QC Times reporter, Sarah Watson interviews Mike:

https://qctimes.com/news/local/mayoral-candidate-mike-matson-sits-down-with-the-quad-city-times/video_4a5ed0f2-3693-5bfc-819c-4fa3af0c80ca.html

Transcript of interview:

Transcript

Speaker1: Mike Matson: My name is Mike Matson. I'm the current mayor of Davenport. I was raised here in Davenport. Loved the city. After high school, I joined the Army. Spent 20 some years in the Army. Loved that. Got my degree there. Met my wife while I was in the army. Had four wonderful children. After service, deploying and moving all the time, and then going to Afghanistan in zero two, we made the decision that we'd like to settle down somewhere. And being from here, my wife is from close to here and she went to Saint Ambrose. So we thought this would be a wonderful place to come back to. Did that. Got a job at Central High School. My wife teaches also. Our daughters teach my sons in the military. So he's a fourth generation. My father was in World War one. I'm sorry, grandfather. World War one, father. And Korea and the Navy I served. My son served. So. The whole point of what I do is about service to folks in some respect. I had an opportunity after I was teaching for a few years. City Council presented itself, I said what? Why not? Had a lot of workings with neighborhoods. I served on the city council for 12 years. And then after Mr. Klipsch decided not to be mayor anymore, people asked me, hey, why don't you think about that? I did and been doing the mayor thing for four years.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: I just love the city, love serving people, being involved in a lot of things, and I want to continue the positive momentum that we've done. We so many folks have worked together to make Davenport just a wonderful place, as you've heard me say. And other people said, we're never satisfied. We always want to improve everything we do and talking with folks, how can we do that? So because of the wonderful things we've been working on and had good success at, whether it's crime reduction, infrastructure improvements, financial stability, I mean, we just had, as you know, a credit rating upgrade for the first time in depends on who you talk to 25 years, maybe three decades. Our financial situation is good. People talk to me about the infrastructure and streets. I used to get the question about, when are we going to fix the streets? Now I get the you have so many barricades, what am I going to do? I'm I'll take that criticism. We're going to continue to work on that. But I'm running for mayor. If the folks of Davenport will honor me with that. With two more years to continue our positive momentum, of all the things we've been working on, whether it's financial stability, no tax increase, infrastructure improvements, crime reduction, parks improvements, as you've seen, we've done a lot of improvements to our park system.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: It's just things that we continue to build upon. Money and funding from our federal and state partners to improve our riverfront, especially in destination working with our state folks and federal folks to mitigate the floods, to keep commerce open, all of those things. I want to continue to work on it and to can you continue to improve Davenport and the Quad Cities? I'm also the chair of the Metro Coalition, the ten largest cities in Iowa, chair of the Rock Island Arsenal Defense Alliance, chair of the bi state Transportation Committee, member of the bi state commission, and a member of the Emergency Management Agency, the Scott County Communication. So partnerships are important. I've developed a lot of relationships with folks at the state, federal and county level, so I want to continue to build upon that so that, quite frankly, we can have Davenport continue to excel at things. And so if I'm honored and humbled with another two years, that'll be my focus. Crime reduction, infrastructure improvements, relationship building and economic development.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: Yeah, that was my next question. What kind of goals have you set for another two years if you're elected?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: My first one, you've heard me say all the time is public safety and safe neighborhoods. But quite frankly, if I'm lucky enough to be two more years, I want to work to make Davenport the safest large city in Iowa. We've done a lot of work in crime reduction. Shootings are down, shots fired, group violence incidents are down over 75%. I don't necessarily know where that compares to all the other cities, but I know in talking with my counterparts, we're really doing well. But I'd like us to be able to say we're the safest city in big city, because there's 460 some cities in Iowa. So at least as chair of the Metro Coalition, the safest city in Iowa, we're on our way. But we got work to do. So that's my number one thing. And then continue our infrastructure and then economic development. Tourism is sometimes things people don't think about, but right behind as you look out your window right here, right behind us, I think there's 30 some visits by either Viking or American Cruise Lines bringing folks to the Quad Cities, but specifically stopping in Davenport and coming here. So do something more with that. Visit Quad Cities is a wonderful partner, so I want to improve that relationship. We have a great relationship, but I want to continue to work on that to expand the footprint around the Midwest in the nation. About Davenport and the Quad Cities I'd really like to to explore how we can do better at that. I think that's a big deal. And of course, continue to work on the relationships, because I firmly believe nobody can do anything by themselves. I'm the mayor of Davenport. I'm a part of a team. I'm a part of a team of the Quad Cities. I fully understand I'm a big part of that team. Sometimes I'm a leader of that team. Sometimes I'm the cheerleader. Sometimes I'm the advocate, depending on what I'm doing. But build upon that and continue to work hard at improving the lives of everyone in Davenport.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: Definitely. So you touched on gun violence and after a record number of shots fired incidents in 2020, the city has embarked on a number of strategies to reduce gun violence. Do you think the city is on the right track to reducing gun violence in Davenport? And what more do you think needs to be done?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: We are certainly on the right track and all the trends are in the right direction. But again, we're never satisfied. So we've got to it's like everything we do, you can't take your eye off the ball. You can't take your foot off the pedal. Building more relationships. We've had great response from our community and what I love about some of these initiatives. The GVI program, group violence intervention you're aware of are coordinated Assessment program. Our Cat program. Keys to the success of these programs are community involvement working with law enforcement, working with school systems, working with city administration, the city council, the mayor, our other communities. Right. Because the bridges are actually a thing where people cross and go back and forth, and there's no real boundaries here because we're one Quad Cities. Davenport's the biggest. But these initiatives gvi success rate as far as customer notifying folks that are potentially involved or going to be involved in gun violence, we've notified and talked to over 100 folks. The last I looked, I think it was a few days ago. Only five have re-offended. That's over a 95% success rate.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: So GVI the cap over. I think we're over 120 referrals to our coordinated assessment program. Family resources, community member helping with that. It's just wonderful. The Gvi program pastors, other other folks that that are trusted in the community. That's the key law enforcement community working together. I'm very proud of these initiatives. I'm very proud of all the people that are involved in it. But if I get to stay as mayor, we're improving upon that. We're working with Rock Island, we're working with other communities how to how to how to expand it, how to how to work with our school systems, how to do all of that because it is a success, and we want to share that success and improve upon that success. And if I'm mayor, I know how to do it. I know who to talk to, I know who to work with, and I have a relationships with those folks. If I can get another two years, we will. I'll sit here again with you maybe in two years, and we'll and I'm confident that we'll talk about how better those programs are.

