs to be done to see if we can share resources, reduce waste, and combine services. We need to look at cost-cutting. I believe the area we should concentrate our cuts first is administration. Community and economic-development budgets should be tied to performance. The highest priority should be police and fire.
2a) I prefer cost-cutting. The problem with taxes or fees is that they are both taxes. These taxes and fees are driving people out of Davenport. On the other hand, fees may be preferable since they would be related directly to the service provided.
b) We must look at improving efficiency in city services. For instance, we need to determine if we can obtain private contractors to do garbage removal cheaper than we can do it. I believe the most likely cuts would need to be in administration, transit, and community and economic development.
c) First, we need to have employees pay a portion of their health insurance. This would cut cost to the city. If cuts need to be made, they should be in legal, public works, and administration.
Ward 6
Kirk D. Koster
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Robert McGivern
1) While this may be a simplistic exercise, this does not actually reflect city government in the entirety. That said, please see my response below. The actual percentages were provided by Budget Manager Alan Guard. I ask you publish the actual as well as my response. The key to any of this, is to slow the growth of spending not actually cut present dollars.
a) Administration: 4% (actual), 3% (McGivern)
b) Community and economic development: 3% (actual), 4% (McGivern)
c) Cultural amenities: 2% (actual), 2% (McGivern)
d) Fire: 22% (actual), 22% (McGivern)
e) Garbage removal: 4% (actual), 4% (McGivern)
f) Library: 5% (actual), 5% (McGivern)
g) Mayor and city council: 1% (actual), 1% (McGivern)
h) Parks: 6% (actual), 8% (McGivern)
i) Police: 29% (actual), 29% (McGivern)
j) Street maintenance: 10% (actual), 10% (McGivern)
k) Transit: 6% (actual), 6% (McGivern)
l) Other (debt service, non-departmental, insurance, towing, etc.): 8% (actual), 6% (McGivern)
2a) Obviously, no elected official wants to raise either, but to answer the question, I would support review of fees. The present property-tax system in Iowa penalizes commercial and business owners, as they pay 99 percent of the assessed value. Increasing tax levies on the back of commercial users creates additional obstacles for retention and creation of new jobs.
b) Make no mistake, the next council will need to make this decision. I will first ask all city employees to re-open employment contracts and pay a 10-percent health insurance premium. This would result in an annual savings of $1,017,364, with taxpayers footing the remaining $9,156,278. This would cost a city employee with family covered (medical, vision, and dental) approximately $45 a paycheck.
c) The present council has already made the difficult decision to cut just over 40 employees and not raise taxes. Public safety was not cut, but other departments, specifically public works and administration, took the brunt. From my perspective, everything should be on the table. It is my goal to implement the ninth police beat next year, so the police department is likely to be "protected."
As stated in one of the questions, costs exceed revenue. The primary reason for this is the inability of Davenport to plan growth and re-development. Our surrounding cities are paving new roads, allowing growth and wealth to flee Davenport. It's not an issue of taxes; the variance between Davenport and Bettendorf is minimal. We must plan growth and re-development. ...
Ward 8
Tom Engelmann, Joel Langrehr
Candidates did not respond to survey.
a) Administration (human resources, finance, legal)
b) Community and economic development
c) Cultural amenities (museums, etc.)
d) Fire
e) Garbage removal
f) Library
g) Mayor and city council
h) Parks
i) Police
j) Street maintenance
k) Transit
l) Other (specify)
2) Explain how the city can balance a budget when service costs rise more than revenues each year. Be specific, and explain your reasons. Your answer should address, but does not need to be limited to, the following three issues:
a) If revenues need to be increased, would you prefer taxes or fees?
b) What city services would you cut first, if the budget situation required it?
c) If employee cuts had to be made, in what departments or services would you cut?
We promised candidates that we'd print their full responses, and we have - except when they got off-topic. These questions were designed to be narrow in scope, and not a springboard to talk about unrelated topics. Cases in which part of a response has been omitted are designated with ellipses.
