What do you do when your City Council changes a law without the public’s input or even an official vote. You contact the State of Iowa’s Citizen’s Aide/Ombudsman. A group of citizens in Cedar Rapids were tired of what was going on in their community and had a meeting. I was chosen to be the spokesperson. I talked to the Ombudsman’s office and told them of our concern.
A year or so after the flood of 2008 it was obvious to all that there were going to be many needs of Citizens that were not going to be met through FEMA and Jumpstart. A couple of the communities that were hit with flood waters were working class neighborhoods. Many of these people are retired and on a fixed income, many more live from paycheck to paycheck.
Discussions began about a local option sales tax. As the discussions continued, many citizens were concerned that if the tax were passed there would be no guarantee that the money would be used by the council in the way it was meant to be. A lack of trust in politicians is nothing new.
On February 20, 2009, the City Council sent out a press release. This is a portion of that release.
Council Member Chuck Wieneke was appointed to be the liaison between the Council and flood victims. He was quoted in the Press Release saying “… all the other flooded homes”.
On March 3, 2009 the citizens voted and the L.O.S.T. became a new tax of.01. We were believing the money would be spent helping out the flooded home owners. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Mayor Ron Corbett and Councilman Chuck Wieneke will tell you in no uncertain terms that they will NOT spend one dime on the properties of the Greenway and Construction Zones. These self-drawn zones by the City of Cedar Rapids did not appear until 6 months or so after the vote. All of a sudden we don’t have “all the other flooded homes” we have “all the other flooded homes BUT those in the Greenway or Construction/Study Zones”.
This is not what we voted for. How can they change it? We don’t know and that is why we contacted the Ombudsman’s Office. If they can change the meaning of this law what’s to keep them from changing anything else their hard-hearted selves want to do? Doesn’t the rule of law mean anything? If not, losing our homes is the least of our concerns.
Mayor Corbett told me that the City Council changed it (the law) and we could do nothing about it. I told him to change it back. He quickly told me he did not have the votes to do it. Can you believe that? Ron Corbett saying he doesn’t have the votes to do something and letting that stop him. I asked him about it again and he lost his temper, in public. Yes, he got that mad. The group at www.crsmells.com is going to put up portions of the taped conversation with the Mayor. I sure don’t have anything to lose with it. He told the other participants they needed to distance themselves from me. He said I had burned all sorts of bridges. Maybe, we’ll have them post that part of the conversation as well.
Now we wait to see what the Ombudsman’s Office has to say. I’ve gotten nothing in writing but I have been told they are looking into the matter. They have requested information from the City.
I hope we are able to get the City Council back to the original intent of the law and repair the homes before the City is able to demolish them all.
Wish us luck, or call the Ombudsman’s Office and tell them you can’t believe this is happening in Iowa!
