By Gary Dickson, Editor – Siouxland Observer

City Councilors Lynn Hoffman on the left with a fan and Greg Meyers, right with another fan, try to rouse their colleague Bob Davis who swooned while objecting to the appointment of Andrew Devries to the city planning and zoning commission. Word was that the three city councilors believed there was a conflict of interest at work which apparently gave Davis a bout of the vapors. (Clip from Gone With The Wind)

Greetings Earthlings:

If it’s not one thing, it’s another, especially regarding the Three Hypocrites on the North Sioux City Council.

You know who I mean by now: Bob Davis, Lynn Hoffman and Greg Meyer. All summer and fall it’s been a continuous melodrama with these three yahoos. Meyer has been like a series of bad cartoons preceding a Saturday afternoon matinee before his pal Davis started oozing into the council chambers with his bitterness and long-held resentments. The Bobster was like the first half of a double-feature matinee – only a really bad one.

He started off by objecting to his own election back in April by saying one man’s vote for him shouldn’t have counted. He held up a city council meeting for about 45 minutes one night when the group was canvassing the election votes. He didn’t do his homework on that issue, as the guy did indeed vote. That turned out that it was a preview of Davis’ future performance once he got sworn in as a member of the council.

There have been other times, too, where Davis has shown he hasn’t done the required homework in preparation for the council meetings. He hasn’t read emails from city administration that would have kept him from looking like a fool at the public meeting by asking for something to be passed that was already explained in an email.

Speaking of emails, the electronic missives apparently make Councilor Hoffman’s head explode. Poor baby. She did a considerable amount of whining during a recent council meeting where the board was asked to approve a Code of Conduct and Ethics For Elected and Appointed Officials. The code had been presented to the council three weeks and three days before that meeting by City Attorney Sarah Kleber. They were asked to contact her or the city’s Finance Officer Amy Lilly if they had questions. Apparently, none did, because no one brought up any objections during those three-plus weeks, including Hoffman and Davis.

Here’s where we get to Hoffman’s exploding head. It’s used to cover up her lack of initiative and laziness. Instead, Councilor Hoffman pointed the bony finger at emails as being the old bugaboo for all of society’s ills.

“That is what’s wrong with the world today, everyone wants to send an email. ‘(They say) I can’t respond because I gotta put it in an email because I gotta have it in writing.’”, Hoffman sniveled. “You know I’ve been spending my five months here working with Amy on questions that I have had. I don’t always want to be sending an email.”

What a crock!

When it comes right down to it, the main reason Hoffman, Davis and Meyer don’t want to sign off on the code of ethics is that it addresses things like conflicts of interest and over-assumption and overreach of power and control of boards and committees.

And conflict of interest is what got these three clowns’ knickers in a knot at the Nov. 4 council meeting. There was an agenda item towards the end of the meeting stating Mayor Patti Teel was recommending the appointment of Andrew Devries, a current alternate on the
planning and zoning commission, to the full-time position, opened up by the move of Dan Olsen. But Bobby McGrumpus being quick to sniff out any conflict of interest – except his own or those of Hoffman and Meyers – said he wasn’t going to stand for that. McGrumpus entered a motion not to appoint Devries due to potential future conflicts. Of course, Hoffman and Meyer, ignoring their own past conflicts, said they were with the McGrump. Alas, the motion failed on a 3 – 5 vote. Another motion was made to appoint Devries and it passed 5-3 with members of the council noting his qualifications and contributions to planning and zoning in the past.

So, conflicts of interest or lack of qualifications seem to be the buzzwords for these three bozos on the council. They were able to apply it to the search for a new city administrator as well. The city has been without an administrator for seven months. They apparently have come close to hiring one at various times, but Councilor Hoffman’s demand that they live in North Sioux City has scared off a couple of good candidates, as did the salary. Thankfully, the city has found someone who is very qualified and lives in the area: Jeff Dooley, the former CID manager at Dakota Dunes.

Dooley previously worked for Dakota Dunes for over 23 years leading them through community growth, and historic flooding back in 2011. He replaces Eric Christensen who served as city administrator from 2020 to April 2024. North Sioux City officials say Dooley’s first day as city administrator is Dec. 2, 2024.

I assume Dooley will continue to be on the Dakota Valley School Board.

As North Sioux City’s administrator, Dooley is responsible for directing, managing and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the city. He’ll also plan for and provide guidance to the city council regarding future operations.

According to a source close to the city council, only two city councilors opposed Dooley’s hiring: Davis and Meyer. This isn’t surprising in that Dooley has experience with Meyer during his tenure as manager at Dakota Dunes. He pointed out publicly during a North Sioux City Council meeting that he and the Dunes CID were displeased with the quality of the work Meyer did for them as a private engineer. My guess is that he also has had experience working with Davis’ and Hoffman’s companies as well.

North Sioux City is lucky to find a skilled and experienced person to fill their administrator vacancy. I believe Jeff Dooley will bring organization and stability to North Sioux’s city government as well as be able to slow down the childish manipulation of the Three Hypocrites.

Ta-ta-for-now.

Your friend,

Gary