Nov. 2, 2003
Terry Dugan
Mayor of Dubuque

The nice thing is that (son) Connor is just realizing what it is to be mayor and (daughter) Aleece thinks she knows but she doesn't really and I think that that's the beauty of it. They know that we get to do a lot of really neat things and we get to go to ribbon-cuttings and they're always there with me. We get to go to groundbreakings and parties and celebrations. So they think that that's the neat part of it, but they don't really get the grasp of, "My dad's the mayor."

TH:Is Dubuque easier for developers to work with now than 10 years ago?
TD:I think it is. I think a couple of things have happened. Developers roundtable has helped. We have more land available for development now. We've extended infrastructure and tried to encourage that to happen. We updated the comprehensive plan. We did rewrite parts of the zoning ordinance. We do that as we go and we will be doing that again in the upcoming year. When I think back to my poor father trying to develop the Knob Hill Subdivision back in '65 and the struggles that he went through in a community that didn't want him to develop to a community now that encourages development, it's a world of difference.

TH:Now, are you ready to announce for 2005 (re-election) yet?
TD:Nope. There's an interesting decision. It will have been by that time 12 years. Connor will obviously be 12 and Aleece will be 8. They're involved with so much stuff right now. I don't know. Once again, I think it's the greatest job you can have because they all have their pluses and minuses and this one has had a lot more pluses than minuses.

I know that (wife) Aleeda and the kids would say do it again. Whether or not I want to do it again, two years is a long way, but boy, what amazes me more than anything is when I look back at how fast the last 10 has gone.

I certainly want the family thing to remain on the foremost, center in my life. It will just be a different decision than it was when I felt the need to do it and the real burning desire to change things. That will have changed because now it would be a decision as to what's next. Where would we go from here?

Who knows? At that time, it may be time to step back and let somebody with a different vision. There would be a different attitude from when I went into it. I thought it was broke and we needed to fix it. Now, I think it's fixed and can get better. And maybe it will be time for someone else to step up with a fresher idea.

I think change in that respect is good from time to time. I don't think mayors should be king. There is a point at which I think that could happen. I don't know if Terry Duggan can do that, but once you're around too long and you really take a huge ownership in it.

TH:You mentioned at the start of our conversation that you were sworn in as mayor but it was really trial by fire or sink or swim or whatever term you want to put onto it. What advice would you have for the next mayor of Dubuque, whenever that person may step in?
TD:Be willing to listen. Gather as many people around you and as much information as you can before you make a decision. But most of all, just let your heart guide you and the burning in your stomach.

The burning thing will come along, but it's got to be deep. The want to do it and the ability to succeed is based on the fact that it comes from the neck down to the waist. If it doesn't come from there, then it probably isn't right.

TH:You had talked about the misperception that some people have. They probably envision you like (Chicago's) Mayor Daley, running all the city departments and so on. Are there times you wish you could do that - where you see something, and you say, "You know, I would just like to go in and fix that"?
TD:No, I really haven't. Mike has been a very good city manager and we've become friends. I mean that in a very positive way. When I disagree with something or when I think something should change, Mike and I get on the phone, we'll have a conversation, we'll meet for lunch, we'll sit down in each other's office and go over it. He'll explain why he made the decision or why things are the way that they are. We've had a couple of times where we've agreed to disagree, but I still respect his authority and the division of power.

Mike runs a very good ship. If he has a philosophy that something's the way it's supposed to be, I know that, but there has been very little that I've disagreed with the way that he does business. I think he deserves the award that he just got.

Regarding Smithfield's acquisition of the meatpacking plant in Dubuque, which is shuttered:
TD: I'm sitting on the Iowa Department of Economic Development, where we approved a CEBA (Community Economic Betterment Account) grant for a facility in Sioux Center, Iowa, which is a pork processing plant that makes, coincidentally enough, bacon bits and processes them they same way that they promised Dubuque that they were going to do that here. It employs 200 people with a starting wage of $9.35 an hours. That's not what we're about promoting.

At the state level on the CEBA board this year, I brought up an interesting point and Mike Blouin (Iowa Department of Economic Development director) agreed and we changed our philosophy. We used to give out CEBA grants and we said you had to pay 85 percent of the median county wage. You're incenting people to lower the county wage. To effectively lower the county wage. If they come and they want help, they ought to be increasing the county wage. They ought to be paying at least 100 percent. So now to get CEBA money, you actually have to come to the county and you have to pay 100 percent of the existing county wage to get any type of help.

Smithfield is not that type of player. They've grown from the time they bought the plant in Dubuque from about a $4 billion a year company to a $7 billion a year company. Now, they're getting large... they're not IBP, but they're not FDL Foods, either. Regarding zoning issues:

TH: That's the important thing for developers and people who want zoning changes. Go out and do your own homework first. Sit down with the neighbors and allow them to become part of the process and tell them what you want to do. Let them meet you and let them find out that you're not the Ghost from Christmas Past. You want to be a neighbor. You want your building to be there for a reason. It's because it's a good neighborhood or it's where you've chosen to make an investment yourself.

One of the smartest developers I've ever listened to was at a real estate seminar back in 1990 in Waterloo. This individual developed thousands of acres of year of land and usually barren farmland. But what he would do is he would go to the community and he would have three Fridays or Saturdays in a row a brat and hot dog roast out at the farm. He'd invite community members to come for chips and pop and then say, "Hey, look, here's my idea. I want to buy this strip of land here. It's in your area. It's in your backyard or whatever. What would you like to see here? Should we put some of it housing? Should the store go over here?" They made it a community event. He said he never had a problem at the zoning table because he went in and sat down with people and said, "What's your idea? What would you like? Rather than, "You're getting a Wal-Mart in your backyard." It's the lack of communication that will always get you in trouble.

More concerning what people might say about what has occurred in Dubuque the past decade:
TD: I think that that's what they'll look back and say, "Those guys were thinking. They went out and bought 900 acres of farmland and created industrial parks and technology parks. They redeveloped the riverfront. They in-filled the downtown with CIGNA and Eagle Window and Door. They started to get it right."

To leave that, you don't ever leave anybody with easy times when they have a government to run, but we will have made it easier than what it was 10 years ago when I first took the job. My goal is to see Dubuque still be the largest small town in America. I don't think that's quantified by population. I think that's quantified by a work ethic and a family-oriented community and a group of people that just know how to get along and rally around each other and help each other out.