Colfax city administrator leaves with praise for council, scorn for legislators

Colfax City Administrator Wade Wagoner could not finish reading aloud his goodbye letter to city council members last week without getting choked up, but he spared no tears for the lawmakers at the State Capitol that he partially blames for his difficult decision to leave and take a job at a bigger city.

For the past six years, Wagoner has served as head of the City of Colfax. He embraced the community and took joy in celebrating the city’s accomplishments. Oftentimes he thought Colfax would be the final job. The one he would carry on through retirement. He has a dozen or so years left to go before that happens.

So when it came time to say farewell to his elected officials at his final council meeting, he had to have city clerk Nancy Earles finish his praises for council members Karla Jones, Brad Magg, Bryan Poulter, Curtis Small and Wes Snyder, and Mayor David Mast. Wagoner had a personal story to tell for each one.

These positive sentiments toward the city and its staff, council and mayor were echoed in Wagoner’s exit interview obtained by Newton News. In it, he speaks highly of his council, who treated him “unbelievably well” especially when he was confined to a wheelchair for six months after a MRSA infection.

“The way I’ve been treated and my love of Colfax could have easily made it my last stop,” he said. “I’m just afraid it won’t last another decade and I need to work at least that long. Indianola should be large enough to give me the protection I need to get to the finish line in spite of the state legislature’s onslaught.”

Another reason he wanted to leave was because the city would be losing a number of key employees within the next few years, including the city clerk and two individuals in public works. Coupled with a council member moving outside city limits and the mayor being on his last term, Wagoner said it was time.

“What I’m saying is that while I love the bones of our community and the brick and mortar stuff we’ve built, I love the people I work with more,” Wagoner said in his exit interview. “The reality is that a lot of what I love is changing and I’m getting out ahead of that change.”

However, much of the exit interview condemns the Iowa Legislature and what Wagoner believes is an encroaching overstep from the state and the decline of home rule, or the power that lets cities and counties manage their own local governments. Wagoner said he is sick and tired of sleeping with one eye open.

Wagoner said he has what he believes to be “highly credible sources” telling him the end game is consolidation, similarly to how school districts like Colfax-Mingo and Prairie City-Monroe have combined. In his exit interview, he questions how that affects Colfax and his role as city administrator.

To him, his decision to leave is a matter of job security. But Wagoner feels like he is leaving the city in working order. He said finances are tight, but if there was anything he regretted it was “not figuring out how to get the housing rock rolling,” though he has high hopes that Colfax’s economic development team will.

In a follow-up with Newton News, Wagoner said he is a big believer in home rule and that no one sitting at the council dais loves taxes or wants to tax citizens of Colfax out of their homes. Wagoner said tough decisions about taxes deserve to be handled at the local level. He also pointed to issues with House File 718.

Reports of more property tax reform in the works during the next legislative session only reinforce Wagoner’s fears.

“It hits small towns harder,” he said. “Not every community of 2,200 people have a city administrator. It some ways its a luxury position. My council saw the value in it. I can show you in the annual reports that I’ve brought in more grant money than what I’ve been paid … I had real concerns about whether that will continue.”

Wagoner was unsure where his seat at the table would be in the future. He questioned if Colfax would be absorbed by Newton or by Jasper County as a whole. A larger city, he reasoned, would have more secure employment for him and would be better for his family. Still, he is grateful for Colfax.

“It’s a difficult thing to come in and to be really, really appreciated by your mayor and council — who are your boss — and for them to find value in what you’re doing,” Wagoner said. “But I’m wondering if that’s not good enough. Because it should be. It should be good enough. But the state has other ideas.”

He speculated if the City of Colfax had to cut 20 percent of its budget due to new property tax reform, Wagoner said if he was on the outside looking in he would recommend eliminating the city administrator position. Other city services, he suggested, are more important than a city administrator.

“You’ve got to plow the streets. You’ve got to flush the toilet. You’ve got to balance the books and do the budget. You’ve got to have a city clerk,” Wagoner said to Newton News. “But you don’t have to have a city administrator. And I got tired of that hanging over me.”