Allegations Against The City Of Davenport: Lessons From The 2023 Building Collapse

The tragic collapse of the Davenport apartment building on May 28, 2023, which claimed three lives and displaced numerous residents, has become a focal point for uncovering systemic corruption within the city of Davenport. While initial investigations and news cycles focused on those affected and the structural reports, ongoing inquiries and new evidence have called into question those reports that claimed the building was safe.

A History Of Neglect

Constructed in 1906, the Davenport was a testament to the city’s architectural heritage. However, in the years leading up to the collapse, concerns about the building’s structural integrity were repeatedly raised. Despite visible signs of deterioration and resident complaints, necessary interventions were either delayed, inadequately addressed, or even completely ignored. Notably, days before the collapse, a structural engineer observed deformations in the building’s rear façade, yet repair efforts remained insufficient.

In a follow-up report dated February 28th, 2023, a structural engineer warned of a "large and potentially dangerous void" beneath the brick façade, discovered only after repairs had begun. The report detailed how the bricks underneath the façade were collapsing, and a mass of crushed bricks was accumulating at the bottom of the void, causing the wall to bow outwards and weakening its ability to provide support to the building. The engineer explicitly cautioned, "This will soon cause a large panel of façade to also collapse, creating a safety problem and potentially destabilizing the upper areas of brick façade." This report was not out of the blue: it came after a letter on February 2nd, 2023, calling the building a public hazard, and inappropriate materials being used in repairs on February 9th, 2023. Despite these dire warnings, the recommended controlled removal of the compromised section was never completed, leaving the structure in an increasingly unstable state. This failure to act in time ultimately contributed to the building's catastrophic collapse just three months later.

Davenport City Hall

The Collapsing Façade Within The City

In 2020, videotaped depositions from a lawsuit against the city of Davenport exposed alarming failures within the city’s building inspection department. Testimonies revealed that inspectors had allowed their certification licenses to lapse, raising concerns about their qualifications to assess structural safety. Even more troubling, city employees admitted to discarding critical logbooks that documented past inspections and safety violations. These records, which should have served as essential documentation for tracking building conditions, were deliberately destroyed, effectively erasing a paper trail of oversight failures.

These revelations called into question the integrity of Davenport’s inspection process long before the 2023 building collapse. The depositions also suggested that whistleblowers who tried to raise concerns were ignored or silenced, further undermining public trust in the city’s regulatory systems. As Jonothan Uhl, a real-estate appraiser local to the Quad-Cities, told KWQC that he has been “trying to blow the whistle on the problem for years but has been treated with hostility by the city.” These systemic failures contributed to an environment where dangerous buildings could continue to deteriorate without proper intervention. The collapse of the Davenport building brought renewed scrutiny to these past failures, as the public demanded accountability for a tragedy that many believe was preventable.

Post-Building Collapse Allegations

After the deadly collapse of The Davenport, there is no shortage of allegations against the city, as people are more incentivized to speak out about what they see. I’ve chosen to detail the two biggest cases at the time of writing.

In 2024, a significant corruption scandal came to light when it was revealed that the City of Davenport had paid $2 million to its former city administrator in a severance package. The deal, which had not been fully disclosed to the public, raised questions about the appropriateness of such a large payout, especially considering the city's financial struggles and ongoing concerns about mismanagement of resources. The lack of transparency surrounding this payment has led to a state-level investigation. The state of Iowa, through Auditor Rob Sand, has accused the Attorney General’s office of obstructing efforts to access records related to the $2 million payout to the former city administrator. The conflict over these records has intensified calls for greater transparency in how the city handles public funds. The local government’s resistance to fully disclose financial documents has fueled public concern about how taxpayer money is being spent and whether the city's leadership is hiding problematic financial decisions.

Following the building collapse, the Davenport building inspection department came under scrutiny for its alleged negligence and failure to act on safety concerns. As detailed previously, depositions and investigations revealed that inspectors had allowed their certifications to lapse and had discarded critical inspection records, raising suspicions of gross oversight and potential cover-ups. Whistleblowers have also claimed they were silenced or ignored when they raised alarms about unsafe buildings. The ongoing investigation into these practices is still unfolding. However, many are alleging that the failures go further than this. Since the collapse, multiple reports have surfaced about possible corruption within the city's development projects. Another lawsuit accused the building's owner of selling properties at less than market value after the collapse, potentially to limit compensation payouts. These issues have further eroded public trust in Davenport’s local government, especially as the city’s residents demand accountability for the mismanagement that led to the collapse. These post-collapse revelations have sparked a wider investigation into local government practices, including potential fraud, negligence, and corruption that may have been overlooked for years.

The Road To Accountability

In the wake of the tragic collapse of The Davenport, it’s clear that the issues surrounding the building’s safety were not isolated. A pattern of negligence, corruption, and cover-ups has come to light, with critical failures in the inspection process and alarming conflicts of interest surrounding city contracts. These ongoing investigations have exposed a deeper web of dysfunction within Davenport's local government, revealing the extent to which public safety and resources may have been compromised for years.

As the investigation continues, Davenport's residents and the wider public are demanding accountability. The revelations of corruption, from the mishandling of building safety to questionable financial decisions, have ignited calls for reform and greater transparency. While the full scope of these issues is still unfolding, one thing is clear: the tragedy of the Davenport collapse has uncovered more than just the crumbling structure of an old building — it has unearthed a systemic failure that may take years to address fully.