Candidate Q&A: Phil Yerington
Office sought: Davenport, Mayor
What are the most significant challenges facing neighborhoods? How would you address them?
The biggest challenges facing neighborhoods in Davenport differ from region to region. Below Locust Street, blight is common with many abandoned houses and problem rental properties. Neighbors in the central city feel neglected and abandoned by city government. In those neighborhoods, the city must work hand-in-hand with agencies such as Neighborhood Housing Services and other groups, offering tax abatements and incentives to people considering rehabilitating old homes. We must establish city ordinances that mandate that all rental property owners complete the Crime Free Multi-Housing Program sponsored by the Davenport Police Department. Failure to complete this program in an allotted time would prevent that owner from obtaining a rental license. This program has proven to be successful and would go a long way in assuring that landlords make every attempt to rent to responsible people. Once the rental property owners are trained and develop a pattern of responsible renting, inspection intervals can be increased as an incentive to maintain their clean record. Laws need to be implemented to help them with bad tenants. Tenant accountability is as important as landlord responsibility.
The people on the west side of Davenport have felt left out of the overall plans of Davenport for years. These citizens are facing an aging infrastructure, similar to the central city, and are relying on Davenport's commitment to the west side sewer interceptor to alleviate some of their sewer concerns and watch their portion of Davenport grow. We must complete this massive project and recruit businesses to the west side of town. Making these people feel included involves communicating with them and listening to their complaints and suggestions and acting upon them.
Northern Davenport and the east side of town do not seem to face the same types of problems as those in the central city and on the west side. However, they need to feel safe and secure in their homes, and we need to maintain the basic services that are important to them. With the current housing crisis facing America, and the possibility of Davenport seeing a foreclosure rate of 10 percent for the 25,000 homeowners (NHS Yearly Report), city government must help recruit and support programs that assist people in keeping their homes.
And we must clean up Davenport. We need to make property owners responsible for keeping their yards clean, safe and healthy. Abandoned cars continue to be a problem and add to the negative image of the city. That is a problem that can be addressed by street officers as they have time. It's a simple process that takes little time. I've done it!
But our No. 1 priority must be public safety. If we don't take the steps to make our citizens feel safe, we won't keep them in Davenport anyway. People in Davenport have been "voting with their feet" for the past six years. They're moving to those communities that surround us where they have access to our facilities, but live outside of Davenport.
What’s most important, providing basic services or adding amenities for residents and visitors? What approach would you take?
Basic services must come first. People rely on their government to keep them safe, pick up their garbage, clean their streets and respond to their problems. They count on some simple amenities such as clean, safe, parks, swimming pools, amateur sports facilities and golf courses. Davenport has done a good job supplying and maintaining those normal public amenities. During my first two terms as now, basic services will be my No. 1 priority.
Amenities are nice, but if the people using those amenities are living in the smaller towns surrounding us (and they will) it does nothing to help our situation. We have an excellent opportunity to provide unique amenities along the 9.5 miles of riverfront property in the city. We need to move carefully and cautiously and look to cities like Dubuque, Iowa, Chattanooga, Tenn., San Antonio, Texas, and others for ideas on how to make our project a tourist attraction. River Renaissance can still be salvaged, however we need to return to the plan that we sold the public. Downtown should be developed for its residential advantages and as mayor, I would solicit a grocery store and pharmacy in the downtown area to attract residents. Once the residents are established, retail will follow.
What are the city’s most important infrastructure needs?
America's infrastructure needs have surpassed $1.3 trillion. Davenport is no exception. The west-side sewer interceptor is the primary infrastructure need in Davenport. It must be our top priority and every attempt should be made to obtain as much federal funding assistance as is possible. There are sewer problems in the neighborhoods below the Fejervary Park swimming pool that were addressed during my first term that must be maintained, and the area just to the north of West High School still suffers sewer problems after a heavy rain.
We have made progress with our street programs, however Rockingham Road from Howell to U.S. 61 is in desperate need of renovations to handle the semi-truck traffic from the industries and shipping companies along that road. Neighbors have complained about Rockingham since before my first term.
We also need to make certain we properly supervise those subcontractors who do work for the city. Roads have deteriorated too soon after their construction, which suggests the city didn't get their money's worth from those companies who performed the construction.
How would you approach economic development?
If we don't change our image as a city government, no one will locate a new business or new home in Davenport. Professional government must return, and I believe I can assist that because I have been the mayor before and I know about the mistakes a person makes when they first take office. I promise not to repeat those mistakes. The mayor must be the leader of the city, a difficult role due to the various personalities that often arrive in the form of new council members. And, the mayor must be the champion for recruiting new businesses and jobs for Davenport.
