Ken Schroeder promises a distinct perspective

WASHINGTON — In accordance with the requirements of office, all three candidates for the upcoming Aug. 6 special election for an at-large seat on the Washington City Council are residents of the city. All have set roots in the community, and woven their way into the social fabric of the small town. None of them, however, are Washington natives.

Ken Schroeder is case in point. He moved to Washington in 2017 from the Iowa City area. While that may seem unhelpful for an elected office-seeker in the small town, Schroeder said he considered his out-of-town background one of his greatest strengths as a candidate.

“I’ve seen some of the outside world,” he said. “If you’ve grown up in a city, you don’t like to see things change … there are things that I don’t like to see change, but we have to change and you have to be able to continue to move, and get things to better situations.”

That’s not to say Schroeder hasn’t become one of the locals yet. The retired city council candidate leads a senior golf league, and frequently takes long walks to every end of town, and said he’d built a network of friends and colleagues since moving to Washington. He’s had time to form an opinion on speed limits, ordinances and all manner of other municipal issues.

He plans to step up his network-building efforts, he said, if elected.

“I’m not a hard person to talk to, I’m pretty open, I have nothing to hide, so I get to know people,” he said. “I like to get out … it’s easy to meet people, if you want to.”

The candidate said he was qualified for office thanks to his time on a handful of other decision-making boards in the past. Most notable among them is the Graphic Arts Technology Center of Iowa board, which helped guide decisions as the school developed a dedicated space for that college.

Other boards mentioned in Schroeder’s application to a previously expected council appointment were the New Horizons United Methodist Church Trustee Board, and Grandview Condo Association in Coralville.

Schroeder said his decision-making process involved consulting both sides of any disagreement, and gathering information about all the details involved. From there, his mindset is straightforward: try to do the most good for the community overall.

“You’re never going to make everybody happy,” he said. “We have to realize in life that thing happen (around) us that we don’t like, but we have to realize we have to keep moving forward, we have to keep doing things.”

Schroeder said he wasn’t running to address any specific policy priority or grievance with the city. Besides his approval of beautification efforts and pursuits of “sustainable growth,” the candidate said he had few comments on the current council’s activity one way or the other.

Instead, he said he was running as a means to get more involved in the community.

“I’m a firm believer that you can’t sit back and complain, you have to take part,” he said. “I like the way things have moved along in that (the current council is) pretty open … I’m not involved that much, to be able to criticize.”

Rather than pitching specific policies to voters, Schroeder said he was running on the promise of his personality.

“I’m energetic, I’m open-minded, and I’m honest,” he said. “I think that is going to make me the best candidate.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com