Speaker3: Absolutely.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: So we're nearing five months since the collapse at 324 Main Street, which killed three men, caused a woman to lose her leg and dozens of residents to lose their homes and belongings. As mayor, you set the tone for the city of Davenport. What do you think the city should do moving forward?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: So you've heard me talk, and just as late or early, depending on how you look at it. Yesterday had conversations with some state folks about what can we do to tighten up landlord responsibilities. What can we do to tighten up inspection processes. Where do we need to change some language and maybe some ordinances or laws at the state level especially. Those talks are going well. I can't tell you today exactly what will come out, but I can tell you that there's a lot of folks interested in it, and we owe it to people to do that. I'm committed to that. I'm committed to talking with our state legislators on what we can do to, to to make sure, especially out-of-town landlords, landlords that aren't being responsible are responsible and are held to some sort of standard more than what we have now understanding. We don't own the properties, but what can we do more? So I'm happy that people are interested in that conversation. I'm terribly saddened that this had to happen and and terribly saddened that this tragic event took three lives and terribly injured another and the displaced folks. But all we can do now is, is, I believe, work with many partners. As you heard me say before, I can't do everything by myself. I have to have the ability to talk with people and have people have the willingness to listen, and we have that. I'm pretty confident if I'm able to stay as mayor, that we will get some tighter rules, we will have a tighter inspection process and maybe some legislation from the state to do that, because I've developed relationships with a lot of folks and and they're willing to talk to me, they're willing to sit down. That's something I think I bring to the table more than maybe my opponent that they will they will be happy to talk with me. We don't agree on everything but I think this is one that we can work on.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: And is there anything specific that you can share yet about what those conversations are about, or what specific rules or things.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: They have to do with out-of-town landlords and tightening up those restrictions and putting more standards in place. I won't say exactly a, b, C, d, e, but certainly we're talking about language in some of the ordinances here in Davenport. But using the state as kind of the place to do that at. We're getting there. Yeah.

