MASON CITY – The Mason City Council unanimously approved a sharing agreement Tuesday evening between the Mason City Human Rights Commission (MCHRC) and the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.
The agreement as spelled out by Beth Townsend, Director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, simply means that the Mason City Human Rights Commission now has the option to send all, some or none of its cases to Des Moines to be dealt with there. The agreement is good for one year.
NIT has previously reported that the contract only stipulates that the MCHRC may send cases to Des Moines if chooses to, but is not bound to do so; the MCHRC may still operate as it always has, provided it has the funding to do so.
At-Large City Council member Alex Kuhn made some comments on the agreement. Sources tell NorthIowaToday.com that Kuhn is “deeply concerned” about how his vote to de-fund Human Rights in Mason City will affect his future political prospects. The Mason City Council this year voted unanimously to drastically slash the budget for Human Rights in Mason City. The budget was cut from $143,000 to $15,000, in affect shutting down the Human Rights Department and leaving the Commission rudderless.
Remarking that he had been a council member for a year and seven months when Human Rights funding was determined in this year’s budget discussions, Kuhn said “that was probably the toughest vote I took, supporting that budget particular to this item.”
Mayor Eric Bookmeyer has insisted that the Mason City Council and himself approve and sign any agreement between the two agencies, even though experts have told NIT that action was not necessary. Bookmeyer has long worked behind the scenes to cripple Human Rights in Mason City and worked closely with local businesses who faced the Mason City Human Rights agency due to employees and tenants bringing cases there.
Watch video of discussion:
httpv://youtu.be/85UMc5esn5o
Watch video of Beth Townsend at Mason City Human Rights Commission meeting, held in April of 2013, explain about sharing agreement:
httpv://youtu.be/o1Bt8IrsmwA
Everyone following NIT knows that Bookmeyer in 2009 promised to destroy the human rights department when he campaigned for mayor. Why do you think Bultje, whose daddy ran IC Systmes, was on his campaign staff? This is the icing on the cake for Pilfermeyer.
We can take back our community this fall!!! WE need a get out the vote strategy and get anyone who has not registered to vote to do that too!! It is easy, now that u can do it at the polls.
Bultje’s wife’s family owns all the IC systems and they have the corporate office in St.Paul. They may be divorced now–not sure….
Birds of a feather flock together!!!