Op-ed by Peter Children –
In today’s “letters to the editor” section in the Globe there is a letter from former Mercy Hospital director, James Fitzpatrick. From 120 miles south he is encouraging those of us still here to keep our current incumbents in office. He neglects to expound on the fact that there are no jobs over $10.00 an hour, no viable manufacturing plants that have come to our city during the past two years. His reasoning is as sick as some of the care his hospital inflicts on its patients.
He also left out the most important fact of all: This mayor – this stumblebum mayor and his crooked council – sold out their own citizens and gave Mercy everything it wanted and then some in Forest Park. They cut down houses. They cut down trees. The sawed off the equity in the homes of at least a dozen homeowners, robbing them of their most valuable investment.
Mr Fitzpatrick also left out an important fact; he and many of his three-figure-earning doctors gave big contributions to Eric Bookmeyer four years ago, this mayor who railroaded the Mercy expansion through the council in a matter of weeks. God only knows how much they are giving this time around.
The following are the public records for campaign contributions for Mayor Eric Bookmeyer:
Click here: Mayor Eric Bookmeyer’s full list of campaign contributions received and also here.
Highlights:
-
Eric Bookmeyer feasted on Mercy contributions four years ago. How much will he get this election? Check # 9181 from (former Mercy CEO) Fitzpatrick, James & Ellen , 11 hackberry Rd., mason city, IA 50401 – $250.00
- Check # 4417 from (current Mercy doctor) Dettmer, Timothy & Carol, 662 E. State St., mason city, IA – $500.00
- Check # 11565 from (current Mercy doctor) Plank, C Joseph & K Kristen, 2200 W. State St., mason city, IA – $250.00
- Check # 1020 from (current 3rd ward council member) Marinos, James & Jean, 120 S. Carolina Ave., mason city, IA 50401 – $100.00
- Check # 16318, from (current Mercy doctor) Hunt, Samuel & Deborah, 1210 N. taft, mason city, IA 50401 – $25.00
- Check # 7147, from (current Mercy doctor) Fisher, Darrell & susan, 1030 15th St. SE, mason city, IA 50401 – $50.00
- Check # 6592, from (current Mercy doctor) Moeller, Ronald & Dianna, 2240 country Club Dr., mason city, IA – $100.00
- Check # 5906, from (current Mercy doctor) Kuehn, G.M, 278 Lakeview Dr., mason city, IA – $50.00
- Check # 2806, from (current Mercy doctor) Coddington, James, 3 Cairnbrae hills, mason city, IA 50401 – $25.00
- Check # 5539, from (current Mercy doctor) Ruen, David, 273 lakeview Dr., mason city, IA 50401 – $50.00
- Check # 1119, from (current Mercy doctor) Goetz, Steven, 8 Arrowhead, mason city, IA 50401 – $150.00
- Check # 2257, from (current Mercy doctor) Mulholland, Tim, 15739 310th St., mason city, IA 50401 – $200.00
- Check # paypal from (current Mercy doctor) Little, David mason city, IA 50401 – $150.00
60 thoughts on “Op-ed: Mercy got a favor from City Hall, so it backs mayor and council”
Mason City is Clear Lake’s bitch. North Iowa’s trash (human and otherwise) gets dumped here, and lot’s of MC’s money people have move to the lake. Bookmeyer gets lot’s of money from Clear Lake people and this includes some of Mason’s slum lords. Booky gives our money to the Harley that’s owned by Clear Lakers. That big rip off would of never happened but for a Clear Laker gets the ball rolling. For Booky, out to the Country club. Worse of all, Urdahl and Dougherty and Amenson are controlled by Clear Lake people. CL has made us their bitch.
Your talking about the Blodgett’s, they are all Nazi’s, the worse thing ever happen to our politics. If they did not stick their noses into things Urdahl and Phil would of never got in, or stay in and Bookie would of not give our money to the harley.
Matt since you claim to have50,000 unique visitors why not do. A Straw poll vote.
How did you come up with thd50,000 unique visitors that you claim. Is that a Nielsen or Arbitron report number?
