A Tale of Childhood Friends, Fellow Mayors

Former classmates Scott Mann (left) and John Thodos are serving as mayors of Menifee, California and East Moline, Illinois. Photos courtesy of Scott Mann

Scott Mann's first elected office was Student Council President of Glenview Junior High School in East Moline, Illinois in 1977. He went on to letter in three sports at United Township High School, entered the U.S. Navy upon graduation and didn't "re-enter" the political scene for nearly 30 years.

John Thodos was a classmate of Mann's in East Moline. Born and raised there, he has never left. Although he was not involved in student government and never dreamed of entering politics, he has now been a public servant in his hometown for almost 20 years.

Mann and Thodos never knew back then how their goals would align across several states, but here they are today -- Mann as mayor of Menifee and Thodos as mayor of East Moline.

"He got the easier state," quipped Thodos, who serves in a state that is working without a budget and has had four of its last seven governors sent to prison.

Even so, Thodos -- who is in his third term and 11th year as mayor -- tried to warn Mann about what he was getting into when Mann mentioned to him during a class reunion a few years ago that he was considering running for mayor of Menifee.

"Scott and I are great friends, even though I'm a Democrat and he's a Republican," Thodos said with a laugh in a recent phone interview. "When he mentioned he was toying with the idea of running for mayor, I said, 'Good luck, buddy. You don't know what you're getting yourself into.' "

There are obvious differences between the two cities of which Mann and Thodos are mayors. Mann, 54, is mayor of a city, incorporated just eight years ago, that is in a tremendous growth and development spurt, with a population of almost 90,000. Thodos, 53, is mayor of a 113-year-old Midwest city built on industry and agriculture, with a population of 22,000.

As part of a city council tasked with making difficult decisions for a city facing huge growth opportunities, Mann is a public figure who is not popular with everyone. Yet he might not be as visible around town as Thodos, who says he can't go anywhere without being recognized and stopped by residents.

"When I tell my wife I'm going to the store for milk, she knows I'll be gone more than 10 minutes," Thodos said. "Everywhere I go, people stop me and want to talk about something."

Mann was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he lived until the fifth grade, when his father was transferred to East Moline. After his short time in student government in junior high school, he lettered in basketball, track and cross country and was a member of the Concert Choir at United Township High. In his senior year, his cross country team went to the state meet. Later that year, he ran the two-mile relay in the state track meet at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.

Then it was off to San Diego and the Navy. Mann has been in California since 1982.

Does he ever think about going back to the slower-paced lifestyle of the Midwest?

"Since I retired from the Navy, there were three times I seriously considered moving back," Mann said. "It is a slower pace of life. My dad and sister still live in East Moline. My dad's brothers live across the Mississippi River in Davenport.

"Whenever I travel back east, I always try to reroute my trip to see them. It's not like I never go back."

Thodos stayed in East Moline, which is about 160 miles west of Chicago. He began a career in real estate, building houses, and first became interested in politics after he took a a government class in college while studying for his Masters degree. After two years of going before the East Moline City Council to protest property tax raises of 16 and 12 percent in two years, someone told him maybe he should run for office himself.

He defeated the incumbent to win a seat as alderman in 1995.

"I found out you actually can make a difference," he said. "My first year in office, the tax increase was zero."

Eventually, Thodos won election as mayor. His term runs out in May 2017 and he hasn't announced whether he will run again. If he wins re-election, he would become the longest serving mayor in the city's history.

"The last time, I had no opponent," he said. "If I run again, I already know I will have an opponent who has announced. I haven't decided yet."

As he continues his career in city government, Mann looks back with fond memories of his time in Iowa and Illinois and the experiences that first interested him in becoming a public servant. That includes a meeting with soon-to-be U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 1976.

"One of the highlights of that year was meeting Jimmy Carter," Mann recalled. "I met him at the Quad Cities Airport at a political rally. I still have an invitation to the inaugural ball and swearing in.

"As you mature, your world view changes. I became more conservative. I turned 18 in my senior year and two months later, I was voting for Ronald Reagan."

As a Little Leaguer in East Moline, Mann was teammates with Mike Butcher, who went on to pitch and coach in the major leagues for the Angels and is currently pitching coach of the Arizona Diamondbacks. When he served on the Glenview Junior High Student Council, the vice president was Melanie DeDecker (Johnson), who later rose up through the ranks of the Civil Service and is now in the Senior Executive Service as the Executive Director, Army Contracting Command-Rock Island Arsenal.

Then there is John Thodos, with whom Mann still corresponds with on Facebook and visits whenever he goes home to East Moline.

"When I decided to run for mayor, I told John, 'Let's reach across the aisle and we can still get things done.' " Mann said.