CROKEN LABELS CITY ADMINISTRATION “BLOATED”
Davenport, September 5…. In a news release issued today Iowa State Representative Ken Croken promised that, if elected Davenport mayor on November 7, he would deliver “more efficient and effective city administration.” Quoting compensation figures earlier reported in The Quad-City Times and on-line at GovSalaries.com, Croken noted that City Administrator Corri Spiegel receives over $338,000 annually in compensation. “This number reflects a 33% year-to-year increase over Spiegel’s 2022 salary,” Croken said. “In light of the multi-million-dollar financial exposure in lawsuits faced by the city in regard to mismanagement of city inspection services; this is simply inappropriate,” Croken added. By way of comparison, Croken noted that the average annual wage of all city employees actually declined between 2021 and 2022.
Croken also reported that in addition to Ms. Spiegel, the city also employs two assistant city administrators with a combined salary of nearly $475,000. “I recognize that these two individuals have responsibility beyond their city administration duties. Nonetheless, if one even halves these compensation figures it means the taxpayers of Davenport pay more than $575,000 each year to three individuals for city administration management. It’s simply bloated…particularly in light of the current, deplorable state of city affairs,” Croken stated.
“Among key characteristics of good governance are efficiency and effectiveness; sadly, we have neither,” he said. “If elected, I will undertake a financial review to ensure that the people of Davenport are receiving value for their tax dollars. I also want to ensure that salary increases are deserved and spread fairly across the city workforce as well as contracted service providers, not just concentrated among a select few city administrators.” Croken also said he believes the city might improve both efficiency and effectiveness through greater regional collaboration with other municipalities in citizen service delivery.
Croken is a former Scott County Supervisor and currently represents Iowa House District 97, consisting of much of central and eastern Davenport. He is a lawyer and currently serves as adjunct faculty at St. Ambrose University. Until his retirement in 2017, Croken was the chief marketing and government relations officer at Genesis Health System and is a past member of the Quad City River Bandits baseball club ownership group. Prior to moving to Davenport more than 20 years ago, Croken held a number of executive and managerial positions with organizations, such as Edelman Public Relations Worldwide in New York City; IBM Corporation in Dallas, New York, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.; legal aid organizations in Connecticut and Florida; Save the Children Federation in Connecticut; and, the United States Congress, among others.