Constitutent Services
A colleague recently showed me a post on Nextdoor.com from a neighbor of mine who shared that he was going door-to-door running for Alderperson—presumably 5th Ward Alderperson for the City of Rock Island. This was surprising seeing as how the current term for 5th Ward Alderperson runs until the spring of 2025. We all know any sense of normalcy with respect to campaign cycles has been obliterated at the federal government level, but it’s not so at the local level. Announcing one’s intention to run for a local office over a year from the election is unusual. It prompted me to question the candidate’s seriousness, but it nonetheless also forced me to consider the fact that my re-election is coming up sooner-than-later.
Much can happen in over a year, but if the 2025 general consolidated election were tomorrow, I’d be on the ballot. Thanks to the good graces of my neighbors (& family), I’ve had the privilege to serve as Rock Island’s 5th Ward Alderperson since the spring of 2017. I find much personal satisfaction in being able to help my neighbors and community and I hope I’m doing a good job. Being able to continue serving as Rock Island’s 5th Ward Alderperson is not a guarantee, obviously, so I am forced to consider my record and why my neighbors should continue to support my serving them as Alderperson. Every four years, I am forced to return to my neighbors with a sales pitch as to why they should vote for me.
As such, prompted by the unexpected and premature announcement of potential political opposition, I’ve spent the past few days considering the very question as to what I’ve accomplished and why I should be allowed the opportunity to continue serving my community on Rock Island’s City Council. As I’ve shared in previous posts, my understanding of the role and approach thereto has changed over the years and terms in office. If nothing else, I continue to age and with that comes different perspectives and considerations. While I remain relatively spry at 35 years of age, I already reflect on my behavior and mindset when I was first elected at 28-years-old and sometimes wince. On a personal note, it’s funny aging while serving in such a public spotlight. Speaking frankly, I was an idiot at 28—I assume I will think the same of me as a 35-year-old in my forties, perhaps, and so on. I look back on some of the bigger controversies of my younger years in office, such as the very public spat I had with the Quad Cities’ real estate community, with regret. In retrospect, it was very clearly the behavior and mindset of an edgy firebrand in their twenties. Since then, I’ve learned that alternative approaches are more effective and have tried my best to address issues via more appropriate avenues. My approach to working with my colleagues on Rock Island’s City Council has changed, too, since the more combative days that defined our debates on Alderperson spending or bar closing hours. To some I have apologized; others, I have worked to (re)build relationships. Some lessons are learned the hard way, as they say. In retrospect, I’m not sure what my neighbors were thinking when they elected such a young hot-head, but I am eternally grateful for their patience and support over the years. I understand the value of having young perspectives—which is why I assume I was favored in my first election—but I have come to appreciate the value of age and the wisdom that often accompanies it.
Not only have I noticed changes in my professionalism or approach I take for issues facing the City of Rock Island, I’ve also had to reconsider how to campaign. Honestly, the longer I do this, the less certain I know what I’m doing. I used to be a policy wonk—truth be told, I still am, but I’m less certain that’s what people want or care about. It used to enrage me when candidates would go on about how they were “for economic development” without articulating what they actually intended to do to encourage economic development. Obviously everyone is for economic development (except for, the degrowth folk), but as demonstrated by the lack of development for the City of Rock Island, the missing ingredient hasn’t been support of elected officials for economic development. I may have disagreed with the strategy pursued by the City Council prior to my election, but I don’t doubt their support for economic development. We simply had disagreements as to how to achieve said development.
For the 2021 election, I remember itemizing a very specific list of accomplishments and ambitions that would support economic development, which I assumed would be far more compelling in my re-election bid than a simple statement of being in support of economic development. At that time, my big accomplishment for downtown revitalization was the establishment of downtown Rock Island on the National Register of Historic Places. I had lobbied heavily as part of the 2017 City Council strategic planning session (the first of which I had participated in) to include this objective as part of the City’s strategic plan and, in partnership with the real heroes of municipal government (staff, namely now-Community and Economic Development Department Director Miles Brainard), we accomplished this long awaited goal in 2020—the summer before my re-election. This success was plastered on my re-election campaign website and was referenced, repeatedly, at public forums, debates and solicitations for support.
