MASON CITY – There were several key takeaways from the interviews NorthIowaToday.com Publisher Matt Marquardt conducted with ward 3 city council candidates Brett Schoneman and Joshua Masson.
Mr. Schoneman and Mr. Masson both agreed to interviews that were held at the Mason City library, with Mr. Schoneman meeting with NIT on Friday morning and Mr. Masson meeting Saturday morning. These candidates are seeking the ward 3 council seat warmed at this time by Jean Marinos. Ward 3 is the only one of three council seats that is challenged; Alex Kuhn and John Lee are running unopposed.
Brett Schoneman moved to Mason City 5 years ago and works for Schoneman Realtors, as does his other 4 brothers. A former Mayor, Tom Jolas, works for him at his Mason City office. Mr. Schoneman attended college at the University of Tulsa for math and physics, he said. He has a wife, Holly, and two daughters. He also has an interest in music. Mr. Schoneman pointed to population loss in Mason City as his #1 problem the city is facing at this time.
Joshua Masson works for Curries in Mason City as a Manufacturing Business Systems Analyst. He has lived in Mason City since 2001, coming here via Detroit. He is newly-married to his wife AnaMaria with no children. He is a veteran, having served from 1993 to 2001 as an Army Specialist E4 – Combat Engineer Demolitions Instructor. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Upper Iowa University.
There were several key takeaways from each interview. You can listen to both interviews, below. NIT agreed – in order to put them at ease – not to point a camera at either man, but only to turn it on and record the audio only.
Brett Schoneman
In Mr. Schoneman’s interview, he did demonstrate a knowledge of real estate as well as other subjects connected to economic development. He described a 7-unit apartment complex he recently built on 4th Street near the city’s fire department headquarters. As he has expanded his rental unit resume, he agreed that he did get behind on his taxes and was late paying 21 times over the course of 5 years. He attributed this to “cash flow issues” and said he was no longer behind on those accounts and paid his late fees. Mr. Schoneman – a member of the Mason City Airport Commission, appointed by Mayor Eric Bookmeyer – also explained that he had no pilot’s license, did not own an airplane, nor did he have any connection to the aviation field, but, his general knowledge of real estate qualified him for that appointment. He explained that he had a number of absences from the commission’s (once per month) meetings which were due to his attendance at Visit Mason City meetings, which he said are held on the same day of the month at the exact same time. He said he would demonstrate good attendance at Mason City council meetings. Mr. Schoneman denied that Mayor Eric Bookmeyer is involved in his campaign, and he denied that Bookmeyer had leaned on Supervisor Jay Urdahl to appoint him to the North Iowa Corridor Board of Directors, Mr. Schoneman’s third board he is involved with (Airport Commission, Visit Mason City, North Iowa Corridor). He indicated he strongly supports the new downtown development involving an ice arena, a hotel, and more.
Joshua Masson
In Mr. Masson’s interview, he touched on important topics facing Mason City. Most notably, he indicated he has questions about the city’s impending major development in the downtown, involving a hotel, an ice arena, a parking ramp, a mixed-use building and a pavilion. While he did say he hopes the development is able to proceed, he did say that he has questions about how it would be paid for. Mr. Masson also discussed the city’s “nuisance code” and it’s future. He agreed the code is nothing new to many cities across the country, and Mason City’s version may need to be looked at and tweaked as time goes on. He described himself as an analytic person, a question asker.
After listening to this I just puked my guts out. His nickname should become SLICKKER. Matt you dont smoke do you, as he blew a lot of smoke up Arse.. HA HA
it was a conversation (at least from what I could stomach before turning it off), not an interview.
Whatever…it was I couldn’t sit through Matt’s interruptions. Dude needs to let his subjects speak and develop the listener’s interest before interjecting with his hyper manic sycophantry. Sometimes kissing a man’s ass or buttering his bread works to break the ice, but in this case lauding Schoneman as a “math whiz” before he even could introduce himself showed that Matt either loves his own voice so much or he can’t sit still in his seat and heeds Ritalin. Let the candidates have some breathing room for cripes sake.
What? you didn’t find it critical to know that he was a “math wiz” before anything else? I found it tiresome that our interviewer made it a point to put a label on the subject just like he probably had in high school.
I don’t believe that Schoneman is not one of Bookmeyer’s best buddies. wAy to much evidence of that all over town. It is all done behind closed doors at Park Inn, Chamber and Country Club. WE don’t need one more arse of that caliber on our City Council. Masson all the way….
@Anonymous-I would agree with you on this.
Interesting interview’s.