Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
I have already reported that the North Iowa Corridor, a publicly-funded agency that takes $50,000 a year from Clear Lake taxpayers, $50,000 a year from Cerro Gordo County taxpayers, and $105,000 a year from Mason City taxpayers, pretty much does anything it pleases and faces no scrutiny from our local elected leaders. The Corridor gets its money and away it goes, while our elected and appointed leaders look the other way and call it a “tool” for growing industry.
The Corridor is supposed to be bringing jobs and industry to our region, but what we mainly see are low-paying retail and service jobs. We have not seen in years any new middle-income jobs (or high-paying jobs) that can support families coming to Mason City, Clear Lake and really anywhere in Cerro Gordo county that can be directly tied to any work or program from the Corridor.
I do believe what we have here is local leaders – some of whom sit on the Corridor Board of Directors – who are likely very aware of the massive failure that the North Iowa Corridor is. I would further say that none of these people have the political nor the personal fortitude to say anything nor take the Corridor to task. They fear the repercussions. The Corridor is under the wing of the Mason City Chamber of Commerce; it pays them $26,000 a year in rent. If you start asking the tough questions, there will be payback, and your own council members and supervisors do not want to face that. They continuously justify public funding of this agency and look the other way because 1) it’s easier to do that and 2) they don’t have the guts to stick up for the very people they represent.
The latest affront to the people of North Iowa by the Corridor is paying a mediocre college coach – Iowa State Head Football Coach Paul Rhoads, who has a .471 winning percentage in fours years at ISU – to deliver the keynote address at this year’s North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corporation Annual Meeting.
These coaches don’t work for cheap, folks. Paul Rhoads makes about $1.425 million per year and is the second-highest paid PUBLIC EMPLOYEE in the state of Iowa. (He also does TV commercials.)
At this time, Corridor Director Brent Willett has ignored requests from NorthIowaToday.com to disclose the amount Rhoads will be paid to speak at this meeting. Mason City City Administrator Brent Trout – a Corridor Board member – has also refused to disclose the amount. “Mr. Marquardt As I have stated in a prior email I do not have this information,” Trout told me today.
So I decided today that NorthIowaToday.com will hold a contest: Which local government and / or public official cares the most about truthfulness and answering to the people of North Iowa, whom they represent?
I will email the entire Mason City Council and Mayor Eric Bookmeyer, the entire Clear Lake City Council and Mayor Nelson Crabb, and the Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors and ask them to disclose the fee paid by the Corridor to Paul Rhoads. I will also contact – again – Brent Trout and Clear Lake City Administrator Scot Flory – who are both Corridor Board members.
Let’s see which of these officials has it in them to come through and be a part of open government.
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Email sent at 11:15 AM Friday morning, May 10th, 2013:
Good morning.
I have asked the North Iowa Corridor several times to disclose the cost of hiring Iowa State Football Coach Paul Rhoads to speak at the Corridor’s annual meeting coming up next month.
I have also asked board member and City Administrator Brent Trout for this information.
So far, I have been stonewalled.
I feel this is public information for many reasons, as Mr. Rhoads is a public employee of the state of Iowa and all of you help fund the Corridor with over $200,000 of public money every year.
Since Mr. Willett and Mr. Trout refuse to answer this basic question, I am turning to all of you, the elected officials of North Iowa – some of you actually sit on the board at Corridor – to ascertain this basic piece of information and send it back to me. I would think one phone call to Mr. Willett from any of you would be all it takes to get this information.
That is all I ask. This email and all of your names will be published today in NorthIowaToday.com and I and the people of North Iowa will be waiting for one or more of you to come through, if you can.
Thank you.
Matt Marquardt, NorthIowaToday.com Publisher
| from: | Matt Marquardt <northiowatoday@gmail.com> | ||
| to: | Eric Bookmeyer <ebookmeyer@masoncity.net>, Brent Trout <btrout@masoncity.net>, bwillett@northiowacorridor.com, solbergwardfour@masoncity.net, hickeywardtwo@masoncity.net, leewardone@masoncity.net, wardthree@masoncity.net, tornquistatlarge@masoncity.net, kuhnatlarge@masoncity.net, slawrenceflory@netins.net, clmayor@netins.net, MikeCallanan@cityofclearlake.com, TerryUnsworth@cityofclearlake.com, DanaBrant@netins.net, TonyNelson@cityofclearlake.com, jim.boehnke@yahoo.com, JUrdahl@co.cerro-gordo.ia.us, BAmosson@co.cerro-gordo.ia.us, PDoughe@co.cerro-gordo.ia.us |
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| date: | Fri, May 10, 2013 at 11:15 AM | ||
| subject: | Cost of hiring Paul Rhoads to speak |
OK, I think the EDC should disclose how much money being paid to Coach Rhoades. I am also a long-time Hawkeye. That said, a college football coach is a businessman who knows how to motivate and inspire and think. The complexities of running the type of operation Rhoades runs at ISU are numerous. Besides that fact, he also has to be able to entice big money folks to donate their money to his university. That isn’t an easy task. On top of that, he must win games. When you take into context the amount of money the football program generates for the university, the publicity it gains from those big upset wins, then a coach does have the wherewithal to speak to business leaders about how to build success. Rhoades has achieved success at ISU. In 4 years; he has proven that he can get the underdog into the big time.
