by Matt Marquardt –
MASON CITY – City Councilman Travis Hickey confirmed this afternoon that Brent Trout was not given direction from the council to attend and speak at tonight’s landfill board meeting where a long-term contract with ERS will be voted on.
I asked Hickey (pictured) in a phone call if the Council had given Trout direction to attend the meeting and speak. “Not to my knowledge,” Hickey said.
The exact reason why Trout will be attempting to lobby the landfill board is not known; if direction from the council is not given, where the motivation to attend would come from is unclear. Reading Trout’s job description, the task of lobbying groups to further the policies of the city is not specifically listed. Further clouding the situation is the fact that the city council has only given city staff direction to draft an agreement policy with ERS; no agreement or contract with ERS has ever been presented to the city council.
Hickey also agreed that it is the mayor’s role to lobby the landfill board, not the City Administrator’s. “I would agree with that,” when I suggested that it is the mayor’s role or a politician’s role to lobby any outside board or group, not a city employee’s job.
There has been no word from Mayor Eric Bookmeyer as to whether he will attend tonight’s meeting and attempt to speak to the landfill board about the ERS contract.
So, you think this is over do you? That is not how it works and you should know better. They will regroup (probably going on right now) and will come back with a slightly different format until they get what they want. They did it with Southbridge, Northbridge, Central Park renovation, Park Inn and street scape. That is how they do it. They will do it with this and then they will do it with the proposed civic center (hocky rink).
Methinks Larry is right on the money!
Landfill Board said no. It’s a done deal…no plant will be built.
reply to Dopesmash-How about early in his time in office promoting lean and efficiency and terminating the 28E agreement freeing up Visit Mason City from the Chamber of Commerce control. That was having a mind of his own. He stood up to the mayor, Tornquist, and Solberg on that one. I’ll admit, as of late he has fell in line with some others who I’m not sure have the best intentions of everybody. But hey, I’m a positive guy and give people the benefit of the doubt. I think he has potential to do what’s right and stick up for everybody in the community not just a chosen few and I hope he does just that. If not, we can vote him out next election, but until then I’ll be hoping that he does the right thing.
Mike, if you click the “reply” link next to the author’s name in the comment, it will thread your reply and link it with the original post. Not trying to be nasty but just pointing out some of the newer functionality of the web site. It’s a cool and easy way to track conversations, but it can make it harder to find new comments if you are following a discussion over the long haul.
Hickey has never been able to think for himself. When has he ever? He’s just a puppet, simple as that.
at Echo, my thoughts exactly. It’s easy to be suspicous of people and wonder what they are up to when they are keep everything in secret. A lot of things going on right now seem to have some hidden agenda and benefactors behind them. Councilman Hickey has at times shown the ability to think for himself and do what is right. I hope this side of him comes out more. I also think Jon Lee is a man of integrity so maybe between the two of them they can at least bring some openess and fairness to the city government.
City employees in the official compacity lobby all the time. Our tax dollars fund things like the league of cities. We are no different then any other city that has employees that met with and lobby our elected representitives all the time.
CITY EMPLOYEES ARE NOT PAID TO LOBBY AND THEY SHOULD NOT DO SO. IF MR TROUT WANTS TO GO AND SPEAK AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN OF MASON CITY HE HAS THAT RIGHT BUT NOT AS OUR CITY ADMINISTRATOR.
WELL AT LEAST COUNCILMAN HICKEY HAD THE COURAGE TO RESPOND TO NIT QUESTIONS. HOPEFULLY THE REST OF THE ELECTED OFFICIALS WILL DO THE SAME.
This is a shame. If this goes through get rid of them all. This is the biggest scam ever. We are the test. If it fails WOW trouble! Not worth the couple of jobs. Not worth who will get very ill from all of this too. Bookmeyer this will be no big fantastic thing for your resume anyway. You already blew a future any where. Who wants a heartless drunk around anyway…nobody. You are too gross for words and so is the rest of your tribe. Now git outta here!
I must ask, who is going to get ill, and why?
What exactly is “WOW trouble”? My best guess is it refers to some technical term.
drunkmeyer has others do his dirty work because 1. he to drunk to do it himself or 2. he knows what will be told, and we know drunkmeyer has a tizzy he you tell him no, right?
amanda, Whose yer english teacher? Stop writing such gibberish until you can do so intelligently!
You embarrass yourself. Drunkmeyer can do better drunk!!
Kinkyh,
“Whose yer english teacher?” Should be, Who was you English teacher. Unless you really meant is hoping to make fun of a child still learning the correct use of the English language.
This thing is starting to stink more than the garbage it will process.