P.T. Larson has launched the 2017 political campaigns in Fort Dodge by declaring his candidacy for mayor.

”I want to be the people’s mayor,” he said.

”I’ve got an opportunity as mayor to help make Fort Dodge great again, ” he added.

Larson, who has never sought public office in Fort Dodge, said he was motivated to run after Mayor Matt Bemrich publicly opposed a state law that stripped most collective bargaining rights from many unionized municipal employees. He said he believes that Bemrich introduced partisan politics into the nonpartisan office of the mayor by doing that.

”I’ll never get involved in a public display representing the mayor’s office in a partisan discussion,” Larson said.

Bemrich has not publicly said if he will run for a third term.

Fort Dodge voters will pick a mayor and six of the seven City Council members during the Nov. 7 general election. Councilman Neven Conrad is the only elected official whose term will not expire at the end of this year.

Larson is the first person to declare his candidacy for office this year.

He said public safety and infrastructure would be his top priorities if he is elected.

He said he wants to use city employees and volunteers to conduct what he called a ”census” of the community to list every pothole, missing street sign and other infrastructure problem.

Larson said he also wants to develop a new way of responding to questions and concerns from citizens. Now, he said, people who contact the city government feel like they get lost or forgotten.

”We need a combination of 20th and 21st century communication skills,” Larson said.

”If you don’t micromanage, there isn’t the same quality of communication,” he added.

Although he has never run for office in Fort Dodge, Larson repeatedly ran for mayor and City Council in Cedar Rapids between 1987 and 2011. He never won any of those elections.

The candidate is an account executive for Heartland Communications Group in Fort Dodge. He was born in Sioux City and grew up in Fort Dodge. He graduated from Fort Dodge Senior High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minnesota.

After graduating from college, he lived and worked in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque. He moved back to Fort Dodge in 2014.

He and his wife, Marilyn, have been married for 36 years.