>>> bush construction is proud to supportthe quad cities through our construction of these community projects and our belief inwqpt's broadcasting of local, educational programming like "the cities" with jim mertens.>>> public affairs programming on wqpt is brought to you by the singh group at merrilllynch, serving the wealth management needs of clients in the region for over 25 years.>>> a new mayor for davenport, and just say "ahhhh." we are checking the health of theresidents in the cities. >>> it is a physical, blood test and completecheckup without going to the doctor's office, and we head into the new year, we are goingto look at a survey that tested the health of people living in the cities.what is our biggest medical problem?
and where are we the healthiest? that's comingup. but, first, a new era this davenport citygovernment. frank klipsch has led the scott county familyymca for decades, he retired but couldn't stay retired.he is is starting his first full week next week as davenport's 75th mayor.joining us is mayor elect frank klipsch. congratulations on your election.>> thank you, jim. good to be here.>> good luck. >>thank you.>> starting a new year with a whole lot of new responsibilities.are you up for the job?
i mean you really want to be able to startthat first day off and running. >> well, it has been great.both elected officials and city staff have been wonderful to work with.the transition has been i think the day after the election, i started in some form, againmeeting people and getting to know what is going on and who they are.i was kidding with people originally and said what are you going to do first.i will find the restroom at city hall. but there is a lot of that.and we have had a great opportunity to do that.i met a lot of people, and we have a wonderful team.i am looking forward to officially getting
started now.>> how difficult is the transition period, i mean from november to january first?>> well, it is only as difficult as the people that have surrounded me, and they have beenwonderful. the acting city administrator, interim cityadministrator cory seigel, brandon wright, who is our finance director,and tom also been, tom warner is our city attorney, they have been active. but all thecouncil, i have met them individually, both the retiring group as well as the new group.we have met, and everybody has been very open and looking forward to an opportunity to worktogether as a team. >>let me take you back to november and electionnight.
you won convincingly.did that give you a mandate of some sort? >> well, i think it is an opportunity to actuallylisten to what the people have to say, and i think the issue as we talked about fromthe beginning, bill and i were friends, and we are friends.i think it is not a matter of what. it is a matter of style of leadership.and so i think definitely was a clear message we want a new style of leadership.my style again, is much more servant leadership style, empowering people, bringing peopletogether, finding bases of agreement and building on that versus finding areas that we disagreeand fighting about those. so i want to bring people together and giveeverybody a voice. and i think that's what
this is all about. it did come clearly asi walked the communities and people fed information to me.they wanted to see a change in that leadership and wanted people to embrace living in davenportand embrace the fact that this is a great city, and that we all want to be part of that.and i think that's what this really told me. >> outgoing mayor bill gluba, wore his hearton his sleeve. you always knew where he stood, and took strong positions.is that something you will avoid, taking strong positions?because you have talked about being more of a consensus mayor.>> well, i think it is important when i talk about strong positions, it will be a "we"thing and not an "i" thing.
i already talked with our council on a numberof cases as part of our team building and putting our group together.i shared the idea i don't see myself saying i am going to do this, and i am going to dothat, because it doesn't happen that way anyway. it will be we are going to do this, and weare going to accomplish that, with the city residents.and we are the city. and that includes all the residents withinthe city. i think that's my goal, and i have no problemmaking difficult decisions and leading through that process.but i think it is a matter of bringing people together and coming up with one as a teamthat we can move forward with as well.
that's my intent, and not only that, but inclusivelybring in the entire quad cities as part of this mix.>>is there, though, one thing stuck in your craw? is there something about the city ofdavenport that you are going i really want this to be a priority?i really think this particular area needs to be fixed.>> well, again, it is a matter of� everything is a matter of degree.we can always do things better, and i think there is obviously i have found and anybodywill agree there are things we can do better. but the reality is anything really broken?no, there is really nothing broken. if anything, there is issues that we havehad, some challenging issues in davenport.
and, again, i have heard from a lot of people.it is a matter of how we accomplish those, not what.so i think all the things that are happening, it is going to be an exciting time.there is going to be a lot of wonderful things happening in davenport.i am excited to be a part of that, and i think it gives us a springboard to do some evenmore exciting things in the future. >> in so many ways you are starting with aclean slate as well. we are seeing new aldermen, new city council members.city manager position still has to be permanently filled.public safety, police director still has to be filled.public works, you are looking for director
there.let's start with the city council. it is kind of a breath of fresh air in someof the wards where we are seeing some new members. how do you characterize the councilthat is coming? >> well, i think they are all, again, verysimilar mind set that i do related to teamwork and bringing people together.i think that's great. i think i want to, again, publicly thank allof the elected officials, those that are joining us now and those that have left, their communityservice and the experience they had will be missed.but on the same note, think it is time for a new set of eyes, and that's what the electorateand the citizens have said.
