Peacemaker Victories
PeaceMakers Institute President Teams With Local PAC
The Rev. Cary Gordon, president of PeaceMakers Institute, accepted the position of Secretary/Treasurer for a newly formed political action committee, recently, in Sioux City, Iowa. Lynn Zerschling, staff writer for the Sioux City Journal, wrote an article entitled, “Faces Behind PAC Seeking Direct Election of the Mayor.” She wrote:
When two 30-something Sioux Cityans announced last week they had formed a PAC to push for the direct election of the mayor, more than one person scratched their head and wondered who these guys are.
None of the city councilmen I talked to knew in advance that Aaron Rochester and the Rev. Cary Gordon had planned this political move. Councilman Jason Geary, who has most directly pushed for the direct election proposal, says he knows Gordon because he is friends with his brother.
However, even Geary didn’t know anything about Rochester’s and Gordon’s “Sioux Citizens for Responsible Government.” …Rochester said his committee consists of “some core conservatives in Sioux City who want to have the option of voting for the mayor.” Rochester owns Impact Accounting LLC. Gordon is associate pastor at Cornerstone World Outreach… “I've had a very generalized interest in politics,” Gordon told me. “Somebody once said, ‘The people who don’t care are ruled by those who do.’ I live by this. This is our 25th anniversary of ministry here. I’ve always been very interested, as all Christians should be, in politics. It’s truly bipartisan. It’s not a conservative issue or liberal issue. It concerns every citizen who can vote. It seems the right thing for people to be able to say who they want to be the face of Sioux City.” Rochester asked him to participate in the PAC. “Aaron and I have been best friends since third grade. We think a lot alike. He goes to our church.”
Gordon moved to Sioux City when he was 9 when his parents started the church. He graduated from East High and worked for seven years on the church’s maintenance staff. He then decided he wanted to become a pastor, graduating from Rhema Bible School in Tulsa, Okla. He has been the associate pastor for 11 years. He just published his first book, “The MasterPeace.” “It deals interestingly enough with the relationship of a Christian world view and politics and how church government should function along side civil government. It contains God’s idea about government. I started writing this book 11 years ago.”
His experiences as a pastor factored into his writings. In particular, he said the deaths of Leticia Aguilar and her five children -- Claudia, Zach, Larry and Lisa Saldana and Michael Aguilar had a great impact on him. The children attended Cornerstone’s Club Genesis, an outreach to children that he oversees. Aguilar and the children were murdered in their home in 2001. Gordon helped conduct their funeral service. “You look at the world that’s messed up and ask what you can contribute that’s positive. As someone who believes in Jesus Christ, what can I contribute to my city, my state and my nation that’s positive and helpful? Even if people disagree with you, you have to do it.”
A lifelong Sioux Cityan, Rochester recalled meeting Gordon “running down the halls” at church. He graduated from West High School in 1992. After graduation he went to work at MCI and eventually was named a supervisor. During that time, he took night classes at Western Iowa Tech. He then became a regional sales manager for KCAU-TV and then at KMEG-TV, did some consulting work and signed on to work for the CPA firm, Dierking, Lockie & Associates. He opened his own practice in October 2004. “We work with small business owners all over Sioux City, South Dakota and a few in Nebraska,” Rochester said. “It’s been wonderful.”
In May, the City Council named Rochester to serve on the Effective Public Policy Committee. He said he plans to campaign for Barbara Blanchard, a Republican, who wants to unseat State Sen. Steve Warnstadt, D-Sioux City. Blanchard is superintendent of Siouxland Community Christian School. Since Sioux City voters approved the council-manager form of government in a 1953 referendum, the council has elected one of its own to be mayor. A newly passed state law would allow voters to pick the mayor. The mayor’s duties would remain the same. The legislation was pushed by several Sioux City council members. The council could place the question on the ballot, but several indicated they preferred having a group of citizens propose that action.
“I feel confident that the City Council will pass this,” Gordon stated. “There were probably some good reasons the citizens decided to set up our government the way it did in the ’50s. Our community has evolved a lot since the ’50s. You grow more than one way. It happens in the way you govern yourselves, too.”