Bettendorf
Mayor
Michael J. Freemire
1a) Administration: 28%
b) Community and economic development: 9%
c) Cultural amenities: 4%
d) Fire: 8%
e) Garbage removal: 9%
f) Library: 4%
g) Mayor and city council: 1%
h) Parks: 11%
i) Police: 8%
j) Street maintenance: 7%
k) Transit: 2%
l) Other (information services, health insurance, sewer, etc.): 9%
2a) Whether the government calls the tax a "tax" or a "fee," it is still a tax. I believe that we should call it such and move on. Mayors and councils are more likely to scrutinize a "tax" versus a "fee." Citizens are more likely to hold elected officials accountable for taxes versus fees.
b) Just like business cycles, governments go through cycles. The question is better stated with regard to planning. During the establishment of the budget, priorities should be set regarding the necessary versus the "nice to have." Basic city services should never be compromised. When prioritizing the "nice to have" or expendable services, I would cut the ones that impacted the least users first.
c) I would cut contractual staff and part-time clerical staff first. Further, I believe that difficult times help to promote a long-term healthy environment. What a great wake-up call to live within our means and assess what is necessary and what is a luxury. ...
Richard O'Dell Hughes
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Ann Hutchinson
1a) Administration: 5.4%
b) Community and economic development: 6.3%
c) Cultural amenities: 7.2%
d) Fire: 7.3%
e) Garbage removal: 5.3%
f) Library: 7.1%
g) Mayor and city council: 2.9%
h) Parks: 13%
i) Police: 18.7%
j) Street maintenance: 10%
k) Transit: 3%
l) Other (sewer and storm-water utility, building maintenance, flood control): 13.8%
2) For over a decade the city has been able to manage rising expenses and balance its budget. I would anticipate that, barring future state and federal cuts, we will be able to absorb increasing costs through increases in productivity and property growth.
Ward 5
Larry D. Blunk
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Carolyn Koos
1a) Administration: 20%
b) Community and economic development: 20%
c) Cultural amenities: 5%
d) Fire: 15%
e) Garbage removal: fees 10%
f) Library: 5%
g) Mayor and city council: 5%
h) Parks: 5%
i) Police: 15%
j) Street maintenance: 5%
k) Transit: 5%
2a) Nobody likes taxes to rise or paying fees. Taxes are based on values and are deductible. Fees are based on the services provided and are equitable (which includes nonprofits). We need to look at each issue carefully, and be frugal and well-managed.
b) and c) If called for, the city would need to maintain all essential services first. Then, budgetary responsibilities would have to be assessed equally and how cuts would affect employees and the community as a whole.
Perusing the budget and city documents, Bettendorf appears to be well-managed and practices responsible growth, which is ahead of many communities in these hard times.
Davenport
Mayor
Niky Bowles
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Charles Brooke
1a) Administration: 4%
b) Community and economic development: 3%
c) Cultural amenities: 2%
d) Fire: 22%
e) Garbage removal: 4%
f) Library: 5%
g) Mayor and city council: 1%
h) Parks: 6%
i) Police: 29%
j) Street maintenance: 10%
k) Transit: 6%
l) Other (debt service, non-departmental expense): 8%
2) Income from the state has declined and service costs (trust and agency costs, primarily health-care costs and pensions, which are state-mandated) are increasing at a large rate. The only way to balance the budget under this situation is to reduce costs or increase income. Many ways exist to reduce costs, like laying off or furloughing employees, cutting services, merging service providers or funding efficiencies, but they are not large income amounts and they run a risk of making Davenport non-competitive.
Some ways exist to increase income, such as increasing user fees (building permit, liquor permit, tobacco tax, etc.) or even taxes. If we have to increase revenues, I prefer fees, because they are open, set, for known services, paid by most everyone (no exempt entities), and calibrated to use; sometimes they are avoidable (some people can reduce or avoid a garbage fee by doing it themselves, for example). Davenport's tax rate has increased 1 percent from what it was 12 years ago. Davenport only gets 40 percent of the tax dollar.
In the long run the only way to solve the problem is to grow so we have more tax base and bring our health-care costs under control
Robert G. Swanson (write-in)
Swanson did not directly answer the questions as requested but provided the following statement:
One hundred percent for basic services: fire, police, sewers, garbage, streets, transit, and parks/golf courses.
Golf courses are the only city unit that is self-supporting.
First off, the last place we would cut employees is fire, police, sewers, street, and transit. Parks could lay back on grass-cutting etc. and look to more part-time than full-time. Since the golf courses pay their own way, leave them be.
I would look closely at the recycling and yard-waste programs to determine the profit and loss of those divisions. Federal mandates have brought these about, so we can't just get silly and cut our nose off to spite our face. But I do want to be sure they are self-sufficient without a lot of waste in time and manpower.
I would look to eliminate duplication of services and combine some administrative functions when possible and practical. Also look to cooperative purchasing with cities and counties adjoining Davenport.
