Longtime Perry City Council at-large member and Perry Mayor Pro-Tem Chuck Schott has resigned his office following the announcment of his imminent relocation to the Des Moines metro, where he and Katie Schott will be closer to their children and grandechildren.
Schott was appointed in January 2010 to the at-large seat on the Perry City Council that was previously occupied by Perry City Council member Jay Pattee, an appointment necessitated by Pattee’s election as Perry Mayor in November 2009.
Born in 1942, Schott graduated from St. Patrick High School in Perry in 1960 and studied at the Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, now known as the University of Northern Iowa. He and Katie, his wife of 58 years, married in 1967.
Schott enjoyed a varied professional career, beginning with 15 years as the service manager of the Burk Ford dealership in Perry from 1967 to 1982. He then turned his boyhood passion for horses into a steady wage, managing the Bruce Throughbred Farms in Perry from 1982 to 1998.
Schott then served as the horsemen’s liaison at the Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona until his retirement in 2014. The following year he was inducted into the Prairie Meadows Hall of Fame. He also served 12 years as president of the Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, 10 years as regional U.S. director for the Racetrack Chaplaincy Program of America and was a 10-year member of the racing committee for the American Quarter Horse Association.
He has for many years been a musician and song leader at the St. Patrick Catholic Church in Perry, following in the footsteps of his mentor, Jacqueline (Kate) Hurd, who died in 2005.
The Schotts enjoy boating at Saylorville Lake and Lake Panorama, and they have also managed and maintained a number of rental properties in Perry over the last 40 years.
Chuck and Katie’s son, Timothy, and daughter, Ann, and their families live in Des Moines, and Chuck and Katie’s relocation there necessitates his leaving the city office, the public-service duties of which he has faithfully and very competently discharged for 15 years.
Accepting Schott’s resignation with regret and thanking him for his service to the people of Perry, the Perry City Council approved Monday a resolution to appoint Schott’s replacement at the Sept. 2 council meeting. The appointee would serve for about two months, until the November 2025 general election.
Any eligible Perry resident who wishes to seek the September appointment should submit his or her name, a letter of interest and any other written materials that he or she might wish the council to review to Perry City Clerk Liz Hix in the City Hall by 12 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28.
Those seeking appointment should then attend the Sept. 2 meeting of the Perry City Council and be prepared to provide information about themselves and respond to questions from the Council.
Following the appointment, Perry residents will have 14 days during which they may file a petition for a special election to fill the council vacancy, which would make the Sept. 2 appointment temporary. Petitioners would need either:
- at least 200 signatures, or
- at least the number of signatures equal to 15% of the voters who voted for candidates for the office of at-large city council member at the last general election on Nov. 7, 2023, whichever number is fewer.
There were 533 votes for at-large city council seat on Nov. 7, 2023, so the petition requesting a special election would require 80 eligible electors’ signatures.
For more information, call the Perry City Hall at 515-465-2481.