MASON CITY – Saying Mason City “has been torn to shreds by fear, hate and a lack of leadership,” businessman Andy O’Brien announced his candidacy for city council.
Mr. O’Brien created a Facebook page Monday night, laying out some of his reasoning for launching his campaign for the at-large city council seat once held by Alex Kuhn. He said “I find it difficult to put it into words all of the emotions that I’ve felt and actions that I’ve seen over the past few months. Our city has been torn to shreds by fear, hate and a lack of leadership. I hear the terms, position, stature, power, big money, its them and their people, its you and you’re people. Its time we all use the terms We and Us.” (sic)
Wednesday morning, Mr. O’Brien sent a press release about his campaign (sic):
Mason City native Andy O’Brien made it official today. He is running for the at- large City Council seat held by Alex Kuhn.
Andy grew up here as part of the family moving business. “The truck never unloads itself” is what he commonly heard from his family. Andy quickly learned that dedication, work ethic and business savvy are key elements of success. Andy has been influenced by many things over the years and has come out with a tenacious ability to teach, motivate and inspire. His career led him to open his own manufacturing sales business and for the last 5 years, he has been the owner and CEO of Action Coach of North Iowa as a certified business coach and is a certified leadership coach in the Maxwell Leadership program. He has worked, mentored numerous businesses of all sizes in North Iowa, to include coaching owners and company executives.
Through out the years O’Brien has volunteered his time for various civic and community organizations. Currently he is involved in Sunrise Rotary, Bicycle Blues and Barbecue, IJAG youth mentoring, Mason City and Clear Lake Chambers, HRANI and NI Spin.
Asked why he is running for the seat, O’Brien said, “It’s time to start looking for positive solutions in making our community whole and great again. Mason City is a terrific city, filled with promise and opportunity, but only if we work together to find common directions, listen and respect one another and follow-through on its promises and commitments. I have had a career of working with a variety of backgrounds, bringing people together for a common goal, and helping them reach their potential. It’s this type of leadership that is needed in this special seat and this type of experience I think I can bring to city leadership.”
O’Brien will get the necessary signatures and paperwork completed to make his candidacy official by the August 27th deadline. He said he is anxious to meet the citizens, listen to their needs and give them an opportunity to know him better.
“Together as a community, we will make Mason City the community it should be. We need to be goal oriented and listen and respect one another. I think I can begin that process and help to bring it to a successful conclusion, but it’s going to take all of us to make it happen.”
Mr. O’Brien said his goal is to “bring an energetic and positive attitude to the leadership of Mason City and its citizens.” He made several other points about his philosophy, also via his Facebook page (sic):
As an elected official, We together must take extra ordinary steps to bring unity to our community.
As a Leader… We have to have Integrity in our actions and the words we use. We must put what is best for Mason City first.
As a Leader… We must Nurture relationships with friends, oppisitiion and the people we don’t know
As a Leader… We must have Faith, faith in the citizens to make the right choice.
As a Leader… We must Listen, hear first respond second
As a Leader… We must Understand, have we looked at every piece of information.
As a Leader… We must GROW ourselves, grow the people to grow the community.
As a Leader… We must Navigate for the people. Looking for the barriers and tearing them down
As a Leader… We must Connect with all. So they will understand
As a Leader… We must Trust in our staff to do their jobs
I am 4 Mason City its people and its businesses!
A leaders will admit their faults, adjust and change direction.
—-
from: Matt Marquardt
to: Andy O’Brien
date: Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 10:17 AM
subject: Re: O’Brien Makes it Official~He’s Running
Andy, congratulations on your campaign. I wish you all the best.
I do have a couple of questions for you.
1) You referenced the events of recent months in Mason City, alluding to the hog plant saga that gripped the city. Where did you stand on that development opportunity? Were you for or against the development, and why?
2) During the hog plant saga, which began March 21 with the formal announcement of the project and stretched into June, were you counseling / mentoring / performing business services / or otherwise meeting with Mayor Eric Bookmeyer? Did he purchase services from you? What was discussed in your meetings?
Thank you
Matt Marquardt
NIT Publisher
NIT seems to be a an anti-Prestage, pro Max gossip rag. Educate yourselves before you speak, please! Prestage is gone, as is the casino, it is time to look to the future and the beliefs overall of ALL of the candidates. Max is a bully, the other men, including Andy seem to be stand-up guys who have a better vision for Mason City. I haven’t heard any of you trolls bring up future ideas for our city, just bash the past. Listen to what they say about our future and vote based on that. This Prestage battle is over for Mason City, and it is time for all of you to educate yourselves, rather than spending your days bashing what all of you can’t do yourselves. Andy is a great guy, as are a couple of others in the mix, maybe use your past education, and explain what you WANT to see in a candidate, rather than the constant onslaught of negativity seen day after day on NIT comment section for all of the candidates.
NIT is a “gossip rag” and then you come here and name call? What does that make you? A gutless, anonymous blowhard? If you find NIT to be “Pro Max” it is because he uses NIT to get his message out to the public, just as the other smart candidates are doing. He simply does it more often. All candidates are welcome here, and they know this. Only people with something to hide duck NIT.
