Letter to the Editor: Why is Thomas Hansen trying to turn a non-partisan office into a political office?

"When two persons, Emily Neal and Dan Kirkeby, applied to fill the (Decorah City Council) Ward 2 position vacated by Dan Bellrichard, the appointment seems to have angered the current chair of the local Republican party, Thomas Hansen.  He lives north of town and is not a resident in Ward 2 or even Decorah.  Instead of a Ward 2 Republican person speaking at the meeting about the issue, Hanson, himself, was allowed to do so.   I know of two others living in the Freeport area who, in previous meetings, tried to express the concerns they have about possible actions of the Council related to flooding and how it would affect them, were told, "No, you cannot speak since you do not live in Decorah." 

And  it was Hanson, not someone in Decorah's Ward 2, who brought in to City Hall the petition of signatures requesting a special election.  A special election with a probable cost to the city of $1,500 which will identify the Ward 2 seat occupant for only the two meetings regularly held in the month of October.  Whoever is chosen during that special election will have to file again, along with anyone else who chooses to run for that seat  and the other two Council seats which expire the end of December,  during the regularly scheduled  November election. 

Why is Hansen trying to make an office which is not Republican/Democrat-oriented into that and trying to cause the resulting dissension?   And why does he not take into consideration the law, and I quote the State of Iowa website,  "A 2009 law that localized the scope of gender equity in Iowa went into effect on January 1, 2012.  It requires 'all  subdivisions of the state' to be gender balanced in their appointments to municipal commissions, committees, boards and councils."    Repeat: appointments are to be gender balanced.  The majority of the Decorah City Council has been blamed by Tom Hansen for choosing the woman when they were required to do so."