Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
MASON CITY – Whoever put City Administrator Brent Trout up to researching the idea of pursuing a radical change to our Sanitation Department involving trash trucks with mechanical arms to pick up our garbage ought to pay back the taxpayers all the wasted wages we paid the man to write about his findings.
As Iowa code clearly states, the City Administrator in Mason City “Implements all policy directives promulgated by the mayor, in his executive capacity, and by the city council, in its legislative capacity.” Therefore, despite the denials of the City Council – and the silence of Mayor Eric Bookmeyer – at Tuesday’s work session, anyone who follows this three-ringed circus knows that Trout doesn’t make a move without Bookmeyer’s clear directive.
Now, if the mayor and council want to deny or “awe shucks” their way out of the fact that they put Trout up to this (which they did at Tuesday’s work session), then we have another problem – Trout freelancing on projects that obviously have no value to the people of Mason City. Mason City has way too many problems to have a city employee making nearly $140,000 a year spending his time on anything other than our pressing issues.
That being said, Trout presented his long-winded findings about purchasing trash trucks with mechanical arms at a quarter million dollars apiece and 10,000 special trash containers at about $63 apiece. It really should have been apparent to Trout when he discovered those two figures – adding up to roughly $1.43 million – early on in his exasperated investigation into the matter that the cost would be way too high for Mason City – notwithstanding the fact that it had already been proven months ago that Mason City has a great service from our Sanitation Department at $9.70 per month.
If this was such a wild goose chase, why did Trout continue to research the matter after discovering the exorbitant cost?
The talk is that Bookmeyer and at least one or two council members “have it in” for the Sanitation Department workers, if not city employees in general. This latest detour into insanity is already the third time in the last 16 months that Bookmeyer and his cronies have went after the Sanitation Department. The first time was with the trash plant fiasco that was defeated at the North Iowa Landfill. The second time was when Bookmeyer and is cohorts on the council aggressively pursued privatizing our trash pick-up. That effort was fruitless. Now the one-armed trash truck attempt.
One has to wonder, did a Mason City garbage man forget to pick up Eric’s garbage once or twice? What exactly is Eric’s fixation on our Sanitation Department? Is he jealous that these men get up and go to work everyday and actually earn a paycheck at an honest job, something Eric hasn’t done in years?
Lastly, if this was such a bad idea, as Council member Alex Kuhn alluded to, why did Kuhn not speak up earlier and have Trout drop the idea? Mr. Kuhn, if you truly have aspirations for the U.S. Senate, you need to speak up and be a leader earlier on in these processes instead of reacting after Eric does all the leading.
Oh and and one more thing. All four of these people will will be on the ballot this November. Bookmeyer, Tornquist, Hickey and Solberg will all run for re-election, you can mark that down; the wishy-washy campaigning began Tuesday afternoon as they all backed away from this sanitation issue. You will see plenty of back-slapping, glad-handing and credit-taking from these four and the City Council meetings will have even less substance… unless the right people start going to the podium.
Watch video:
httpv://youtu.be/3UNmT3JLUl8
Thanks for sharing this article. This is quite informative and interesting to read as well.
Constituents may have asked why the city hasn’t gone to a one-driver, swing-arm system to save money. Perhaps this study was done in order to show those people why it wouldn’t be cost effective. This may all be a reaction to citizen inquiries instead of the mayor or council wanting to get rid of the sanitation department or cut it back.
why would kuhn speak up, kuhn and lee both said drop this back in october and torny said let’s look at this bidding some more. kuhn and lee are the only brains in the bunch.
Don’t you know the real reasons behind the trash thing… During the campaigns of Bookmeyer and Solberg– the pretty much promised Holt Services the City’s business. Some of the Holts were on both of their committees….
Dah– Holt Services… they hire registered sex offenders to clean houses.– now there is a great idea….
Just be thankful that we have elections this year. WE need to clean house– Mayor, Hickey, Tornquist and Solberg……
It can happen if we get a grassroots movement going…. It can happen if we band together….
Mason City deserves better…..And Brent Trout has overstayed his welcome. He has been here way too long… And he is do far up Bookies wazoo– he’ll never see daylight!!!!
Did boozemeyer really tell the sanitation workers they are free to leave? Did he mean the meeting or leave the department? I agree with Jim bookie is a dictator and reminds me of a little hitler. Hope he grows a little stash under his nose. POS for mayor
The picture of the sanitation workers, they look like they want to kick Bookies butt! Too bad they can’t put him in the trash!
This city of 150,000 has just such a collection system…one-man trucks with one contain for garbage and one for recycle items. It’s done by a private company and costs approx $140.00 per year.
If you just look at the numbers this was not a good payback on investment. I am surprised at Trout for not seeing that right away (he probably did) and was told to follow through on the idea. What they never are able to take into account is the total revenue developed by these people. They pay taxes, buy food, pay utility’s, buy houses and so on in the city so there value is much more than just the wages and benefits. I am not against improvement and cost reduction but all of these factors must be considered. Glad they came to their senses and shot it down.
LVs don’t you agree it doesn’t hurt to look at it but yes it didn’t make sense and they voted against it. No harm no foul in my book.
Mason City council is giving the tax payer a sample of what dictatorship can do for you….Jim
This was a stupid idea. I had that same feeling after thee first artlicle I read about it on monday. Really glad they didn’t go through with it but what a waste of time, really strange they even put that much consideration in to it.
The math doesn’t make sense. Not in favor of spending that kind of money and eliminating local jobs. Those are good paying jobs. They have the income to make local purchasing, own homes, pay property taxes, drive a nicer vehicle, save for kids education, donate to local charities, save money at local financial institutions.
I understand the importance of looking at expenses in a down economy and with a stagnant population. This one just doesn’t offer any real benefits.
Let’s put the garbage men in charge of the city, I’m sure they’d be able to do a much better job for far less money.
Matt how would the trash burning project affected the sanitation workers? They would have taken the trash to the new plant instead of the landfill. I don’t think they would be affected. The LNI workers might have been affected but not the Mason City sanitation workers.
It was part of their plan to grease the wheels for privatization.
You REALLY think that was their plan? Not to bring a industry to Mason City that would spend millions of dollars for construction but it was JUST a diversion to privatize the Mason City sanitation Dept.REALLY?
No. The sanitation privatization would be an added bonus as the trash plant got going.