Dustin Harris
Age: 47
Occupation: Security
Email: dustinharrisforthepeople@gmail.com
I was born in Council Bluffs and spent most of my childhood here. I grew up in a “Project 235” house in one of the old West End neighborhoods. I was educated here and began my career here.
Council Bluffs is in my blood. Serving this community is all I’ve ever wanted to do.
I joined the Council Bluffs Police Department in 2000 and served proudly for nearly 24 years, with 7 of them as a Detective. I had to retire due to blood clots in my lung and leg after rescuing an elderly female in a wheelchair from an active housefire.
Yet, I have found that my desire to serve is still strong. That is why I am running for City Council.
| Question 1:
Population Growth & Economic Vitality Many residents and business leaders believe that growing the population of Council Bluffs is critical to near- and long-term economic vitality, workforce sustainability, and community vibrancy. Others are more cautious or uncertain about the need for growth, citing a desire to keep the community the way it is.
"We need growth to increase our tax base to pay for current expenditures and to prepare for the future. I would like to see an additional three to five thousand residents in the next 5 years. We should be pushing for mid to high income apartments that would create higher tax income per square foot than lower income apartments that we already have a lot of across the city that just bring in problems from outside the city and use up resources, like Police and Fire, while not providing much in the way of taxes to reimburse the city for those services. We also need to make sure these new projects are viable before we start talking to builders and spending money in the planning stages. I would also require binding letters of intent ensuring that we are able to fill commercial building projects before we start spending money on them so we don't have offices or buildings sitting empty for years, like past projects. We also need to consider limiting the time-frame on tax-free incentives that we offer to bring in businesses that would likely build here anyway due to much lower taxes than Omaha. If there's better options for them and we would greatly benefit from the business then we could offer more incentives but get promises in legally binding contracts so that we aren't left with less permanent jobs than promised, like the first Google project. Another consideration is that we currently need another fire station in the south end to ensure rapid deployment and availability of life saving resources. We already own land near the Mid-American Center to build on but we need to make sure that we plan ahead on any new projects to build a large enough station with adequate equipment and staffing along with thinking about a Police substation with thoughts on future growth so that we aren't short staffed and paying out massive amounts of forced overtime." |
| Question 2:
Attracting and Retaining Workers and Families Building and maintaining a strong workforce, particularly young professionals and families, is important to ensuring a strong future workforce and a vibrant local economy.
"The two main complaints that I hear from people who have left our city are the schools and crime/homeless. A large portion of our city workers no longer live in the city and I know a lot of people that have moved to rural and small towns with long commutes rather than deal with these issues. We need to ensure our schools have high educational standards and deal with issues that arise so that parents aren’t leaving the city. As far as crime/homeless issues, we need a multi-layer approach to deal with these issues more effectively. We need to look into the possibility of either adding onto the jail or building a separate specialized facility to house arrests that are too intoxicated, high on drugs, mentally ill or have superficial injuries that the jail generally refuses to take without medical clearance at the ER but aren’t bad enough for the city to pay for thousands of dollars in care at the ER’s and tie up one, sometimes two officers for the ER staff’s safety which causes staffing issues on the street. We need to increase officers and move code enforcement under the Fire Department to allow for more checks and balances and to ensure that problem housing areas, where criminals tend to hang out, aren’t ignored. If the owners can’t bring these problem locations back up to code then we can look at condemning them and bringing in private funds and grants to bring them up to code to provide housing for local families in need, veterans, and other homeless individuals that are drug free, mentally stable and aren’t causing problems. More officers means more time to deal with crime prevention and clearing homeless camps. We also need to require more oversight for the shelters that we let operate in the city. One shelter alone had 879 police and medical calls for service last year while they get large amounts in grant funding. I would also push for requiring positive identification of those living there and have police work to make sure that we aren’t letting violent mentally ill people, active drug dealers and convicted sex offenders stay in our facilities. Lastly, we need to clear out public spaces of all camps, many that I have personally seen over my almost 24 years as a CBPD officer had sex offenders avoiding registration and many had long criminal histories or active warrants and tend to have violent incidents in and around them by people that are on drugs." |
| Question 3:
Role of City Government in Economic Development Economic development is increasingly competitive across the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro, the Midwest, and the nation. Communities are vying for limited business investment, talent, and development opportunities. While these efforts are often driven by private and nonprofit partners, city government plays a vital role in creating the conditions for success through policies, infrastructure, incentives, and collaboration.
" One of the biggest issues current business owners have complained to me about is theft and customers being scared away due to the homeless. The downtown, west and south end stores have people passed out on or near their properties or they have what they describe to me as homeless people actively stealing and attempting to burglarize their stores in broad daylight. One cell phone store just caught one of the homeless people that sleep behind their store trying to beat the lock open to gain entry during business hours. They also have health and safety issues like drug use and using sinks to bathe in the bathrooms. If we want to attract new businesses these issues must be addressed immediately using the approach I outlined in the last question. We also need to get our roads, sewers and water mains repaired. We all know of at least one place in town that smells like raw sewage all day long every time you drive by it. People drive to west Omaha rather than shop locally not to deal with these issues. If we address this and the homeless issues, more businesses will come to the shopping areas we’ve already built, some of which have sat empty for years. We can offer tax free incentives to bring in large companies but we need to be vigilant in not giving them long time frames with no taxes when some of them would come to the city anyway rather than deal with Omaha’s higher taxes. We also need to get promised permanent job numbers in writing to make sure that we aren’t left with a lot less permanent jobs than promised like the first Google project." |
Question 4:
Fiscal Responsibility & City Budgeting Developing and managing the city budget is one of the most important responsibilities of elected officials. A responsible budget must reflect community priorities, comply with legal and financial constraints, and respond to changing economic conditions. Understanding how city revenues are generated, and how those funds can and cannot be used, is critical to making sound decisions.
