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Burlington, IA – Iowa voters will go to the polls on Tuesday, November 8 to decide who should serve on their city councils or in the mayor's office.
The ballots are almost set, but there are a few cities out there that must hold a primary election to set the field.
That includes Burlington, where residents will go to the polls Tuesday, October 11 to narrow the field of city council candidates from 6 to 4.
Incumbents Matt Murray and Bill Ell, who also serves as Mayor, are not running for re-election.
So the race for two seats on the Burlington City Council is wide open.
Seven people filed to serve but one dropped out just after the final deadline passed.
That leaves six candidates seeking four spots on the November ballot.
Becky Anderson
Chuck Griffin
Richard Lemke
Shane McCampbell
Eric Renteria
Mike Shaver
The six bring a mix of experience and expertise to the race.
Becky Anderson is a financial planner who moved to Burlington about 15 years ago.
She is running for office because she wants to make the city a better place to live.
"Burlington has given so much to me and my life and I want to give something back to Burlington," says Anderson, "I thought maybe I should go more into developing then I thought, No,' I think I can make the biggest difference on the city council."
Anderson points to her financial background as her way to make a difference.
She says, if elected, she would push for an independent audit of Burlington's budget to identify savings and improvements.
"What if we started all over, what if we just said let's look at rewriting this," says Anderson, "and look at allocating the money today rather than tweaking it from year to year. Maybe there would not be a difference, but maybe there would be a lot of differences."
Anderson says the city council should reach a consensus on what the Manor property should be used for and do a better job of encouraging small business growth.
She also supports repairing Dankwardt Pool and building a new Cascade Bridge.
Chuck Griffin has another idea about Cascade Bridge.
"Cascade Bridge is something that is going to be way down on my priority list," says Griffin, "what I would do right now, with steel prices so high, I would tear it down, scrap it out, and sell it for scrap."
Griffin is the human resources manager for the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. He also served two terms on the Burlington City Council during the 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's.
Griffin says that experience is needed today.
"Understanding how the city works, how financing works, and then just obviously knowing the ins-and-outs of city government and the city departments," says Griffin, "a number of the department heads have been around for a long time and I have known them for a long time so bringing that type of experience to the city council is a positive thing."
Griffin wants to see a city-funded, summer jobs program for Burlington's youth and a cash incentive for realtors to speed up the sale of the Manor.
He sees the biggest challenges facing the city as infrastructure, police and fire pension payments and the pending expiration of a local option sales tax.
Richard Lemke did not make himself available for an interview.
He did issue a statement that says he would bring a younger perspective to the council.
Lemke adds that his top priorities would be redeveloping the Manor and the downtown.
Shane McCampbell says a priority for him is to get more people involved in Burlington.
He says that starts with making sure people understand city government, especially the budget, so it is not understood by just a handful of professionals.
"I want to write out a new budget that everyone can understand," says McCampbell, "so that everyone can have some input. The views that we have and the more people we have getting involved, the better direction we can start moving in."
McCampbell is a pastor at two Burlington churches.
He says his involvement in this race started with his trying to recruit candidates to run.
McCampbell says at that point, they started recruiting him.
"I got this thrown back at me, why don't you do it, you are so concerned,'" says McCampbell, "it went back to my dad growing up. He did not put up with complaining very much so you either complain to yourself or stop complaining and do something about it."
McCampbell says every resident of Burlington needs to buy into the positives the city has to offer and accept accountability for their actions.
He wants the next city manager to be progressive, inclusive and creative and he wants to see more money spent on infrastructure.
Eric Renteria is a business owner who moved back to Burlington about six years ago.
He entered the race because of his concern about the direction of all levels of government, which starts locally.
"Get ourselves invested emotionally by running for office," says Renteria, "get ourselves invested in our local governments so that we can exert our influence into the state level all the way to the federal government."
Renteria says one of the biggest challenges facing Burlington is West Burlington.
He says Burlington continues to lose residents and businesses to West Burlington, which strengthens one community while harming the other.
"So you have to understand that the best thing for West Burlington is for Burlington to be very strong as well," says Renteria, "so there needs to be greater cooperation between the two cities and I just don't see that right now."
Renteria says if elected, he would open discussions about whether a new city manager is needed and whether Burlington should accept state or federal grants.
He says he would also work to lower taxes and eliminate regulations to help spur business growth and to review all contracts at all levels of city government.
Mike Shaver was also unable to meet with Tri-States Public Radio for this story.
He says, through a statement, that he thinks outside-the-box adding that he would hold neighborhood meetings to make sure he knew what residents were thinking.
For the six candidates in the race for two seats on the Burlington City Council, it's not as much about winning as it is about advancing and making the final four.
Because a fourth-place finish tomorrow could result in a victory in November.