Speaker3: Absolutely.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: And how would you grade the city's overall response to the collapse initially and following what lessons were learned?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: So I tell folks, don't take my word for it. Take the word of people that were in charge for the response, folks, whether it's the rescue people, the incident management people that were in charge. Sarah, as you know, they provided a letter of a little feedback to us. So they said the collaboration, especially between the city and the county, our emergency management folks, our rescue folks, I mean, we brought to bear probably an unheralded amount of people together in a day or two to respond. We had Task Force one rescue folks from Cedar Rapids and the state level folks on the ground that night, Sunday night. They were in the building that night, Sunday night. Our fire department was in the building within minutes. And then the coordination and the response you saw, probably on fourth Street, the rows and rows of vehicles and emergency folks that were there stationed to do different things, whether it was structural engineers. We coordinated and talked with the folks in Miami Dade after that dealt with Surfside. Miami Dade mayor's office, the person in charge of the rescue, the fire department, the police department, all of those. The second day, we reached out to a lot of different folks to get advice on what to do and how to handle different things.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: We brought in structural folks. We brought in engineer folks. We used all kinds of people from all different types, whether it's the rescue side, the structural side, the response side to advise us and help us and do some of the work. We brought folks in Wisconsin here to help us. We had meetings on the ground early morning, late at night, 24 over seven operation, going to rescue, recover, advise, and then what to do and then hire folks to help us see cause and effect to give us what? What went on, what went wrong, what happened. And you know, you have that. So the the mobilization and the amount of people, the amount of organizations, the amount of response from rescue people both hours and outside entities and investigations. You hear some still here. Many people are challenging me and sometimes yelling at me, when are we going to hear about the investigation and outside agency? Dci was on the ground the second day. No mayor, no elected official should ever be part of an investigation, especially if it's a criminal investigation. An outside agency is in charge of that. I'm as interested as anybody to see what comes of that, and we'll see where that goes.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: Do you think that there needs to be any additional study looking at city code, city policies, or like you've talked about talking with state lawmakers, do you think that there needs to be any additional study to look at city code?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: We're doing, of course, and I fully anticipate that will be one of the things the next council does. We've kind of talked about that, but not knowing who's not knowing if I'm the person I hope I am because again. I was there and some of us, I was on the ground on those streets for 40 straight hours. And I might have to pause here a second, but watching our fire folks rescue folks come in and out of that building, changing shifts. Watching the the task force ones and standing next to them and talking about what they're doing and what they're looking for, how they're engaging the dogs, how they're engaging what room and how they search, how they're engaging and what they're doing. I was there, and I whether people think I or anyone and I was in charge, right. I'm the mayor, so I take that. But what I can bring is that experience to move forward and do some things better and engage with the next city council and say, here's what we saw, here's what we learned, here's what people told us we need to do better. We'll do that. And I'm committed to that.

Speaker3: Definitely.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: Switching gears, so what do you see as the role of Davenport as a city, being the largest of the Quad Cities and advocating for the entire Quad Cities region?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: With the leader and as the mayor, I want to be directly involved in that. And an example is we went out to D.C. last year and met with our two Republican senators from Iowa and two Democratic senators from Illinois Senator Durbin, Senator Duckworth, Senator Grassley, senators, just to see us as a region in this particular case. For crime reduction. A lot of cities, in fact, most of the funding from the federal level goes to cities over 500,000. We learn that we kind of knew that, but then we actually learned that. So instead of seeing us from a federal level as individual cities, Davenport being the largest over 100,000, but we're not close to that threshold of 500. But if you look at look at us as a Quad Cities region, 450,000+, that's pretty close. And that was my pitch. And and the folks that went. Mayor Toms went with us. Mayor Rayapati went with us. Chief of Police from Davenport, the chief from Rock Island. We all went there as one unified voice to say, look at us as a region. So when you're thinking about funding, we're almost 500,000, and you can have such a great effect on crime reduction if you think of us that way. And out of that has come a weekly federal discussion. We have FBI, DEA, Marshal Service, the Quad Cities law enforcement coming together every Tuesday in Davenport to discuss how to do that.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: And that was through that discussion and through the help of our senators and our other and their staff, helping us to see that that's what we need to do. And then out of that, working with our state folks, Senator Grassley and Senator Ernst, helping our state legislators understand that there's eight judicial districts in Iowa, four of them have high risk officers that focus on high risk individuals. Our judicial district, which is the seventh judicial district, we had zero. We now, Sarah, are have four positions high risk law enforcement positions at the seventh Judicial District here in Davenport. And one supervisor that we're recruiting for and filling as we speak. The federal folks have realized that it's important from a federal perspective, an FBI perspective, a DEA perspective that they've now assigned and putting a DEA position here in Davenport. I don't think that's ever happened before. We're filling that as we speak. The FBI realizes this is the place to be as a region, but specifically Denver. So because of my relationships and working with my counterparts in the Quad Cities, to see us as a region, to see that federal and state resources brought to bear here can make such a huge impact. You know about our system that we bought a couple of years ago to identify shell casings. We bought it and we bought it in Davenport, but we share it with the community in the Quad Cities.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: So from that perspective, from crime reduction, we've had a lot of success seeing us as a region from an economic development perspective. Same thing. How can we I call it set the table. Now, I will admittedly say I'm focused on Davenport, but as you've seen in the region, but specifically Davenport, an unprecedented amount of businesses and jobs coming here just in the last couple of years, last three years, specifically over 1000 new jobs each of the last three years to a total of over 4000 new jobs. That's not counting Amazon, Amazon's filling jobs 1000 as we speak, but that that statistic I just quoted you is not from there. The north part of our city Sterilite Kraft Heinz Amazon seven G the Russell area few years ago. There was none of that. Now it's pretty full. So now we're trying to set the table going west, putting the infrastructure that when I talked about record infrastructure funding, we fully understand we got to fix the streets, we got to fix what we have, but we also have to have to put in play infrastructure so that as close as we can get to shovel ready ground, that businesses will say, hey, Davenport's a place to be. And and we we've seen that in action again, I don't know another place that has much growth or business interest as the causes, but specifically Davenport.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: 400 new business licenses have been taken out in Davenport in the last couple of years. 75 just in the downtown where we're sitting in. I tell that to people. Like what? Yes, because the the attitude of the mayor, the city council, the respective folks working together around the region, when you talk about region is how can we help you? Come here. What what is it you need? What are you looking for? There was a couple of companies who have talked to me recently, in the last two years, about why they decided here or why they're looking. They they get to choose, as you know, companies, businesses get to choose anywhere. But there, there's a movement here. There's a momentum here to come to Davenport, to come to the Quad Cities, but especially Davenport, because we know how to get the deal done, how to how to make the deal happen. One example 126 places they looked at a recent company, narrowed it down to 15, 10 then chose Davenport. That's impressive. I don't care who the mayor is or who the city council is, or who the economic development, that's impressive by itself, but it's because of the partnerships that we all have developed understanding each other, working together to say, let's create opportunities. And that's my job, I believe, is to help create opportunities so that you or anyone else around here, or quite frankly, anybody else that's looking for a place, you get to choose where to work.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: You get to choose where to live around the nation. Why should you choose here? Because the opportunities are huge for you here, for your family, for you to live, for you to grow. And that's what we try and do. And if you give me two more years, we're going to keep doing that and we're going to get the West fixed and handled and the infrastructure put in place. And then if I'm talking to you in two years or three years or someone else is sitting here talking to you, they'll be like, okay, they did the North and they were talking about the West, and now look at the West. Now we got to think about what else are we going to do. Right. But that's my job to create that that vision, create that enthusiasm for companies and businesses to come here. And I'm committed to doing that. And the evidence is there. And if you keep me as mayor, I'm going to keep doing it. And some people say, well, mayor, you you keep talking to them, you keep doing this, yes, I am. That's what I'm going to do and that's what I'm going to keep doing.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: Yeah. And were you referencing Fair Oaks Foods?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: Fair Oaks is one of them. Certainly. Yeah. And they're they're pausing just like somebody said. Well Amazon paused I don't know that that was a bad thing. So they paused a little bit to make sure they get their materials to make sure everything's and they're they're hiring. Now they're going to start right, either very late this fall winter or by spring. And that's going. And if you drive by, you see all the cars there, see all the lights on, you see everybody doing it, you see the hiring fairs, same kind of concept of Fair Oaks. They pause cost of materials, cost of things. They need to regroup and do that. I'm still hearing they're doing it. I'm not in the meetings sitting in the room with them. But I kind of the same thing. We're pausing. But but the attitude of why they picked Davenport never changed, right? That's still the same. Why they decided to come here, why Amazon decided to come here, why others stayed here or or expanded. We talked about Kraft Heinz. That was downtown. Oh, it's going to lead most a lot of Kraft Heinz places just packed up, took down their building and didn't do anything right. Not here a whole new facility. And we had to help with that. But we saved hundreds of jobs and now they've doubled how many they have. Right. So that attitude of expansion and working with people, me being part of a team, it isn't the mayor that does everything by his or her self. It isn't the city council or the chamber or our business folks or whoever, the schools, all of us working together to do these things, that's what we're talking about. And if you give me two more years, we're going to do more of that.

Speaker3: Yeah, definitely.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: So I want to ask, so your opponent has called on the city administrator to resign. And I'm wondering how well do you think that the administration under you and the council is functioning.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: So every month. And I'm, I know what assume means, Sarah, but every month, everyone who would like to look at the work plan on the city website can go see how we're doing. So again, don't judge based on my observation. Go look for yourself. Every new council and in Davenport it's every two years, as you know, establishes goals and priorities and  benchmarks and pillars. Right? The pillars have stayed the same for the last many councils. Some of the goals have been different. So every month it's put out on the website how the city administrator is doing on that work, on her work plan, which is referenced to the pillars and the goals of the City Council. In many cases, it's pretty impressive. The stuff we're doing. You just heard me talk about a lot of stuff. The city administrator is part of that. The city administrator leads the day to day operations. Not the mayor, not the city council. We're the policy folks. We set direction. I'm a the leadership of the city. But I'm one person and so is the city council. There. ten guidance focused direction. But the city administrator has to make that happen with their department heads to say the city administrator, would you ask, resign? Did you have the word you used?

Speaker3: Yes.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: For what reason? You've heard them. People say I should. Are there things we need to do better? Like everybody needs to do better? As you heard me talk. I'm never satisfied. Everything I self critique myself, probably more than anybody, gives me a hard time about. But look at what we've done over the last few years. Just the last couple, three, four, whatever you want, however you want to look at that. And every month you can go and see what's being done on the website. Or you can look around and see what's being done. Again, you heard me talk about streets and infrastructure and sewers. We did the whole entire 1930 sewer line a few years ago. Nobody sees that, right? So I don't know what that is. That's millions of dollars to improve that system, to improve a system going west, bringing in the business and companies. City administrator is part of that. The staff is part of that. The mayor and council are part of that. The chamber is part of that. Other people are part of that. The media is part of that, right? Everybody is part of that. So to call on one person. What? What do you talk? Rhetoric.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: Divisiveness. Negativity. What does that do? I don't know what that does other than create more divisiveness negativity. Let's talk about how we can improve. If there's something particular that you someone is concerned about you, you go to every meeting. There's some people that are concerned about things, right? We sit there and listen. If there's something particular that's concerning someone about any position city administrator, police chief, public works director, whatever department. I have four calls today from folks interested in talking to me about some particular issue they were concerned about. You've heard me say many times, probably if you don't have my cell phone number, I don't understand. Now, people still give me a hard time. Mayor. Don't give out yourself. I can do. If you're reasonable. I'll call you and we'll talk. Sometimes I don't get reasonable calls, but. What is your plan? What is your vision for moving forward? Getting rid of you. You need to go. That doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand that. If there's particular issues, then tell me. Then talk to me. Nobody's told me that. My opponent certainly has not. He's been around here a while.

Speaker3: Yeah.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: And then I'm wondering how how do you approach conflict among members of the city council?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: Try and handle it at the lowest level. Simple. And if not, then get me give me get. I want to talk to people to give me advice and guidance. It's different between staff who are employees and elected officials. I try and respect everybody as a mature adult, and we try and handle things at the lowest level and I'm not their boss. So if me and you, Sarah, were communicating or I had a concern with you. Sarah, would you like to talk to me? Could we? Maybe you would like to do that. Maybe you would not like to do that. Can we talk with folks? Can we do other things? Can we? It's got to be a two way street, right? For the majority of the time, the council has done a great job. We're individuals and sometimes we have conflict. My job is to try and work with them to solve that. I've come talk to me any time they know. Call me, visit, walk in, knock on my door. Call me at midnight. I don't care what. Let's sit down and talk. And for the most part, that's how we do business. We'll come and talk, and sometimes we get after each other a little bit. There's a couple council members that me and them, we do. We have very frank conversations, but then we walk away with an understanding of how we solve the problem and move forward to deal with that. And then I believe in talking to people that have experience in life, in business, in relationships, and get getting advice from them. And sometimes that's because everybody wants an immediate response and fix. When we're dealing with humans, that's sometimes hard. And there needs to be a willingness. And we're trying to work through that. And that's that's difficult, but I'm committed to doing it. And working it out as much as anybody wants to work it out. My door is always open and I reach out to folks. But I'm not going to mandate that you talk to me. But I certainly am going to try.