Another thing to check out would be fat in the budget. Every budget I have worked with always called for some fat, so when cuts came you still had sufficient money to do what you needed to do and everyone was happy since you stayed within your budget. No program has been set to award a department head for writing a true budget need and sticking to it - this could be one. Extra week of paid vacation or whatever would work without too much cost.
Alderman-at-Large (vote for no more than two)
Steve Ahrens
1a) Administration: 5.5%
b) Community and economic development: 3%
c) Cultural amenities: 1.5%
d) Fire: 24%
e) Garbage removal: 4%
f) Library: 6%
g) Mayor and city council: 1%
h) Parks: 7%
i) Police: 34%
j) Street maintenance: 7%
k) Transit: 7%
2) Budgetary challenges and solutions that address these challenges are the most important priorities for the City of Davenport. With state action requiring us to balance the budget twice in the same fiscal year, many difficult decisions were made, including employee layoffs. While I disagreed with the manner in which the governor and the legislature acted, there is wisdom in municipalities exploring ways to work together to provide a more efficient delivery of services.
During the budget-reconciliation discussion, I worked very deliberately (across political affiliation) to avoid the implementation of a garbage fee for the current fiscal year. I will continue to aggressively seek alternatives other than the garbage fee, as I believe a better avenue to travel is to merge services with other cities and/or the county. I am excited about the opportunity to serve on a newly created mayoral task force to explore and work to implement these very ideas. Additionally, rather than property-tax increases, I believe that we can grow our tax base by re-developing our existing neighborhoods as well as developing new ones in appropriate areas throughout the city to facilitate population growth. We need to concentrate on the delivery of basic services, while at the same time providing for growth opportunities through expansion of our amenities base. This should all be conducted with careful scrutiny placed on the costs involved to taxpayers. In addition, as health-care costs skyrocket nationally, city employees must be expected to contribute in a larger role than what has traditionally been requested. ...
Douglas Cunningham
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Cheryl L. Draeger
1) The present city budget is 527 pages long, and I have not had time to go over it. It's my understanding that it takes a new alderman six months to begin to grasp it, so at this time I would not change it. ... I have been informed by our city administrator that the city is operating on a fixed income, and the problem is inflation, and negative state laws favoring farms over cities. With new persons running for office in Davenport come new ideas, which is positive.
2a) The city council presently doesn't wish to raise taxes. The city administrator says also that taxes cannot be raised. My preference is to raise a small tax over adding elaborate fees. ...
b) There is no need to cut any city services. ...
c) The candidates and present aldermen have had their heads together, and some of us agree (since our budget is $86,526,809 a year, which sounds like a substantial amount to work with) that if the city goes with a different health/major-medical-insurance company for its employees, or stays with the one it presently has and makes it optional, some money can be saved. Some city employees' spouses may have major-medical insurance from a different source and not need a second insurance package. Also, another place Davenport can save money is administrative costs; however, I personally do not condone laying off any more city employees, as unemployment will hurt the city. With the insurance cut mentioned above, and maybe a few other shifts or adjustments in the budget (that all of us have been working on together) we may save enough money to get our Youth Park Board Program back, and have enough left over for the 40 or so new police officers that we so desperately need. We also need to go through the budget and look for any waste, and see if there is some other little thing that we can do to cut corners. There are about three aldermen, and one or two candidates, that have been working together on this. The Ward 5 alderman is a math whiz and is behind almost all the mathematical adjustments.
All this above is about math. There is more to a city than doing calculus. A city is made up of people, and that is where I would concentrate my efforts. With my graduate educational background I'm more of a social worker, and that is what is needed for an at-large candidate, as they work with neighborhood groups and people. A politician is a policymaker. We have a city accountant that works out the numbers. ...
Jamie L. Howard
1a) Administration: 5.5%
b) Community and economic development: 3%
c) Cultural amenities: 1.5%
d) Fire: 24%
e) Garbage removal: 4%
f) Library: 6%
g) Mayor and city council: 1%
h) Parks: 7%
i) Police: 34%
j) Street maintenance: 7%
k) Transit: 7%
2) Davenport's financial outlook is challenging to say the least. Federal and state fiscal crises are trickling down to city governments. State mandates make for a steady decrease in the amount of revenue we see from our property taxes. Each year we continue to see an 18-to-21-percent rise in health-care costs. If these trends continue, it threatens our (city officials') ability to deliver and maintain basic services and may cause additional burden to the taxpayers.
I feel we must continue to challenge our state legislators to assist us by granting cities like Davenport more fiscal authority that helps to promote a financial system and/or process that meets the needs of the citizens of Davenport. If local authority is what they are shouting, then actions speak louder than words. I also feel that as we look to address the rise in health-care costs, the increase may have to be more absorbed and shared by those who participate in the city's health-care benefits.