(Source: Published by the Sioux City Journal, June 21, 2006)
PeaceMakers Institute Makes an Impact
Shortly after the formation of “Sioux Citizens for Responsible Government” by Aaron Rochester (Chairman of SCRG and Secretary of PeaceMakers Institute) and Rev. Cary Gordon (Sec/Treasurer of SCRG and President of PeaceMakers Institute), the current Mayor of Sioux City responded favorably to the PAC’s proposal to put the issue of directly electing the city’s mayor on the upcoming November ballots. Lynn Zerschling, staff writer for the Sioux City Journal, wrote an article entitled “Berenstein predicts voters will get to decide on mayoral election selection.” She wrote:
Sioux City Mayor Craig Berenstein predicted Friday that the City Council will give voters the chance to decide how they want their mayor elected. “The City Council is fully supportive of submitting this issue to voters this November,” Berenstein said during his weekly press conference. “Mayor Pro Tem Jason Geary was instrumental in working with Iowa Speaker of the House Christopher Rants to get this issue passed in the Legislature”…“There is unanimous consensus of the council to submit this to the voters,” he said… Berenstein acknowledged the formation last week of a political action committee called Sioux Citizens for Responsible Government. The PAC, headed by Aaron Rochester and the Rev. Cary Gordon, will push for the direct election measure. “I’m curious to listen to the dialogue that takes place as a result of the PAC’s formation,” [Mayor] Berenstein said. (Emphasis added.)
(Source: Published by the Sioux City Journal, June 24, 2006)
Sioux City PAC Fights Back
After being criticized by the Taxpayers Research Council, Sioux Citizens for Responsible Government, founded by Aaron Rochester, Secretary of PeaceMakers Institute, and Rev. Cary Gordon, President of PeaceMakers Institute, fired back at the TRC in a Saturday press release to the Sioux City Journal. Lynn Zerschling, staff writer for the Sioux City Journal, wrote the article entitled, “PAC contends directly electing Sioux City’s mayor would make a difference to people.” She wrote:
“Directly electing Sioux City’s mayor will make that person the voice of the people to the City Council,” a political action committee supporting that proposal, said Friday. That would be a reversal of what that PAC sees happening now - that the mayor is the voice of the City Council to the people. “We believe a constructive reversal would take place in the event that the mayor was directly elected by the people,” Sioux Citizens for Responsible Government said:
“Currently there is a false notion that has been purveyed to the public suggesting that the current role of mayor has no more power than the other members of the council,” the organization said. “This ill-informed idea, at best, underestimates and at worst totally ignores the power of the mayor’s bully pulpit.” The mayor would “carry more moxie,” the PAC said, because he or she would enter office with the “political capital of his campaign promises.”
The PAC, formed by businessman Aaron Rochester and the Rev. Cary Gordon of Cornerstone World Outreach [founding members of PeaceMakers Institute], disputed the arguments made last week by the Taxpayers Research Council. The TRC announced it opposes the direct election proposal. Council members have said they intend to place the measure on the November ballot to let the voters decide whether the council should continue to elect the mayor or if the people should. If approved at the polls, the mayor would be elected for a four-year term in office, instead of two, as has been the case for the past 52 years.
Occasionally, council members have split that term with one member serving one year each. Usually, the pair splitting the term cite the amount of time the job takes as why they only could serve one year in that office. Sioux Citizens for Responsible Government, however, said it opposes the sharing of the mayor’s post, so council members can “take turns so that they can add the title ‘mayor’ to their resume. We believe that long tenure is important for the public relations role and proper representation takes place when one remains in office long enough to reasonably establish the relationships necessary for progress.”
The PAC disputed the TRC’s contention that there would be no real change in government should voters directly elect their mayor. The TRC also contended that the mayor will not have an increased ability to deliver on his campaign platform since he or she would only have one of five votes on the council. The mayor’s duties would not change. “If this particular rationale for opposing the direct election of the mayor is taken to its logical conclusion, then we must infer that the TRC believes the entire City Council to be irrelevant,” Rochester and Gordon maintained. “After all, they don’t have the increased ability to deliver on their promises either.” They added, “The people of Sioux City don’t necessarily need a mayor with extra powers so much as they need a mayor who represents the consensus of the peoples’ view to the council, the state, the nation and the world-at-large.”
