Payback time.
In the council work session packet laying out the council’s agenda for tomorrow night it states that there will be a review of the City’s 28E agreement with the landfill.
Turncoat and his alter ego, the Mayor, are plotting like two junior high school kids to retaliate against the Landfill for the cold shoulder it gave to Bookmeyer and his heavily weighted representative whose’s vote counts as a third of the total. Apparently the Landfill members did not swallow the same drug that was fed to the Mason City Council. The Landfill members all seem to be quite lucid.
Turncoat lost his bearing at the first Landfill meeting he attended…he thought he was at the Mason City Room at the Library and had the council sitting around him. If that had been the case he would have known the trance was still in effect. Scott made a monumental mistake when he first sat down to address the members of that board; he thought the weight of his vote could carry him. It didn’t, and his arrogance and projected superiority didn’t fly with that crowd.
Now this agreement is on the table for discussion before the council. It is believed that the issue of the weighted vote will be front and center. In the collection of communities we are the 800 pound gorilla because we are the largest contributor and therefore pay the most. Won’t work; Turncoat saw what happened when the members voted down the boys from Colorado (or was it Wyoming?) who wanted to burn our waste. Let’s make an assumption; let’s suppose Bookmeyer wants to punish this coalition by hauling our waste to somewhere else. Not only would it be financially disastrous it would be fool hardy because if that were to happen no resident of Mason City could bring trash to the North Iowa Landfill…they would be barred. No hazardous waste, nothing. How’s that grab you? Do you like that?
When he failed to cripple the Human Rights Commission by trying to cut their budget, he ordered an audit of their operation, he denied Sandy Serventez a place on the commission, a seat she deserved, simply out of spite. He’s not a guy to just move on. He is his own worst enemy and he’ll take a shot at the landfill in anyway he can for voting down what he thought should have been a slam dunk. I hope I am wrong but I don’t think I am.
The Fire Department and the garbage haulers better get ready, and the 60 K he is going to spend on moving his desk seems foolish for what I believe will be a one term mayor. We’re all living inside a comic book here…
Peter Children
Reggie-get your facts correct before you open your big mouth. Cuuries is not expanding, they are consolidating. They continue to lay off people even while they are building their addition that will house the 9th street operation. When they finish the move there will be more layoff. Harley Davidson would have moved out of town except for the great Mason City give away. Now they are going to create some $10.00 p/hour jobs. (Big Deal). What a return on our investment. No taxes paid until the life of the new facility is over and then devalue the property for age. That only leaves Cargil, and yes they are expanding but our so called city leaders will probaly find a way to screw that up as well.
Get up on the wrong side of bed this morning Larry?I did some checking and in fact you are right about Curries. Harley is expanding whether it was with the cities help or not.You could have stated what you knew without the “big mouth” comment.Why are you so angry?In my opinion a few new $10 an hour jobs and all the existing jobs that will remain in Mason City is a victory of sorts.
Welfare for rich people! That is no victory. Need a federal law to stop this, every community should live or die on everything they can offer a business except a large bag of cash!
There is so much more to this story than has been reported on. There has been an ongoing discussion at LNI of the weighted votes Mason City has. The discussion was put on the back burner. Mason city has declining population in relation to the county as a whole. The split of the vote is no longer fair. I fully expect The BWTT heads to bully their way trhough this, as they do everything else.
Considering the fiduciary responsibility of the Landfill….there was no other outcome to the CES contract vote. Mason City, Cerro Goordo County, and the EDC had absolutely no business pushing the deal forward! LNI should have been first in line on the decision tree.
I believe if someone had the inclination to interview Bill, some of “the rest of the story” may be told. The CES deal had been a topic of discussion at the state level. Both pro and con, again there was no other outcome that could have been considered professional.
Scott Tornquist should be so ashamed of his behavior at the LNI meeting that he resigns. In lou of that he should be removed. Any one willing to sign a petion for his removal from the LNI board? Internet sign up? No confidence internet vote for the BWTT heads?
The BWTT heads can only be brought to the wood shed when all of the information of their exploits are fully explained. How many council votes have there been on TIF? Have new council members been voting on policy they do not fully understand? Have they been to a TIF workshop to FULLY understand the consequences of their vote? How much tax burden are they actually shifting to the rural residence of Cerro Gordo County? Taxation without representation?
