I ran for the City Council for the first time because I believe in public service, in working to better my community, and, selfishly, to recruit and retain more young professionals (what I considered myself at the time) in Sioux City. After eight years, having decided not to run for reelection, I look back and see that we, as a council, made great strides, but there is still so much work to be done.

Some accomplishments stand out. The Iowa Reinvestment District Program, which directed hotel/motel tax from the state to cities, allowed us to develop specific districts. We leveraged this to connect the Courtyard by Marriott to the convention center, which has proven incredibly valuable to the convention center and has driven more business into our downtown area. It also included the Avid Hotel on Gordon Drive, the redevelopment of the Warrior Hotel that had sat vacant for decades, and the development of the STF Expo Center. To fill these hotels, I worked to establish a standalone convention and visitors bureau to market Sioux City for tournaments, conventions, and visitors. Over the last two years, we have seen record increases in hotel/motel tax revenue, which has put money back into our budget.

Retaining young professionals also meant addressing the cost of rent. While we can’t control rental prices, we can increase the supply of homes and apartments, hoping to make properties more competitive in terms of rates and amenities. However, while we have seen a record number of new apartments downtown and several complexes across Sioux City, it has not done enough to reduce the cost to those who rent. In addition to the STF Expo Center, we have added some incredible quality-of-life amenities that have impacted our residents and attracted a large number of visitors. We connected miles of trails, built numerous splash pads in neighborhoods throughout the city, completely reimagined the riverfront, opened Cone Park, which has been recognized across the state, and, most recently, added arguably the best mountain biking complex in the Midwest.

I also heard the plea to address our failing infrastructure, and more specifically, the issue of potholes. While this will be an ongoing and seemingly endless endeavor, the crew we currently have in place is responsive and proactively trying to patch rough areas of roadways. I am proud that we made the difficult decision to invest in redeveloping our wastewater treatment plant, which processes more concentrated food waste than Denver’s facility. Applying Band-Aids to this facility and making misguided investments have left it dangerously vulnerable to failure and have not given us the capacity to grow. The plan we have in place will address all these things – AND (hopefully) finally fix the smell. Additionally, the Biden administration passed the American Rescue Plan, which provided the City of Sioux City with the resources to invest more than $40 million in several infrastructure projects that would have otherwise taken years to complete and would have been at the expense of local taxpayers.

I could highlight more accomplishments, but I’ve tried to focus on projects that provide a real return on investment while considering tax impact. I have tried to keep in mind the tax burden on our citizens. During the eight years I’ve served, we reduced taxes in four years and raised them in four. In a 10-year average, the City tax rate has decreased in eight of those years. Loud voices will claim we have the highest taxes in the country, but five Iowa cities have higher rates, and six have higher average monthly utility bills. 

With all of that said, there are so many more things that I had hoped to address or do differently. We need to become more creative with how we incentivize housing and development projects. We need to collaborate and be strategic with how we recruit new businesses to our community. And we must be willing to try new things to grow, think differently, and empower our staff to provide solutions without fear of being called out or unfairly blamed. I continue to be greatly concerned about homelessness and panhandling throughout our city. Similarly, we must hold slumlords and irresponsible tenants accountable. We desperately need the state legislature to stop stripping away funding that has been promised to cities and towns across the state and restore their local control. Ultimately, we must be willing to hold ourselves and the organizations we support accountable.

I remain hopeful for the future of this community. I love the people here and am so thankful for their belief in me. That’s why this is hard. I will continue trying to make a difference where I can, and perhaps, after stepping away and gaining perspective, I will return reinvigorated to address some of these challenges.

Alex Watters