Des Moines City Manager Scott Sanders is defending the Des Moines Police Department s decision to put a sergeant who has been disciplined for excessive force on the five-person team that leads the department s de-escalation training.
In a Tuesday email to Mayor Frank Cownie and the six members of the Des Moines City Council, Sanders said he and Police Chief Dana Wingert have met privately with sincerely concerned residents but he didn t find their arguments persuasive.
On the decision to make Sgt. Michael Fong a trainer, Sanders wrote: In the end, this was a management decision and, the deeper I dig into it, the more I am convinced that the selection of Sgt. Fong to assist in this training is appropriate.
There s a science to sniffing the stenches of Des Moines, and the city will implement it into new training and testing as it aims to set odor control limits, said SuAnn Donavan, deputy director of the city s neighborhood services department.
At a Monday morning work session, Donovan updated City Council, the mayor and other officials on the effort to address some of the unpleasant smells that Des Moines dwellers have come to know. In recent years, residents have complained the city reeked of dog poo and worse on social media, and to the 24/7 odor hotline (515-244-0336), with inspectors pointing back to animal processing plants or farms spreading manure over fields.
Des Moines City Council approves rezoning for shared stadium at Drake Friday, December 11, 2020 11:34 AM
Des Moines Register: A $19.5 million stadium planned to be built next to Drake University s Knapp Center, to be shared by Des Moines varsity football and soccer teams and the university, earned a crucial nod from city officials Thursday night. In a special meeting dedicated to the topic, Des Moines City Council approved Drake s requests to rezone a plot of its campus to make way for the stadium near 2421 Forest Ave. Like the first and second readings, the third and final reading of the rezoning items passed in a 5-2 vote, with Councilman Joe Gatto and Councilwoman Linda Westergaard voting no.
Nicole Welle | December 10, 2020
Des Moines city council members debated a proposed city resolution that would transition the city’s electric users to 100% renewable energy by 2030 earlier this week.
Councilman Josh Mandelbaum, who supports the proposal, debated with Councilman Joe Gatto over a potential conflict of interest. Gatto accused Mandelbaum of the conflict because Mandelbaum is the senior attorney for the Environmental Law and Policy Center’s Des Moines office, a non-profit organization that supports renewable energy, aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and the retirement of coal plants. Gatto said he would not support any resolution Mandelbaum writes because of his ties with the organization, according to an Iowa Capital Dispatch article.
Nicole Welle | January 14, 2021
The Des Moines City Council unanimously approved a resolution this week that aims to transition all Des Moines homes and businesses to renewable energy by 2035.
Environmental activists celebrated the resolution, and more than 40 businesses in Des Moines endorsed it. Councilman Josh Mandelbaum, who introduced the resolution, said that it was made possible in part by MidAmerican Energy’s investments in renewable energy sources. MidAmerican is working toward the goal of producing all of its power from renewable sources, and it plans to close all of its coal and gas plants once renewable energy transmission and storage technology improves enough to meet demands, according to an Iowa Capital Dispatch article.