Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
The ghost of CES has already arrived at City Hall.
He is roaming the halls, shaking his chains and moaning.
Mason City Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and his right hand man Scott Tornquist are now running from this ghost. They have painted this town into a corner with one of our vital partners, the North Iowa Landfill.
When the Mayor appointed Tornquist to the Landfill Board, they formulated a plan. “Educate” the board, tell them what is best, and do it in a hurry. Get the CES garbage to gas plant passed at all costs; a decades-long deal to be passed in a matter of weeks. Tornquist was his choice to do this dirty work, and boy was it dirty.
The duo failed miserably, as CES was thrown out like household trash, kicked to the curb by level-headed people who sorted the truth from the ruse and could not be duped.
Now, the Mayor’s failure has manifested itself in the fear and distrust that Tornquist and the City instilled in the board with it’s bullying.
This fear was born out of the City’s overwhelming power over the landfill with its weighted vote. The City gets, I believe, 19 votes on any matter before the board, and only 33 are needed to pass anything. It was the arrogance and condescension of Tornquist, along with the City’s powerful vote, that now has the landfill board investigating how to do away with the weighted vote, thus stripping Mason City of its power over the landfill. In doing so, all the millions in investment the City has made there over decades of use would be watered down, and smaller towns could gain an even say.
Really, can you blame the small towns represented on the board for their fear of Mason City? They now see a much bigger town with a lot of power that is prone to going on the rampage against the landfill. They now have their guard up and are looking to protect the landfill from the Mayor and Tornquist. For Mason City’s sake, let’s hope there is no payback involved in their thinking.
I wrote yesterday that the City would be trying to digest this predicament at last night’s work session.
The City is in big trouble because it would not take a weighted vote to change the all-important 28E agreement that binds all 29 member communities to the landfill. It would only take 75% approval from all the governing councils or boards of each town or county, each with one overall vote, to pass an amended 28E agreement. A new 28E agreement could include no weighted vote at all. One vote per community, perhaps. Hello Hanlontown, you get 1 vote, so does Mason City. The document is 40 years old, never really been touched… until now.
Tornquist said last night that the City must “negotiate from a position of strength.” He said the City could pull out of the landfill and take with it millions in cash that the landfill would owe the City as an exiting member.
It is doubtful that the Iowa DNR would ever approve such a move by the City. So in reality the City has no bargaining power. It is now at the mercy of a pissed off landfill board that has zero trust in the City.
In my view, there is only one way out of this predicament, and it is not more posturing and bullying from the City.
If law allows it, the Mayor should immediately remove Scott Tornquist as Mason City’s representative on the Landfill Board and replace him with either Travis Hickey or John Lee. A fresh start with the landfill is critical, and these two men exhibit the humility needed to navigate this debacle.
The new representative would immediately set a tone of respect and cooperation with the landfill and plead the City’s case as to why it deserves to keep its powerful say in the affairs of the landfill (there are obvious and compelling reasons for this.)
Lastly, Bookmeyer should appear before the Landfill Board and apologize for the behavior of Tornquist and the City and assure the board that Mason City, in the spirit of regionalism, is now looking out for what is best for the landfill as a whole.
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Watch the entire City Council discussion:
