City Mayors

Clay Masters

Taxes, housing growth and more. We dive into municipal issues with mayors. Tiffany O'Donnell of Cedar Rapids and Russ Trimble of West Des Moines. On this edition of Iowa Press.

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For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating 50 years of broadcast excellence on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, October 13th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Clay Masters.

Clay Masters

Hello. Kay Henderson is off this week. Periodically, we like to invite mayors from across the state on the show to talk about some of the important issues facing local governments.

Our two guests this week lead Iowa's second and seventh most populated cities. Tiffany O'Donnell was elected mayor of Cedar Rapids in 2021. She is the chief executive officer of Women Lead Change. In addition to her mayoral duties. Also elected in 2021, Russ Trimble is in his first term as mayor of West Des Moines. He's also the chief of staff in the state treasurer's office.

Welcome to both of you and thanks for being on Iowa Press.

Tiffany O'Donnell

Thanks Clay.

Russ Trimble

Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Clay Masters

Across the table, journalists joining us today, Linh Ta, reporter for Axios Des Moines, and Caleb McCullough, the Des Moines bureau chief for Lee Enterprises.

Caleb McCullough

All right. So we're going to start today with something simple and easy property taxes. Cities always want to keep their revenue strong while keeping the tax burden for homeowners low. So I just want to ask, what is the property tax situation in both your cities and how do you try to balance those things? Tiffany?

Tiffany O'Donnell

Yeah, thanks for asking that. It is something that, you know, cities are certainly talking about as our legislature makes moves, I think, to make, you know, property give us some property tax relief. I think as mayors, too, we are uniquely connected to the individuals that are feeling feeling the pinch these days. And so, you know, it's incredibly encouraging to have a legislature making moves to lower our property taxes.

That being said, it's really incumbent upon cities to figure out how to adapt. And, you know, I think of it as an opportunity to just encourage our legislature, again, to allow local municipalities more local control or at least maintain the local control in terms of, for example, tools in our toolboxes, you know, allow us those tax increment financing.

Let us let us have that tool, you know, allow us more opportunities to control our own destiny. In Cedar Rapids, it's a local option sales tax. You know, our voters said we want to put money toward streets. We let them vote for that. So as we look at property tax relief and having to adjust our budgets, I just want to encourage, you know, our friends in Des Moines to allow us to maintain those tools that we have to continue to innovate and grow as cities.

Russ Trimble

You know, we are really proud of what we've done to cut property taxes in West Des Moines. When I took office back in 2009, our property taxes were $12.05 per thousand, and today they're down to $10.90 per thousand. So we know how hard people work to put food on the table. We've got seniors on fixed incomes and we've got young families that are working hard to make ends meet.

And so we're working as often as we can to reduce our property tax burden for our residents. And we're really proud of the job that we've done in that area.

Linh Ta

The legislature passed a bill this last year that's meant to give $100 million in property tax relief to homeowner home owners. But it does that by limiting the revenue growth for cities and counties. Do you feel like that penalizes you for being successful? Tiffany?

Tiffany O'Donnell

I don't know if I'd say it penalizes us. I do think it does provide an opportunity for us to, you know, find find new ways to be successful and again, allowing our cities to to maintain home rule and local control over ways to fill those gaps because there will be gaps is really is really important.

Russ Trimble

Right. I think, you know, the bill helps reduce property taxes for our residents. We want that. You know, we're going to look to piggyback on that and continue to reduce property taxes when possible. But we need to make sure that we're also providing essential services that our residents have come to depend on. And I think that's extremely important and why it's important for local decision makers to make those decisions, because we know the tax revenue that we need to provide those essential services.

But I I'm grateful to the legislature for passing that bill and helping to reduce property taxes for our residents. The only thing that I don't like is that we can't take credit for that property tax reduction. They get the credit for that.

Tiffany O'Donnell

So, you know, one thing I might just add, just just to sort of put context around that. Like you, the city of Cedar Rapids is completely committed to public safety. I mean, if we can't get public safety right in our cities, I'm not sure why we're even here. That being said, no one's ever going to take away from that budget.

What we may not be able to do, though, is augment some of the same mental health support that I know in Cedar Rapids. We've added mental health support teams alongside our officers. We'd like to add to that, you know, when revenue is affected, this might force us to either either put that on pause or, you know, something has to go.

There's no free lunch, right? So something has to go knowing that law enforcement isn't going to be affected in terms of being cut. You know, there are questions about how fast can we innovate and grow like we want to.

Russ Trimble

And I would build on that. We're looking at trying to create efficiencies in city government. We're taking a look at all of our departments, you know, how they're staffed. Is there a way to be more efficient, more effective in the delivery of services? And this bill, we were looking at doing that before, but this kind of forces us to create more efficiencies in the delivery of services.

Clay Masters

Well, let's let's look at this big picture here. So we're talking about legislative issues, state issues. The role of mayor across the state is a technically nonpartisan job. You're both registered Republicans in this time of such divisive politics. Tiffany, I'll start with you. Is there such a thing as a nonpartisan office?

Tiffany O'Donnell

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think Cedar Rapids is a great example. Probably say the same about West Des Moines. When your mission is clear and in local government, it may be truly the last bastion. I'm not sure where this can actually happen because your mission is so focused and it is right in front of you. It is at the grocery store, it is in your neighborhood.

You know, the people directly affected by what you're doing. So in local government, we have people from all different political backgrounds on our city council, but our mission is the same. And when it's public safety, when it's streets, when it's mental health, when it's affordable housing, it's amazing how all of those issues and individuals come together.

Clay Masters

And you work for a Republican elected state official, how do you come at that question?

Russ Trimble

You know what? Nonpartisan local elections are extremely important. You know, as Tiffany said, we've got Republicans, Democrats, no party on the city council, and we work together for the betterment of the people. Streets and sewers, those know no party. So, you know, I love that it's nonpartisan in office. I pride myself on maintaining my nonpartisanship as mayor. And like I said, we just work together for the betterment of the people and get things done and solve problems.

And really, I think other governmental entities could probably learn from us.

Tiffany O'Donnell

You know, I'll put this out there since we are in an election season, I can't say enough how important it is. You know, activists have a role in our communities. I'm not sure activists have a role on councils because this can't be dug in. You just can't be so hard to get things done.

Clay Masters

What about when there's like legislation that came forward that was seen by a lot of LGBTQ advocates as being harmful to their communities? How do you come out at some of those conversations that are coming forward to advocating for people that say that this is suppressing their rights as a as a resident of your city?

Tiffany O'Donnell

In Cedar Rapids, we're really mindful about our LGBTQ community being a really important part and contributor to so many areas in our city. Again, these are my friends. These are my neighbors. These represent a community where I want everybody in our council wants everybody to feel like they belong. We're going to do what's best for the entire community.

And if that means a show of support, you know, just reinforcing our beliefs that we're a better city when we have people that are different than us here. Right. We're going to do that.

Russ Trimble

I couldn't agree more. We celebrate our differences. You know, West Des Moines is a place that's a welcoming city where everybody has an equal opportunity to grow and thrive. We are proud of that. And, you know, we do everything we can to make sure that people are treated with dignity and respect.

Caleb McCullough

Now, you mentioned the local option sales tax. And, you know, back at the legislature again, there have been proposals to eliminate that. And one this year, you know, suggested raising the state sales tax by a penny and giving some of that revenue back to cities, but eliminating your option to raise your own sales tax. Obviously, both of your cities rely on the revenue. What are your thoughts?

Tiffany O'Donnell

Well, boo, in one word, I'd say, because I really appreciate the citizens who are most affected by streets to be able to have the opportunity to say we want to put money towards our streets. I think it's it's not unlike Iowans who get a little more skeptical when they have to send their money to Washington. And we do it, but we're not so sure we know where it's going.

Local citizens should have the right to say this. I will I will pay for streets in my in my neighborhood. It's not that they don't trust Des Moines, but to add another layer in there, especially after a city like Cedar Rapids has actually already passed a local option. Sales tax, I think would be unfair.

Russ Trimble

I like that the citizens have a say on how we use that revenue. You know, we've committed to increasing quality of life with that revenue. We've committed to hiring more police officers, firefighters and of course, reducing property taxes with that. That said, I've seen the bill. I was working in the legislature at the time that that bill was crafted, and I'm not worried about receiving less revenue as a result of that bill.

I know Senator Dan Dawson very well. He's a good friend of mine and I know that he wants to make sure that he holds cities harmless and that nobody has a reduction in revenue. If that legislation were to take effect.

Linh Ta

Workforce shortages are one of the biggest issues facing the state right now in your city. How are you ensuring that there is affordable housing, especially for workers who are doing lower income jobs, possibly like the retail industry? Tiffany?

Tiffany O'Donnell

It is important. It is it is a priority of our city council and our city staff to make sure that we do have housing for all the people that we are welcoming into our community.

You know, we've had a record number of building permits last year. You know, our population in Cedar Rapids is growing at two times the rate of our state as a whole. So we know we can't continue to recruit companies and people if we don't have places for them to live. So as a city, you know, we've been just been designated, I believe, West Des Moines, too, as a thriving community by our state, which again offers us opportunities to provide more incentives for developers to make that affordable housing as a downtown vision plan.

We also created incentives to convert a much of our downtown into more affordable housing market rate as well as affordable. So as a city, there is a role to play in ensuring that, you know, we do provide that housing and we it's a priority for our city.

Russ Trimble

It's a priority for us as well. I'm proud of the efforts that we've taken and affordable housing. You know, we want to make sure that when our kids go off to college, that they can come back and they can get a job and live and work in the community they were raised in. We've had upper storey housing program in Valley Junction, which has been a huge success, led to 40 affordable housing units and Valley Junction.

We have we've got three other affordable housing programs in Valley Junction as well to beautify the neighborhoods, to revitalize the housing stock, and to help low and moderate income buyers get into their first time homes. So it's an extremely important issue we're working really hard on, and I'm proud of all the things that we've done in the way of affordable housing.

And we're going to continue to do those things in the future.

Tiffany O'Donnell

And I think one of the things to add when you talk about affordable housing that isn't often talked about is the missing middle. That's also a part of affordable housing. So these are the young professionals that you talk about that we want either to stay in our communities or certainly come back to our communities that make a decent living.

I mean, if 50 or $60,000 salary is is a decent salary, but if you've got student debt, that does make you know, you make too much money. So you can't live in that affordable housing, but you don't make enough to live in the market rate. So the city of Cedar Rapids does have an eye in putting some of our, for example, CDBG funds that we get toward affordable housing and specifically toward incentivizing missing middle housing.

Clay Masters

I want to get into a couple specific to the cities in which you guys represent. And we'll start with Cedar Rapids. One of the big statewide issues that the lens was kind of focused on Cedar Rapids had to do with the casino. There’s a two-year moratorium. I think that ends in the summer. Am I right?

Tiffany O'Donnell

Yeah. One year left.

Clay Masters

One year left. Okay.

Tiffany O'Donnell

But who’s counting?

Clay Masters

But who's counting? I think you are. But it's been denied now twice by the Gaming Commission. Where do you come at this right now? Are you still advocating for a casino to be in Cedar Rapids?

Tiffany O'Donnell

Absolutely. And because the citizens of Cedar Rapids have said three times they want a casino in Linn County. Our city is still committed and still advocating and still believes in the casino project, specifically in our downtown. For a variety of reasons. We think as a state, we should we should really pay attention to what's happening on our borders.

And we really do rely on gaming revenue in our state. And we anticipate and our independent studies have shown, that we will see an adverse effect by competitors on both sides of the border. So in Cedar Rapids, we have the location, we have a partner that we've aligned with that is a group of locally owned investors, which I think is also critical.

That is not just a gaming facility, it is entertainment facility that represents the way people game.

Clay Masters

But just to play devil's advocate, if you've been told twice that it's not going to happen, would that land not be used in a better way?

Tiffany O'Donnell

It will actually be used one way or the other. Right now, it is reserved for, you know, what our downtown vision plan indicates is that casino project.

Linh Ta

In West Des Moines. You know, I feel like the big talk is always all these new developments that you guys have going on. So, you know, Great Wolf Lodge, the new aquarium that's coming. But how do you balance that and how do you still attract businesses to come and develop in some more aging areas like the Valley West Mall corridor.

Russ Trimble

Yeah. Valley West Mall corridor is going to be huge over the next couple of years. We've put a lot of resources, city resources into revitalizing Valley Junction, and it's had a massive effect. If you look at Valley Junction, if you haven't been there in a while, it is absolutely hopping. There are 30 businesses waiting to get into locations in Valley Junction.

And so we know how important working on older parts of the city are as we're continuing to grow and develop. And we're going to be focusing on redevelop redevelopment of Valley West Mall in the future. We've got a lot of interest from developers in that area, and we had a developer sit down with us and ask if the city was interested in contributing towards this redevelopment.

And my answer to them was, absolutely, But you're going to have to knock our socks off. We want to have an unbelievable development where Valley West Mall currently stands and we are extremely eager to get going and redevelop that area. We just need US bank to let go of that property and sell it to a willing developer.

Caleb McCullough

So on that note, do you feel any competition with Des Moines when it comes to businesses? And I guess do you feel like you need a certain level of a vibrant city core to attract people to come to those businesses?

Russ Trimble

You know, we all work together in the metro. We all want each other to do well, but we are very competitive, no doubt about that. But we're just focusing on our own development in West Des Moines, and we're very aggressive on economic development and trying to get businesses to come to our community and to try to help the businesses that are there to grow and expand and add high quality jobs.

And we're working to do that by adding quality of life amenities that employers want that help attract the best and the brightest. We've got the Mid-American Energy Company Rec plex that we've brought online. We've got the Jamie Hurd Amphitheater. We've got the Raccoon River boat house in our community. And we're working hard to be smart yet aggressive with economic development incentives to lure businesses in and help those businesses there grow and expand.

So I do think and TIF is an important tool, tax increment financing. I hope that doesn't get taken away from us. It's one of the only economic development tools we have. But I do think that there is some reform of TIF that could be done. For example, I don't believe that we should be competing with each other in the same MSA and taking each other's businesses.

And we have something in place that the Greater Des Moines Partnership put that it's basically we're not to compete with each other and take each other's businesses, but there's really no teeth in that when it happens. And I really hate to see that happen. And it's not a win for the taxpayers when that does occur. So I wouldn't mind if that was a reform of TIF that if a business is going to move from one community to another, that that's fine.

But then you either have no incentives from the receiving city or you can only offer the same incentives that they were offered in the home city.

Caleb McCullough

Now, the American Rescue Plan sent millions of dollars to cities. So I want to know, how have you been spending that money? How much do you have left to spend, and where are you going to prioritize that?

Tiffany O'Donnell

Well, ours is primarily what you mentioned affordable housing, affordable housing, workforce development. And I have to you can't talk about Cedar Rapids without talking about flood mitigation from the floods of ‘08. And so the city has put a significant amount, 10 million specifically, that goes to supporting the west side of our river that isn't protected by federal-state funding as well.

So, yes, it has all been allocated, not all of it's been spending, but it's spent, but it's all been allocated.

Russ Trimble

We've used some of our resources for affordable housing. We're also using it for paying for the Mid-American Energy Company Rec Plex and other important quality of life amenities around the city that we need to fund.

Caleb McCullough

Do you have any that hasn't been allocated yet or has it all?

Russ Trimble

No, I think I think everything's been been maybe committed several times over for various projects as we were going through and trying to figure out where we needed to deploy those resources. And I think ultimately they're ending, you know, going towards the quality of life amenities and some affordable housing projects and various things. But that that could change.

I know it's been committed, but I'm not sure that it's been spent yet.

Clay Masters

Talking about the American rescue plan kind of brings up COVID, right? Because that's how it came to be. What about return to work? As you've seen, people have to start transitioning or have slowly started coming back to the workplace, to offices. How has that kind of just changed in your cities? We'll start with Cedar Rapids.

Tiffany O'Donnell

Yeah, absolutely, because downtown is the heart of our city and downtowns across this country are reimagining what they look like, which, you know, I always consider an opportunity. We've actually enlisted some outside support in the forms of consultants for a new downtown vision plan, because we we do know that while people are coming back to work and I really tip my hat to those companies that are strongly encouraging people to come back and cities like downtown Des Moines that are incentivizing companies who bring their people back to work every day.

While I support that, we also do need to be realistic and adapt. And so in Cedar Rapids, for example, this vision plan offers us an opportunity to diversify the housing options, which we've touched upon it. Also, we talk a lot about amenities in the downtown vision plan. People want to be able to walk to where they live, work and play.

And so you'll see changes in how our downtown looks in terms of day to day life in 15 minute walkable neighborhoods, which is a priority in Cedar Rapids, as well as activating our Cedar River, which is also the heart of our downtown Ross.

Clay Masters

Russ, in West Des Moines?

Russ Trimble

You know, I think we have a lot of people in West Des Moines that are back to work. I think maybe some of the businesses have changed their work from home policies and maybe they're down to a day or two for people working from home. I know that Wells Fargo has got everybody under one roof, if you will. They do have some work from home policies.

