Des Moines Sun

Des Moines native Brandi Webber is running for city council and plans to make changes to what she considers an oppressive administration.

Webber admonished council members at a recent in-person city council meeting after the council voted to stop hearing oral requests to remove items from its consent agendas and also voted against a training program to educate Des Moines police officers in de-escalation tactics, according to the Des Moines Register. 

"Our current council is abusing their power, and we need to make sure that future councils can't repeat these oppressive and corrupt actions," Webber told Des Moines Sun. "The short and the long of it is that our current council has been using their power to silence mostly people from the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities and their allies who disagree with the council's oppressive, and in some instances racist, actions. Our elected officials should not be able to wield power with impunity."

Webber is running for the Ward 3 seat and told Des Moines Register why she was qualified to serve on the city council.

"I have been on the board of a nonprofit since 2011, I own/run a small business and have been doing volunteer work for nearly 25 years," Webber said. "More important than that, I have experienced first hand most of the issues facing the majority of Des Moines residents today. My experience with homelessness and housing insecurity, food insecurity and other unfortunate circumstances while growing up instilled in me a drive to help others that has only continued to grow the older I get. We need elected officials who have experience not only from the business/political world but actual life experience combating and overcoming social issues."

The city council candidate says that if she were elected to city council, she would prioritize addressing the issue of homelessness in the city.

"We need to stop criminalizing the houseless residents of our city. In fact, we need to take it a step further and ensure that everyone in our city has a safe place to live. The very least we could do is to stop the raids of houseless encampments," Webber told Des Moines Sun. "Currently the city has no plan for these residents beyond shelters, and those have been under funded and over capacity for years. Taxpayers of Polk County pay tens of thousands of dollars per houseless individual per year. One way or the other we are paying into this cycle. It is more ethically and fiscally responsible to simply invest in housing."

Webber also wants to reform the budget and believes that high ranking city officials are making too much. She told Des Moines Sun that officials make more than double the national average which is costing the city millions that could be better spent on things the city desperately needs. 

She also believes that more should be done to combat climate change and wants to take bigger steps to reduce the city's carbon footprint.

Born in 1991, Webber is a local artist, advocate and mother. According to her website, while attending Iowa State University's College of Design, Webber volunteered her time annually to the Special Olympics Summer Games and has been involved with helping an animal protection nonprofit since 2011. After graduating, she moved back to Des Moines to raise her family.