MASON CITY – Elected leaders have again directed city staff to put sanitation workers under the gun and put their jobs on the line, sources tell NIT.
According to multiple sources who contacted NorthIowaToday.com, city administrator Brent Trout called and met with labor leaders last week to inform them ahead of time that at least two sanitation workers’ jobs will likely be cut due to an extremely tight city budget. Sources tell NIT that the directive came from the top at City Hall – from Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and at least two city council members. Our source indicated those council members are Janet Solberg and Travis Hickey.
The city council and mayor approved last year a steep take hike of 10% upon property owners, and this year looks more grim, NIT is told. Already, the library is drastically under-funded. Other spending projects have cost the city dearly. One of those projects is the extra bike lanes and “sharrows” that were painted on city streets as part of the Blue Zone initiative. The cost of the pavement painting doubled to about $200,000 last year to satisfy that requirement, and will have to be done each year.
The sanitation department, however, is self-funded. The monthly fees of $10.05 a month cover all that department’s expenses.
Bookmeyer and some council members made a strong move in 2012 to privatize the sanitation department.  They directed Brent Trout to research how other cities run their sanitation department, so he did a “Google” search and returned information to his bosses about how San Diego, California runs their sanitation needs. In the end, no quality bids were received, and the move failed. City Council member Scott Tornquist said at a work session in 2012 that the idea of privatizing the city’s sanitation department was no longer “worth messing around with” after a serious public backlash.
NIT will repot more on this matter as developments arise.
