BUOL, Roy D.

Roy D. Buol

Buol, Roy D. (Dubuque, IA-- ) MAYOR. A 1968 graduate of DUBUQUE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, Buol was a two-way starter for the Rams in football and participated in basketball and track and field. He holds a bachelor of business administration degree with a double major in business and marketing from the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE. He completed graduate coursework toward a Master of Arts in communication and 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; Community-Based Task Force on Gangs, Drugs and Youth Violence; Dubuque Racing Association Board; Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce Board; Dubuque Initiatives Board; 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 as Chair of the City’s 175th Anniversary Planning Committee.

Roy Buol, Dubuque's longest-serving mayor, was one of the few mayors to serve more than one year consecutively. Above is a list of the mayors who have served more than one year since 1920. Chart courtesy: Telegraph Herald,

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 him 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) In June 2017 Mayor Buol was awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award for the Bee Branch Watershed Flood Mitigation Project at the 2017 City Livability Awards. The same year he served as treasurer of the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative.

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

On April 25, 2021 Buol wrote an editorial for the Telegraph Herald in which he summarized the accomplishments of the city during his terms of office. Entitled "Sustainability, Arts and Culture Points of Pride over 16 Years as Dubuque Mayor," Buol pointed to the 2006 City Council action to include the "long overdue and unanimous approval to add sexual orientation to the Human Rights Amendment. He also remarked that importantly all the warnings against doing so had proven false. Over sixteen years the City's increased investment in arts and culture, in his view, "unleashed an economic engine for our community" enabling children, residents and visitors to explore and understand the impact of arts and culture on our lives.

Sustainable Dubuque was started in 2007 through the work of a citizen task force with the support of city staff "to become a model focused on economic prosperity, environmental integrity, and social/cultural vibrancy." Visioning sessions and local leadership led to stabilizing the local economy and "laid the foundation for a truly sustainable city." These included planned and managed growth, infrastructure improvements, highway connections, creation of business parks and stormwater management.

Believing that cities could not "cut their way to prosperity," the city council with its public/private partners remained committed to decision-making and timely infrastructure investments at times of historically low interest rates. This positioned Dubuque to be among the most livable communities and one identified for investing in programs and policies to create equitable, inclusive opportunities "where our children and grandchildren can have confidence they will grow up safe, be educated, and have choices.

Lastly, Buol commented on how the city and its civic partners had been recognized nationally for its work by such agencies as the U. S. Conference of Mayors, the National Civic League, Forbes, and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. (10)

In July, 2022 the former mayor was recognized as one of two recipients of the inaugural All-American Leader Awards presented by the National Civic League. The award celebrated the work o civically engaged community members. The news release cited Buol's "inclusive and pioneering leadership" made evident by the fact that Dubuque was named an All-America City an unprecedented five times in twelve years during his tenure. (11)

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Source:

1. "Mayor Roy D. 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. "Magazine Puts Buol on Prestigious List," Telegraph Herald, May 3, 2010, p. 3

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

10. Buol, Roy, "Sustainability, Arts and Culture Points of Pride Over 16 Years as Dubuque Mayor," Telegraph Herald, April 25, 2021, p. 4A

11. "Former Dubuque Mayor Receives Inaugural National Award for Civic Engagement," Telegraph Herald, July 15, 2022, p. 2A