WATERLOO -- Waterloo Mayor Tim Hurley is excited about the planned opening of a Waterloo Center for the Arts expansion next month.

Small business owner Craig Hundley has little time for art galleries, but would love to see a stock car track or more paintball activities.

"This is a blue-collar city, not metropolitan," Hundley said.

Hurley replied, "I don't want to divide our city into this or that, but there are plenty of things to do in Waterloo … and there'll be more in the future."

The exchange serves as one small illustration of the huge philosophical chasm between the two opponents battling for the hearts and minds of voters in Tuesday's mayoral election.

Hurley, seeking a third straight term, wants to "finish what we've started and do it well, and continue the collaborations and cooperation and coalitions that have become a part of how the city and the Cedar Valley are working together … the hallmark of a new progressive attitude."

Hundley, who won 17 percent of the vote and finished third in the 2005 mayor's race, hopes "to make massive changes that are 30 years overdue in this government, and to cut unnecessary and wasteful spending … never forgetting that we're not spending our money, we're spending someone else's money."

Hurley has championed the millions of state and local dollars being spent on the Riverfront Renaissance projects and other downtown improvements as crucial to attracting a new work force needed to fill 21st century jobs.

"Economic development goes hand in hand with attracting and retaining good talent, with work force development," he said. "Quality of life is critically important for those choosing a destination or a place to work or a place to recreate. You're seeing property values increase downtown. You're seeing new storefronts and new things going on downtown."

Hundley said the downtown plan was symbolic of the city pursuing unpopular programs that ignore more pressing needs.

"This money has been totally wasted," he said. "Just a few years ago we voted down in a referendum essentially what was the same thing. It's been remastered and renamed, but we got the same project after the citizens said they don't want it.

"And I would have listened to the experts who said you have to dredge the river when they built the bladder dam," he added. "That river needs to be dredged as a safety issue" to prevent future flooding.

Hurley is continuing to run on the platform he used in 2005: improving the financial health of the city, improving city image inside and out, and improving the delivery of services. And all of those issues support economic development.

"If we've done anything over the last four years, the council and I have focused on economic development and chosen to spend our energies and resources on economic development, to build the base and grow out of our tax maladies," he said.

He noted more than 2,000 jobs have been created with projects such as Ferguson Enterprises, a ConAgra Foods expansion and the Isle Hotel and Casino. The city has enjoyed record building construction seasons for four straight years, while property tax rate growth has been below inflation.

"I think we could be given fair to high marks for controlling our taxes," Hurley said. "Nobody likes to pay taxes … but last year was the first year in nine years that we've been able to allow homeowners to write a smaller check" on the city's share of the bill.

"When we talk about our property taxes being high, we can't forget we've got one of the lowest sewer rates, one of the lowest water rates and one of the lowest garbage rates," he added. "You can't live without those.

"I am most proud to have worked with citizens and businesses and organizations at a time when we woke up to the fact that we don't need to take a back seat to any city in the state or in the region, that we changed our attitude from 'no' to 'yes. That's contagious, and you see it throughout the community."

In the coming two years, Hurley hopes he can begin beefing up the public safety ranks.

"I have been incrementally, a quarter of a person and a full person, trying to restaff the police department and get their numbers back up, but you can't do that overnight," he said. "That'll be one of my high wants in terms of our next budget."

He also wants to improve communication with residents.

"Our Web site is old and worn out," he said. "And we are not proactive about getting the good word out about what this tremendous group of employees and staff do day in and day out."

Hundley said he want to focus more on basic city services and working on projects that will be beneficial to future generations.

"I want to spend money on projects like the flood dikes that benefit people 30 or 40 or 50 years from now, as opposed to next year," he said.

Hundley also was critical of the dollars being spent downtown at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center, Riverfront Stadium and the Phelps Youth Pavilion.

"That's a nice thing to have if the city can afford it," he said. "But right now we've got to make some tough choices, and art galleries are at the bottom of my list. I see the city as a business, and as a businessman it makes no sense to me to keep supplementing a part of that business that continues to lose money and costing the taxpayers money."

Some of the money diverted from arts and cultural programs would be earmarked for police efforts.

"We're going to come down on these gangs harder than we've ever come down on them," Hundley said. "We're not getting a handle on the (30 to 40) gangs in Waterloo. We're shorthanded with police officers. We need a dedicated gang control task force that does nothing except exterminate these gangs before they get further out of hand."

Another of Hundley's priorities is to push for more tourism.

"What we need to do with some of that (gaming revenue) money is hire an events planner … to keep this city busy 52 weeks a year," he said. "We're going to see more people in this town than we've ever seen before."

Hundley said organized events, such as a John Deere month to show off tractors from different eras during different weeks, would help fill up motels, restaurants and stores.

Hundley also said he would cancel the $60,000 annual contract with Vandewalle and Associates of Madison, Wis., for downtown planning help; would provide free parking to Waterloo residents serving county jury duty; and would work with Cedar Falls Mayor Jon Crews to deannex a portion of Waterloo property being sought by Cedar Falls near the airport so long as Crews was willing "to do a little horse-trading in the process."

And there will be changes in City Hall staffing, although Hundley didn't name names.

"There's going to be changes made in department heads," he said. "If I'm elected, there is going to be changes made in the next week. Some people aren't doing their jobs. We're paying them a lot of money to do it, and it's not getting done."

Meanwhile, Hundley wanted to clarify comments he made in support of giving a permit for a juice bar to open on West Airline Highway. He said he doesn't support nude dancing, but he doesn't believe the city should be spending money fighting the issue in the Supreme Court and should abide by a lower court's ruling to grant the license.

Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.

{M3

CRAIG HUNDLEY

AGE: 54

OCCUPATION: Owner of Iowa Rebuilt Electronics

EDUCATION: Graduate of DeVry University, major in electronics

AFFILIATIONS: Volunteer Fire Department of Douglas County, Nev., for nine years; member of the Amateur Radio Emergency Response Team; involved in Shar-Pei rescue groups; AARP.

TIM HURLEY

AGE: 62

OCCUPATION: Retired after 36 years of service at John Deere Waterloo Operations; mayor of Waterloo.

EDUCATION: Columbus High School; University of Missouri-Rolla, B.S. in metallurgical engineering; University of Northern Iowa, M.A. in business administration.

AFFILIATIONS: Waterloo Chamber of Commerce; Greater Cedar Valley Alliance; Iowa League of Cities; Cedar Valley Coalition; Waterloo Development Corp.; Cedar Valley's Promise (co-chair of Mentoring Task Force Committee); Metropolitan Transportation Policy Board; Black Hawk County Emergency Management Commission; INRCOG Board and Executive Committee; Waterloo Schools Community Education Advisory Committee; Partners in Education; Exchange Club; Rotary Club; St. Edward's Parish; numerous civic and economic development ad hoc committees.