BUOL, Roy D.

Roy D. Buol

Buol, Roy D. (Dubuque, IA-- ) MAYOR. Buol holds a bachelor of business administration degree with a double major in business and marketing from the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE where he also completed graduate coursework toward a Master of Arts in communication. He later enrolled in the National League of Cities Certificate of Achievement in Leadership Program.

A 30-year retired employee of JOHN DEERE DUBUQUE WORKS, Buol began serving as the Director of the Landscaping and Grounds Department at the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE in 2002.

He was elected as Second Ward Representative to the City Council in 1995, was re-elected in 1999 and again in 2003. During his tenure as a member of the City Council, Buol served on the City’s Long Range Planning Advisory Commission; the Community-Based Task Force on Gangs, Drugs and Youth Violence; the Dubuque Racing Association Board; the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce Board; the Dubuque Initiatives Board; the Greater Dubuque Development Board and Executive Committee; as Past Chair of GDDC’s River Valley Initiative Foundation; Chair, Dubuque Metropolitan Area Transportation Study Committee; and Chair of the City’s 175th Anniversary Planning Committee.

Buol was elected to his first term as Mayor of Dubuque in November 2005. During his mayoral campaign, Buol’s platform was based on “engaging citizens as partners.” In 2006, during the first City Council goal-setting session following his election, Mayor Buol received the full support of the council on focusing on sustainability as a City top priority. This led to the creation of Sustainable Dubuque, a citizen-engaged process to define sustainability for Dubuque and create a national model for cities under 200,000 in population. In 2009, Mayor Buol was instrumental in the launch of “Smarter Sustainable Dubuque,” a unique public/private partnership between the City of Dubuque and IBM Research, the division of IBM responsible for its “Smarter Planet” campaign. The project was initiated in September 2009 when the City of Dubuque and IBM announced their intentions to make Dubuque one of the first “smarter” sustainable cities in the U.S. (1)

Mayor Buol has received national attention. In 2008 he was profiled on the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) website’s “Faces in Sustainability” which featured for Dubuque’s work on the Warehouse District Revitalization. (2) Dubuque’s community-wide sustainability efforts and Mayor Buol were honored in the 2011 Mayors’ Climate Protection Awards, an initiative sponsored by The U.S. Conference of Mayors and Walmart. Buol and Dubuque received honorable mention in the small city category (population under 100,000). (3) In 2013 he was profiled in a special supplement of the PA Times, a publication of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). Of the eight individuals profiled in the publication, Buol was the only elected official. (4) In 2013 Mayors AC Wharton of Memphis, TN and Roy Buol of Dubuque, IA were selected by their peers as co-chairs to lead the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative (MRCTI), a mayoral-led effort to create a coordinated voice for the Mississippi River. MRCTI was comprised of 55 MISSISSIPPI RIVER mayors.

In 2010, Connected World magazine named Mayor Buol one of its Top Ten M2M (Machine to Machine) Pioneers, a group of leaders who pave the way for ground-breaking innovation and implementation in the world of connected devices and the underlying machine-to-machine technology that powers them. (5) In 2011 the Iowa Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA-Iowa) selected Buol to receive the Chapter's Distinguished Leadership Award for a Planning Advocate. (6) Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, in partnership with The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) presented Mayor Buol with the 2014 Public Leadership in the Arts Award for Local Arts Leadership for cities with a population of less than 100,000. (7)

In 2017 Mayor Buol signed a proclamation declaring Dubuque "a city of welcome and opportunity" for all, including refugees and immigrants. The action came after President Donald Trump's administration issued an executive order to withhold funds from communities that limit cooperation with U. S. immigration authorities. That order was subsequently blocked by a federal judge. Worried that the president's actions would threaten "undocumented residents working and living in Dubuque, Tom Johnson, manager of Hope House, began an online petition urging the city to declare Dubuque "an asylum" for immigrants. (8) Despite President Trump's withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, an international environmental pact, Buol joined 74 other U. S. mayors announcing their plans to adhere to provisions of the treaty. (9)

Locally Buol has also served on the United Way Budget Committee, is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose #355; Fraternal Order of Eagles; the DUBUQUE SHOOTING SOCIETY; the DUBUQUE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY; the Dubuque Museum of Art; and is a long-time supporter of the GRAND OPERA HOUSE and DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.

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Source:

1. "Mayor Roy B. Buol," City of Dubuque. Online: http://www.cityofdubuque.org/173/Mayor-Roy-D-Buol

2. News Release. City of Dubuque. Online: http://www.cityofdubuque.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2420

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. "Mayor Roy Buol."

6. News Release

7. Ibid.

8. Barton, Thomas J. "Dubuque 'A City of Welcome," Telegraph Herald, June 7, 2017, p. 1A

9. "Dubuque Mayor is 1 of 75 to Promise to Uphold Paris Climate Agreement," Telegraph Herald, June 3, 2017, p. 3A