MASON CITY – The consequences of defunding the Human Rights agency in Mason City by Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and a unanimous city council are now coming to bear.
According to Dean Genth, Mason City Human Rights Commission Chairman, due to the massive budget cut by Bookmeyer and the council, “the Commission is no longer eligible to receive a Partnership Initiative Grant from the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development. The Commission is not eligible to receive this grant because it can no longer participate in the Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP) due to the drastic cut to the budget. The Commission has received a Partnership Initiative Grant in years past and last years grant was in the amount of $87,796.00.”
NorthIowaToday.com reported in January of 2013 that this scenario would come to pass. Council member Scott Tornquist justified the budget cut at that time by saying “We’re basically spending $143,000 in the Human Rights Department to get $85,000 in grants,” Tornquist said. “I have to wonder if that is the best bang for the buck. I talked to our city attorney… we are not required to have a Human Rights Commission.”
Tornquist, along with Bookmeyer, has tried for years to shut down or cripple Human Rights in Mason City.
Upon hearing of the loss of the grant, Mr. Genth stated that “This is one of the very reasons that the de-funding of the Commission by the City is so onerous. With the termination of Lionel J. Foster, former longtime director of the Mason City Human Rights Commission, we no longer qualify for the FHAP grant.”
Mr. Genth went on to say that “Many Mason City residents are voicing concern that losing local control of our Human Rights Commission is a problem. The City Council’s action already means housing cases will be sent to Des Moines to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. Residents see how much they prefer local control regarding public schools, i.e. having a local school superintendent and local school board.”
Mr. Genth said that many people have called him to ask that local control of the Human Rights Commission be maintained. Mr. Genth stated that maintaining local control of the Mason City Human Rights Commission is problematic without adequate funding by the Mason City City Council.
Council members Scott Tornquist, Janet Solberg, Travis Hickey, John Lee, Jean Marinos and Alex Kuhn voted unanimously this year to slash the budget for Human Rights in Mason City from from $143,000 to $15,000.
Everyone is a criminal! That’s right, you heard me. There are so many laws on the books now that all of us has broke the law at one time or another. Not all of us have been caught however so stop pointing fingers.
LVS – When you see that going on contact housing authority officials as that is likely a violation of the approved party receiving assistance.
Of course it is, but report it to the people responsible for the screwup? They’re not going to make themselves look bad, or risk their nice government jobs looking into their own mistakes. And they don’t take complaints, the HRC does. Or did, anyway.
Deb – they did not screw up anything. The applicant provided proof of income & on the basis of that they receive housing assistance. It is after the fact that the one on assistance allows others to move into the unit even though they are not part of the household.
It is not a HRC complaint to tell housing that more may be living in a unit than were originally.
The only reason HRC took complaints and went directly to the HUD office in Kansas City was to obtain HUD funding. They never referred any complaints to local housing.
Really? Go ahead and call in a complaint to NIRHA. They’ll tell you they don’t take complaints, and there’s nothing they can do! I have called them, and that’s the response I got. MCHRC exists to keep the landlords in check, and now nobody’s doing that.
Does this mean the Detroit natives that the lost the HUD HOUSING grant will have to pay rent with their drug money and no longer be protected under the roose of the race card?
*Racist post alert
Oh, they’ll still get their HUD grants all right–the HRC had NOTHING to do with that. The idiot at the North Iowa Housing Authority is the one who does that, and she does it every day. She turns thugs loose in North Iowa, then pats herself on the bag for getting tenants for landlords, no matter who they are or what criminal record they have.
deb – applicants for housing assistance have to pass criminal background checks, i.e., no drug charges or convictions for past 3 years, etc.
If you think something else is going on you need to come forward with facts, not innuendo.
@4ever49-you are right about the background check but, what they do is get one person who is clean to do the renting and get approved and then a whole bunch that couldn’t get approved move in with them. We have had that happen several times in our neighborhood.
Exactly right, LVS. And the Housing Authority doesn’t care, it just gets the money for landlords. Wonder if she puts any of the Detroit or Chicago newcomers in her OWN neighborhood? Bet not.
For once the taxpayers won on this one – we still have a HR function that we were already paying for and now we’ve cut our costs by ($143,000 + $87,796) = $230,796.
Good going City Council!
Actually they saved taxpayers about $215,796 because they still funded the Hrc $15,000 dollars. I agree though taxpayers prevailed as a whole.
What planet are you living on? Mason City residents lost their local service and the State is so busy Mason City will receive cursory attention at best. Come back in a year and tell me how many Mason City residents have went to Des Moines to get service. I won’t be surprised to find it is zero.
Savings? There are no savings! The money was shifted to buy statues, remodel the Mayors office, Blue Zones, ect.
Quit smoking your socks! You will think better.
Watchdog – our “local” service was a duplication of a service already available & paid for by taxpayers. The state is not so busy that Mason City will only receive cursory attention despite your assertion.
As to sock smoking, I assume you’ve tried it & now presume to be thinking better despite evidence to the contrary.
This is just one more reason to get rid of Bookmeyer and Tornquist. It really chaps my hind end that Tornquist professes to be a Christian and is active in his E Free Church. Well, if he is a Christian, I sure don’t want to be associated that brand of Christianity or that church…
If we get the right people in office in the fall, we can restore the Human Rights commission, de-fund the Sculpture program, finish and get rid of the Blue Zones and turn it over to the County Health Dept…. and more.
I think that Lionel Foster or Dean Genth should run for Mayor.. Either would be wonderful representatives for the community and the majority of our citizens.
People– start calling them. And, then support Jodi Draper and Leonard Foster for city council…
We can take back this community from the elitist bastards that have taken over and caused much pain for our people.
Power to the People!!!!!!
@juniper-I am sorry. I like Leonard Foster but he will never win the council seat again. To many people up here remember what happen with him and his family last time. I am not sure Lionel has any interest. Both are good guys and I have known them for years.
Jody Draper is that you? Don’t you work for the county health department?
@ anonymous, no that is not me. When I comment on a story of any kind I use my name, always have, always will. I believe in accountability and transparency and to say that means I have to walk the talk and to do so starts with me as a person, a citizen in this community and so if I blog (which is vary rare) but when I do I do so with my name.
Jody you didn’t answer the real question. Don’t you work for the county health department and Jay Urdahl?
Everyone can bitch and moan all they want; if you don’t vote nothing will change. Jesus would want everyone to vote.
This city has never cared about the common person. We have been used to fund their pet projects for years and everyone of these people just use their positions to further their career’s. The only thing that changes is it has gotten worse with Bookie as mayor. He is a tyrant and always will be.
The message Mayor Bookmeyer sent to the citizens of Mason City is:
Mayor Bookmeyer don’t give a dam about the salt of the earth every day citizen who lives in Mason City and pays their taxes to have this service!
Mayor Bookmeyer would rather buy statues and re-model his office at city hall.
A travesty!
It is so obvious that many of you never go into City Hall. I’ve read it so many times here and it simply isn’t true – the Mayor’s office was not remodeled! It is the same as it has been for several years. The remodeling brought to the first floor the City Administrator, his administrative assistant, the Volunteer Coordinator and added an office for City Council use.
Don’t just parrot what you read here, go out and determine for yourself if everything you read here is true. I guarantee, it isn’t.
The remodel got done so Pilfermeyer could watch Trout like a hawk and control him, as well as get Freestampsmeyer coffee or run other errands for him. Who are you trying to fool?