Press release from “Symonds for Mayor”
written by Quinn Symonds –
It’s time to announce that my campaign is going full swing. Starting October 7th you are eligible to start your vote. I want for people to ignore the recent drama between the incumbent and a council hopeful, whether it’s factual or warranted is of no importance. When you’re involved in any sort of politics you need to have thick skin and expect the worst to be said about you. How it was handled and what led to it irreprehensible, I will say, but what we as citizens need to focus on is what is important. Ignore the political drama, and focus on the issues that matter to the majority of Mason City. We need to demand from incumbents and candidates both to debate, civilly and cordially about ideas and goals. As far as I know no one has reached out about any debates. I’m not running on a reputation alone, I’m running on ideas and goals as well as a real perspective that is in tune with the majority of Mason City-ans. From the families I’ve spoken with many of the issues affect me as well, jobs, crime, decorum, and more jobs. I am a single father going to college living paycheck to paycheck. I understand exactly what these people want and what Mason City needs. I’m going to take this opportunity to go over ideas and goals that go past my ideas of encouraging tolerance and diversity, and creating city wide Wi-Fi.
• Firstly, as far as crime goes, we need to make sure our courts system holds criminals accountable for their crime. We need to pressure judges to not let criminals walk the streets freely before sentencing and judge them more harshly for violent crimes. We should be sentencing community service for inmates, criminals and convicted juveniles more often. Put them in orange jump suits and make them walk around and pick up trash and clean our roads, parks and downtown.
• I think we should be doing all we can to encourage both small business growth and keeping the large ones we have in our city. The permit process for small business needs to be streamlined. Other cities are moving their application process done entirely online. That cuts confusion between agencies down, the workload involved, and it makes it simpler for businesses to grow at their own pace. When a large business has a plan to grow, we should take all consideration in doing what we can to encourage that, especially when it involves high paying jobs and more of them. I am not opposed to a casino in Mason City or within its limits. We should also offer city contracts to local companies that are capable during the bidding process.
• Accountability and credibility needs to be addressed in city government. In my door knocking and just casual conversations, faith in our local government’s ability to government is waning. We need to hold our cities officials responsible for their job, after all if they don’t want to listen to or respond to citizens they should resign. We need to bring back a semblance of our former human rights center and have personal representation, or we can have the council vote to make our city administrators duties to be responsible for accountability(they can do that)
• Real transparency needs to be enforced. Citizens should know where their money goes and how much city organizations and committees are spending. No more black veils around projects like the sculptures. Some of them are beautiful and they bring some nice flavor to our downtown, but no one wants to come out and say how much it cost to do so, as well as how much it costs for upkeep. One of them was already torn down during the summer, how much did it cost to fix that and then move it? My last thought on this is making all city council and mayoral terms 2 years.
• Our transit system needs a revamp. Right now it’s run through a brokerage, meaning a community organization that is in charge of more than just that particular municipality. We need buses going out to NIACC to pick up students that go to class past 8 throughout the week, and we also need buses to go to pickups near bars and the likes to pick them up and take them home during the weekends. It won’t encourage people to drink more, but it will encourage them to act more responsibly.
• Lastly, our city government needs to be run more like a business. No more high risk/low yield projects for at least a couple years, unless it’s something completely mind blowing. Yes, that could have meant the possibility of no sculptures downtown or involvement in the Blue Zone Community. The statues are expensive and no one wants to talk about what it costs, and we could have very well created our own wellness program just like another Iowa city, Decorah, is doing. I question the sustainability of the Blue Zone community in the long run, and I think it’s repugnant to place statues all over one part of Mason City and say we can’t afford to keep the Human Rights Commission running as it was. I promise to use mayoral veto power on projects deemed to high risk and low return. Yes, mayors in Iowa have veto power, he or she must not say it at the passing of the bill but has two weeks within it being passed to submit in writing to the council why they believe it should not be passed. The council can accept it or bring it back on the table. This is not something that I will use to draw attention or grandstand on issues, just a power I will use when I deem necessary and when it’s for the best of the majority of Mason City. I believe decorum is important to keep meetings running efficiently.
So that’s the basics of my platform; I want fiscal responsibility, accountability in city government, I want to help small businesses and large businesses grow, I want to bring different industry to Mason City, I want to created new tax revenue for Mason City to help keep our taxes low, and I want to see it grow in a positive manner. I am the positive alternative for mayor in Mason City, I have run a clean campaign and I intend to keep my promise, and I hope you vote wisely and early this year. I implore you to reach out to me if you have any questions or want to donate.
I wish my two opponents the best of luck this coming November.
Quinn Symonds
641 512 2878
Quinn.Symonds@GMAIL.com
