Former Bettendorf Mayor Ann Hutchinson, whose financial acumen helped pull her city out of a deep budget crisis in the mid-1980s, has died at age 74 after a battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Ms. Hutchinson, known to many as “Mayor Ann,” died Saturday, May 27, at Clarissa C. Cook Hospice Center. According to her obituary, funeral […]
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Former Bettendorf Mayor Ann Hutchinson, whose financial acumen helped pull her city out of a deep budget crisis in the mid-1980s, has died at age 74 after a battle with Parkinson’s Disease.
Ms. Hutchinson, known to many as “Mayor Ann,” died Saturday, May 27, at Clarissa C. Cook Hospice Center. According to her obituary, funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, June 3, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Davenport. Halligan-McCabe-DeVries Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
In interviews with the QCBJ on Wednesday, May 31, two friends and colleagues remembered her for her strong leadership and her skills as a visionary.
“She took over the city in the most tumultuous time during the financial collapse we had,” recalled Bettendorf City Administrator Decker Ploehn. “She steered us out of debt and into some strong financial policies that we still have today.”
Ms. Hutchinson served as Bettendorf’s mayor from 1988 to 2004. She, like her predecessor Mayor Bill Glynn, both served as mayor for 16 years – the longest tenure for a Bettendorf mayor.
Mike Senneff, who served 10 years as an alderman-at-large during her time in office, described her as a great visionary and an “original thinker.”
In a telephone interview from his current Ankeny, Iowa, home, the Deere & Co. retiree said “In my view, from the whole time I saw her, she was a leader who had a vision for the city.”
That vision, Mr. Senneff said, “was her skill. She could lead the council, share what her vision was and get consensus for it.”
He particularly recalled her skill for anything financial, especially municipal bonds and such. “One of her big accomplishments was hiring Decker as city administrator, that was one of the most impactful decisions she ever made.”
According to Mr. Ploehn, he met Ms. Hutchinson long before she promoted him from police chief to city administrator some 30-plus years ago. As a Bettendorf police detective, they met when he investigated a bad checks case at Security State Bank, where Ms. Hutchinson discovered something amiss.
“When the crisis hit (Bettendorf) with the financial collapse, I and others encouraged her to run for mayor, and she did,” he said, adding political office was not something she’d ever considered before that.
He credits her with a number of major improvements that emerged during her tenure as well as projects that have just come to fruition including the new Interstate 74 bridge. After the Bi-State Regional Commission first raised the idea for a new Mississippi River bridge, Mr. Ploehn said he and Ms. Hutchinson traveled to see then U.S. Rep. Jim Leach in about 1990.
“She helped architect the whole downtown and the beginnings of the bridge,” he said. “She was the visionary for the Learning campus (with others) and championed it pretty strong to make that go.”
Ms. Hutchinson also was at the helm when Bettendorf brought riverboat gaming to the city and redeveloped its riverfront.
A graduate of Bettendorf High School and Augustana College in Rock Island, Ms. Hutchinson had a successful career in banking, including serving as Northwest Bank’s vice president of lending, before entering politics. She also founded and owned FirstCity Mortgage Corp. in Bettendorf.
After her long tenure as mayor, she led the Eastern Iowa Small Business Development Center in Davenport as its regional director before retiring.
While mayor, she served as president of the Iowa League of Cities.
Ms. Hutchinson also had an unsuccessful bid for U.S. House of Representatives after switching political parties and winning the Democratic nomination for the seat in 2002.
She was honored in 2019 by the City of Bettendorf with a plaza in front of city hall, which was dedicated as Hutchinson Plaza. The plaza was created by changes made in the State Street alignment ahead of the bridge’s construction.
“She was so proud of the celebration we did on (Bettendorf’s) 100th birthday in 2003,” Mr. Ploehn said just days before the city marks its 120 years.
Her full obituary can be found at www.hmdfuneralhome.com.
“She did love her city,” Mr. Ploehn said.