so i am excited about that.this group is open to new ideas. they want to be part of a process. they wantto be heard, and i am willing to, not only willing, but looking forward to listeningto what they have to say as well. i see myself as a facilitator, getting collectiveall that talent and good ideas together to do something even better in the future.>> bit it is such a critical partner in that, with the council, and mayor is the new cityadministrator. what are you looking for in that position?and what is the status right now? >> well, this whole process is one of gettingthe community involved, the city council involved, as well as obviously i have a role, and isee my role as being a facilitator.
ultimately, i will bring candidates to thecity council for approval, and a candidate for approval. but i don't see that as twoseparate nonincorporated processes. i see the fact is that city council and iwill come up with a plan of what we want out of a new city administrator.what is the basic job responsibilities and the profile that we are looking for, sharethat with a selection committee, made up of public individuals for the council people.>> you are talking about the group that is already existing?>> well, there is some changes because some of those individuals, one of the aldermenwill not be in office any longer, is not in office any longer. the rest of thestaff, i think the rest volunteers from the
community at large are great.and i wouldn't� i don't see any changing any of those. but i think we need to takea step back. we have new people involved. we have a newcouncil. we want to make sure they have a chance to be part of this. it is not one groupdoing something in isolation and another group being in isolation, and then me kind of comingin and deciding who i want to have as city administrator.i think the process here is listen to the council, let them be actively involved andshare with them who the candidates are. use the selection committee to get feedbackfrom the community and help vet that group down to a workable number and work with asearch firm.
i think that's important.working with a search firm to have a broader perspective.i think the current city administrator, the interim has been doing a great job.after having someone in a role 14 years, i think it is important, you step back beingtake look who is out there in the mark, and bring those people in, vet all those individuals,and then make sure that if our local candidate on staff who i think is doing a great joband definitely will be a candidate, she has to ultimately decide if she will be a candidateor not. but if she chooses to do so, then we, in fact,give her a fair shot with everybody else and then make a decision.>> almost sounds like you are starting at
square one.>> well, i don't think we have gone much past square onehalf now.there has not been a search firm selected. >> right.>> there has not been a job description created. there has not been any requests for anybodyto apply. so it is square one. i think kind of the lack of uncertainty inthe last couple� actually month and a half maybe, people are kind of were wary, and ithis they wanted to wait until the new council and mayor were seated because that's who willultimately this person will work for. >>what do you see as a time line, when doyou hope to have a permanent city administrator in place?>> the good news there is no hurry.
there is no emergency here.the interim city administrator is doing a great job.feedback has been very positive. so we don't want to rush to making some decision.i would hope we would have something done in the first quarter to five or six monthsstarting from the first of the year, because we want to make sure everybody has a roleto play, and everybody's voice is heard as part of this process.>> one of the areas people have been talking about, once again, is the area of le clairepark, the dock has been razed. it is gone.people may not realize your important role as head of the levee commission as well whichis the guardian of this riverfront.
your voice is going to carry a lot of weighton this as well. >>well, again, i think it is important thati am approaching this with the idea that my voice should be one of, again, facilitationas opposed to my personal views are important. i think to give, but ultimately it is thecommunity at large and bringing those people together.i think that's one of the things we think� i think we heard in the results of the election.it was not a matter of a mayor saying "this is going to happen and this should happenand that's got to be there." it is a the matter we come together as a groupand decide what is the best for our community and ultimately what is the best for the riverfront,and then come forward and help me� give
me the opportunity then to champion that causemoving forward and bringing people together to get things accomplished.>> since you have been elected, there was the announcement of a significant economichit for the city of davenport with kraft heinz announcing they were closing seven plantsacross the nation, but keeping operations in davenport, albeit about a third of thework force, and a new structure. this was a whirlwind of activity that reallyimpacted davenport. you have got two different areas that you have to look at, one is retainingthis manufacturer in the quad cities, but also that you have got now this large pieceof property that will now be able to be developed. let's start with keeping kraft heinz in davenport.how critically important was that?
