GUTTENBERG, Iowa -- When told of the 56 percent voter turnout in the city of Guttenberg for Tuesday night's municipal elections, Tom O'Neill was taken aback.
"To me, that tells me there was some issue," said O'Neill, deputy commissioner of elections for Dubuque County.
The issue, many residents believe, was in the Guttenberg mayoral race between incumbent Jim Solomon and former mayor and police chief Gerald "Red" Block.
Block captured 508 votes to Solomon's 247, a decisive victory during an election night that saw 773 registered voters in Guttenberg turn out to the polls.
There are 1,365 registered voters in Guttenberg, according to the Clayton County Auditor's Office. In the 2007 municipal election in Guttenberg, only 17 percent of the eligible voters turned out.
"That's pretty strong to get that percentage out for a city election. Anytime you get over half of the people out besides a presidential election, that's pretty impressive," O'Neill said.
Clayton County Auditor Dennis Freitag was out of the office
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Before the election, Block criticized Solomon and the City Council for the dismissal of Police Chief George Morteo in March.
The council fired Morteo, the city's police chief since 2001, by a 4-1 vote during a special meeting. Solomon cited Morteo's "unacceptable performance" without elaborating further.
Dean Friday, a vocal supporter of Morteo during the dismissal hearing, was pleased with the results of the mayoral race.
"We needed a change in the community," Friday said. "The voices that were at Chief Morteo's hearing showed up en masse to support new candidates.
"The numbers speak for themselves in the victory for Mayor Block."
Block and Solomon did not return messages for comment.
Mayor Pro Tem J.J. Rochford, who voted for Morteo's dismissal and finished eighth as a write-in for City Council, also did not return a message for comment.
Morteo's Guttenberg phone number listing was disconnected. Through his attorney, Abbe Stensland, Morteo had no comment on the election.
Friday felt a sense of anticipation throughout the community on election day.
"Everybody was anxious to find out what the final vote would be," Friday said.
Friday believes Solomon's ousting is a victory for the city's former police chief.
"I think it's some sort of vindication for George Morteo," Friday said. "No single person from (Solomon's) regime got re-elected. None of them managed to get in at all, so I think it was vindication.
"It spoke highly of what the community wanted all along."