What experience do you have with budgeting, particularly in government, business, or nonprofit settings? Share your understanding of how a city budget works, including major sources of revenue and how city services are paid for. How would you approach developing and monitoring the city’s budget? What city services or projects would you prioritize?
"I have never run my own corporation or non-profit and I have never directly worked on a government budget. I, like some of the other candidates, have experience limited to personal finances.
My understanding of the city budget is that each department gets their budgets and employee contracts approved by the council. Our sources of income are mainly property taxes, local sales tax, a variety of fees and permits, citations and grants.
I would like to have talks with the Finance Director and heads of all the departments and see where we can improve and where we can cut. I would also seek out city workers, of whom I know many, and get their opinions on current spending and see where we can cut and what we need to spend more on.
We need to prioritize public safety and increasing our tax base, which increasing public safety will help with. Cleaning up the parts of town that detract from our great city is the first step at shedding the image others have for us and help with attracting new businesses and residents to increase our tax base. This will allow us to push broader initiatives like working with the county to build a facility for mental health and add onto our jail so that we can keep the people creating the most public and often reported offenses off the street longer and provide relief to businesses and residents."
| Question 5:
Downtown & Corridor Redevelopment Vibrant, well-designed corridors and a thriving downtown are key to a city’s identity, perception, and long-term economic momentum. In Council Bluffs, areas such as First Avenue, West Broadway, the riverfront, and the historic downtown, among others, serve as gateways to the community and focal points for housing, business, entertainment, and civic life. Redevelopment of these areas is central to attracting new investment, residents, and visitors.
"I would like for people to see a clean city free of people passed out on benches and in business parking lots before we get to work on new projects. We have spent a lot of money on areas that are constantly hit with public indecency, vagrancy, theft and violence like the 1 st Ave, River’s Edge, 100 Block and city parks. Once we have that under control and our own citizens feel safe, we can move into revitalization and adding to the business districts at River’s Edge, downtown and in the vacant lots around the Mid-American Center and on S. 24th St. I would like to see open-air shopping centers and a variety of new restaurants that we currently have to travel to Omaha for." |
Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil Questionnaire
1. Why do you want to serve in this office?
I was born in Council Bluffs, lived here for most of my life and I've worked in Council Bluffs since I was 15. As a Police Officer for almost 24 years, I saw what needs to be done to fix the issues plaguing our city on a daily basis. Since my retirement I've seen things continue to get worse with the homeless and that's why I'm running for office because I feel that I have the most experience to tackle this issue and help law enforcement through the city council.
2. What should voters expect if you’re elected?
My primary goal is to clean up the crime and homeless in the city using regulation and increased enforcement to clear out the camps, make sure criminals are not staying in our shelters, and clean up derelict properties using code enforcement. This will bring our city back to life and bring in new businesses and residents to increase our tax base.
3. What’s the most important issue facing voters?
Rampant homelessness/mental health issues.
4. What's something else you plan to focus on?
Infrastructure and decaying roads.
5. Is the city going in the right direction?
I think our goals for more housing and businesses are good but to get there we need to change the way the city deals with the homeless problems and derelict housing units to make those goals a reality by moving us into a better place to attract more housing and businesses. Check out my website for more details on my plans.
6. What is your position on the streetcar? Is that position firm or flexible?
My biggest issue is that they'd have to build another bridge to get it over the 3 rail lines that the Broadway viaduct goes over to reach the east end like they claim. You won't be able to safely cross all 3 tracks from multiple rail companies throughout the day without a bridge. I've heard it's going to go down 1st Ave but the new trail is already pretty close to some of the buildings there on the 3300 and 1500 blocks so they might have to tear up the part of the new bike trail or tear down buildings to put tracks down with ample side clearance. Also, once it hits 13th St where would it go to continue east? Our streets are already clogged enough during rush hour.
Other cities, like Kansas City, that have built them just had them turn into mobile homeless shelters and no one uses them. We'll see if Omaha even starts this project because a lot of people are against it there and so far they've made no real progress that I've seen driving around downtown. I would support a public transit system using something like an Ollie the Trolley would make more sense. We could use electric vehicles if they want to qualify for more federal and private grant assistance on the project.
7. What’s a realistic timeframe to make housing no longer the city’s top priority?
We need to immediately deal with the homelessness issue and also work to keep criminals off our streets. We are putting ourselves in a bad place for negotiations to bring in new housing and businesses until we solve that issue. It shouldn't take more than a year if we implement my plans, then we can focus more on housing and increasing our tax base.
8. If you could have the state adopt or change one policy, what would you want?
The state needs to build more mental health and drug rehabilitation centers to treat and house the large population of people that are walking our streets without any place to go to get help since they cut federal and state funds for these facilities. Some people could become productive members of society again (if they wish to do so) but there are some that even on when they're on meds and off drugs that are still dangerous and need to be provided a higher level of long-term care.
Since they are talking about freeing up federal funds for projects like this, I hope that we get in a good place to apply for those funds and build these much-needed facilities here in Iowa. They will provide a lot of jobs from janitors up to medical/psychiatric staff and help with this serious public safety and public health issue.
9. What else should voters know about you?
Some people might think that I left the department early because something happened to force me out. I had to leave after rescuing an elderly female from a house fire at 13th St and 6th Ave and the resulting blood clots that I received in my lung and leg that require me to stay on blood thinners that made it unsafe for me to remain a police officer.
10. In a sentence, why are you the right choice?
I have the most experience to deal with the issues our city faces that people have been so vocal about online and I actually have plans on how to deal with them.