Q & A

The man in the Cardinals hat is angry.  If my team were 23-10, I’d be happy.  But the gentleman in my office is anything but.  He arrives unscheduled six minutes before a conference call is to start and is welcomed in.  The tallest word on the Admin welcoming wall is “OPEN”, and we mean it.  I invite him to sit down, explain I have just six minutes before a conference call and say he can sit in on the call and we can chat afterward, or he can call anytime and I’ll schedule a meeting.

That doesn’t work.  He is angry and wants my resignation.  I ask why and he advises he is sick of me wasting money.  There is a column in today’s Quad City Times asking whether I “blew the city’s chances of collecting millions” with a state grant for a road.  I’ve been replying to Barb Ickes’ questions for a few days now, and she has combined some of my answers with answers from others, resulting in the visit.  With the clock ticking down to the conference call, I suggest the gentlemen may be not fully informed and again invite him to stay or reschedule a meeting, but he will have none of it.  He stands up to demand my resignation and appears surprised I don’t have a pre-made form on my desk to hand to him.

I apologize again for the conference call that is about to start and welcome him to stay or offer to reschedule.  He says if I won’t resign he’ll ask the City Council to fire me.  As he leaves, I offer a good-hearted “Go Cubs” to someone it is clear I have a good way to go to win over.  And thus the day gets underway, just before the ICMA conference call at which we decide who will win Iowa City Manager Association Awards this year.  Not me.  I’m on the review panel.

Here’s something I know for sure.  Davenport has a Reinvestment District application (here) pending with a $2.5 billion projected economic impact.  The District is projected to create 972 new jobs, help anchor $250 million in new taxbase and throw off $5 million in hotel taxes to improve our riverfront.

Here’s something else I know for sure.  The road to that transformative economic impact and thousands of jobs is being paid for - right now - by private investors.  They believe in Davenport.  They have undertaken the initial risk.  They have selected the contractors, arranged financing, and are building the Elmore Drive extension.  They are and will be making long-term private investments, turning a few farm fields at an Interstate intersection into thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic impact.  That is customarily understood to be success.

What is not customarily understood is how media questions get turned into news stories or opinion columns.  I can’t say that I fully understand it, but I can give folks a peek into how parts of it work.  Davenporttoday.com carries my incoming and outgoing e-mails.  You can read them seven days after they arrive or get sent so, a few days from now, you can directly read the questions and answers shared with Times reporters and columnists on the topic of Elmore Drive.  You’ll be able to read me explaining multiple times how a state RISE grant wasn’t suitable for Elmore last year or this year.  The state review timelines are such that stopping progress didn’t - and doesn’t - make sense.  Through our recent discussions with helpful IDOT officials, we’ve determined a RISE grant in the area is most suitable for the Veterans Memorial Parkway project between Jersey Ridge and Elmore.  That’s good news, and we’ll be working on that.

I’ve covered some of this ground before, but with sincere respect for journalists, they can’t be everywhere at once.  Today’s Viewpoint from Barb includes the heading of one of nine powerpoint slides from a meeting last June as evidence that I’m some sort of hypnotist.  It’s a flawed claim, but it made the story flow a little better. While I hesitate to interrupt the flow of a good story, here are a few truths she did not witness that do just that.

As the Council was considering how to extend Elmore, site a casino in the best location and open up $250 million in taxbase growth, they could have cut other projects, increased taxes on everyone or selected a few other less than optimal options (see page 4 and slides following).   They didn’t like those options, and understandably so.  So the next slide asks the question about what are the Council’s goals.  This bears repeating.  The next slide asked: What were the City Council’s goals?  The slides after that describe a way to move future casino revenue forward in time, and achieve the goals of maximizing opportunity, having future commercial development adjacent to the road pay for it, building the road promptly by the private sector and optimizing the fiscal impact for our schools.

The City Council choose the path of negotiating with the casino owner to move casino revenue forward in time, and have the casino undertake the initial expense of building the road.  They did so over the course of multiple public meetings in 2014.  It was a good decision then, and remains so.  It is unfortunate Barb wasn’t in attendance at these meetings in 2014.  Had she been there, she would have seen the City Council thinking creatively about how to achieve success, and directing staff to pursue their vision.  That’s what happened, and is happening right now as Davenport grows our taxbase, and applies for state assistance to help bring thousands of jobs and billions in economic impact to our region.

All of this was explained in written answers to Barb's twelve questions in her six e-mails.  You can read them for yourself in the days ahead and come to your own conclusions.  Or you can call or stop by.  No need to remove your hat.

5/14/15