City government must work hand-in-hand with the chamber of commerce, something that the majority of our citizens don't feel is happening. Whether we like it or not, west of Brady Street, DavenportOne is looked upon as the "Evil Empire." That is not the fault of D1, but the failure of the past two mayors to demonstrate the need for D1 to be involved for us to be successful in the economic development field. I can help the reputation of D1 with "blue collar" Davenport because I have successfully worked with D1 in the past (River Renaissance being the biggest example as it was the single largest public/private partnership in our city's history) and I can gain the trust of those who feel that D1 runs the show. If the past two mayors had been more of a diplomat than a participant with D1, this image problem that both the city and D1 are experiencing would probably not be as severe.
Does the city have enough police officers? Are they deployed properly? What is the council’s role in promoting public safety?
Until we demand that the next police chief restructure the PD and concentrate on patrol functions and the prompt response to calls for service, I don't think we know if we have enough police officers. No mayor wants to say "we have enough cops," because every mayor should want as many as he can get. But the past chief concentrated too much on warm and fuzzy special units and not enough on public response to crime. We need to be proactive, not reactive, and we need to regain the public trust.
The council's role is to support the police department and stop using them as their own, personal "response team." I was a member of the PD when the aldermen ran the department ragged with requests. I would support a system where the aldermen and the mayor complete a form for "extra patrol" and submit it to the chief's office. That form would be the basis for the police department deciding on the priority of the request. The council and mayor must have the confidence that their requests will be handled in a timely fashion, but not necessarily be a priority.
Lastly, as mayor, I will approach Genesis Medical Center, St. Ambrose University and Palmer College of Chiropractic, and negotiate a "public service fee" for the enhancement of police and fire services. This would be done as a PILOT program, and in exchange for their participation, I would allow them to "advertise" on the trunk of the police vehicles and sides of the fire trucks stating that the vehicle and officer/fireman was paid for by one of these agencies. Currently, CityBus uses advertisements on our buses, and other police departments across the nation have sought to "sell" advertising space on their vehicles to offset public safety costs. I have chosen these three organizations because they have taken numerous houses off of the tax rolls due to their development over the years. It only seems fair, and I believe all three organizations would be willing to participate for this excellent cause.
How would you handle situations in which you disagree with another council member or members? Or does it matter?
Who doesn't argue about politics? It just doesn't have to happen on the city's cable television station or in the media. I'm no stranger to conflict within the city council. But I have learned from those past mistakes and matured past making them again. I have become a better communicator and feel that most of what the past three councils have done in front of the camera should have taken place on the 3rd floor out of the public eye. The mayor must be a leader and a negotiator. It's up to him to do the best he can to insure a professional demeanor for city government.
And, yes, it matters. As I've said before, if our city's image doesn't improve, and fast, we will continue to be the laughing stock of the Midwest and will lose out on prospective new businesses and residents.
Should the Isle of Capri take over the RiverCenter South? If not, what should the city encourage the Isle to do?
No, the IOC does not belong in the RiverCenter. It belongs along the Interstate 80, Interstate 280 corridor where it will bring in "new money," or that from tourists and those passing by on those highways. Right now the casino is taking in local money which really has no positive benefit for the city other than the contributions the IOC makes to us as part of their contract. The current council and mayor should have negotiated the northern part of the city for their relocation. In fact, we have plenty of land at 53rd and Eastern where they could locate and help us with the construction of 67th Street as a thoroughfare. And, if they really wanted a golf course, I'm sure we could dig out the old 53rd and Eastern Multi-Use land plan and give it to the IOC!
What is your vision for Davenport?
I was born and raised in Davenport and have two college educated children and neither wants to stay here. To me, that's very sad. I want us to return to the solid community that we once were, with strong, residential neighborhoods and residential opportunities; a solid educational foundation; clean, safe city streets and neighborhoods; and having safe, clean public amenities for our people. We can then polish ourselves up and seek the attractions that make people want to visit here, but those amenities are the icing on the cake. And right now, our cake isn't in very good shape.
We also need to recruit new businesses and therefore new jobs to the area. Not Cingular type businesses that don't pay a living wage, but strong, professional jobs that allow parents to locate here and comfortably raise their families. Don't get me wrong, jobs are jobs, but those that pay less than living wages often require parents to work secondary jobs. That can lead to unsupervised children that can lead to juvenile crime that will lead to more police services. That is a cycle that we must break if we want to be one of America's premier river cities.
We are a strong, caring community and we're better than we've appeared in the past few years. But people are leaving Davenport. One only has to look at the residential development of our neighboring communities to see that they are growing and we're not. Abandoned houses are on the rise, and the foreclosure rate could be fatal to the revival of our town. The best people in the Midwest live here and they deserve our very best. And I want to be their leader in making these changes.