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.
VIDEO:
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
several years ago, money was left to the city from a private party to be used to pave all the streets in central heights. that money did not get used for that purpose. wonder what the city did with that??
Nothing new for the Hick. Ask anybody who worked at Kmart about 25 years ago.
This is a pretty serious claims.
I have known for a long time that the Mason City Mayor, City Council, Kevin Jacobson-city finance director, City Administrator, Street Superintendent, and other city department heads were in over there heads.
Some are just plain stupid, some are inept, and some just don’t care and are in for the paycheck only.
We need a lot of change at city hall.
Oh hell who cares , what do you thing they used that money for ? To buy some pussy…
It will be interesting to see of the hotel/motel tax money can be used to balance the budget. Somebody will be shuffling paper after this news. If hickey hadn’t of spoke out of turn, nobody would have known. But you know, this kind of money shuffling, goes on all the time.
All of this information needs to be sent to the ombudsman. Who do our council think they are? Do they think they can just keep stealing from property owners? A FULL investigation needs to be done! I for one will be calling not only the ombudsman, but the attorney general in Iowa.
The ombudsman is a toothless office, I spoke with the actual ombudsman herself and she told me she doesn’t even know why there office if the ombudsman. All they can do is recommend and if they recommend against they wrong organization their funding will be cut so they only recommend against government individuals were the entire Public will agree. They won’t kiss off too many people or the wrong people. She actually told me that.nu
Don’t let this distract you from the fact that if you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be entitled to financial compensation. If you have depression, you are SOL, tho.
Where is the nearly-dead Globe Gazette and the Minnesota TV station on this one?? Sweet Mary and Jesus, we have an admission of STEALING! Booby Fisher, quit dreaming about Twinkies and report this, maybe? Thank Jehovah himself for the pious, burgeoning, righteous news source NIT for once again saving the people of Mason City.
Blob Fisher eats donuts and 44 ounce fountain sodas. He’s an embarrassment to the news profession.
The truth gathers few friends…. thank God for North Iowa Today; if it wasn’t for them you wouldn’t be reading about this today. I guarantee you this will not appear in the local Gazette, only an NIT will bring this sort of truth to the table.
That said where are all those who voted this council into those seats? It’s hard to get your moneys worth in today’s marketplace what you’ve just witnessed this proof of that.
What the “hell” is going on?????? Our council??? I will be voting completely different!!!
Just ask yourself – How many of these people are democrats – I could be wrong BUT I DOUBT IT ! – Fire them vote them out – call them out for what they really are – Worthless!
I believe two of them are Democrats and the rest are Republicans including the mayor.
Actually 2 are Democrate, 1 member of the Straight Edged Society, rest are Republicans.
Prosecute them if they did this. They have wasted tax money and continue to want to spend more. Enough is enough. Where is Paul Adams on this?
Paul Adams is apparently the shy, timid, new kid in school. He only said he would speak up, so he would get elected. Now he just sits back and takes it all in.
Hang these shysters, Our present and drunken mayor must go. I now wonder how much of our $$$$$$$$ was spent by our DRUNK and his CROONIES at local saloons??????????? No wonder bookie is getting so got damn FAT.
Lord. How deep does the rabbit hole go?
Go back to sleep NIT, you don’t care about this city. You are just wrapped up in your own importance. Sad.
If anything is sad it is a city lackey like you Kevin.