Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
A Mason City resident got under the skin of Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and At-Large City Councilman Scott Tornquist at last night’s council meeting.
This is not the first time Cheryl Gerk has annoyed the Mayor, as you will regularly see him roll his eyes and make other subtle gestures as this citizen makes her way to the public podium for her democratic right to express herself. He has also commented to her on the speed at which she makes her way to the podium.
Ms. Gerk has been a regular at that podium in recent weeks as she owns property near the Mercy Hospital campus. She has a stake in the fast-moving Mercy expansion project, a project that Forest Park residents say will have a huge impact on their property values and quality of life.
However, none of these Forest Park residents, many of whom are also now regulars at the public podium, have been so bold as Ms. Gerk was last night when she finally started pointing fingers at the mayor and council for taking campaign contributions from Mercy associates.
As Ms. Gerk was using her free speech democratic right to address the council Tuesday evening, which she is allotted only 5 minutes to do, and continued to point out campaign disclosures showing the Mayor, Scott Tornquist and others have taken money from Mercy associates, the mayor began to rudely interrupt Ms. Gerk. Perhaps he was spurred on by Mr. John Skipper who works at the rag they call the Globe Gazette, also shaking his head and making gestures. You see, if the mayor feels like he can get away with being a jackass, knowing the newspaper will not report it and may even stick up for him, he becomes his true self, apparently.
And this is fine, because video does not lie, and Bookmeyer’s rude behavior as he squirmed under the microscope of being outed by Ms. Gerk is telling. Mr. Mayor, what happened decorum, one of the pillars of your mayoral campaign? But then again, a lot has changed since then, hasn’t it.
Scott Tornquist also could no longer contain himself Tuesday night. As he sat and listened to Ms. Gerk, the anger boiled over inside him as it has routinely in the past and he blurted out excuses as to why he took money from this person or that person. I have already written about how Tornquist could not resist voting for the $775,000 Metalcraft incentive project, having taken dollars from Metalcraft associates and even having them work for his campaign. Tornquist showed that in that case, he had a favor to pay back, and he delivered.
If the mayor and other council members have taken money from Mercy associates for their election campaigns, this is obviously not illegal, but the appearance of impropriety lingers in the air, and this is what destroys the public’s faith in its local government. It has been said that only a council person can determine if there is a conflict of interest when voting. Apparently, none of these council members feel like there is an issue here, although some have abstained from votes for lesser reasons already this year.
As this Mercy expansion project rolls forward to its inevitable conclusion of unanimous passage and ultimate completion, this mayor, council and some of their cronies in the gallery are showing that their patience for the “naysayers” is wearing thin. Their subtle and sometimes outright rude behavior toward citizens is sad and sickening. Having been a regular at all the council meetings, this behavior is obvious to me but to the casual observer it may go unnoticed. The mayor many times shows extra courtesy toward Mercy associates or others attached to the project. As the meetings have worn on ever the past weeks, the citizens speaking against the project have been told to “move faster” and “line up” and sometimes cut off or told to “get on topic.” To the mayor and council, I would say grow a thicker skin or resign. And maybe, next time someone wants to hand you a check, put your hand in your pocket and say “no thanks.”
After the council meeting, Council member Travis Hickey approached and offered this. He said “I never took campaign contributions, just for this reason. No one can question my motives.”
Watch video:
httpv://youtu.be/nszkGdeK9v8
Matt – In your article you say:
“Ms. Gerk has been a regular at that podium in recent weeks as she owns property near the Mercy Hospital campus. She has a stake in the fast-moving Mercy expansion project, a project that Forest Park residents say will have a huge impact on their property values and quality of life.”
She does not own property in the Mercy Hospital area according to the assessor’s site. The only property showing under her name is on E. State Street.
She said she owns property in the area. I didn’t question it; it’s almost beside the point, even though I appreciate you pointing it out. I will ask her about it. Even so, she is a resident of Mason City and deserves to be treated with respect by our elected city officials. That is the point of the story.
I agree all should be treated with respect. Just knowing that she appears to not own property in the area when she claimed to does go to credibility though.
She has a house down from me. It must not be in her name.
I think she did a great job addressing the council and she was treated like dirt. I would use this as another reason that our City is driving people out of town to live in a friendly City like Clear Lake. Keep losing the tax base here and Clear Lake grows. To the City council: “Don’t spit on your tax payers or we will leave and we will vote you out.”
I think Ms. Gerk needs to give her findings over to the Attorney General’s office. I’ve felt for a long time that the mayor, Trout and our council need to be investigated.
I see we dropped the 20% raise artice for the fat cat union public employees – Dirtbags anyway.
Nice, try passing the blame for this article onto some other group. This article must be right on the mark otherwise why would it upset you like this. Money has always bought influence and Bookmeyer and Tornquist are politicians so it did help mercy’s cause.
To bad more people in Mason City do not speak up . I truly belive the Mayor and Thorn quist are on the take, I can remember when Scott tried to go around the union to better himself. Nice going Cheryl
Well Matt, I guess we can agree to disagree. As I said, I am not a fan of Bookmeyer or Tornquist, or for that matter the Globe, but your personal attacks on all 3 make you occasionally look, shall we say, unprofessional.
i guess this is your site. You can edit or disaprove responses that disagree with you, but I had hopes you were bigger than that.
Matt. I am not a fan of Bookmeyer or Tornquist, but, its highly unlikely that Mrs. Gerk elevator is capeable of reaching the top floor.
It is in nobodys best interest to watch her or anybody else, repeatedly make a fool of themselves.
@sad: I barely approved your post; I don’t approve of the way you referred to Ms. Gerk. Ms. Gerk is a lot smarter than you are giving her credit for. And in the interest of the American way and democracy, I have to disagree with you when you say “It is in nobodys best interest to watch her or anybody else, repeatedly make a fool of themselves.” We watch our city leaders do this on a routine basis why not let the citizens have their chance. She raised very valid points, in my opinion, and she was treated like crap by our pompous mayor and council and their peanut gallery. She deserves better than that.
Great article Matt. It is about time someone said what most of us already knew. I said from the start that this was a done deal and that the people who owned houses should just go after all the money they could get out of Mercy. Why it should surprise anyone is beyond me. Drunkmiers wife works for Mercy and Mercy has very deep pockets and they know it. Money talks and the rights of the people just don’t matter in this town.
Yep! glad mayor bookmeyer can admit noone up her at this table cares! Listen closely!