Reelected Pina, Pennington again will lead Des Moines City Council

By Jack Mayne The first Des Moines City Council meeting of the new year was largely framed around newly elected and reelected members. At the regular Thursday, Jan. 11 Des Moines City Council meeting, the two new and two reelected members were sworn in. The new Councilmembers are Traci Buxton and Matt Mahoney, and they replace Councilmembers Melissa Musser and Dave Kaplan, both of whom did not seek relection. Reelected were Mayor Matt Pina and Deputy Mayor Victor Pennington. Pina and Pennington were unanimously reelected, with a term through 2019. During comment period, resident Harry Steinmetz said he wants the Council to find a way to hire four new police officers over the four he said were already planned. He said there appears to him to be ways to finance the additional hires. He said there were “quality of life crime issues” all throughout the city, “mail boxes getting knocked over, burglaries,” and other issues. “The only way to address those issues is to have more police officers,” Steinmetz said. He also said “we desparately need a grocery story in downtown Des Moines,” and the Council and city should use “powers of persuasion” because it officially cannot mandate that such a store be sited. He suggested an “Amazon fresh concept” where people phone in an order and then drive to a window to collect items. Council also voted to reappoint Judge Lisa Leone to the Municipal Court Judge position, effective January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2021.]]>