Saying Goodbye to the Commission

Much was written in Cedar Rapids last summer about our commission form of city government -- an apparently antiquated form comprised of a fulltime mayor and four fulltime commissioners that oversee various aspects of city development. Yesterday, the Commissioners of Streets, Public Safety, Parks, and Finance, as well as the mayor, held their last meeting. Beginning in January, Cedar Rapids will operate under a charter system that employs a parttime mayor and council members that represent various geographic divisions of the city. Those individuals have already been elected. Cedar Rapids will no longer be one of two cities in the U.S. (with a population over 100,000) under commission rule. That lone distinction now falls to Portland, Oregon (if you're the mayor of Portland, look out!).

When the citizens of Cedar Rapids voted last summer on whether to change government form or not, I found myself ambivalent. I wondered what was more important, the form of local government, or the qualities of those serving? Which is more important, the form or the people? I also wondered if Cedar Rapids would have been a substantially different city had the government form been changed 40 years ago, and if the city would be different 40 years from now? And then, I questioned how much authority local government even has, whether good or bad?

I never really answered those questions, and even today I don't care much about one form over another. And since then, I moved to Marion, so Cedar Rapids politics are no longer on my ballot.

But I have to say, I felt sorry for the five men (no women) who left the council chambers last night, likely for the last time as officeholders. I don't know any of them personally, but for the most part they strike me as pretty good guys. Outgoing Mayor Paul Pate is about the most patient man I've ever seen, putting up with a handful of yahoos every week who march into the council meetings and yak about the dumbest things that "concern" them. In my mind, it's these citizen "watchdogs" that hold Cedar Rapids back more than one form of government or another.

So, my thanks go out to Paul Pate, Lyle Hanson, Wade Wagner, Don Thomas, and David Zahn for serving the city these past years. You can claim to have never lost a re-election ... just a position within a replaced government. And to those coming in as parttime council memebers ... I think you have your work cut out for you. Be sure to bring fresh meat to appease those watchdogs.