Mr. Liberty has not been able to share his opinion on this site. Only when it isn’t damaging to the NIT crowd….
Reggie and Kady have been so far off a healthy debate it’s amazing.
And I still want to know why they like the things Bookmeyer has done…maid? drinking? screwing the hospital neighborhood? The list goes on.
And you say fing insane is not civil? What do you call Bookmeyers performances?
Not one person can stick up for that. Not one.
Reggie come on you see what she writes it is as wicked as I get(but I’m not feeling bullied) so what’s the difference. You both are so off.
Really good coherent reply. Is that you Peter?
Man you people may not be “dense” but you are doing a great impression. Katie has been nothing but thoughtful and articulate.You obviously don’t agree with her opinion but disagree in an intelligent manner. You people are rude and spiteful. Think before you type.
@Reggie-Katie made a mistake. If you try to talk down to people the tend to resent it. Something you might try to remember too. As far as bullying, your comments as well as Katy could be taken as attempts to get people to think your way as well. Of course then you have some who every time you disagree they claim they are being bullied or insulted. Those are the whiners and crybaby poor me’s of the world. That is their defense mechanism. That comment was not aimed at either you or Katy. Just a general statement.
I’m not trying to get people to think my way necessarily but just think. Disagree in a thoughtful and civil way. Not in a “Because You are f-ing insane Kady” type of way , which does nothing to further any discussion or encourage a healthy debate.
@Reggie- You might not like the “Because You are f-ing insane Kady” type of response, but please consider:
1) It might just possibly be the truth. (and I happen to think it is.)
2) It might just possibly be the only type of response Katie understands. (Which I happen to think is true,)
HA I’m against bashing Katy says and in the same sentence you people are dense! W HAAA T!
It’s a mental Dr I’m sure of it now.
I hope none of you on here are against bullying because that is what you all do. You do it constantly to everyone who doesn’t agree with your methods. It makes no difference if the person would vote for one of your candidates or not. It’s your attitude of total intolerance for others’ points of view and methods of expressing themselves. You can’t handle it when it comes back to bite one of the bullies. I have always stood up to bullies and I do not back down. Makes me laugh thinking of the ones I have put in their places.
“Makes me laugh thinking of the ones I have put in their places.” Wow, does she also walk on water, change water into wine, and raise the dead? Praise the lord, massa, for she has risen.
Because You are f-ing insane Kady. And bored.
Whatever. This Katy person is a whack job with out a doubt.
I’m real sure no one would want you back here if you don’t live here. You are the most negative of anyone I have read.
Makes one wonder what kind of Dr. tehe
Bookmeyer is a one show man period. Our lives will be more dismantled with the likes of him looming.
Wise up fellow Mason Citians and vote Bookmeyer OUT for a nice change. I say Max. Can’t hurt!
If he can’t do us justice then we move on again.
I’m not pro or con any candidate. I’m against bashing and incivility. You people are so dense that you can’t even figure that out. I think Peat knows what I’m trying to show here because he hasn’t taken the bait. He can’t all of a sudden back off on his tirades because that would show he has been so rude and mean all along.
Kady you are the joke of NIT..DUH
Why would you listen to a mayor who only supports some of the people? Right here in good ole river city.
Day after day all you come up with is Peter bashing. Did you have relations with him years ago and can’t get over him?
Not one thing about our great candidates unlike Bookmeyer’s record. WHy do you think he is ok?
Maybe it’s Bookmeyer you can’t get over? Are you the maid he was caught with ?
Which ever all the facts all the proof is right here for the taking.
Why is the truth so difficult to face?
Gosh. Jim & Ellen Fitzpatrick are some of the nicest, down-to-earth people I ever met, as are some of the others I know on the above list. And why wouldn’t they have donated to a fellow doctor’s husband’s initial campaign? And of course you donate to whomever supports your causes. DUH. That’s the way politics work. There is nothing illegal or shady about it so quit making it look that way. Someone might decide to make a big deal about $500 contributions to Max or Matt from Peat who is a person who ships jobs offshore to CHINA instead if having his products manufactured HERE in River City where we need good paying jobs. Why would you listen to a person who doesn’t care enough about his hometown to do his manufacturing here? What are his motives for offshoring jobs? Why can he have business motives but no one else in MC can?
