City appears poised to ditch primary elections

Jan. 18—OTTUMWA — The City of Ottumwa seems ready to simplify its election process in the coming years.

During a work session following Tuesday's city council meeting, council members fully embraced the possibility of ending the primary system of elections, which has essentially done nothing but feature low turnout and five-figure expenses for the city.

The city is not required by law to have a primary system, and the idea of rethinking it was broached a couple years ago to the council by county Democratic leader Mary Stewart. It will take an ordinance change to remove the primary from the city's code, but the discussion was a sigh of relief for many council members.

A revised ordinance is likely headed to a council agenda for approval in the near future.

"I don't want to say it's a waste of money, but it's a cost that we don't need to incur," council member Bill Hoffman Jr. said. "You know, it hasn't been very often where we've had a huge number of people run.

"I just think we go by the top vote-getters of whoever runs, and the top vote-getters get it."

The last time a plethora of candidates ran in a primary was 2021, when nine citizens were vying for three council seats and three mayoral candidates sought to succeed Tom Lazio in that seat. The primary cost the city over $13,000 to whittle the council pool to five candidates and the mayor's set to two.

"An alternate method would be to have a runoff, and Lord help us if we want that," council member Keith Caviness said. "Every time it's between $10,000 and $15,000 for a primary, and if you look at the records, you'll find that the people who run in the primary, and win the primary, usually are elected to the official job opening.

"I just think it's something that we really need to take care of, and conserve dollars as much as possible."

Another item discussed during the work session was the possibility of changing the mayor's term from four years to two, which it had been before 2017.

There was no indication why that came up during the discussion, but the council, as well as Lazio, the last mayor to serve a two-year term, was inclined to keep it a four-year term to match council members' terms.

"As soon as you get started in the job, you have to start thinking about running for re-election, and that takes time and energy from the job," Lazio said in remarks to the council. "It also adds a fair amount of expense to the city when you have to conduct an election.

"I think the other thing is that (a two-year term) doesn't give a mayor's position the chance to really concentrate on long-range planning that should be one of the goals of the council."

It would also require an ordinance change to change the mayor's term, but none of the council members found it to be appropriate.

"I think we haven't really seen the full impacts of a four-year term," council member Cara Galloway said. "We are all very aware that we had a very green council and mayor (in 2021), and it took us a few years to really understand that flow."

McAntire also believed in keeping the term at four years, with the only perk of a two-year term "maybe you get more people to run."

Cyan Bossou, who is filling a council vacancy for two years, echoed many of her colleagues' opinions.

"As someone taking over a two-year term, it's daunting to have to get all the things done in a short amount of time," she said. "Also, if moving a term to two years makes it more 'marketable' I suppose, then maybe those aren't the people that should be running for mayor."

Galloway, who was elected in 2021, said it has taken her two years to really get acclimated to her job. Caviness also believed a four-year term for mayor is beneficial for the city.

"I was not on the council at the time (when they changed it), but I was a person who encouraged the four-year term for mayor," he said. "And I'm still hoping the council won't change that. It's a good measure for the mayor to come in, get his feet on the ground and work with the council to accomplish things as much as possible."

— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com, and on Twitter @ChadDrury