Matt Walsh

1. Why do you want to serve in this office?
"I have lived in Council Bluffs my entire life. I am a passionate community volunteer. I have served in elected office for thirty years. I take great pride when I hear our citizens say that they like our city just the way that it is, because I have played a role in creating that hometown feel that so many of us love.

Council Bluffs has a ‘Strong Mayor’ form of city government. In most Iowa cities, the mayor’s job is ceremonial. They cut the ribbons and read proclamations. Our mayor is responsible for managing the day-to-day business affairs of the City. Subsequently, the Mayor must possess extensive business management experience to undertake the required duties of the job. For the last twelve years, I have demonstrated that I have both the business background and the management skills to successfully serve Council Bluffs residents. No other candidate can honestly make a similar statement because none of
them have ever managed more than just a small handful of coworkers.

Throughout my employment career I have diligently prepared myself for the duties related to this job and I believe that I have demonstrated business acumen that has served our citizens well. As additional proof, in 2025 while the regional ‘Cost of Living Adjustment’ has increased 2.5%, city property taxes only increased 1.5%; or said another way, $12 annually per one hundred thousand dollars of property valuation.

One of the Mayor’s numerous duties is to lay out a vision for the future. While navigating the path forward, thoughtful consideration must be paid to potential effects that change can have on our community such as the long term financial cost, the degree of social disruption, and difficulties of cultural integration."

2. What should voters expect if you’re elected?
"Voters should expect the continuation of the full array of City services that our residents have come to expect; paired with governmental financial stability. I worked as a bank Vice President for 26 years. Over that time, I oversaw a loan portfolio of hundreds of millions of dollars. I originated loans that funded many successful community projects and I learned to mitigate the various forms of business risk.

In order to sustained tax base growth we need a mayor that can speak the language of real estate developers. Currently we have 798 new multi-family housing units around town under construction with another 1,426 housing units in the planning and approval stage.

The City chose to invest our federal ARPA funding toward developing affordable housing in the East Manawa subdivision. The City will oversee the construction of another 700 mixed income housing units in that development.

There are only three viable financial solutions as the City works to address rising costs: 1) We can increase residents' property taxes; 2) We can reduce the amount of services that the City provides; or 3) The preferable funding solution is that we can continue to grow the overall tax base of the city.

A broader number of property tax payers contributing their fair share toward covering the City’s operating cost can help reduce the shared financial burden on individual taxpayers.
Council Bluffs has added more than one and one-half billion dollars of new commercial property valuation to the city and we currently are working on multiple other projects involving tens of billions of dollars in new capital investment. We have created tremendous positive momentum."

3. What’s the most important issue facing voters?
"The most basic issue facing voters is whether they will decide to turn the management of the City’s operations over to someone that hasn’t demonstrated that they have the capability to perform a job of this caliber or level of responsibility.

It is one thing for an unelected candidate to make promises without proof of concept. It is another thing to balance promised solutions in a tight budgeting process under fiscal constraint while still funding basic community needs.

Once elected Mayor, they will need to balance a budget with their promises without stressing the financial capacity of the property taxpayers."

4. What's something else you plan to focus on?
"There are many important issues that face City administration on a regular basis. Issues that always are of primary importance involve the safety and security of our local residents.
Our City Fire Department carries an ISO rating of #1 meaning that they are one of only 380 top tier fire departments in the country. The department also responds to over 12,000 ambulance calls each year. We make sure they get the right equipment when they need it and we recently added another med unit and ambulance to respond to life saving calls.

Since 2021, reports of crime have steadily decreased each year over year. 2024 was the most recently completed year and crime data showed that the number of ‘property crimes’ decreased by 357. This correlates to a 39% reduction in those reported crimes (compared to 2021 motor vehicle theft was down by 220 occurrences, burglary went down 128 occurrences , and arson down by 9 occurrences).

The reported number of ‘Crimes against Persons’ (assault, sex crimes, robbery, kidnapping and homicide) surprisingly very minimal variance between years over the last five years. Data showed a total of reported crime of 334 which represents an increase in 2024 of just 3 additional crime occurrences when compared to the four year annual average, representing less than a 1% annual increase. We continue to invest in equipment and personnel for our Police Department so that they have what they need and are fully-staffed."

5. Is the city going in the right direction?
"Without a doubt I believe that the city continues to move in the right direction. Council Bluffs is truly a great place to live. We have worked to make the town welcoming and attractive. We have added two new parks and modernized seven older parks. The local economy is strong. Our housing stock continues to improve at a time other communities find that housing starts are stagnant. Commercial development is on an amazing growth path. Residents should feel that the community is safe as crime occurrences have steadily declined over the last four years.

