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Corruption now legal? Iowa Public Information Board dismisses complaint against Bookmeyer, council in secret budget meetings case

If the mayor and other officials do not want you at a meeting, they will either throw you out or just make them secret altogether.
If Mayor Eric Bookmeyer (left) and other officials do not want you at a meeting, they will either physically remove/intimidate you or – as in this latest case – just make the meeting secret altogether.  A state board claims no wrong-doing on the part of Bookmeyer and the council in hiding the budget hearing from the public.

DES MOINES – Despite previously calling the matter an “extremely important issue”, the Iowa Public Information Board dismissed a complaint brought by a Mason City citizen about closed door budget meetings perpetrated by the Mason City council and Mayor Eric Bookmeyer.

A Mason City man, Michael Servantez, filed a complaint against the mayor and council for holding secret budget hearings as they struggled to put together a budget for 2016. The elected officials eventually had to ask the public for guidance on at least one issue – sanitation rates – and resorted to closed door meetings to patch together the next city budget.

The city fell back on the “legal advice” of its hourly-paid attorney, Randy Nielsen, who “ruled” that the secret meetings – which barred the public – were fine to proceed with. Nielsen also “ruled” that hiding information from emails sent to city officials was just fine, as well.

Weeks ago, the board deferred the issue for a second time as it investigated and pondered an outcome.  In a document provided at that time to NorthIowaToday.com, the board said that the legal issues in the case “impact all levels of government”.

The complaint has been deferred until the board’s May meeting, in order to “give additional thought and input on this extremely important issue”.

“This case involves very complex issues that impact state, city, and school boards and needs to be handled in a deliberative manner,” said Charlie Smithson, Executive Director of the Iowa Public Information Board.

At the May 21 meeting, an Iowa Ombudsman’s Office representative attended the meeting and made remarks to the board regarding Servantez’ complaint.  Angela McBride of the Ombudsman’s office asked to speak in regards to the case when it was addressed by the board.  The board then dismissed the complaint with a vote of 7-1.

Click image to view larger
The original complaint against Mason City city hall … Click image to view larger
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