MASON CITY – It is shaping up to be a two-candidate race for the Second Ward City Council seat in Mason City: Jodi Draper versus incumbent Travis Hickey.
The filing deadline for candidates is 5 PM on September 19th.
Not much is known about Mrs. Draper’s policies or stances on issues; she told NIT she is answering questions as she knocks on doors. One issue she does clash with Mr. Hickey on is an important one: Open government and how City Hall responds to its citizens.
On one hand, Mrs. Draper wrote in a press release announcing her candidacy that she believes that “a government should be a service for the people” and that “our City leadership should be open, honest, above-board and people driven.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Hickey announced at the September 3rd City Council meeting that City Hall should charge citizens for asking questions or requesting information.
“I’m in favor with chargin’ everybody,” Mr. Hickey stated.
He also said that he would provide the “average citizen” a “mulligan” if they ask one question a year.
When asked to respond to Mr. Hickey’s idea of “chargin’ everybody” and giving folks a “mulligan” Mrs. Draper shared these thoughts:
“Before I would even make a comment on this issue I would want data from the City Employee work force. I would need to know how many requests are made in a month. What is the average time spent on the requests, and how much time does it take to log the request for public record. It would have to take a rather large amount of time before I would ever vote to charge the citizens of this community for public information.
“Council member Hickey may have used a poor choice of words when trying to explain when stating giving a Mulligan, I think his point was if a person came to the counter and asked for paper work and it was a quick request that the city employee could use their judgment and not charge for the request. Again that was my interpretation of his comment and I have not asked him personally to explain his comment. However, my thoughts on the matter run very concurrent to what Council member Kuhn stated at the meeting. ”
Second Ward citizens, who has your vote?
I would love to know how many inquiries the EDC or whoever it was got from the ad placed in the airplane magazines. Did anyone on this site ever see that ad when you flew? Just curious.
My wife and I were very, very impressed with Jodi after our conversation with her. She is very intelligent and her comments do not surprise me at all as she thinks before she speaks. I truly believe she care about ALL of the people and will try to do the right thing. I feel the same way about Matt even though he is not in our ward I wish him all the luck in the world. I have told both of them they can put signs in my yard.
I met her last week end. Very open and Sincere. Just wondering Why Hickey is running. He told me that his work was taking up so much time and he needed more time for family. Has that Changed?
@Red Pen-I think his buddy the mayor had something to do with it. He needs a lackey to support him and Hickey sure fits that.
With this quote I find I am more impressed with Draper. Prime opportunity to hand it to Hickey and instead she showed class and opted out of mud slinging and actually was defending Hicky instead of taking advantage of his extreme blunder. Good Job! Voting Draper for Ward 2
Ya so how would that work anyway. If I call up Mark Rahm’s office and ask him a question does he have a cash register up there or what. Is he gonna email me a paypal invoice? How much time is he gonna waste making up that invoice for a few bucks to talk to me. This is getting insane. I can’t believe these jokers got elected. Throw the bumbs out!
Your question assumes that Mr. Rahm will take your call or return your message I appreciate your sense of humor.
Ms Draper appears to present herself positively
and seems pleasant.
Mr. Hickey was no help at all when my neighborhood tried to battle mercy. He would not return phone calls or attend any of the Meetings we had. I seriously doubt he has the guts to show his face in my neighborhood.
I believe Mr. Hickey is out to lunch on this one.
A “mulligan” is defined as “an extra stroke allowed after a poor shot.”
Mr. Hickey, when any citizen asks our City Hall for information it is not a “poor shot.” It is not a “mistake” or a negative as you are asserting.
Our City Hall is here to serve the people first and foremost. They should be given the benefit of a free and open channel of communication at all times. The only exceptions should be requests for information that require a large amount of staff time to complete or requests that require large amounts of hard copies, CDs or billable time from our hired attorneys. A statement posted to a new page on MasonCity.net titled “Policy on Requests for Information” explaining this simple policy would be sufficient. Having the right to bill for anyone who is excessive in their requests would be helpful.
**I am not in favor of treating persons from outside the City any differently than people who live here. If we want to encourage folks to come here, move here, and speak highly of Mason City, why punish them for coming to us and asking questions? The above policy will work for them, as well, and they would be charged under its provisions if applicable.**
Mr. Hickey, you, Mayor Eric Bookmeyer, his rubber stamp Janet Solberg as well as Brent Trout have attempted to turn Mason City City Hall into a cold, corporate monster. We have bigger problems than chasing $10 here and $5 there two times a month. Let’s focus on bringing $20/hour jobs here. Let’s focus on the crime problem here. Let’s focus on the declining population issue. Let’s focus on fixing the hostile work environment the mayor has propagated at City Hall. Let’s focus on bringing the people of Mason City back to Council meetings.
Mr. Hickey, I expect more from our City leaders than you have shown in 3+ years.
“Let’s focus on bringing $20/hour jobs here”
That’s a hell of a statement. That might mean Travis and his cronies at the failure known as the EDC/Corridor would have to produce, and these people have no track record of producing anything other than BS.
Hey Travis, can you ask Brent Willett over at the Corridor if he can pay the Iowa State coach Paul Rhodes to come back here again? Since he lost to UNI (lol) and now Iowa two weeks in a row, maybe his $20,0000+ price tag has dropped.
Rhoads has coached 4+ years at Iowa State, with a record of 24–29 (.452 winning %).