There was so much potential this year for the City of Davenport.
It was announced in May that the massive, 2.9 million-square-foot Amazon Fulfillment Center would be opening in August with the goal of hiring 1,000 workers after months of delay and uncertainty.
But then the bad news started to come, and it hasn’t stopped.
An apartment building partially collapsed in late May in downtown Davenport killing three people and casting a pall over the city with troubling national news coverage over questionable building inspections and safety.
“Where is our city? Why has our city failed us?” Moselle Singh, who was protesting soon after the building collapsed, told news reporters.
Davenport’s chief building inspector resigned in June amid the backlash after it was learned that the apartment building passed a city inspection just weeks prior to the collapse.
Then in September the city council voted 7-3 to remove Alderman Derek Cornette from office.
According to a news report, the Seventh Ward alderman was accused of harassing two female staffers, drinking before a meeting and leaving harassing voicemails for council members and city officials. (Since his removal, he has filed a lawsuit against the city, the mayor and the city council. Mr. Cornette also lost his bid for re-election this fall.)
And the coup de grâce was the resignation of Davenport City Administrator Corri Spiegel because of “prolonged and documented instances of harassment by some elected officials,” according to information released by the City of Davenport.
In that Nov. 22 news release, the city announced it will pay the city administrator $1.6 million for lost wages and “emotional pain and suffering.”
In addition to the employment separation agreement with Ms. Spiegel, who has served in that position since 2016, the council also released a statement regarding the situation. In it, the council alleged that the actions of former Alderman Cornette and other “unnamed former elected officials were inappropriate, wrong, and appalling.”
According to the statement: “Due to these prolonged and documented instances of harassment by some elected officials directed at City Administrator Spiegel over the past eight years, and on the advice of in-house and independent counsel, we agreed to compensate Ms. Spiegel for these behaviors. The amount of compensation is small when compared to what a lengthy lawsuit and an ultimate finding of wrongdoing would have cost the taxpayers.”
Despite these troubling incidents, ironically only two of the city’s aldermen were ousted in the November election and Mayor Mike Matson was re-elected.
Clearly Davenport needs to do better.
Let’s hope that stronger leadership in protecting the health and safety of city employees and the public will be a renewed priority for the city.