do you see that as almost a seed that couldcontinue to grow? >> oh, definitely.i think the one issue is if we had� if kraft heinz had stayed in the existing plant anda new company came in with 500 more jobs to build a state of the art plant in our community,there would be no doubt of tremendous celebration. the issue was they could have built that plantsin missouri and other states they were looking to move from. we need to celebrate the factwe attracted a new multi million dollars plant with 500 employees coming into our community.sadly, we have to also be responsive to the employees that currently lost their job withthe closing of the existing plant. so that whole area, i think is tremendousopportunity for redevelopment, and we are
already starting that work.who can we outreach to, who can we talk to use the site with obviously the quality ofproven workers in this community. it is a two part process, but celebrate thefact we are getting and, again, kraft heinz chose davenport to build a brand new plant.but on same note we have got work to do with all the people involved to bring a new activitiesinto that existing site. >> that site is in the flood plain which doesn'tseem to be a huge problem for davenport because there is flood control programs.there is different ways of constructing a building.this is on the west end of davenport's downtown. this seems to be a winwin as far as creatinga new gateway to the downtown area.
>> oh, definitely. the opportunity, we havea tremendous amount of opportunity, and in many cases in many situations, they talk aboutan opportunity gap as opposed to other things. this is an opportunity we have that has beenfilled. how do we then basically maximize this opportunityto bring in new opportunities, new jobs, newpotentially new manufacturing, and new business.there is a variety, the sheet is empty right now.we can fill it with whoever we want. this is a tremendous opportunity for the teamto come together and find the next organization to come in and really be part of the communityand be able to help build that as part of the future.>>that's kind of a key, isn't it, a loss,
but also an opportunity?>> oh, definitely. definitely. we are excited about that.again, you can't ever feel good about a situation when you lose that many jobs.but the fact is that they chose us for the future and longterm commitment, but also thenwe have got work to do because we want to make sure we take care of all of those employees,find opportunities for them, help them with retraining and whatever is needed but ultimatelyfind them jobs� provide an opportunity for them and ears to get jobs right here in davenportas well. >>mr.�mayor, congratulations on your election.>> thank you. >>good luck.sworn in, and good luck for your first week
as mayor of the city of davenport.>> i am looking forward to, and i look forward to being with everybody and working with thewhole community as well as the quad cities to make some great things happen.>> mayor frank klipsch, thanks so much for joining us.time to party like it is 2016. a new year upon us, and people are ready tomake the most of us. but what to do?lora adams has some great ideas on ways to ring in the new yearn when you decide to goout and about. >> happy new year.i am lora adams, and this is "out and about" for december�28 through january�3.be the first one in the mississippi river
in 2016 with the saukenuk paddler's canoeand kayak club for the first in float at 1 p.m. at the marquette street boat ramp indavenport. countdown to 12, noon that is.it's a special new year's party for the younger set held at the family museum.why try to stay awake until midnight when you can party all day?meet with the top bridal consultants in the area to help plan your wedding day at thewedding max bridal show at the iwireless center. enjoy yourself along the way with live musicand hors d'oeuvres. the germanamerican heritage center is openfor free fun and festivities including guest speaker cora lee kluge who is presenting ongerman americans during world war i at 1:30
on january�3.remember the king, 80 years of elvis is at circa 21 dinner playhouse in rock island.this new year's eve only show stars circa 21 favorite robert shaw.this one of a kind concert features the best known elvis songs.tickets include dinner, show, party favors, balloon drop and champagne toast at midnight.bottoms up, quad city burlesque is the only performing burlesque troope in the quad citieswith their new year's show at the speakeasy. admission includes balloon drop and a champagnetoast at midnight to ring in 2016. for more information, visit wqpt.org.>>> thank you, lora. did you make your new year's resolution?so many times improving your health tops the
list. but what if you are a community andnot an individual, how can the cities resolve to get healthier?joining us are two people active in what is called the quad city health initiative.nicole carkner is executive director. ken croken is vice president of genesis healthsystem. thank you both for joining us.we appreciate it. >> thank you.>> the study we are talking about that was the health assessment, 2015 health assessment,actually, nicole, it's the fourth in a series. it is just the latest installation.why are we checking the health of the community so often?>> well, you know, it is really important
for us to know where we want to go.and we actually, as a community, have been ahead of the curve in doing community healthassessments in a coordinated fashion for more than a decade. so you are right, this is ourfourth opportunity to have the two health systems and the two health accidents and communityhealth care partnering on developing health status information for our area.>> let's be honest, if you are on the fourth one, now we are starting to see trends.>> yes. >> i would assume.so tell me about an oversight on the trends that you have noticed.>> yes, so one of the good things to note is that actually overall, our health is prettygood.