Almost any corporation pays their executives for inspiring and improving its product and image. Rhoades has done that.
UPDATE:
Thank you for this email, this is the first time I had heard about this. I have no problem looking into this matter. If our public funds are directly paying for Coach Rhoads to speak, then the public has a right to know, however, if this is a private event (since the EDC is a public/private entity) and the ticket sales and other fund raising activities are paying for the dinner, venue and speaker cost, then this is a question better addressed to the EDC board. I will get back to you.
John P. Lee
——
Thank you Mr. Lee for your effort here. We will be waiting.
-Matt Marquardt
It’s safe to assume they don’t want to tell you the amount of $$$ because it’s very large and would embarrass them.
It’s ridiculous to me that a football coach is seen as a business starter and leader. He
s just a coach of game. Why the hero worship?
If this is how you make business decisions you should all resign.
This is like the girl scouts using tax money to hire Miley Cyrus. Well, actually that has more merit since Miley does have experience of being a young girl.
Corrider members you all are a bunch of Cowards,use are $ but won’t tell how much Rhoads is going to be paid.And this is for WOW you say your a student and you can’t even spell simple words correctly.Where are you a student at Charlie Brown Preschool? You knock NIT,but you still use your time to come here to read comments.Stupid!WOW
UPDATE: As of Saturday, only one reply, from Scott Flory the Clear Lake City Administrator. Mr. Flory told me he could not get me the information. He is a Corridor Board member. I do appreciate Scott’s honesty and the fact that he took a moment to reply.
Corridor board members have to sign a confidentiality agreement so that’s what I expected. Howeve, the coach is a public employee and all of his income mst be reported to ISU and is public information. Call them and ask; remind them they have 20 days to produce. I suspect that one of the reasons the coach is coming is because Erica Genise, who used to work for the cooridor, now worked for the ISU football program. It wouldn’t surprise me if the coach were doing the speech for a very small fee ($250-500) that will be donated to a charity of his choosing.
Wow, Matt you are the stupidest person I have ever meet, every article you write is absolute trash, North Iowa today has the reputation of “making up” news just for fun, you are a joke and this is pathetic. Just, WOW!
You sound extremely upset and offended. Maybe you are on the email list. Keep the insults coming, I enjoy a good laugh.
Acually I am a student, and let me fill you in, your site becuase of the fact that mostly everything on here is made up, cannot be used in any research what-so-ever. Also, with Peter Children and yourself writing for NIT whenever an article is brought up that was written by NIT it is simply to make fun of how stupid it is. Not to mention yourself and Peter Children are not well behaved in public, when you are not hiding behind your computer screen that is.
Globe Intern = No Pay.
Anything that WOW post should just be disregarded as if it doesn’t exist. Children (students) have not be alive long enough to give an opinion.
“Wow, Matt you are the stupidest person I have ever meet, every article you write is absolute trash, North Iowa today has the reputation of “making up” news just for fun, you are a joke and this is pathetic.”
My suggestion is you seek a refund on your education for a number of reasons.
For the sake of discussion, let us use this article. Matt has a concern about the Corridor, it’s results relative to it’s cost to citizens. Most reasonable people would come to that same conclusion.
One of those conclusions Matt brought up; “….but what we mainly see are low-paying retail and service jobs.”. Anyone who lives in a household and must pay their own bills can tell you, that is a very reasonable and realistic expectation to have. Well, unless one lives in Guatemala or Sierra Leone.
Other rather objective questions were asked or implied in this article. To me, that is the duty of a free press, seek accountability and results from elected officials.
But, if you would rather everyone bury their head in the sand and ignore what is going on around them, that’s your choice.
I say Nyet! Keep up the queries Matt.
Maybe he’ll speak at Tech Brew?
How about contacing Mr. Rhoads? Ask how much he is getting paid to speak.
This will be interesting. You would think they would learn that Matt is not going away and sooner or later they are going to have to disclose some information. If the Corridor is being funded from our tax money we are entitled to an accounting from our elected officials. Just putting it in the budget is not enough. Keep pushing Matt. We will be waiting to see if you get an answer. I am willing to bet you don’t as they have gotten away with ignoring us for years.
UPDATE: So far, as I expected, Clear Lake is showing the most class but still no answer.