@Katie,
Convoluted logic. This is not about Peter Children, it is about the Mercy and the good old boy network kicking Mason City Citizens around for money.
You can write it off to DUH that is politics but it sure don’t make it right! I think it’s sic and politics at it’s worst!
I too know many people on the campaign donation list. We will see if they repeat? I am thinking some of them are a whole lot smarter then that.
This is about hypocrisy and putting your money where your mouth is.
Huh?
@Watchdog-Katie is always going to back the mayor. It doesn’t matter that she doesn’t live here. She is one who couldn’t wait to leave here but now thinks she can tell us how to run our town. She obviously is one of the country club set and is good buddy’s with the snobs.
Hey Bozo. Since when is it illegal, immoral or improper to contribute to a political campaign?
Ha. I only lived in MC for 5 months in the 60’s when I went to NIACC for one semester. I plan to move to MC some day to be closer to my doctors. And I have never hit a golf ball in my life nor would I waste money on a country club membership or any other membership just so I could socialize with the “right” people. Not my style. And I’m not telling you how to run your town as much as how to quit being so damned negative about it and look to the future instead of the past. Plus, you are spending plenty of my tax dollars.
First Katie name drops, telling us she knows the Fitzpatrick’s and others on the list, making sure we know she is one of the “in crowd”. Then she tries to turn the attention to Matt, Max, and Pete. Then she tries to ingratiate herself by saying she plans to move to MC sometime, has never swung a golf club, and that she would never belong to a country club, making us think she is one of the “common folk”. And then she states she is not trying to tell us how to run our town. Hmm, I’m trying to decide if she’s Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, or Andy Griffith.
Well, Eric’s meal ticket does prescribe mind altering drugs, I’m sure. Maybe she got herself some of the good stuff 😉
@Katie-Maybe you met them at the Chamber of Commerce and just had lunch with them at the Country Club. First you try to impress everyone by name dropping the social elite and then you try to back out of it. Just stay in Clear Lake where you belong. You fit right in with the North Shore crowd.
@Katie-are you one of the slumlords that like to invest in Mason City and make a profit off the people here while never reinvesting a nickel to keep the property up? Are you married to Dodd or maybe Russ Hardy? You are willing to take money out of the city but not willing to live here. Pay attention to your own politics. You have enough problems right there in Clear Lake.
Got it all wrong, LVS. I’m a common person who has been treated nicely by all of the people I know on that list. I do not move in their social circles, but am acquainted with them and visit with them when I see them. I own one non-residential property in Mason.
@Katy-Of course you deny it. I would expect nothing else. Your creditability on the subject is not worth discussing.
@Katie-We understand, Katie. The dog ate your homework, the check is in the mail, and yes, you were the shooter on the grassy knoll.
Fails all around. Stupid.
Once an ass always an ass. These people THINK they are livin large until eternity. WRONG. The wicked web they weave.
Will strangle them sooner or later.
Peter – again your op-ed fails all around.
The contributions are hardly in amounts that one would hoist themselves on any petard.
You went on to say; “This mayor … sold out their own citizens and gave Mercy everything it wanted and then some in Forest Park”. No one was “sold out”; all sales were done to Mercy without condemnation and at prices above market judging from past personal knowledge.
“They cut down houses.” – only houses they paid for and owned.
“They cut down trees”. – they owned them.
“They sawed off the equity in the homes of at least a dozen homeowners, robbing them of their most valuable investment”. Simply nonsense Peter.
You are simply slinging BS and trying to get something to stick.
4ever49-You are right on all but the last item. Those people who live nearby have definitely lost value on their homes. Who want to buy a house that has trucks running by their backyard 24 hours p/day. And, you did not mention the infastructure that the taxpayers of Mason City lost on when our giveaway council gave the street and everything above and below it to Mercy. So, do not say they didn’t hurt the neighbors. It was a nice,quiet neighborhood with lots of shade trees and the is gone now.