In retrospect, other than the historic preservation community (which is alive and well in Rock Island’s historic 5th Ward, for the record), I’m not sure anyone really cared about whether downtown Rock Island was included in some bureaucratic list maintained in Washington DC or not. While the accomplishment offered the potential for property (re)development via the federal and state historic tax credit schemes, most people simply want to see buildings improved and storefronts filled. Looking at the 2025 election, I am in a similar situation with respect to downtown revitalization: my major success this term has been navigating the multi-year process of establishing a special service area and accompanying place management organization for downtown Rock Island. I (and my colleagues) have been dutifully placing foundational building blocks in place for downtown revitalization, yet the continual drip of The District’s slow and very public demise continues to make headlines. I feel Joe Biden’s pain of a very sour public with an economy that looks good on paper.
This isn’t to diminish the very important work of policymaking for elected officials, but I’m learning that it’s not everything nor enough. So, as I said, I’ve spent some time reflecting on my work as City Councilmember. What came to me was pride and happiness with respect to constituent services—or, said otherwise, getting the mundane work of city government done effectively and efficiently for my constituents when they call me needing assistance. The vast majority of work an Alderperson puts into being an elected official is fielding the phone calls, emails, text messages, Facebook messages and grocery-store impromptu conversations that we receive from members of the public. Whether due to ignorance, ineptitude or frustration, people know they can call their Alderperson if they need help with something related to the City government. I receive calls weekly about garbage cans that fail to be emptied, neighborhood nuisances, infrastructure failures, public servant interactions and all sorts of operations of which the City government is responsible. The vast majority of these are kicked over to the appropriate staffer in City Hall, who then engages the appropriate municipal organ to address the caller’s need/grievance/request. Again, the real heroes of City government are these people: the public works employee, policeperson and code enforcement officer. I, admittedly, do very little actual work (which is why I’m only paid a $6,000 annual salary). I cannot express the joy I receive when I’m able to get a dangerous tree cut down in a neighbor’s boulevard, or fill a pot hole that’s irked a resident one-too-many times. It’s the part of elected office where one actually feels like they’re accomplishing something and providing real value to the people who entrust you with public office (and pay that $6,000 salary). Really, the only challenge on my part is managing the requests, of which there can often be many.
My Alderperson email inbox is a running CRM (customer relationship management) tool, keeping track of constituents’ requests and responding communications from city staffers. Some requests are easily managed: an easy forwarding of a constituent’s email to the Public Works Director, for example, who often shortly thereafter responds with a “got it taken care of” message. There are others, however, of a much more nuanced, complicated and delayed variety: the neighbor who continuously hosts recreational fires that may be in compliance with municipal code but nonetheless remain a nuisance for others; the needed road repair but prevented by the City’s dismally small road maintenance budget; or the vacant, abandoned or foreclosed eyesores that dot many of Rock Island’s neighborhoods. To these pleas, I often offer recognizably unsatisfactory replies: something to the effect of ‘we’re aware of the situation, but helpless to address it.’ This, in particular, is a big problem for incumbents seeking re-election. People rightfully don’t want to be told ‘can’t do anything about it,’ they want problem-solvers and solutions. The trick, I’m learning, is to use the behind-the-scenes policymaking to facilitate effective constituent services. When the answer is ‘there’s nothing to be done,’ it’s another way to say ‘there’s an opportunity, here, for a new program or policy.’
In the nearly 7 years I’ve been on City Council, there have been few issues that plague the City of Rock Island—and the messages I receive from constituents about issues—moreso than nuisance properties. This is saying something, because there are a lot of systemic challenges for the City of Rock Island—just to be clear. Housing, in general, is a challenge for the City of Rock Island, with nearly all of it aging and much of it deteriorated. The City offers a number of housing programs, but they are insufficient. In particular, they fail to account for the many vacant, foreclosed and abandoned properties within the City of Rock Island. The Housing Rehabilitation Program is great, but it requires a homeowner—the vast majority of the eyesore properties in Rock Island lack this key component. The City requires property owners to maintain minimum building codes and standards, but the actual enforcement thereof becomes complicated when we have no idea who should be held responsible for needed improvements. As one can see, there are unique needs and considerations when dealing with the very housing stock that receives the highest volume of complaints.
