Brent Trout knows how to deal with people who don’t play by his rules.
MASON CITY – An elderly Mason City woman told NIT this morning that during a testy exchange via phone, City Administrator Brent Trout told the woman to file a lawsuit against the city.
The woman, Sheryl Gerk, who has run for city council, was speaking to Trout on the phone this morning about city business, and she said Trout became angry and said “you have all these issues and all these complaints, so what you need to do is file a lawsuit and take us to court … so I’m no longer going to talk to you in any capacity due to possible litigation.”
Gerk was upset after the call, and told NIT that Trout “was talking really fast” and “angry”.
Trout is already in hot water with the law, as a looming court battle is shaping up between himself and his bosses at city hall versus Lionel Foster, an elderly African American man who claims Trout and the city bullied him out of his job. Just last week, Trout was in court, warming a chair as he was questioned by lawyers about his role in that alleged debacle. Eric Bookmeyer, Travis Hickey, Scott Tornquist, Jean Marinos, John Lee, Janet Solberg, Alex Kuhn and other cronies of the mayor have also been in to take questions in that litigation.
NIT fired an email off to Trout this morning, asking if it is wise to dare citizens to file more lawsuits against the city of Mason City as the Foster suit ratchets up and others have paraded through the courts in recent years, including one where a Mason City pastor was paid about $90,000.
Trout responded later Monday:
Brent Trout, City AdministratorI have been working with Sheryl for about three months on many problems. I have met with her personally by appointment on 3 different times for about an hour each time. I have also met with her at least 10 times and likely more for anywhere from 5 to 15 minute time frames on these issues. She does not agree with my position regarding these issues and therefore we are at an impasse. I regret that we have been unable to resolve these issues and felt that it is time to move on to other issues. I simply stated that if she stills feels that she has not had a satisfactory resolution that her next option is to file a lawsuit. I do not want a lawsuit by any means for the City of Mason City and upon myself and hope that it does not come to that. These issues have been handled by staff review and re-review on multiple occasions. In my opinion they have been handled correctly. I even personally talked to 4 different department directors or staff again today after her call to insure that her concerns were heard by them and ensure that our actions were appropriate. So even after the call I still followed up on her issues as is my responsibility.
Brent Trout, City Administrator
City of Mason City
