City of Cedar Rapids will swear in second Mayor, Ron Corbett, to serve under Community's Local Home Rule Charter

"It's been a long path for me to get here, but it has been an even longer path
for all those who were so dramatically affected by the flood. I plan to hit the
ground running just as soon as I get sworn in." - Ron Corbett

Corbett Campaign: Corbett set to be sworn in Saturday - IowaPolictics.com (press release)
Cedar Rapids- Mayor-elect, Ron Corbett is set to be sworn in along with other new city council members this Saturday, January 2nd, at the Veterans Memorial ...

The voters in June 2005 in Cedar Rapids adopted the Council-Manager form of government when they over whelming approved the City's Local Home Rule Charter with over 69% support. The transition to the new form of government has been extremely rocky.

The leadership style of the outgoing mayor contributed greatly to the rocky transition. Further, the hiring of a proponent to the Carver Governance Model may have contributed greatly, especially, with the City Council's inaction establishing the board's pre-stated standards of prudence and ethics and implementing policy to assist in the transition from the Commission form of government to the Council-Manager form of government. The Council dropped the ball on the Ethics section of the City Charter.

The first two and half years were extremely rocky and the expected building blocks were lacking in the transition. Then, the worse natural disaster in the State of Iowa's history occurs in June 2008, with the Flood of 2008.

It will be a challenge for the new Mayor, the third City Council and the community to move forward. Embracing our City Charter and the culture, governance and leadership styles that make the City of Cedar Rapids who we are will be extremely important.

Best wishes to our new Mayor and our other leaders in our community in the New Year. There will be plenty of work ahead for all in our community.

Further, in 2010, we will see Republicans and Democrats conduct a Caucus statewide in each county for each precinct on January 23Rd at 1 p.m. Our State will have a primary in June and a general election in November, as well.

We encourage everyone to get involved and engage in the political process of caucusing, voting and discussing the public policy that our elected leaders will engage in at the local, state and Federal levels.

peace