MASON CITY – At the Mason City council meeting held July 26, 2016, resident David Gilbert gave Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and the city council a piece of his mind.
Tuesday night’s city council meeting … was not one that many people will want to remember. Late councilman Alex Kuhn was left off the agenda – there was no mention of his name whatsoever. A few folks deposited flowers at his seat prior to the meeting, where his name placard remained. There were murmurs in the crowd before the meeting about him and other topics that have the town chattering. But, deviating from the agenda (discipline, decorum, diligence has been his mantra since 2009) Mayor Eric Bookmeyer made what appeared to be tearful remarks about him as the meeting began. Next, a man was allowed to go to the public podium and speak about emergency response for over 30 minutes with the lights drawn low. He showed photos of ambulances, pickup trucks, and what appeared to be scaffolding, among other things, and told stories about each item. The mayor did not start the timer for this speaker, who eventually began to repeat himself and say “again” several times. (Discipline, decorum, diligence.) Once this character was finished, the meeting began to move along. For each agenda item, the mayor spoke in a slow, dejected tone. He was unshaven, a look he has rarely sported in the past. Once through the agenda, the mayor adjourned and made no mention of the public listening post, where citizens can speak about ANYTHING they so desire (the mayor has previously tried to eliminate this from council meetings, but failed). Alas, the public listening post WAS held, but some folks had left the room. Only one citizen of Mason City spoke – and he cut loose. During his time at the podium, addressing his elected officials, councilman Brett Schoneman smirked, made faces, and otherwise mocked him until NIT turned a camera on him. Watch the video to see and hear his remarks.
Been a while since I lasted looked at this site – same old NIT…
Kudos, Mr Gilbert !
He does make a good point, trying to talk to the council is just like trying to talk to your hand. Neither one can give you an answer or listen very well.
It goes both ways. Same goes to trying to talk to the citizen. Need to quit trying to divide the community.
I am not trying to divide the city, just do not think the mayor does a good job. And when has the mayor ever tried to talk to a citizen? He won’t let the council talk to the citizens that’s for sure. Citizens go to the podium to ask questions and the city Council had to just sit there and stares back at them. The mayor will not let council answer questions or give any feedback back to the citizen.
The citizen has facts/truth on his side, also the roads are always in bad shape they never get paved/fixed, I see some can bully yet those same people can’t expect the same karma, the coots even manage to pick on a grandpa, In my view the bullies need to resign or be forced to and replaced with smart/do homework on issues before voting, caring, common sense people who are not driven by personal greed.
The community was already divided by the mayor and his cast of stooges.
Get out your pocketbooks as well people. They bitch about the way the city looks still after they shot down Prestage so they don’t have to smell crap as they thought and would have had $ to improve and we are putting in bike paths so they can enjoy their parks and fresh air and still not happy. Bullys of the town still want to bitch. Wow
Yeah you really want to ride your bike, whose the bully now! Forcing people to smell pig poop!
This article is pointless. NIT sure has it out for this city council. This city does not look like a dump. There have been people getting up before past city councils spewing the same kind of gripes as this guy. Nothing new and nothing newsworthy here.
What a dip $hit. Run for council then. Our leaders have careers besides the council. We have a lot of negative people and energy that would rather attack the council than try to work with them. When it gets down to it just a bunch of jerks.
What career does our mayor have other than living off his wife?
The entire city departments need a overhaul
The city does look like a dump!!! the grass gets cut once a month. If that was my yard they would hire someone to mow and charge me yet the grass on city property is twice as long. And the city parks they mow around the picnic tables and grills and leave the rest.
True words from a concerned citizen. We pay taxes to maintain the city and it looks like a dump.
i think it looks pretty nice these days. at least compared to when i moved here a decade ago – the downtown was really run down back then.
Drive to the North and then drive to the south and then tell us how nice it is. Make sure to open your eyes so you can see all the abandoned houses and junk in the yards.
Downtown is designed to keep people drunk in the hope that they are too drunk to vote! Some improvement!
A what did he say?