when we ask people how is your health, mostpeople say pretty good. and so that's always encouraging and that'sbeen steady over time. we have also seen really wonderful improvements and the percentageof people with health insurance coverage, and we have seen decline in the percentageof people who are smoking of those are both trends headed in the right direction.>> as a health professional, these are areas you do want to see, because healthier a communityis, the less of a drain financially there is in the entire community.>> yes. it is true.there is a lot to celebrate in the most recent report.it but it is not a completely rosy picture.
we persist in our weight management, our physicalactivity and our nutrition continues to not be what it ought to be.we pale in comparison to iowa state levels and certainly national levels, the socalledhealthy people 2020 goals. as a community, we lag.>> i want to talk about the 2020 goals in a second.>> right. >>let's stick with your topic, notably belowstate averages for diabetes, and the trend is not positive in the cities according tothis report. >> right.and, again, once you have discovered you have a problem with weight management as an individualor as a community, that is pretty much the
gateway to a whole host of more significant,more urgent health needs like diabetes, like cardiovascular disease.the list just goes on and on from there. if there would be one thing we could do inthe coming year, it would be to eat less and move more, and reduce our weight as a communityin the coming year. >>but it seems significant then why wouldthe quad cities be a little off the mark compared to iowa or illinois or even the national average.i mean what is so special about the quad cities that we are having the problem with weightloss or weight retention actually. >> well, i think there is a number of possibleexplanations, some are benign. nicole mentioned earlier that we have beendoing these community health needs assessments
now long before the federal government mandatedthem. we are good at it.we have been measuring for a very long time, and it could well be that our health isn'tas bad as we think it is. it just looks not so good because we are goodat measuring. >> sure.statistics. >> exactly.exactly. >> but, nicole, notably above average in agood way on lung cancer� no, is this bad way?>> unfortunately, above average is bad in this case.>> for lung cancer, breast cancer, heart,
lung disease, teen births and suicide.that's a little frightening. you are right.actually, we found there were 13 areas of opportunity in this assessment.where we as a community could definitely improve our health status.we are looking at all of this now and figuring out how we can start to work on some of them.but as ken alluded to, a lot of it does go back to the basics of encouraging people toeven take small steps to improve your health, eat right, move more, don't smoke.get your vaccinations, see your doctor for regular checkups.>> and wash your hands. >> wash your hands, there you go!so a lot of those core messages, a lot of
us have heard for a long time and mentionedfor a long time, but they are still so important because theyreally, really can influence the path of chronic disease overall.>>we talk about diseases overall that the initiative looked at, and that's why i underlinedsuicide part. that can be a statistical year, could be afluke for lack of a better term, but also mental health access is lacking in the quadcities compared to the national average which makes you wonder if there isn't a cause andeffect here. >> you are right.we did actually ask people about their mental health status and we also looked reporteddepression.
and there we look about like the u.s. overall.a lot of communities are recognizing the importance of mental health and thinking about mentalhealth contribution to our physical health. it is certainly an issue that we are payingclose attention to. >> the other area, and once again, it couldbe a statistical fluke once again, but violent crime appeared to be a concern for the citiesin this latest survey. >>you are right.the violent crime data is actually a little tricky because it looks at four differenttypes of crimes and sums them altogether. so it is actually sort of a subset of crimesover all. and it he really depends upon how crimes arecategorized and reported by jurisdiction.
and so the crime rates can really vary a lot.so it is hard to tell what that means. but what we do know is that about 85% of peopleactually do say that they believe their neighborhood is safe.so that is a very encouraging thing. it is important to keep an eye on trends relatedto things like violent crime. overall, the quad cities as a larger community,is probably doing pretty well on safety especially by comparison to other communities.>> and, ken, the survey pointed out that people believe access to physicians is good, andwe are kind of a regional center for medicine. >>right.the quad cities is a regional hub for care, but the fact remains that geographic disparityand reimbursement rates affects where physicians
go to establish their practices.we have certainly challenges in behavioral health for example.there are not enough psychiatrists in the country, but among the psychiatrists we have,half are in five states, new york, california, texas, pennsylvania, and florida.what do those five states have in common? they enjoy the highest reimbursement ratesin the nation. iowa and illinois, for example, are in thebottom five. so if you are a physician who has just graduated,you have got hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt.you have got an opportunity to open your practice in davenport or in miami.you know that you are going to be paid dramatically
more in florida than you are in iowa, peopleare going to go where the money is. >> well, that leads me to the question.we always have a nursing shortage. we are always talking about a nursing a shortage.survey pointed out in the quad cities, the number of primary care doctors is below thestate and national averages. that would appear to me that doesn't bodewell for the future either. >> oh, gosh, no.>> when you are competing with other states, what are you doing?>> right. there is so many chickens and eggs and thisline here. i mean we are very blessed.we have st. ambrose. we have scott community.