Again, fiscal problems at one level of government affect all other levels of government. Because of this, local taxpayers face budget shortfalls that result either in cuts to services or increases of taxes and fees. I will not support an increase in property taxes. I will support exploring options of additional fees and exploring opportunities to merge services.
The City of Davenport must continue to develop strategies that generate revenue that would have a positive impact on the budget. Since 9/11, we have been in an economic downturn. We must continue to aggressively market our city and the greater Quad Cities as a whole and continue to introduce incentives to retain and recruit businesses to our community. Projects like the Prairie Heights proposal are concepts that are supportable within the marketplace and do demonstrate financial benefit to the City of Davenport. As we move forward toward a better and revitalized Davenport, the opportunity for growing Davenport is real. As Davenport grows, we can expect our tax base to do the same.
Ward 1
Roxanna Moritz, Dan Vance
Candidates did not respond to survey.
Ward 2
Donna Bushek
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Lyle L. Wiggins
1a) Administration: 6%
b) Community and economic development: 2%
c) Cultural amenities: 3%
d) Fire: 7%
e) Garbage removal: 2%
f) Library: 1.97%
g) Mayor and city council: .03%
h) Parks: 3%
i) Police: 10%
j) Street maintenance: 7%
k) Transit: 3%
l) Other: Trust & Agency, 17%; sewer, 13%; debt service, 13%; parking, sales tax to various elements, airport, housing, and special-revenue funds, 12%
2a) I would prefer taxes. Taxes allow some deductibility on federal and state income taxes. This is especially good for young families with house debt. It is also good for elderly with a lot of medical expenses and moderate-sized pension programs.
b) I would investigate how the city was staffed against the workloads for various departments. Some of the work could be contracted for and reduce costs. This latter part needs to be investigated closely. Maybe some contracting people from SCORE could do a cost-comparison review of outsourcing versus in-house work.
c) I would look at the public-works department because some of the engineering work could be contracted out. I would also look at the pay structure in the city. I think we have a high supervisor-to-worker ratio. Again, a good review by manpower people is essential to come to a staffing level. The human-resource director believes that this review is needed for information that I have been able to glean.
What is the overall problem of providing service? I believe that the problem exists because of the rollback on residential assessment on which taxes can be collected. We need to discuss this matter with our Iowa legislators and soon. We also need to have them change the tax structure to place some of the fees as elements of property taxes. These items would be sewer fee, storm-water fee, and separate out garbage and maybe fire and police. By including these elements under property taxes, they become deductible on state and federal income taxes. This provides some return to the taxpayer by lowering tax due or providing additional refunds. This could be important to young families, middle-income people, and elderly.
Business firms can deduct a fee as a cost of doing business and pass them on to consumers for the most part. That is, if they have a profitable business.
The sales tax should be used for capital projects just like the school districts.
Ward 3
John L. Frueh
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Keith E. Meyer
Meyer did not answer the questions as requested but provided the following statement:
It is not clear what you want included among the categories that you list. ... Leisure services include parks but I think the RiverCenter is losing too much money and parks do not have enough funds. What happened to the proposal for rec vehicles (trailers at Credit Island)? This could actually make money or at least pay for itself. ...
The council is definitely underpaid at $290,000. The mayor's office is overpaid at $97,000. I definitely think the economic-development department should be slashed. The director should be eliminated and replaced with someone who can recognize something besides a hundred-dollar bill and trees made of circles in a row.
We should look at a regional library with Bettendorf at 18th Street. Help them open the library on Sunday. ...
The budget has hundreds of unnecessary expenditures. Why did we pave the road to the building at Nahant Marsh and install a fence? Why don't we get the pothole fixed on Marquette Street at the railroad tracks? Why are there not enough police to walk the trouble spots of Ward 3? Do you realize how many empty houses there are in Ward 3?
We gave the Putnam $2.5 million and destroyed the nearby neighborhood, closed the school. Disgusting. The people who made these decisions should have to walk and talk to every family in Ward 3. Meet them up-front and personally.
What are we going to do with the LeClaire Mansion, the Collins House, the Littig Center, Roosevelt Center besides spend money on them? Why not move the city administrator into the LeClaire Mansion and not give him a raise? Sell some city property.
Council members should find the excess budget items but they don't. Employees who find them should be rewarded as the county does its employees.