Yes, this is an election year. Get out of the house, get off the computer, get down to the Court House and register to vote. Take the BWTT heads to the wood shed, take back your town. VOTE!
The CES issue was just one battle, the WAR continues with the BWTT heads. Combining TIF districts within Mason City, as Clear Lake had done, is a huge chess move to pave the way for the 30 plus million “Civic Center”. Figure how much of a tax burden would be shifted to the rural tax payers with TIF usage.
You are right on about this!!!! Someone has been doing their homework!!!! GREAT job
Peter it just dawned on me that you really don’t believe the stuff you are writing BUT you and Matt have figured out that he more outrageous you are the more hits this site gets and the more replies you get.You are like the Colbert Report and you are really a nice guy but just act like you are not for NIT.
Wel i hope the mayor has a big lawn. If mason city residents will be barred from lni, guess where I’ll be taking my garbage.
Will wait till after the meeting to comment but I must admit we could possibly see a new low for our mayor and sidekick. Hopefully they will not go there.
Ps yawn gets another merit badge from the mayor as a member of his brown collar club and has probably reached the level of brownie by now.
I talked to Bill Rowland once about what would happen to a community if they withdrew from the LNI 28E agreement because they disagreed with the outcome of the CES/ERS contract vote. This was long before they actually took a vote. He said that LNI covered a specific region and that if a community wanted to withdraw they could, but the state would still require that their waste come to the landfill that services their region-in other words LNI. They can’t just join another region. The only way a community could dump at LNI is to be a member so any community that withdrew would essentially be forced by the Iowa DNR back into the LNI 28E agreement. LNI has to give their permission to send their waste elsewhere. I don’t think LNI would because their business model counts on a certain amount of tipping fees. If there is an imbalance in the weighted vote, I would hope that it could be corrected. Should every community have their vote weighted the same? No.
Whoever you are; you should first realize who we’re dealng with here; this is Eric Bookmeyer and one of his most ardent Zombies. People will be reading about these people for decades in civc text books. Bookmeyer cannot help himself, he is driven, he has never in his life been in a position like this. In Clinton Iowa it was a stark contrast from being pursued by the police to now having the depatment accountable to you. Can you imagine what that must feel like? Some people just can’t handle that kind of change. Did I forget to remind you that he also controls the local paper? But he found out he can’t control the Landfill. Its been reported that if he didn’t drink at the Park Inn Hotel, the bar would be empty.
It’s been reported that if Peter didn’t mention the Mayor and drinking in everything he writes,Matt would cut him back to just one op-ed a week and Peter might go crazy .Peter again you mention something about Clinton and the Mayor being chased out of town by the police.What are you talking about?Iowa Courts Online only has a speeding ticket and another minor offense. Please provide backup for these accusations.
I know who we are dealing with. You characterize themas a drunk and a zombie. You also credit them with the ability to change state law completely on their own.
I hope Mr. Children is wrong on this one, but watching city hall, it does sound possible. Just think what the ditches will look like if we can’t take our trash to the NIL….
It’s interesting that Peter can glean all of that from one sentence on an agenda…..
GET OFF MY LAWN.. mumble, mumble, mumble… damn kids… Where is my Viagra, the city leaders are meeting Tuesday…zzzzzzzzz GET OFF MY LAWN.. mumble, mumble, mumble… damn kids… Where are my Depends, the city leaders are meeting…zzzzzzzzz GET OFF MY LAWN.. mumble, mumble, mumble… damn kids… Where is my Malt-o-meal, the city leaders are meeting…zzzzzzzzz GET OFF MY LAWN.. mumble, mumble, mumble… damn kids… Where… zzzzzzzzz
Malt-O-Meal is in a the town of St Ansgar who has been home to Grain Millers for many years. St Ansgar has a respectable city council that can keep business in their town and support it’s expansion. The only expanding going on in Mason City is expanded searches for Beje Clark escapees and expanding the scope of what the DA feels should be plea bargained from sexual abuse to child endangerment.
Curries ,Cargill ,Harley Davidson to name a few are expanding in Mason City.For your information in Iowa we have County Attorneys not D.A.’s.