MASON CITY – A lone demonstrator picketed outside City hall in Mason City on Friday, clamoring for the salvation of a department that is clearly about to be shut down.
Phil Sanchez of Mason City, a known labor supporter and activist who has ran for and held city offices in the past, stood in front of City Hall Friday afternoon with his home made sign which read “CITIZENS SUPPORT OUR HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE!”
Sanchez “I think we should keep the Human Rights office fully funded,” in reference to a tentative decision at a work session by the City Council to make a drastic funding cut to the agency.
“I think it’s bad,” Sanchez continued. “Some on the City Council have a vendetta … to cut City hall down to nothing.”
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My response is putting tax money into the blue zone which many still do not understand what it is and statues is a whole lot different than people rights!! If you can’t see the difference then I guess we agree to disagree. I never said you can’t use grand money I said it was not free.
No Bobby, not him. The man that was upset about his teeth was named Martinez, or Gonzales, or Rodriguez, or something like that. Not Sanchez.
I don’t very often agree with Phil as I know a lot about him, but at least he is doing something about something he believes in. Either that or he is getting ready to try to run for council. He is way to far left to ever get my vote.
Bobby G: NO
Ain’t he the one that got so upset with the dentist about his teeth?
He also pst & moaned about the Fareway expansion. I think he had a rental house in the area. He must think too that the HRC is only for minotities which it’s not. It handles cases for lots of different people & situations. HRC doesn’t need $200,000 to operate.
I think he’s of that group that doesn’t want to better any buildings or areas because he’s to cheap to pay the cost. They want MC to look like N Fed..
Fareway would have built a new store downtown with no taxpayer money. Business is the biggest waste of taxes in this country. Taxpayers give billions of dollars to company’s that are making record profits.
No, Fareway would have moved out of downtown and built on S. Federal. Look at where they build in every other town. As for Phil, he did not have a rental in the area, Steve Ibarra did.
Most of their business is from all the old people downtown that can’t drive all over to get groceries.
Good for you Phil, way to stand up for what you beleive in. A cut was necessary, but not by as much as they did. If they want to get rid of the Human Rights commision just come out and do it, rather than hide it in a budget cut. A cut of this size will do it anyway. And I agree on the statues, what a waste.
I think it is very sad when you can spend $30,000+ on a bunch of statues and art pieces to supposedly decorate the downtown area and validate it by saying we are trying to attract more people downtown (hah) when at the same time cut out the Human Rights Office and give the reason to do so by saying it is because of budget cuts. If these people we think before they speak and act, they would not look so foolish. This is one of the many reasons that people choose to leave this area instead of wanting to stay and help it grow. Come election time I am going to become more involved and get these people out of office. We hired them; it is time to fire them.
The city DIDN’T spend $30,000 on statues bonehead! The statues were paid for with DONATIONS and the tax on motel / hotel rooms paid by tourists who stayed at hotels & motels. NO CITIZENS PROPERTY TAX was used. Yeah you go ahead and run but you’ll be a loser. People like you that spout off and don’t know diddley about what they’re spouting about are losers. But entertaining. thanx for the laugh.
@ANON You are the one that doesn’t know squat. All taxes collected are the peoples money. When they use our money on crap like statues it is our money being wasted. Property tax money is used on projects for tourism that puts people in those hotels so they can collect the tax so don’t tell me it’s not my money!
OK Tax class 101….the statues DID cost the tax payers money!! I pay motel, and hotel tax when I stay in a hotel in Mason City, which I do on occasion for birthday parties and family gatherings. Money does not just come for property taxes. We have number of different ways to pay. Grant money they say is free money but somebody’s taxes paid for the grants. I just love when people say free money the government just doesn’t print free money it comes from tax payers when are you people gong to realize IT IS NOT FREE MONEY!!!!!!!
What donations? The hotel/motel tax dollars belong to the people of Mason City, not Robin Anderson. The dollars from the hotel/motel tax can go to the library which is in financial trouble. The council will have to clean up the library out of other city funds. By not using the hotel/motel tax dollars to bail out the library, we are all paying. Get it yet?
Sandra, No different than the Hrc 143000 in city tax money and 82000 in grant money that is not free. Love to here your response.
Bonehead? Really? The statues DID cost tax payers money. There are far better things to do with that money like the library. Kudos to Matt, Sandy, and Anonymous for your responses. Keep up the good work Matt.