Steve Gaer was raised to believe in the importance of public service.
The fourth-generation West Des Moines resident and four-term mayor grew up going to city council meetings with his father, who was elected to an at-large seat in 1967 when Gaer was 7 years old.
He remembers one night when a resident knocked on his family's door mad about a project on 19th Street. Gaer asked his father why he served, why he put up with people who were mad at him for one thing or another.
"His comment was, 'You know, Steve, we’ve benefitted from living in this community and I hope you and your brothers come back here and live in the community. We need to give back and try to make it a better place.' And I just never forgot that," Gaer said.