Councilman John Lee could hardly believe his ears.
MASON CITY – NIT is seeking clarification from city hall tonight after councilman Travis Hickey claimed the city council stole $100,000 from a fund.
Times are so tough in city hall, that Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and the city council actually had the audacity to ask voters to raise their own taxes with a new “capital improvement levy.” That measure failed miserably at the voting booth earlier this month. As a symptom of those tough times, the council waded through another razor-thin budget this year – and apparently, it was so tight that Councilman Travis Hickey made an astonishing revelation during Tuesday night’s council meeting. He said, publicly, that “we know the budget we just went through, we had to steal $100,000 … of hotel/motel tax money.”
His utterance of this borderline felonious activity illicited nervous chuckles from his council companions. Hickey eventually picked up on the fact that admitting to stealing tens-of-thousands of dollars could be perceived as a crime, especially when by their own admittance, the council and mayor suffer from serious “trust” issues with the public. Hickey then attempted to backtrack, saying “oh I didn’t mean steal … we used $100,000 … shut up… of hotel/motel tax money.”
Hickey also admitted the council dipped into $200,000 of general fund (reserve) dollars just to limp through the budget for next year, and the council must “pay back” the pilferage later.
As Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and much of this council have already mis-led and outright bullied the public on a number of occasions (See examples: The fatal Prestage Foods debacle; sending police to accost persons attending council meetings; attacking local business owners; the burning plant fiasco orchestrated by Bookmeyer, Hickey and the Globe Gazette; smearing of elderly citizens; etc, etc), NIT is seeking a clear explanation into Mr. Hickey’s claim of a $100,000 theft of public dollars. NOTE: Dollars in the hotel/motel tax fund must only be used for certain specific purposes.
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The following email was sent Tuesday evening to Finance Director Kevin E. Jacobson, Mayor Eric Bookmeyer, Council Member Travis Hickey, and City Administrator Brent Trout:
Hello, at tonight’s council meeting, councilman Travis Hickey remarked:
“we know the budget we just went through, we had to steal $100,000 … of hotel/motel tax money”
I think it’s fair to say his statement needs an explanation, as the city has asked taxpayers to increase their own taxes as recently as this month, even as it has paved the way for higher property assessments to increase tax revenue. Knowing that Mr. Hickey is notorious for not answering his emails, I am including you other gentlemen in this so as to try to get clarification on his claim that the council stole $100,000 from the hotel / motel tax fund.
– Did the council use or take $100,000 from this fund to cover other budget shortfalls?
– What exactly was this $100,000 used to pay for?
– Just for the record, the money was not stolen, correct?
– Was a law broken in using funds from the hotel/motel tax fund for uses outside of the mandated uses?
– Would the $450,000 in wasted legal fees for the defunct parking ramp have helped cover this apparent budget crisis?
Thanks for clearing this up.
Matt Marquardt
Publisher, NorthIowaToday.com local news
