Corbett, Prosser jockey for the lead

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mayor-elect Ron Corbett said he and City Manager Jim Prosser are like dance partners who didn't invite each other to the dance.

They are dancing anyway.

The two met Saturday at the Spring House restaurant for an initial face-to-face after Corbett's landslide victory Tuesday over City Council member Brian Fagan. Fagan is a strong Prosser backer and was part of the council that hired Prosser three years ago.

A theme of Corbett's campaign was that the council had abdicated its leadership role to Prosser, giving him too much power to set policy and make decisions.

Before Saturday's breakfast meeting, Corbett repeated what he had said on the campaign trail: He will ask council colleagues to conduct a 90-day assessment of Prosser's performance.

“I'm not going to jump to the conclusion that it's going to be a positive or negative assessment,” Corbett said. “It has to be an honest 90-day assessment period.”

Corbett said that the City Hall landscape had changed Tuesday because of his 26-percentage-point victory, and he wants to see what Prosser's opinion of that is.

Corbett, 49, vice president of trucking firm CRST Inc., said he believes voters sent two messages: That Prosser and the council majority have made wrong decisions - including the push to build a $50 million City Hall - and that the council and Prosser generally have been too slow to act.

Prosser, 58, noted last week he had worked as city manager in Richfield, Minn., for 13 years under three mayors.

“It's not unusual to see that (city) managers are part of the campaign, part of the issues,” he said.

Prosser said there is a reason for elections, and after them, a city manager works with the new council to see what direction the council members, not just the new mayor, want to go.

As for Corbett's call for a 90-day assessment of him, Prosser said it was understandable.

“It's always important to get clearly defined expectations from whoever you're working with,” he said, “and that's the sense I get here.”

Exactly what changes Corbett will be able to insist upon is far from clear. The current nine-member council has had a working majority, and that majority has been pleased with Prosser.

Two members of that majority - current Mayor Kay Halloran and Fagan - will be gone, and it remains to be seen if Corbett can build his

own working majority. Council members Monica Vernon and Justin Shields supported Corbett in the campaign, as did Chuck Swore, who was elected Tuesday by a healthy margin to one of the city's at-large council positions.

Two races are up for grabs in a Dec. 1 runoff, a fact that last week had not gone unnoticed by either Corbett or Prosser.

In District 3, incumbent Jerry McGrane, who supported Corbett, is running against Pat Shey, an at-large council member; and Don Karr Jr., a Corbett supporter, is up against Aaron Saylor for an at-large seat.

Council member Chuck Wieneke, who represents District 4 and is a strong Prosser backer, said last week that Prosser isn't sitting around, clinging to his job.

“My biggest fear,” Wieneke said, “is that Jim Prosser will decide there's been enough criticism, and he will just walk out the door.”

Prosser's departure,

he said, would leave the city in the lurch for months while the council tried to find a replacement.

“There are cities in the country that would steal Prosser in a minute and give him a lot more money,” Wieneke said.

Prosser said his job is to serve the council and the community and to help the council achieve its goals.

“I came here because I want this job,” Prosser said. “This is what I want to do.”

Wieneke said there is some anti-Prosser sentiment in some circles in Cedar Rapids and among some backers of Mayor-elect Corbett. Some of those people, Wieneke said, haven't adjusted to the city's council/manager government. He said they miss the days when they could call City Hall and quickly get their way on things.

Wieneke said Corbett's biggest challenge will be to convince his supporters who want Prosser gone that, in fact, Prosser is invaluable and needs to stay.

The newly elected Swore was on the council in 2006 and supported hiring Prosser then.

Now, like Corbett, he believes Prosser has assumed too much control over city government.

“But if Ron and I are the only two who think that way, then nothing's going to change,” Swore said, “and I think that would be a huge disappointment.”

Under the city charter, it takes six of nine council votes to remove a city manager.

“I work at the pleasure of the council, and I understand and respect that,” Prosser said. “For me, this isn't about counting votes. It's about being effective.

“And if I'm not effective and I'm not contributing, then I shouldn't be here.”