FORT MADISON – The race for Fort Madison Mayor has become one of the most compelling races headed into the Nov. 4 general election.
Not only is there a current Fort Madison High School senior on the ballot, but former City Councilman and Lee County Supervisor Tom Schulz has entered the race.
What makes it compelling isn’t that someone with Tom Schulz’s background in politics is running for Mayor, that would be a logical transition. However, Schulz resigned from his position as Lee County Supervisor under pressure from a public intoxication charge which makes his decision to run very personal.
This year’s election cycle is a city/school general election, and no state or federal officers are on the ballot in November. Schulz will be facing former City Clerk Melinda Blind, resident Rodney Hoskins, who's ran for mayor in all elections since 2019, first-time candidate Carl Rippenkroeger, and FMHS senior Roy Woodsmall.
Schulz said he doesn’t think his resignation as a supervisor challenges his legitimacy as a candidate for office.
“People may think that, sure,” he said. “But the people that have supported me then are supporting me now.”
Schulz said his qualifications and connections with state and federal officials make him not only a legitimate candidate, but a strong one.
The connections he made with state officials and party officials are still intact he said and it's going to take those connections to help Fort Madison find its way out of deficit spending. He also said it’s time to get some separation from the tightness of the council and the mayor.
“We’ve had a mayor that’s said he wants transparency, but there’s been more done there behind the scenes than I can remember,” Schulz said.
“I want to get back to town halls. In every position I’ve ever held, I’ve held town halls on important issues to get the public’s input. We have to get back to including the public in our deliberations,” he said.
One example he pointed to is the new fire station saying the city got overwhelming support for a $12 million bond for the building on the promise that it was so the city could go after other funding streams, including state and federal awards.
“Where are we with that? You don’t see them out now saying, ‘Hey we can’t find any money anywhere, so we may have to bond for it after all'.”
Plans for the building have been reduced by removing space for city ambulances with the county finishing off their ambulance bay on the west end of town. But Schulz said that could end up being a mistake, because he feels the police department should also be in that building.
“That should be a public safety building. We have to get the police away from the politics of City Hall,” he said.
Schulz served on the Fort Madison City Council after being elected in 2021 to the 2nd Ward. He was appointed to the council prior to the 2021 election. He resigned his position the following year after narrowly defeating Donna Amandus in the 2022 2nd District Supervisor's race. That was one of the closest in recent memory with Schulz winning 901-870. He served one year in 2023 and then was tapped as the chairman in 2024 before resigning his seat.
He said the city is also facing some tough decisions with budgeting and that’s going to take someone with experience to navigate. Fort Madison is currently projecting deficit spending for the next three years and Schulz said there are two ways to address that – find revenues or reduce expenses.
Having five candidates also creates a unique circumstance in the election itself. Iowa code reads that a candidate must collect at least 50% plus 1 vote to qualify as a winner in an election. If no candidate reaches that threshold then a run-off is scheduled four weeks following the election. In that run-off, the top two vote getters will square off in the run-off election at an added expense to the city.
Schulz said he has more experience to lead than the rest of the candidates. He created some space between himself and Blind by saying the three-decade employee of the city may be too close to current staff to be able to be objective.
“I have a lot of respect for what Melinda’s done for the city, but I think it would be hard for her to make the tough decisions. She’s worked with a lot of these people for a long time and that would be hard for her, I would think.”
He said at the end of the day, he’s the best choice and, at this time, only plans on serving for two years.
“We just need some new direction and I want to help get us there. We’re going to have some tough decisions to make and I think I’m the best candidate to lead those discussions,” he said.
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