As such, the City adopted the Foreclosure and Vacant Property Registration Ordinance in 2020, which established a system by which vacant, abandoned and foreclosed properties are required to be registered with the City. While the small registration fee is used to both de-incentivize owners maintaining vacant properties within the City and provide needed additional revenue for the Community and Economic Development Department, the real meat of this program is the data collection. 7 years ago, when a constituent contacted me about an abandoned property on their block, I effectively replied with a shrug. Now we at least have a process in place to know who owns it and potentially open a dialogue as to a solution. In addition to the establishment of the Vacant, Foreclosed and/or Abandoned registry, improvements have been made to simply staff the Department which maintains this program. It is amazing what can be done when a municipality has sufficient staff—my go-to rebuke of partisans who assume austerity is the solution for community development. Finally, Rock Island joined with Moline and East Moline in the spring of 2022 to establish the Quad Cities Land Bank Authority, an intergovernmental effort to facilitate the redevelopment of vacant homes into improved and productive parcels.
Apologies: that was a lot of wonk-talk. Let’s see how this works in real life.
This past year, I’ve received complaints regarding 2210 and 2512 6th Avenue. My opener is to forward along the complaint to the Community and Economic Development Department Director with an inquiry regarding whether the property is the listed on the vacant, foreclosed and/or abandoned registry and histories regarding nuisance and/or building code complaints/violations. If it is not listed on the registry, staff begin the process to compel the owner to do so (after, of course, wading through County/Court records to determine who the owner is). Then a code enforcer is sent out to inspect the property, issuing whatever findings and notices of violation as appropriate. If the system works as it’s supposed to, the actual owner of the property receives said notices and negotiations begin to try and address the problems. Staff are quick to remind that their goal is to not levy fines but to achieve compliance with building codes. Fines can often be waived if the money that would have gone towards paying a fine will rather be used for the needed improvements.
In the case of 2210 6th Ave, the owner was recently deceased but City staff were able to open a dialogue with their family for some kind of solution to the property. The newly formed Land Bank took a look at the property but determined the condition was too far gone to be a good candidate for redevelopment—the Land Bank prioritizes identifying properties stuck within a cycle of abandonment yet with “good bones,” that require only minor-to-medium improvements. It’s kind of like a government sector house flipper. Ultimately, it appears that the best solution for both properties is demolition, regrettably.
Continuing the theme of improving bureaucratic procedures, the process by which the city tears down buildings has come a long way, too. Specifically, objective criteria are now used to determine which residential structures are prioritized for demolition. Structures under consideration for demolition are properly documented, receiving something like an engineer’s structural analysis report. This report shows how the building has failed with supporting photographs. This information is then used with additional considerations (proximity to schools, etc) to come up with a numerical score. Structures that score highest are then prioritized for demolition. Obviously, as is the case for 2210 6th Ave, we could address more blight with more funding, but we are limited to what we receive from the state and federal governments (mostly by way of CDBG). Long gone are the days that decisions, such as how to prioritize the city’s limited demolition funds, are made by opaque, small groups of city staffers.
Effective constituent services requires an effective municipal government. I could be as popular as anyone, but if I/we don’t have an apparatus in City Hall that can address the needs of residents, what’s the point of representative government? I think that’s been the folly of many Rock Island City Councils: constituents stop having faith in their elected representatives (and, therefore, make them vulnerable to political upset) when they are unable to deliver on the wants and needs of the community. Politicians that realize the need to improve the apparatus will be successful (assuming the apparatus actually improves). The payoff, with respect to the time and money invested in creating the Foreclosure and Vacant Property Registry or the intergovernmental Land Bank Authority, is that tools now exist to actually address my constituents’ problems when they call. That requires patience, strategic thinking, teamwork and investment.
And here’s the shameless plug: seeing as how I’ve got competition, let’s get a head start on fundraising for next year’s election. If you’ve enjoyed reading this substack or want to support effective constituent services, please consider making a contribution to my 2025 re-election campaign. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my ramblings and, of course, for any financial support you’d be willing to share.
And, of course, if you’re a constituent: should you ever need anything, feel free to reach out, anytime.