Craig Engel was appointed to fill the remainder of Tom Wieseler’s city council term. Wieseler was elected mayor for the City of Mount Vernon in November, vacating his council seat.
The council unanimously approved appointing Engel at the Monday, Feb. 7, council meeting. He was one of three people who applied to fill the council seat, with citizens Mark Weldon and Mark Andresen also applying for the position.
Engel noted his family has lived in Mount Vernon for years. Engel attended Cornell College in 1984, graduating in 1988 and worked at Cornell as an admissions counselor from 1988 to 1991. Engel and his wife, Catherine Quehl-Engel, moved to California in 1991, where Catherine attended graduate school and Engel was assistant dean for admissions at Golden Gate University School of Law.
The couple returned to Iowa City in 1991, and eventually moved to Mount Vernon, where their daughter, Ru, graduated.
Engel’s parents are also both graduates of Cornell College.
Engel noted he has wanted to serve in a leadership role in the community in the past, but his job with RNL (an education consultant firm), which accounted to more than 100 days of travel a year, was a deterrent. He retired in 2020, and the pandemic and the open seat presented an opportunity.
Engel said one of the priorities for the city over the next three years is managing its growth. He noted his job has taught him to do that in three steps – Managing the vision the city has set for their plans, managing finances to tackle those plans and managing the culture of the city.
The other challenge he knows moving forward is the roll out of the new waste management contract.
Both council members Scott Rose and Paul Tuerler said they appreciated having the choice of multiple people to appoint for the seat.
The appointment process can be appealed up to 10 days after the fact if people would prefer a special election instead. There is roughly a year and a half left in Wieseler’s term on the city council.