New Iowa City Police Chief, Jody Matherly, Is Affable and Humble

Caption: Jody Matherly, Iowa City's new police chief.

Henri Harper, the Iowa City Police Department's community outreach liaison, brought the new Iowa City police chief, Jody Matherly, to Phil’s Repair to meet Phil Hemingway, an Iowa City Community School District board director and owner/manager of Phil’s Repair just off of Scott Boulevard near Fareway; Mary Murphy, University of Iowa business law lecturer, Word Press blogger, and mother of five; Johnson County supervisors Mike Carberry and Rod Sullivan; me; my husband Jim, a City of Iowa City bus driver, bicycle commuter, and RAGBRAI-er; and Tom Yates, former City High teacher and former ICCSD board director.

Chief Matherly and I bonded over “Seinfeld.” He described himself as a “Seinfeld” addict, and I admitted to having watched each episode at least three or four times. I did the “reservation” episode for him and he seemed to enjoy it:

“Sir, I know what a reservation is,” said the irritable rental car woman at an airport.

“I don’t think you do,” exclaims Jerry Seinfeld. “See, anyone can take a reservation.”

Visualize Seinfeld gesticulating wildly as he pretends to pull reservations out of the air. Then he holds his hands tightly to his chest. “It’s holding the reservation that makes it a reservation.”

Chief Matherly chimed in at "I don't think you do" and laughed.

I noticed that Chief Matherly didn’t laugh when I did “Seinfeld” impersonations that had a “Seinfeld” character saying anything mean, like “face like a frying pan,” in the episode where each of the “Seinfeld” characters was looking for another. That impressed me.

He told me that surviving his birth name, “Jody,” was something of a trial when he was growing up. Even schoolteachers expected a girl to raise her hand after calling out his name in class. But he said, “It’s part of what made me who I am today.”

Guessing what he meant, I launched into, “How do you do? My name is Sue! Yer gonna die!”

“Johnny Cash,” he smiled.

Chief Matherly has already worked in a college town. He worked in Grinnell, Iowa.

As for effectiveness, it's early days yet, but I'm glad to say that Iowa City police officers caught a criminal from Cedar Rapids who came down to my neighborhood and fired shots on Wayne Avenue in southeast Iowa City, not a mile from my home. Victor D. Hall, Sr., 51, was charged with "attempted murder, a class B felony; felon in possession of a firearm, trafficking stolen weapons and reckless use of a firearm causing bodily injury, all class D felonies; first-degree harassment, an aggravated misdemeanor; and operating while intoxicated and possession of a controlled substance, both serious misdemeanors; as well as numerous traffic citations." I hope he goes to prison for a long time. It's unnerving to have shootings in your own neighborhood.