Does Eric Bookmeyer know the difference between nonsense and common sense?

Editorial by Matt Marquardt –

Mason City Mayor Eric Bookmeyer claims to know the difference between common sense and nonsense, he told the Globe Gazette Monday, as he announced he is running for re-election.

In Mr. Bookmeyer’s world, just exactly how is “common sense” defined?  How is “nonsense” defined by Mr. Bookmeyer?

I wonder if the elderly folks in Mason City thought it was nonsense when Mr. Bookmeyer told an aged 50-something woman that he prefers “younger people” with “fresh ideas” for his appointments to boards? Mr. Bookmeyer, would it be nonsense to think this woman’s feelings were hurt when you then left her off the board to which she had volunteered for and been a member of for years?

I wonder if it is nonsense that Mr. Bookmeyer has made four trips to Washington D.C. while stuffing his body with lavish meals and sleeping in expensive hotel rooms? I wonder if it is common sense to expect a return on that investment? Mr. Bookmeyer, is it common sense to think that when you wear your red Chamber of Commerce scarf in Washington, you are working for them and not the people of Mason City?  Or is that all just nonsense?

Mr. Bookmeyer claims that he and the City Council have lowered the tax levy for two straight years. Would it have been nonsense for Mr. Bookmeyer to mention that the Council spent “cash balances not budgeted or considered in this current budget” (quote from City Finance Director Kevin Jacobson) in order to balance this year’s budget, thereby allowing the Mayor and Council to sidestep raising taxes in an election year?

Mr. Bookmeyer, was it nonsense when you admitted that you pilfered stamps and other stationary from City Hall and then commandeered City Staff to perform your personal tasks for a private party? “The invitations came out of the credenza in the Mayor’s Office,” you said, and “the deputy clerk physically dropped the invitations in the mailbox and the City of Mason City paid for the postage.”

Mr. Bookmeyer, it looks like you will be Mayor for another 4 years.  Perhaps it is nonsense that you seem to be the only person in town that wants the job.  If you posses any common sense at all, you will stop filling the people of Mason City full of nonsense and start telling the whole truth.