Des Moines mayoral candidates pledge to ban racial profiling, search for new city revenue

Des Moines should ban racial profiling, each of the city's four mayoral candidates said during a debate Sunday evening.  

The candidates spoke on the subject during the hourlong debate hosted by the Asian & Latino Coalition, The Des Moines Register and KCCI-TV Channel 8. About 100 people watched in person at the Franklin Junior High auditorium on Des Moines’ west side.  

For more than a year, members of the public have appeared before the City Council to ask for an ordinance banning racial profiling. The city eventually presented a version of a racial-profiling ordinance in June, but it was widely dismissed as inadequate. 

Also in June, the city settled a $75,000 lawsuit with a pair of black men who alleged racial profiling from a Des Moines officer who stopped their car in 2018. Another racial profiling lawsuit was filed against Des Moines police officers in November.  

Jack Hatch, a former state senator and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said he’d work to ban pretextual stops, when a police officer stops a driver for a minor violation such as a broken tail light with the intent to investigate another offense, such as drug possession. Hatch also said he would require additional officer training, collect data on police actions and make the enforcement of marijuana possession a low priority, echoing requests to the City Council, in particular from members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. 

“To say that we don’t have a problem would be naive and to ignore it would not be the civil thing to do,” Hatch said. 

Frank Cownie, who is running for a fifth term and is the capital city’s longest-serving mayor, called racial profiling “unacceptable at any rate.” He also cited the work city staff and the Des Moines Civil and Human Rights Commission are doing to build an ordinance that would mandate bias training for all city employees, not just police. 

“We have to work on that and bring it to the surface and let people recognize it and understand it because we need to recognize all people,” he said.   

Chase Holm, an Army veteran, has repeatedly advocated for decriminalizing marijuana and allowing the city to license its sale. Doing that would also allow the police to focus their efforts elsewhere, he said. 

“It drops your taxes,” Holm said. “The police, they’re able to arrest people that are rapists and murderers. Our prison system gets emptied.”

More:Cownie, Hatch trade jabs as Des Moines mayoral campaign enters final weeks

Across the country, Americans of color are much more likely to be prosecuted for marijuana use than their white counterparts, although rates of use by blacks and whites is about the same, according to the ACLU and U.S. Sentencing Commission.  

Joe Grandanette, a former coach and teacher, said racial profiling should be banned “if it’s for all the right reasons,” while also allowing police officers to do their jobs. 

As mayor, he said he would direct Des Moines’ police officers to spend time in schools to get to know the city’s children. 

When asked whether the Des Moines Police Department should work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement if the federal agency doesn’t have a legal warrant, each candidate said the city should follow federal laws. 

Cownie said “immigration issues are the responsibility of the federal government and ICE” and not a charge of Des Moines’ police. 

Grandanette said he backs ICE and the city should let the agency do its job. 

Looking for new money

City officials have long said that one of Des Moines’ biggest funding obstacles is that roughly 40% of its land — including public schools, churches, county and state government buildings and property owned by nonprofits — is non-taxable. It was one of the reasons the City Council pushed to pass the local-option sales tax earlier this year, to provide more revenue from a source other than property taxes, its main source. 

Each of the candidates agreed Des Moines needs to further diversify sources of revenue. 

“I think we need to take a look very seriously at the nonprofits — not the churches, not the schools… — on payment in lieu of taxes for all the services we provide them,” Hatch said. 

Cownie agreed, saying those “payments in lieu of taxes” could ease the burden on residents who pay property taxes. 

“We have to charge them a user fee,” Grandanette said. “... Everyone’s going to carry their weight.” 

Earlier this year, the City Council cut the property tax levy by 60 cents, but some homeowners still saw their tax bills go up because the assessed value of their home rose or because other governmental entities that collect property taxes increased their rates. 

Holm said the city should cut down on tax incentives and suggested selling bridges and parks to private businesses that would be in charge of their upkeep. 

More:Election 2019: Here's who's running for the Des Moines mayor and city council

The election is Nov. 5. Thirteen other candidates are running for the City Council seats in Ward 2 and Ward 4 and the at-large position.

Austin Cannon covers the city of Des Moines for the Register. Reach him at awcannon@registermedia.com or 515-284-8398. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.