Otherwise, that wouldn't be possible for the number of employees that they have out in West Des Moines. But for the most part, I think a lot of people in West Des Moines are back to work. We are keeping in contact with our business owners and our developers to find out, you know, how these office users are using the office, how many people are in the office, because this is a big deal.

I mean, if they're going to continue to work from home for a number of days a week, people are going to want smaller footprints in these office buildings and there's going to be more vacancies, which is going to result in lower property taxes being paid and lower revenues into the city. So we do have a handle on it.

We are paying attention to that. But I don't think we've had a huge impact in West Des Moines at this point. A lot of people are back to work.

Clay Masters

Linh,

Linh Ta

I'm over in West Des Moines and in the central Iowa area, there's talks about regionalizing the water utilities and creating the central Iowa water works. How would that work? And is that a plus for West Des Moines?

Russ Trimble

Well, you know, we've got a water works board. It's a it's a separate board that deals with these issues. And, you know, we've been told a number of times that this is not our jurisdiction and to stay out of it. But we have been involved in some of the conversations on regionalizing water, and I think it's going to be a great thing.

Everybody that is involved in the partnership is going to have a seat at the table and a say on how things operate. It's going to be able to keep the cost of water more affordable for everybody in the metro. And most importantly, it's going to help us to meet that demand that we know we have coming in the future, especially out in the western suburbs as we're continuing to grow and expand.

So I think it's going to be a good thing overall to regionalize the water. But there are some people that do have some concerns, but for the most part, I think everybody's coming together and sees the benefit of it.

Clay Masters

Tiffany, on the same topic of water utility. I'm amazed at when I'm driving from Iowa City to Cedar Rapids. When I was a kid driving that, it felt like there was a really long distance between those two cities. And it just seems like it's slowly, or maybe much faster than I even realize, getting closer together as far as utilities go with water.

I mean, are those kinds of conversations taking place in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa City area?

Tiffany O'Donnell

Absolutely. It's interesting, Clay, and we used to talk about something called the corridor, and now it really exists. You're absolutely right. It's we are all connected in that in that 380 corridor. One of the biggest lessons I learned when I first became mayor, now just into my second year, the first thing businesses ask about as a manufacturing city primarily is about water and wastewater.

And it is it is such an integral part of our development of our city's development. And we're super proud of being the best tasting water in Iowa. So water and utilities, it's critical not just to our citizens, but it's critical to our growth, which is why we do have a strategic plan that is constantly continuing to innovate, knowing that we need capacity for the companies that continue to look at us like Sub-Zero, for example, our most recent addition to our to our corridor. Water is extremely important to the future.

Clay Masters

Linh, did you have a follow up?

Linh Ta

Yeah. One of the things I've been wondering, especially as there's economic headwinds coming up, how is development going in your cities and how are you able to stretch your dollars at the moment? Is it stifling construction at all?

Tiffany O'Donnell

It actually we have had a record year in terms of building permits in Cedar Rapids, and that's been the case for the last two years.

And I think part of the secret sauce of where we are as the second largest city is we do have such a diversity of industry. So we are not only a manufacturing city, but we're literally the largest corn processing city in the world. So you have manufacturing. You have food processing. You have bioprocessing, biofuels. You have, I see your...

Tiffany O'Donnell

But defense, I mean, I could go on about that. It's really our secret sauce and it continues to grow.

Clay Masters

And Russ, we're wrapping up here, but how would you come at that question quickly? Sorry to give you the lightning round.

Russ Trimble

How would I come to the question? We're continuing to see record years of economic growth and development as well. It's been unbelievable. We've got Dave and Busters. Top Golf is coming. We have Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, We've got two different Microsoft data centers that are going at the same time. Things have been incredible in West Des Moines. We are seeing interest rates starting to cause some issues with some developments moving forward.

They continue to move forward, but no doubt about it, the interest rate environment is is not helping development.

Clay Masters

And we need to start moving forward with this conversation because we're out of time. Thank you both for being on Iowa for us today.

Tiffany O'Donnell

Thank you.

Russ Trimble

Thank you so much for having us. Really appreciate it.

Clay Masters

If you missed any of this show or want to watch a previous show, you can find all Iowa Press episodes online at Iowa PBS.org. For everyone here at Iowa, PBS, I'm Clay Masters. Thanks for joining us today.

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