by Matt Marquardt –
Today at a popular downtown eatery, Supervisors Jay Urdahl and Phil Dougherty were overheard discussing the possible city council candidacy of a local Mason City woman.
According to a trusted source, Jay Urdahl was heard talking about the woman’s prospects versus either Scott Tornquist or Travis Hickey. The name of the woman who is considering a run for the city council will remain confidential at this point.
The person who provided this news tip said that the man who paid for the supervisors’ lunches told the two supervisors that based on what Urdahl and Dougherty told him, “this lady running for City Council, for either the at-large seat or Ward Two, will get blown away by either Scott Tornquist, or by Travis Hickey.”
Also according to this source – who was seated very near to Urdahl’s table – Urdahl sat directly across from his host, with Dougherty seated next to the man who paid for the lunch. The source explained that Urdahl and Dougherty enjoyed a lunch of fried pickles, calamari, soups and desserts to go with their main entrees.
The source claims that the host of the lunch involving the two elected officials placed two crisp 50 dollar bills on the table when the bill arrived which remained in full view for “at least five minutes before the server came and took it away. A few minutes later, the waitress brought his change.”
“It blew us away,” the source told NIT, “just to see how brazen these two guys were, allowing someone to pick up the tab for such a pricey meal. No one at the table even seemed to give any thought to the idea that under the Code of Iowa, this lunch was illegal.”
As the three men got up to leave the restaurant, Phil Dougherty was overheard to say, “I wasn’t looking for a free meal,” and told his benefactor that he would “treat” him “some time” in return.
The patron who overheard Dougherty told NIT that Dougherty addressed the man as “either Tom, or Todd, something like that.”
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NOTE: According to Iowa law, elected Iowa officials may legally receive only non-monetary items with a value of three dollars or less that are received from any one donor during one calendar day.