I don't think we should increase taxes or fees. Fees often make it difficult to start new businesses. The city will never have enough money. We have a sales tax for the city and the schools. A recycling tax. A sewer tax. A tax for our great sky bridge and for the parking ramps to replace the ones that the city and the Blackhawk Hotel tore down. A hotel tax, a gambling tax in addition to the property taxes that go up each year and bring in more revenue than increasing expenditures for police and fire.
We put millions into the baseball stadium in the decade before we tore it down.
You should look at the increasing numbers of people unable to pay property tax. Sure hit them again with garbage and storm sewer while Lujack's paves the Duck Creek flood plain, even without permission.
The Riverboat Development Authority gives away millions of dollars to nonprofits who don't pay taxes. Is that fair? I think not.
We should definitely wean DavenportOne, Chuck Ruhl, Dana Waterman, Lee Enterprises, Estes Company, and all the TIF companies from the hamburger lot by the back door of city hall. ...
Do we need to spend millions eliminating to the Mississippi Hotel and taking yet another property off the tax roll, pushing people out of their small quiet lives? Count the number of properties that have gone from profit to non-taxpaying status downtown.
Basically we should spend the nickel where it is needed not where the developers want it spent.
Ward 4
Raymond A. Ambrose, Dianna Pilla
Candidates did not respond to survey.
Ward 5
Wayne Hean
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Bill Lynn
1) I will not respond to specifics in this case. Too much needs to be done to see if we can share resources, reduce waste, and combine services. We need to look at cost-cutting. I believe the area we should concentrate our cuts first is administration. Community and economic-development budgets should be tied to performance. The highest priority should be police and fire.
2a) I prefer cost-cutting. The problem with taxes or fees is that they are both taxes. These taxes and fees are driving people out of Davenport. On the other hand, fees may be preferable since they would be related directly to the service provided.
b) We must look at improving efficiency in city services. For instance, we need to determine if we can obtain private contractors to do garbage removal cheaper than we can do it. I believe the most likely cuts would need to be in administration, transit, and community and economic development.
c) First, we need to have employees pay a portion of their health insurance. This would cut cost to the city. If cuts need to be made, they should be in legal, public works, and administration.
Ward 6
Kirk D. Koster
Candidate did not respond to survey.
Robert McGivern
1) While this may be a simplistic exercise, this does not actually reflect city government in the entirety. That said, please see my response below. The actual percentages were provided by Budget Manager Alan Guard. I ask you publish the actual as well as my response. The key to any of this, is to slow the growth of spending not actually cut present dollars.
a) Administration: 4% (actual), 3% (McGivern)
b) Community and economic development: 3% (actual), 4% (McGivern)
c) Cultural amenities: 2% (actual), 2% (McGivern)
d) Fire: 22% (actual), 22% (McGivern)
e) Garbage removal: 4% (actual), 4% (McGivern)
f) Library: 5% (actual), 5% (McGivern)
g) Mayor and city council: 1% (actual), 1% (McGivern)
h) Parks: 6% (actual), 8% (McGivern)
i) Police: 29% (actual), 29% (McGivern)
j) Street maintenance: 10% (actual), 10% (McGivern)
k) Transit: 6% (actual), 6% (McGivern)
l) Other (debt service, non-departmental, insurance, towing, etc.): 8% (actual), 6% (McGivern)
2a) Obviously, no elected official wants to raise either, but to answer the question, I would support review of fees. The present property-tax system in Iowa penalizes commercial and business owners, as they pay 99 percent of the assessed value. Increasing tax levies on the back of commercial users creates additional obstacles for retention and creation of new jobs.
b) Make no mistake, the next council will need to make this decision. I will first ask all city employees to re-open employment contracts and pay a 10-percent health insurance premium. This would result in an annual savings of $1,017,364, with taxpayers footing the remaining $9,156,278. This would cost a city employee with family covered (medical, vision, and dental) approximately $45 a paycheck.
c) The present council has already made the difficult decision to cut just over 40 employees and not raise taxes. Public safety was not cut, but other departments, specifically public works and administration, took the brunt. From my perspective, everything should be on the table. It is my goal to implement the ninth police beat next year, so the police department is likely to be "protected."
As stated in one of the questions, costs exceed revenue. The primary reason for this is the inability of Davenport to plan growth and re-development. Our surrounding cities are paving new roads, allowing growth and wealth to flee Davenport. It's not an issue of taxes; the variance between Davenport and Bettendorf is minimal. We must plan growth and re-development. ...
Ward 8
Tom Engelmann, Joel Langrehr
Candidates did not respond to survey.
