He has not been able to secure such a meeting despite several years of trying, which adds to his frustrations that already include a failed well and an arrest for desecration of the flag.

“I believe I’ve been what I call blackballed,” said Martz, who lives south of Somers near the border of Calhoun and Webster counties.

“I just want her to say ‘OK, you got shafted, Homer. We’re sorry you got shafted. You can right your flag,'” he said.

Alex Murphy, a spokesman for Reynolds, said she “definitely has a full schedule.”

“It’s not like any citizen can walk in and have a meeting with her,” he added.

State Rep. Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City, said he arranged a meeting between Martz and some members of Reynolds’ staff about two years ago.

Martz still wants to see the governor.

“You’ve got to feel sorry for the guy,” Sexton said. “He’s tried to do everything.”

“All he wants to do is tell his story,” Sexton added.

Martz is a regular visitor to the state Capitol in Des Moines. He said he goes there monthly and sits in the rotunda holding protest signs.

“Some of his signs are kind of nasty,” Sexton said.

He said Reynolds has seen Martz in the Capitol building. He recalled that Reynolds once asked him if the man holding the signs was the one he wanted her to meet with.

The chain of events that has led to Martz sitting in the Capitol with protest signs began in 2016. That’s when the Dakota Access Pipeline was built through Iowa to move crude oil from North Dakota to a distribution point in Illinois.

The pipeline passes between Martz’s home and his well, which is actually on a neighbor’s property. Martz contends that he received no notification of the pipeline work.

To protest that, he began flying the American flag upside down on his property.

He carries in his wallet a card that lists the rules for displaying the flag, which he said he got from the American Legion. That card states that flying the flag upside down is “a signal of distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”

In August 2016, Martz was arrested for flag desecration by Calhoun County sheriff’s deputies.

Calhoun County Attorney Tina Meth Farrington dropped the charges because Iowa’s flag desecration law was struck down as unconstitutional.

Then in July 2017, his well, which Martz said was 70 to 80 years old, went dry. He blames that on the pipeline construction. He said the well went dry six months after the pipeline was completed.

“I think he had an old well that was on its last legs and the heavy equipment cracked the casing,” Sexton said.

Martz said that since the well failed, he has been hauling water to his house from Knierim and Rockwell City.