The other side of the argument could be that the homes gained in value, especially for those who work at Mercy and don’t want to commute.
No matter which project the City approves there will always be those that yell NIMBY.
The loss of value argument could be made all over the place – such as in SW Mason City adding the ethanol plant and attendant noise pollution or the addition of Cargill’s egg processing plant and the smell of eggs being processed, etc.
The vacating of a street also reduces the City’s requirement to maintain.
At the end of the day it’s all about the jobs generated. In this case the City did the right thing, especially considering it is the major employer in town.
@4Ever49-BULL
@4ever49 How many jobs did this project create? Mercy may be the largest employer in town but they treat the employees like crap and continue to take away benefits. They say they are not making any money.
4ever49 every time I read one of you comments I am reminded of the smell coming from a pig farm because you can smell it long before you see it . That is when I am reminded that the stench of of and entitled elitist can be unbearable.
Mercy is the largest employer in this town they are also the largest non-paying tax entity in this town. Yet they seem to have the ability to elect an administration that ignore the rights of the tax paying citizens.
Why should the citizens not demand that some of these outrageous industrial developments not be in the middle of a highly residential area?
There are plenty of available land in this town where industrial development is best suited that will not impact the quality of life in our community.
I want to know why should any resident on this community have an unstable helicopter landing and taking off in their residential neighborhood? The fact that that is happening tells me a lot about the Realtors and the property speculators in this community. Everyone keeps wondering why all external businesses development avoid this town.
@Eye opener-Good comments. Also, mercy already owns West Campus. They could easily have moved their warehouse and helicopter pad out there where it wouldn’t bother anyone. There are a few logistics involved but they could have been worked out. It would have cost them just a little more but they would have been good neighbors. However, Mercy is so used to running over anyone and everyone that they don’t even take into account what it will cost their neighbors.
Lvs. And just how are they to get ER patients who often won’t survive ambulance transport out to west campus to a heliport out there? You’re nuts. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to risk putting a loved one through one extra minute to be life-delighted somewhere.
I do agree that religious hospitals and other entities should be on the tax roles. I don’t think our founding fathers meant that anything other than CHURCH WORSHIP BUILDINGS and their collection plates should be exempt from taxes. It’s pathetic that this exemption has been extended to everything owned by them.
“They could easily have moved their warehouse and helicopter pad out there where it wouldn’t bother anyone. There are a few logistics involved but they could have been worked out.”
For those who don’t know and didn’t bother to find out: the West Campus has been their warehouse for a while. The logistics was to run a truck back and forth between the campuses (all of them). This truck runs about 12 trips a day and has to compete for space at the loading dock with the other trucks, vans and courriers using the dock. Often that street was blocked while trucks jockeyed in and out, not to mention the house directly acrossed for the dock who lawn (the drive corner) was often run over by those trucks.
Eye opener – perhaps prospects avoid Mason City because of negative limited knowledge attitudes reflected in your comments.
I find it interesting that when confronted by a contrary opinion this somehow generates sensations of odors related to hog farms and the elitists that reside therein. Maybe your nose is located in the wrong place. Also, your diatribe is the first time I’ve seen anyone refer to a hospital as an industrial development. Interesting.
Mercy’s main campus stays where it is as it is likely cost prohibitive to relocate the entire operation elsewhere. If one were clairvoyant, say 75 years ago, then one could have encouraged it to locate farther on the fringes of town. But I suspect the early physicians, who then lived in Forest Park, preferred being within walking distance of the hospital. So we are stuck with that reality and the City is making the best of it.
As to “external business development” avoiding this town – Mason City has the same quiver of arrows it can use to land a prospect as does every other town of similar size in Iowa. Railing at or changing the current council seat occupants will not change that fact.
The character of the council can make a difference so if it is apt to “shoot from the hip” or contentious that will detract from our abilities to successfully attract outsiders.
The trucks backed up and coming and going are all called logistics and could have been handled with a little planning and don’t try to tell me it couldn’t. I spent most of my life doing that type of stuff. As far as the helicopter, that also could be handled with some planing. If they can’t survive a ambulance trip of 5 minutes they are not going to make it any way. It is just another B.S. excuse for piss poor planning, or else they just do not care.
