MASON CITY – Third ward city councilwoman Jean Marinos snubbed another city council meeting this week.
Sources tell NIT that Marinos was vacationing, most likely on the shores of Greece, where she and her husband own a “villa” and travel to frequently. Typically, city hall staff refuse to divulge the whereabouts or reasons for absence of city council members when they fail to attend meetings that they are paid to be at. City Administrator Brent Trout has previously told NIT that “Council members are not required to have a reason for being absent. They can attend when they please.”
Issues Marinos neglected at this week’s council meeting include sewer repairs, development agreements, code changes to animal control ordinance and more.
Marinos has missed or left early from a number of council meetings already this year, and even more since she was elected back in 2011.
Most notoriously, Marinos got up and left a council work session in 2012 to sip martinis at the Park Inn Hotel. At that meeting she stood up and declared that she “had another meeting to attend” and left with Mayor Eric Bookmeyer’s blessing. Minutes later, she was spotted at the Park Inn Hotel sipping martinis in front of a custom chef who served her appetizers.
Issues she skipped that night included repairs to a city bridge and helping a blind man navigate city sidewalks.