Speaker3: Yeah.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: And I want to turn our attention to the riverfront.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: The subject as we stare. As you stare at it. Anyway.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: The riverfront is often been described as the city's greatest asset. Do you think that Davenport is on the right track to developing a great riverfront?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: Absolutely. So you've seen destination quite a bit. We had a good discussion about that Main Street landing. Still having good discussion about that. How can we? How can we? As part of the Quad Cities, Davenport being the biggest part of the Quad Cities and having nine miles of riverfront improve and and make our riverfront our one of our biggest amenities better. So River vision a long time ago. But the concepts of river vision are still important and still being utilized. And as mayor, I think that's that's a big piece of what we do. So we had a vision. We as you saw, Sarah, we had many public input sessions over a long period of time on how to do different things. And then we got to apply for a destination grant to the state of Iowa with partners like the Figi. And sometimes things happen that you don't see the effect of why this happened, that it could help with something else, i.e. the railroad, the merger. So, you know, we negotiated with them. But we use some of that money we negotiated as leverage to the state. And ARPA funds again. Didn't anticipate that either. Right? Because of the pandemic, ARPA comes into play. So we use other people's money. ARPA money, railroad money. Figge money to leverage, to get state money to make this wonderful destination idea and then apply and we got it. So we got a huge amount of money from the state. And we're going to partner with the Figge. I don't know if you've seen the the drawings or the design for what? That's that's amazing. That will be the beacon of the Midwest when that's lit up. And then a little bit to my left downtown here, that destination area.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: And we're still having public input sessions on pieces of the destination. What what this overpass should look like. There's four, four different designs. What's the public want it to be? Whether it's a rustic thing or a new version? You those type of things we want. We're having public input for those. Again, teamwork. State money, railroad money, ARPA money. No. City money. And the Figge. They raise millions quickly to do their thing and put that together. And here we go. And we're going to. You're young enough. Maybe you know you'll see it soon. I'm hoping in a few years I'll see it. And I'm here. And I would love to be mayor, at least in the next two years. To see that, too. To be committed, to make sure this happens. Right. I'm nervous that if someone else gets in that, that doesn't happen. I'm committed to it. I'm committed to improving our riverfront. I'm committed to working with our friends along the river on both sides, Illinois and Iowa, to make this the best destination there is in the Midwest. And we have a blueprint for that. We have a design for that. We have a commitment from the people in charge right now to do that. So we got to see it to fruition, right. If I'm mayor, I'm committed to seeing it to fruition. We can debate little pieces going forward. And that's that's productive to have those debates. But to continue to improve our riverfront and our downtown is critical to the success of Davenport and the Quad Cities. And if I get to stay as mayor, that stays in my focus.

Speaker2: Sarah Watson: Great. Those are my questions. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?

Speaker1: Mike Matson: I'd just like to say the citizens of Davenport, if you are honoring me with two more years, you see my passion. You see my enthusiasm for Davenport and the Quad Cities, and to continue the positive momentum that we have worked on. I want to continue that working with people to make Davenport the safe, stable, welcoming community that it is and can be even better. And then bringing you more business, more opportunities, better infrastructure, continued crime reduction, continue economic development, continue working to improve tourism. To continue to working for all the people of our greatest asset, quite frankly, in Davenport is our people, and they should have as much opportunities as possible to do whatever it is they want to do. And if I'm mayor, I'm going to. That will be my focus. Public safety and crime reduction is my number one focus, but the lives of the people and how can I help improve, whether it's through more amenities, lower cost of living, better economic development, more opportunities than the job? We've done a great job on jobs. If I'm mayor, that's staying. We're continuing. I am I'm committed to working with the state, committed to working with our federal partners, our county folks, to make this region one of the most successful regions in the Midwest, if not the nation.

Speaker1: Mike Matson: We're on the path to doing it. We're pretty good right now, but let's continue. Let's keep that positive momentum going. Some of the negativity we don't need, we need the positive momentum that we built. And I want to continue to do it. And if I'm honored, my commitment and enthusiasm will not waver. I am there for you. I am committed to you. I'm loyal to you. I'm staying. As in Davenport. I'm not moving somewhere else. I'm not hopping from job to job. People have asked, well, you may be going to explore Congress. Maybe you're going to explore this, the supervisor job. Maybe you're going to explore governor. Maybe you're going to do this. I explored that once. You know what the best job in Davenport is? The mayor of Davenport. And I'm staying here. I'm committed. If you give me two more years, I'm committed to you. I'm not looking for something else. I'm not hopping around. I'm committed to staying as the Davenport mayor. And I'd be honored to have your vote on November 7th.