@4ever49
What you fail to acknowledge is the Mercy Hospital made some requests/demands and the Mayor and City Council did not attempt to listen to, or seek alternatives.
Also, it was clear to me the Mercy Hospital was taking the most economical approach to keep their costs down. While I get that, I also know that Mercy sends millions of dollars every year to Detroit to the Catholic ownership of this hospital. That is after the Jim Fitzpatrick’s and other big shots get their fat salary.
When any entity wants to expand in the manor the Mercy chose they should be expected to remunerate all aggrieved parties to the satisfaction of those being damaged.
In this case, Politics, and the good old boy network did not allow that and Mercy put the saved money into their own pockets at the expense of the neighbors.
I’d call that a raw deal for the citizens involved!
Sorry.
Watchdog – what requests/demands are you referring to did the City not listen to?
You said “any entity wants to expand ….. should be expected to remunerate all aggrieved parties to the satisfaction of those being damaged.” This is a non-starter. Given human nature, do you really think there would be any end to the damages sought?
Go talk to the neighbors about their requests. There were neighbors that did not want this.
Given “human nature” there absolutely would be an end to damages as long as the hospital and city were honest.
That is the “Starter”!
So the neighbors did not want this – did they own the properties involved in the development? No.
The owner of the properties has the absolute right to use that property as they see fit within the confines of zoning.
Just because a neighbor does not want something near his property and feels he is damaged when that something becomes reality and is somehow entitled to damages is ridiculous. They had their shot at zoning and council meetings and did not sway the results. That is how the system works.
You need a tune up about property rights.
Ya the neighborhood wasn’t zoned for anything but residential. Maybe you should read up on your history my friend.
Here we go again like all elitist not everyone is immune to the stench of your thoughts. You don’t get it. A non-tax paying entity such as Mercy is electing the leaders in a community of taxpayers. These leaders in turn provide an unearned advantage to the resources of the taxpayer which profits the Non-Tax paying entity who in turn take the profit earned from this unearned advantage and send it out of the community. This is only one of the many issues that affect the growth and development of our community.
That is the “Starter”!
Pete. Think about it. U always assume a responsive, defensive position either to the Golb, Skippie or Bookie. Why do you let them set your agenda and why do you dance to their tune? Man up dude.
To answer your question; someone needs to response, to refute and present the other side. There was no way I was going to let Fitzpatrick get by with what he said. If I didn’t do it were you going to do it?
Of course Mercy backed Crookmeyer. They got their way while the ordinary citizens of Mason City got screwed. Not only did the property owners get screwed the people of mason City donated a street and all of the infastructure that goes with it. Do not ever forget that the Mayors trained monkey, Travis Hickey voted yes on this taxpayer giveaway just like he did with the Harley giveaway.
I love the people who say their greatest moments were in Mason City and try and tell us how to vote and spend our money, when in fact THEY COULD NOT WAIT TO GET OUT OF THIS TOWN.
Fitzpatrick, you took a fortune out of Mason City and fled. Shut up and worry about your true love, Des Moines.
How true. Several cuts in benefits and jobs, yet he maintained his fat package. The rest of us worried about our bills and jobs.
I know for a fact that this is true:
Jim Fitzpatrick was outside the hospital talking to some people when the Mercy helicopter took off. His comment was “Well, we’re making money now!” Someone in the helicopter could have been dying, and he was only worried about money. Have never liked him since I heard this. The person who told me this was right there when Jim said it.
Sounds like the kind of crony that would give Crookmayor a load of cash without event the common courtesy of a reach-around.
The real question would be to cross reference the people that gave donations and see who actually voted. Very easy to stroke a check but more difficult to vote. Interesting group of people. Interesting that Clear Lake/Ventura people would pledge money for MC’s mayoral race.
Are these current donations? The forms the links take me to have 2010 as the date–????
From 2009 election. The 2013’s aren’t on the state site yet. Sure looks like someone paid out and expected a favor to me.