From Mason City Council Member Jeff Marsters, when asked to assess Mayor Eric Bookmeyer’s first two years in office:
Mayor Bookmeyer’s campaign theme was DILIGENCE, DISCIPLINE & DECORUM! Should always be the focus of how an elected candidate is performing. Does he live up to & perform as promised?
I see not real improvement in any areas of his campaign theme. And, in reality probably much worse especially in the area of decorum. I’ve heard from many & have to agree that many times it just matters who has the floor as to how strict the rules are adhered to (both to the public & to council members).
Meetings are as lengthy as ever & certainly as controversial as ever! And, city government is as slow as ever with rare or special interest exceptions.
Mayor Bookmeyer (pictured, right) has certainly made attempts and surely used his power to make some controversial changes like it or not. He certainly stirred the pot when he solely modified the televised the Public Input session at the start of each meeting not to allow any discussion on subjects not directly tied to agenda items. Later, allowing time after the formal meeting to allow non-televised open subject comments.
As an acting council member, I have been most concerned about his authoritative attempts to stifle the public & his attempts to force his personal agenda forward with obviously no attempt at teamwork with all council members.
Personally, I feel the mayor has been more of a Team Breaker instead of Team Builder as I think a mayor should be mostly.