Good grief, sounds like some here just woke up and are hearing about marketing and the power of persuasion for the first time in their lives. Welcome to the world.
For the Prestage haters, the pork plant will be built. More large scale hog production facilities will also be built, but those would have been built anyway, even without Prestage, and if you don’t believe that you are kidding yourselves. Demand for food will only increase and we all know food comes from, agriculture. OH, you didn’t know that? What planet have you been living on?
Prestage and companies like it are not the cause. A growing population that wants to be fed is the cause. Agriculture in the form of processors like Prestage and larger scale farms is the result. I love it, someone below posts a negative comment on Prestage along with the link to a facebook page with a young FAMILY farm couple with a large hog operation. And someone thought they had a huge gotcha moment by inviting a couple of academics to town who spoke against large scale farm hog operations and who advocated FAMILY farming operations. I really have to wonder if those two professors have ever been on a farm. The volume of what people don’t understand about agriculture is astounding.
But it is not really about agriculture is it. It is about fear. Fear of change, fear of what might happen without really knowing if there is anything to fear. The kind of fear Andy Obrien is talking about.
A Prestage pork processing plant will be built and it will be built in Iowa. Deal with it.
Educate yourself. The trend is towards a vegan, plant-based diet. The smartest thing Mason City and Cerro Gordo have done in a while was to vote down slaughterhouse, CAFO, and Casino. Yeah you heard me right. Casino money is theft money. Bad karma. You take from others in order to win.
You take from others everyday and that doesn’t seem to bother you one bit. Plus, you’ve done it for years. I’d say you are due to face your own Karma. Hope its sooner vs. later,
I think you are threatening me, and I’m not tolerating it any longer. Go away. Leave me alone. You aren’t funny, or sly. You are an unwanted menace with veiled threats. You and your biker buddies belong in prison. Stay away from me and my family. Not fooling around.
I could shit my pants a hundred times and I’d still be better than you and your noisemaker buddies. Acolytes of Thor and Odin, menacing Goths and Vandals.
Oh Peter, you don’t really think anyone is threatening you do you. After all, you’re a fist fighter and we know how tough a guy you are on the computer and after a belly full of that cheap beer you guzzle. Don’t take things too seriously either. As you told me not too long ago…it’s all SATIRE. And what did any of this have to do with you shitting your pants or that color of mascara you like.
Buzz, as long as you guys keep it on the open highway and don’t throttle it in residential neighborhoods or too much downtown areas, I’m fine with Bikers…no gripe at all. But sometimes I wonder if you aren’t part of a larger conspiracy. 2 Sons of Silence bikers cut me off on the Avenue of the Saints a few days ago as they blared by me getting dangerously close to my vehicle. It said “National” on back of their cuts, and they were heading towards Clear Lake. Who knows what evil schemes sick minds concoct out there in the shadowy world of anonymous blogging. I’ve already said that I’m cleaning up my act…not taking things personally, and am going to make points, and not let trolls get the best of me by responding in kind.
Andy O’Brien and Matt Marquardt’s fantasy woman 🙂
This is the kind of social media blitz Prestage has been conducting in Wright county. Is Andy O’Brien helping Prestage? http://www.franchisepublicity.com/actioncoach-brad-sugars-battles-bloggers/
http://usacomplaints.com/shops-trade/325724-actioncoach-complaints-reviews.html
Yes. Prestage is a client of his Action Coach scam.
I hope he is helping prestage wish prestage would have done that here
Yes Mr. O’Brien you need to answer Matt’s questions and we want to know if you are connected to Bookmeyer!
Why we need Prestage Farms!! – by Andy O’Brien
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-works-why-we-need-prestage-farms-andy-o-brien
Just read your link – this is sick, vote this guy out!!!
you do know that he not on the counsil yet
You know he meant out of the race.
These techniques were used here and are being used in Wright County. Mason City needs a Council member that represents his constituents not Andy O’Brien whom will RESENT us. http://www.copyblogger.com/mind-control-marketing/
andy is just saying what 90% of mason city citizens are thinking
Yep they are thinking Bookie needs to go.
When it works, Why we need Prestage Farms!! – by Andy O’Brien
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-works-why-we-need-prestage-farms-andy-o-brien
Beware the manipulators.
http://www.csoonline.com/article/2126984/social-engineering/human-hacking–how-social-engineers-manipulate-victims–frame-of-reference.html
Really don’t care for him. If you’re not one of the “elites” he wants nothing to do with you. Thinks he’s a big wheel, when most people have never heard of him. It’s also obvious that he didn’t pay attention in English class. Where’s Jodi Draper? She would have my vote.
Jodi would have mine too, but I think they would bully her until she was totally miserable. She doesn’t work that way so it would be foreign to her.