The TRC also said the change in how the mayor is elected could lead to more cost to the taxpayers. Special elections might need to be held to replace a council member elected mayor. The election carries a price tag of $10,000 to $12,000. Rochester and Cary acknowledge that could happen. However, they said voters pay a symphony levy to the tune of $48,365 a year. That levy, they argued, subsidizes ticket holders “some of whom are wealthy.” They noted the council “also managed to fly in a consultant from Rhode Island to conduct a study on the convention center at the cost of $19,000.” They asked if those expenses were necessary. “But we respond to the TRC insinuation that the peoples’ votes aren’t worth the cost of the election process with a question for the people of Sioux City: What is your right to vote worth?” (Emphasis added.)
(Source: Published by the Sioux City Journal, July 15, 2006)
Sioux Cityans will elect mayor next November
The people have spoken and they said they - not the City Council - should elect Sioux City’s mayor
By a comfortable margin, Sioux City residents said Tuesday they want to elect their mayor. The measure won by a 54-46 percent margin, with 10,889 voting yes to 9,122 voting no. As the results came in Tuesdaay night, the ballot measure gainged an early lead and never lost it.
With approval of the measure, Sioux City voters will go to the polls a year from now to select their leader for a four-year term. Since 1953 when the council-manager form of government was approved in another referendum, the five members of the council have elected one of their own to serve as mayor for a two-year term.
A newly enacted state law allows cities with the city manager-at-large form of governement to have their mayor elected by the voters. Councilman Jason Geary pushed for that legislation and this fall the council placed the question on the ballot.
“I’m not suprised by the outcome,” Greary said. “I think this was something that resonated with the voters. There was some good dabate on both sides pro and con on the issues. The people won the day in that they chose they wanted to vote for the mayor.
“I’m excited and pleased. I look to moving forward from this. Then, when the time comes, voters can choose the mayor.”
Three groups tool positions on the ballot measure that saw a relatively low-key campaign this fall. Sioux Citizens for Responsible Government, formed by businessmen Aaron Rochester and the Rev. Cary Gordon, lobbied for the change, while the League of Women Voters and the Taxpayers Research Counsil urged its rejection.
“Of course, we’re disappointed because we believed in what we were telling the public,” Claire Miethke, league study chairman, said. “We will be watching to make sure that this doesn’t morph into something else.”
Janeese Martin, TRC executive director, added. “The general feeling I had from listening to the public was that it appears that some people seemed to feel this would be a strong mayor vs. just a part-time mayor. There was a general misunderstanding that there would be more power associated with this position that there will be.”
Both the TRC and league argued that a directly elected mayor would not possess any additional authority - he or she will not have veto authority over council votes, for example.
Rochester said from Des Moines, “I’m extremely happy with the outcome because our budget and advertising was less than the League of Women Voters. I felt Sioux Cityans overwhelmingly agreed with this idea. I’m glad all the negatice campaigning didn’t work. I really think this will be a small step in the right direction for Sioux City.” he said, adding he anticipates there will be greater voter turn-out than normal in next fall’s city election.
The voters will go to the polls next November to elect the mayor as well as one council member, instead of two council members. Neither Mayor Craig Berenstein nor Greary have announced their re-election plans.
With eight previous votes to change the council-manager form of government since 1953, Tuesday’s ballot marks the first time that residents wanted to see some degree of change in that system.
(Source: Published by the Sioux City Journal, Wednesday, November 8, 2006)
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PeaceMakers Institute is a 501(c)(4) organization which primarily focuses on the education and promotion of important social issues. PeaceMakers Political Action is a state political committee which primarily helps elect candidates who reflect our biblically conservative values through a variety of activities aimed at influencing the outcome of the next election. PeaceMakers Institute and PeaceMakers Political Action are separate organizations.