we have blackhawk community.we have kaplan. we have any number of nursing programs thatare right here in the quad cities, but, unfortunately, there is not enough faculty to accommodatethe number of students that wish to get this training. >>but primary physicians is theconcern, too. >> oh, yeah.>> and that's a little tougher to find i would think.>> sure. again, we are very blessed to have the universityof iowa nearby. they have a very� they have the largestmedical school in the country. and we have at genesis a family medical residencyprogram for these people to come to, but as
a population, we are old and getting older,relative to others. so our health care demands grow exponentiallyas a result, and there simply aren't enough physicians to go around to meet the need.>> ken was bringing up the goal of 2020. and this is basically this latest survey isto try to find some goals for what is only four years away. 2020 sounds so far off.how are you setting the stage for healthier initiatives from this point on to try to reachthese goals that are, just like i said, four years away?>> sure. a lot of what we learned this time aroundreally reinforced information we had gained in earlier studies.one of the big things we are doing right now
is really promoting a lot of our efforts togetheras coordinated parties in our community. so we have an initiative called "be healthyqc." it is all about encouraging people to eathealthy and move more, and we are working in local schools and across community sectorsand with many partners from many different sectors of our community in order to encouragepeople to adopt that message and think about the next steps that we all can take as individualsand organizations. >> and to be honest, it has been around forawhile. >>uhhuh.>>but do you get a point that you get an initial let's do it and then it plateaus and you arenot bringing if new members for a get healthy
campaign.>> you are right. that is always a concern.we have actually been really fortunate, though, in the last couple of years we have had somereally great opportunities and we, as a community have actually been able to secure some fundingfrom the federal government through the cdc to promote be healthy qc initiatives. we areactually in period of growth and expansion right now in terms of promoting our messagesand developing stronger partnerships with new organization.>>it is important, as you said, to get the youth involved with when it comes to makinghealthy decisions because the decisions you make as a kid, they live with you for therest of your life.
>> yeah.nothing makes us sadder than to see young people decide to take up smoking or somethinglike that. so heightening community awareness aroundthose issues is really key. we are optimistic, though, about our chances of causing realimprovement in the quality of health in the community because all the right people arearound the table supporting qchi. it is not just genesis health system.it is also unity point trinity, the rock island county health department, the scott countyhealth department, community care serving folks on both sides of the river. there isa real critical mass of resource and intention and commitment to this project, and i feeloptimistic about the future. and i also believe
as the federal government has mandated moreof these studies in more and other communities, we are going to start to see the validityof our statistics or the reality of our statistics put us in a better light than it has historically.>> nicole, as we enter 2016, and everyone is making resolutions even more of a reasonto stick to it? >> absolutely.all of us can do a little bit more, and it is a great opportunity at the turn of theyear to think about the small changes in your day, such as parking further from your officedoor or going out for a walk in the evening with your families, even during winter, thosesorts of things that can actually make really big impacts over time.>>this study that has been released, it's
not just going to gather dust, what you doyou hope to use it for? >> actually the full study is online.folks are welcome to visit our web site if they are interested in reading it.we encourage other organizations to use the data and the information in the study fortheir strategic planning and for their thinking about how we can all work together to promotea healthier community. >>of course, all you have to do it is lookit up, that's quad city health initiative. just google search it, you will find everything.>>you will. >>nicole carkner, executive director, thanksso much. ken croken, from genesis, always a pleasureto see you as well.
>>thank you.>> on the air, on the radio, on web, and on your mobile device, thank you for taking sometime to join us as we talk about the issues on "the cities.">>> public affairs programming on wqpt is of clients in the region for over 25 years.>>> bush construction is proud to support the quad cities through our construction ofthese community projects and our belief in wqpt's broadcasting of local, educationalprogramming like "the cities" with jim mertens.
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