Since I was elected Mayor the city has received at least 45 different regional and national recognition honors; including recognition as an ‘All-America City’, a ‘Top 100 Places to Live in America’, Iowa’s ‘Technology City of the Year’, a ‘Freedom Award’ from the US Secretary of Defense, ‘Iowa Thriving Community’ from Iowa Economic Development Authority, and ‘Certificate of Achievement for Excellence’ from Government Finance Officers Association.

There certainly are additional improvements that need to occur. We need to do a better job addressing the homeless issue (which is a nationwide problem); we are currently meeting that challenge head-on with the Police Department's Homeless Outreach Program (HOP). We need to grow the property tax base so that we can spread the tax burden to stabilize tax increases."

6. What is your position on the streetcar? Is that position firm or flexible?
"I think people mistake the principle benefit of a modern streetcar system, which is that it serves as an economic development tool. I have visited multiple cities that have a modern streetcar system in place and without exception each city’s housing and economic development has blossomed along their streetcar line. You can see that exact scenario play out across the River in Omaha. Already they have experienced more than $1 billion in new economic development downtown, which is amazing since their streetcar won’t be
operational until 2027. Once that initial development occurs then the transportation component of the streetcar becomes more relevant as a people move along the corridor.

I certainly comprehend that the associated expenses related to streetcar are costly. We have yet to identify the entirety of those costs and whether we can justify the expenditure or not. In Kansas City, the Federal Transit Authority paid 50% of the track installation costs and 80% of the cost to build a bridge across the Missouri River. Even if we would be successful in securing a federal grant we still would need to secure additional non tax revenue funding sources to help cover the build out costs. The funding model would be that any infrastructure or operations costs would be supported by the increase in property taxes generated by adjacent development--not our current tax payers.

All of that said, any ambitious endeavor such as a modern streetcar extension takes time to study in order to determine if it's a viable project and if it generates the housing and property tax that we need. I would not be doing my job as Mayor if I did not combine laying out an optimistic vision for a vibrant future with proceeding cautiously through warranted due diligence. "

7. What’s a realistic timeframe to make housing no longer the city’s top priority?
"Housing will continue to be an important issue for years to come. I don’t think we can build enough housing units to ever catch-up with demand, so we must continually explore new housing opportunities.

Last year, we spent federal COVID/ARPA funds toward incentivizing housing construction. Some of that COVID money was combined with an Iowa West Foundation grant which we then used as developer incentive. Additional COVID/ARPA funds were used by the City to buy approximately 90 acres of farm ground located on East Manawa Dr. The land will be used toward the creation of approximately 1,400 new affordable housing starts. We plan to layer in both State and Federal funding to help improve many family’s opportunity to purchase a home of their own."

8. If you could have the state adopt or change one policy, what would you want?
"I could provide a list of legislative changes that I would like to see made but since you asked for a single policy that should be changed I would choose to stop the Legislature from repeatedly preempting the Iowa Constitutional rights that were given to its cities through Iowa Home Rule. In 1968, Iowa voters passed an amendment to the Iowa Constitution which grants city governments broad authority to address local issues as they strive to improve their residents' lives; in any manner that is consistent with State statutes (State statutes can preempt local decision making). Basically, the constitutional amendment recognizes that each Iowa community is unique and has local elected officials that should best understand the needs of their local constituents and that these officials should enact laws accordingly.

With our State government currently being controlled by one single political party, the Iowa Legislature has consistently removed local government’s ability to make even the minutest of local decisions. We often find that "one size fits all" legislation does not work fairly for every size and/or location of cities across the state."

9. What else should voters know about you?
"I am a fifth generation resident of Council Bluffs. I earned a Finance degree from Creighton University. I was a Vice President of commercial banking for 28 years. I served for 18 years on the Council Bluffs City Council and then an additional 12 years as Mayor. I believe in giving back to my community and subsequently I’ve served in a leadership roles on 23 area nonprofit boards and I’ve also been the chairperson over 8 major community fundraising efforts.

As your Mayor, I identified and secured over $70 million in State funding to rebuild the city’s storm levee system saving our citizens' property tax dollars and eliminating the threat of expensive flood insurance premiums for thousands of households. I modernized 7 city parks and built two new parks, I successfully guided the city through the recovery processes associated with three natural disasters (2 floods and COVID). I’ve also served as the President of the Iowa League of Cities and President of the Iowa Mayors Association.

Having experienced leadership at the helm is vital to the future of Council Bluffs. The job of Council Bluffs Mayor is administrative in nature. You run the day to day business affairs of the city. On a daily basis, I oversee a business that has an annual budget of $159 million and employs more than 500 people. It is a critically-important job that should only be taken on by qualified and experienced candidates.

The Mayor must know accounting, employment law, contract law, economic development and business law. The Mayor is the City’s public information officer representing its messaging in all public forums. I have successfully completed each of these job functions. "

10. In a sentence, why are you the right choice?
Things continue to rapidly improved in Council Bluffs and now isn’t the right time to turn the reins over to inexperienced leadership.