A correction was added to this article April 8.

Because of a reporting error, the April 7 article “Community seeks greatest candidates for government” incorrectly indicated the group Ames Citizens for Better Local Government would hold a public meeting Thursday night. The meeting actually took place Wednesday night. The Daily regrets this errors and apologizes to its readers for any inconvenience it may have caused by reporting an incorrect date for the meeting.

A group of citizens is using issues that are causing a stir among the Ames community to try to recruit new candidates to run for local government.

The group, Ames Citizens for Better Local Government, is holding a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Community Room of the Ames Public Library, 515 Douglas Ave., where it plans to address some of the issues facing the Ames community and seek out candidates to run for the Ames City Council in November.

“We promote more responsive actions to the needs of the community,” said Erv Klaas, chairman of the group.

“We want to recruit top-quality candidates to do that.”

In addition to discussing how to recruit candidates, they also intend to discuss how to run for city office at Thursday’s meeting, Klaas said.

Councilman Steve Goodhue said he thinks it is important to have more people run for City Council, to prevent someone from running unopposed. He said he supports the effort to create better local government through greater involvement.

“I hope their intent is to get people involved, and not to force some members off the council,” he said.

Klaas said other goals of the group are to identify areas of local interest, raise money to support the candidates it has recruited and educate the Ames community on issues the group supports.

The group organized last August when many local citizens were upset with decisions the City Council was making, said Mary Ann Lundy, treasurer for the group. She said citizens felt they were being ignored by the council and decided to try to do something about it.

One of the main controversial issues was the council’s support for a new mall, Klaas said.

“The council ignored informed input,” Klaas said. “They even rejected advice from their own Planning and Zoning Commission.”

He said the group wants the community to be more involved in the city’s decision-making and to be more aware of some issues it faces. Lundy said the group supports land use policies that provide smart growth, energy conservation and energy alternatives, affordable housing for all members of the community and the implementation of policies that protect the quality of life in the Story County area.

She also said the group had earned approximately $4,000, which it intends to use to support the candidates they feel would make the best City Council members.

Ames Citizens for Better Local Government plans to eventually hold workshops to teach Ames citizens about how to become more involved with their local government, Lundy said.

Klaas said the group has approximately 60 members.

He said large publicity efforts have yet to be undertaken by the group, but hopes more people join the cause once the group starts becoming more visible in the community.

Klaas said he has not seen much interest from students from Iowa State in the group, but said the group would not turn anyone away who wants to share his or her thoughts on improving local government.

“We would be happy to talk with students,” he said.