Tim Gartin, city council member, Ward 2 Representative, has been serving the community since 2014.
Originally from Mount Pleasant, Gartin came to Ames to attend Iowa State University (ISU) in 1985, where he studied English. He finished his undergraduate degree at Iowa Wesleyan University and then came back to ISU to get his master’s degree in the English department with a dual emphasis in literature and TESOL linguistics.
During his master’s, he got married and had a child. After his master’s, he went to law school at Northern Illinois University. The plan was to stay in the western suburbs of Chicago, but then some of his close friends were involved in starting Cornerstone Church.
“We had been involved in the Salt Company when we were students at ISU, and the idea of raising our children — we had another child in law school — within a church family that had shared values was very appealing to us, so we moved back here in 1996,” Gartin said.
Gartin had gone to law school to be a litigator. “I loved the courtroom. I feel like sometimes I loved it too much; I just wanted to be in the courtroom all the time,” Gartin said.
He later joined Clark & Hastings Law Group, where he did transactional law work with real estate, wills, taxes, etc. That law firm is now called Hastings & Gartin Law Group, where he is one of the partners of the firm.
Gartin had a very active criminal defense background of 10-15 years, but he soon enjoyed the real estate work. “It’s just a different way of helping people, and I found that I had strengths in that area. I just hit the 30th anniversary of practicing here in Ames,” Gartin said.
Gartin and his wife have four kids, and three of the four graduated from ISU. He also has three grandchildren. His kids are 4th-generation ISU alumni. Gartin teaches two classes at ISU: business law and the entrepreneurship capstone class.
Gartin’s favorite thing about Ames is “the people, I love to travel; the Boundary Waters is my favorite place to travel, but I love coming back here,” Gartin said. “There isn’t any place I would rather live. There is a quality of life here that is incomparable; there is a sense of connectedness here; people care about each other and help each other in times of crisis.”
In 2010, Gartin ran for the Iowa Senate; he did not win, but it validated his love for the community and opened more doors. After that, he had many people encourage him to run for city council. He loved the fact that the city council was nonpartisan, unlike the Iowa Senate.
“I function much better in a nonpartisan way,” Gartin said. “We can talk about the polarization in this country. I hate it. I hate seeing my country, my state, ripped apart. I consider myself politically more of a moderate, so serving in a nonpartisan role is an extremely good fit for me. Our streets, library, parks — none of that is partisan; I love functioning in this space.”
As Ward 2 Representative, Gartin represents North Ames. He mentions how important it is for all of the Ward Representatives to work together to try and represent their section and to work together collectively.
“I’ve had several opportunities because I practiced law in representing poor people, the indigent; that has given me a perspective on why the government needs to work for those who don’t have a voice; that’s really important to me. When I make decisions, I try to think through how this is going to affect everyone,” Gartin said.
Gartin has run unopposed in all of his city council elections. “Democracy works well when you have a vigorous election process, where people of different perspectives are running, and we give residents and voters a choice; you are always better off with more choices than fewer choices. Sadly, in our last two city elections, everyone ran unopposed, and I think that’s unhealthy for the community,” Gartin said.
Gartin had planned not to run again in the last election, but no one else had signed up to run, so on the very last day to sign up, he ran again since nobody else would.
“I think about the people who aren’t here yet, who haven’t been born, who haven’t moved to the community, and I like to think that the decision I’m making now will make this community a wonderful home for people that I will never meet, and that’s a different kind of feeling,” Gartin said. “I like it when we can do something tangible, like opening up the new indoor aquatic center. When it was open to the public for the first time, I was there for like an hour and a half just watching families enjoying this, so there is an immediate sense of a very tactile physical feeling. The thing that motivates me the most is this question: what is it that I can do today that will make this an amazing community 50 years from now? I want to do things that are a legacy for the community.”