Thank you for your kind words and support. At this time I feel I need to finish my term as a director on the Mason City School Board. The board as a whole and the district are moving together to bring transparency with our school, access, and to make sure our Vision and Mission is about our children and educating our next generations. Again, I appreciate the kind words and support, but I need to finish what I started.
Jodi Draper
Jody is one Classy Lady! Thank you for your service to our community. You are one of our local heros and we are proud of you.
Yes, she is.
I am so pleased she is on the school board. We need someone who will make them accountable and she is that person. All that school board has done in the past is spend other people’s money. If it is needed it is one thing. If it is just wanted it is something else.
wasting more tax payer money on stupid ideas like buying out annita contract.
SMH this is all Ridiculous mc is going to shit !!! Vote O’Brien NO!!!!!
Now it makes sense. Many of the “coaches” hack the human brain. Call it focus, meditation, hypnosis, NLP or any other fad. These coaches are manipulators teaching manipulation. This gang of top performance junkies made a coup attempt after the Prestage vote. That failed attempt left Mason city with a 75% (community) to 25% (Them) divided Mason City. The past months have shown us we can not depend on some of our elected officials to look out for community. And, we must be ever vigilant of the power hungry manipulators seeking office to control. Otherwise known as bullies. their ideology and psychie would drive them to help Prestage in Wright county. Rickie Mathes likes every single Pro Prestage lie on the https://www.facebook.com/wrightcounty4pork/?fref=nf facebook page. Is this gang currently helping Prestage slither into our backyard?
What – is this coach thing some type of cult where they use mind over matter practices to control people? We need to contact Coast to Coast on this!
you are one of these people you want Mason City to become the poorest town in iowa, we have an aging work force which will cause factory to leave or close and new busines will not move into town because of an anti bussiness mind set by our counsil and citizens.
Andy said “10% of the population are against Prestage….”
I don’t think so..& their are enough “yes men” for the “Circle of Influence” serving on the council..The Community needs to be represented…
it’s more like 5% againist prestage
NIT, I hope you pose the same questions to all the potential candidates and not just a select few.
OH goodness !!! Not an Obrien!!Mc doesn’t need Jodee Obrien husband on the city council. I pray mc don’t let this happen bad business!! Mc is in a big enuff rutt hopefully Jodee is watched in her position too cuz she is croocked and a FAKE!!!! Karma will get her!! I PRAY FOR MC.
bad business is not letting prestage build here
Andy O’Brien is tied into the local scene.
His wife, Jodee was the Executive Director Main Street Mason City for about 2 years and is now the CEO of United Way of North Central Iowa for about 1 year .
His son Tanner was brought straight into the Mason City Chamber of Commerce as a program director right out of college for about a year.
Interestingly, Jodee & Robin Anderson are buddies.
Then as his mother quit the Main Street Mason City gig, he was hired to replace her at his ripe old age of 24
Andy is a “Business Coach” & “Motivator” and according to his website, is tied in with many local business leaders.
He was a big proponent of the slaughterhouse project. This is just a way to try to pry some votes away from Weaver.
We all have to wonder exactly how Bookmeyer presented this to this guy? Right back to your tricks mayor. You sure know how to move on don’t you!
wish I had the means to buy a 1000 gallon open tank full of pig shit to let sit out in front of the gov and mayor homes in this heat and see how they like it.
Hmmm never heard of him . Someone had to dig deep to find this one. Our first clue mason city. One has to ask how was his format and stance so prepared? This was not off the cuff.keep asking the real questions Matt.
Probably fine enough person but just another one of THEM. A suit.A new toy for the boss to mangle.
So the guy does not understand your / you’re grammar but he will lead Mason City into the promised land. Right.
You don’t understand working for what you want but we still let you post your drivel on here. The voters decided against you when they were given a choice. Please don’t try to poison the political process with claims of poor grammar.
It / It’s either. Old boy is in poor shape grammar-wise. Btw…The Public Access TV show is coming. You’ll get all your ignorant actions and bullyism addressed in full. Revenge is sweet MOFOs.
its / it’s
FU / Phock Ewe / Fah Que. its / it’s all the same to / 2 / too you / u / ewe.
I would like Andy and the remaining city council members to read this well researched article concerning factory farms from the Chicago Tribune. Then respond to it in full and in public.
Just who is this type of “growth” meant to serve?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/pork/ct-pig-farms-illinois-met-20160802-story.html
Excellent article, it shows the holes (politics) in the legislative system. Back in the early 70’s the EPA made mandatory standards for all rural communities regarding the use of septic tanks as apposed to sanitary sewer systems. Complying with those standards nearly broke many of small towns, creating large tax increases to cover the expense. I have thought that since hog confinements have become the norm these days, that those same standards should apply to confinement operations. The size of water treatment facility should be equal to the population of a community. A hog farm with 2400 hogs should have a sanitary sewage treatment facility equal to a town of 2400. Proper treatment of sewage would go along way to buffer the odor problem.
I like the way you think!!
Thank you for the affirmation. Makes me Proud to be a Mason Cityan who, among so many others rejected corporate rape of human and natural resources.