Former councilman to run for mayor

Harlan Schafer, an Aurora native, businessman and former member of the Aurora City Council has announced his intentions to file as a candidate in the 2026 election for mayor.
Though he can’t legally file that document at the courthouse until January, Schafer said he wanted to unofficially throw his hat in the ring early in order to start the conversation with a public he believes is looking for answers from City Hall.
“A lot of us didn’t recognize the situation the city was in financially until the pink postcards came out,” Schafer said in reference to a public hearing in September at which city officials requested a 38 percent budget increase, which was later reduced to 22 percent. “That’s not a situation that developed overnight. It’s been over several years. The city’s reserves have been depleted to now where they’re at essentially zero.”
Citing an inscription engraved above the main entrance to the state capitol that says, “The salvation of the state is in the watchfulness of the citizens,” Schafer said there is work to be done and he wants to be part of that effort.
“To be honest, prior to the pink postcards, we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” he said. “We can blame that on poor communication. We can blame it on lack of transparency, but the bottom line is we didn’t have our eyes up seeing what was going on. The pink postcards brought it to our attention.”
As a result of that public hearing, three people filed as write-in candidates for the city council, one of whom, Esther Bergen, was elected. Schafer said he is throwing his hat in the ring not as a reaction, but as a planned effort to offer his experience to his hometown community.
“My filing for mayor is not a reaction,” he said, explaining the timing of his announcement. “This is a very intentional step toward the November 2026 election, so let’s start to get to know one another right now.”
If elected, Schafer said his philosophy would be based on transparency and open discussion with the council and community.
“I grew up in Aurora and I knew personally and have worked closely with some amazing business leaders, people like Ken Wortman, Valta Ross, Bud Pence, Bob Leach, Jim Koepke and Donna Rasmussen,” he said. “They really shaped how I saw Aurora was built. And while I mentioned some of those guys that built the community, I simply can’t wait to work with the next generation of business and community leaders in these foundations and organizations. I look forward to that.”
Schafer also recalled the respect for and knowledge he gained from Mike Bair, who served as city administrator during his time on the council in 1998-2002.
“I had the good fortune of serving on the city council with an amazing city administrator in Mike Bair,” he continued. “I think we need to get back to that kind of very close relationship where we have open discussions with our development corporations, with our foundations and with the chamber of commerce. I look forward to that. I really just am offering myself to serve as mayor, bringing my business, education and experience, and look forward to being part of it.”

Background
Schafer is well known in Aurora, having worked and served the community in various capacities. A 1977 graduate of AHS, he moved back to town after serving six years in the Navy to join his father in business, where he became an electrician. In 1987 he joined the Aurora Cooperative as a maintenance electrician and over the next 20 years progressed from electrical supervisor to maintenance supervisor, to maintenance and safety supervisor, to vice president of operations. In 2007 he resigned to take the general management position in Ravenna at Farmers Cooperative, then three years later went to CPI in Hastings as the agronomy manager. He retired from CPI as vice president of agronomy in 2016, and since that time has operated his own gunsmithing business here in Aurora.
“Over 30 years in cooperative management I managed general management of a $30 million cooperative and I’ve managed $100 million within a billion dollar company,” Schafer said. “I think the significance there is that in business, you really don’t survive without a high degree of accountability for productivity, profitability and customer service. Governments don’t tend to think in the same terms as business with regard to productivity and profitability and customer service, but I think that’s what we need in our city government is a high degree of customer service mentality.”
“Although, as a general rule, departments don’t generate income as they would with sales, we have an accountability for the revenue received through taxation, and in that respect, it’s very much the same as business,” he explained. “I think with regard to our city, I have the highest degree of confidence in the department heads and the employees. They simply need the direction, the authority, to do what they do.”
Though it’s been more than 20 years since Schafer served on the city council, he was a candidate for the city administrator position in 2016, when the mayor appointed Rick Melcher to fill the position. 
“My interest in it at the time was again, to bring the business management side to the city, also having the confidence of learning under one of the best in Mike Bair,” he recalled. “But even at that point, without a doubt, there would have been a learning curve.”

Fire department perspective
Another aspect of his service that Schafer said would be helpful to him if elected mayor is his time with the Aurora Fire Department. He served in several roles, including six years as fire chief, before stepping away when his career took him elsewhere. He rejoined the fire department last year and has recognized operational changes made with the addition of the city-based ambulance service.
“In the years that I was on the fire department I did do the fire department budget, which keep in mind is primarily an expense budget,” he said. “I worked closely with the city on that. Now, as you know, the EMS is new to the city. Since I was on the fire department, I think that we are extremely fortunate to have the kind of professional level EMS paramedic services that we have. That said, I do think that it would be very beneficial to apply business management principles to that department. It’s a bit uncomfortable, because that’s not the way government entities usually think.”
Schafer said he is encouraged having learned that Melcher has recently invited local business leaders to serve in an advisory capacity with him and EMS manager Kirt Smith. (See related story in this week’s edition)
“EMS does generate revenue,” he noted, addressing a topic he has paid close attention to since the pink postcard hearing in September and city audit report in March. “I don’t think that the entire story has been told, because there’s been a lot of ire from the community directed toward EMS and a lot of rocks thrown that way. I don’t know that that’s been properly communicated. And I don’t know that it’s been effectively sorted out yet.
“What we need, I think, is the EMS service needs to be evaluated as two business units within that department,” he said, referring to what he described as emergency services and transfer services. “We need to understand the income and expenses from both of those, how they complement one another and how they draw on one another, to fully understand and make good business decisions about the future. To get too reactionary too fast, I think, tends to complicate the matters worse. Careful evaluation is necessary. And, like I said, I’m encouraged that I think Rick is trying to do that with some advisory help from outside, from the business community.”
Schafer said he plans to make his candidacy for mayor official in January. There may or may not be a May primary, depending on the field of candidates, though the race will ultimately be decided at the General Election in November.
Schafer and his wife, Peg, have four adult children, including Kiley James of Aurora, Hagen, who lives in the Washington DC area, Dane of Hampton and Lacey Schafer of Aurora. They also have nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.