“If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.”

Thomas J. Watson

As many new local officials take office across the county at this time of year remember…

Political campaigns and the skill to keep political support while governing, are inseparable from the reality of what you say and what you do.

Author unknown

It is amazing how many politicians don’t know or forget that.

And oh one other thing … character does matter.

For everyone who thinks their City Council is full of fools, on this day I invite you to download the free ebook …

“Why Your City Council Makes Dumb Decisions and What You Can Do About It.”

Enjoy!

I read about a Sandpoint, Idaho plan to go paperless.  Under Alderman Justin Schuck’s plan …

“council members would use laptops to download and view documents available on the Internet and large television screens would allow the public to follow along during meetings.”

I don’t know how well this would work but I believe it should be tried.

I’ve seen too many gawdawful huge council packets, to say it should not be at least tried.

The bigger question is how to get an Alderman to read the material (in whatever form) before the meeting so they know what they are discussing/voting on.

Last Saturday I attended a high school graduation. A homeschooler had completed her requirements.

While waiting for the ceremony to begin I overheard the conversation taking place behind me. It was two gentlemen that I could not see. They were discussing the upcoming health care vote and other national issues.

One said to the other, “I’m glad I’m 73 and won’t be here much longer. I don’t want to see what this country will become.”

The other responded, “I’m with you.”

What a graduation message for the Class of 2010 … “All things considered I’d rather be dead.”

Or maybe Patrick Henry said it more eloquently?

“Give Me Liberty … or Give me Death.“

A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.

John Burroughs

I seldom call an an idea stupid… but this is stupid.

Indio Councilman Glenn Miller would like see the formation of a Blue Ribbon Citizens Committee that assists and keeps a close eye on city spending habits.

“It’s more of an advisory committee to help us with making some decisions,” Miller said. “I think it’s vital that we’re very transparent and open and I think this is the best way.”

He envisions a committee of about five to seven residents who may have a background in finance.

Councilman Miller, keeping an eye on city spending is what you were elected to do. You weren’t elected to appoint 5-7 number crunchers to watch city spending. You are suppose to do it. Appointing such a committee is shuffling off your responsibility to someone else.

I can hear it now “don’t blame me it was the Blue Ribbon Committee …”

Stupid.

Are you paying your share of property taxes?

That’s a loaded question isn’t it. I suppose it depends on the definition of “your share.”

Anyway the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future believes there are certain groups that aren’t paying their share of property taxes and they are coming after you if you are in one of these groups.

 * Huge health-care systems that are non-profit

* Real-estate speculators who abuse agricultural assessment

 * Owners of billboards assessed at a fraction of their value

*  High-income seniors in tax-exempt housing

Legal loopholes allow certain groups of people to reduce/eliminate their property taxes. That is a fact.

My question is …  if someone does take advantage of those legal loopholes, does that make them guilty of not paying their share of taxes?

I have long described myself as a devout capitalist. For that reason I have no problem with this idea.

New Berlin — With the economic downtown continuing to put a financial squeeze on municipalities, one Waukesha County community may allow advertisements on its Web site as a way to generate new revenue.

If New Berlin does permit such ads, it could become the first municipality in southeast Wisconsin and perhaps the state to allow advertising on a municipal Web site.

“As far as I know, no other municipality in Wisconsin does something like this,” New Berlin Ald. Ron Seidl said. “We’re just trying to come up with a different way of generating revenue for the city. I don’t believe raising taxes is always the way to generate extra revenue.”

Even if ads do show up on newberlin.org, it won’t be a get-rich-quick venture for the city.

The hoped for ads, from local businesses or national chains with stores or restaurants in New Berlin, likely would raise only about $7,000 annually for the city.

“Obviously, it’s not going to be a huge amount, but we’ll do anything we can to help the city,” Ald. John Hopkins said.

While I believe this is a good idea, others may disagree.

How about it students?

What to pay the Mayor?

I don’t care if the position is defined as part time or full time … it is full time. There is only part time pay.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently ran an article on the pay of their suburban Mayors.

Quite frankly the pay is all over the place as is the PT/FT designation.

I have heard all the arguments about how people should serve for little or nothing. It’s a bunch of BS. Those expounding paying a pittance have never served. It is easy for them to demand others not get paid.

To answer the question “How much do you pay your Mayor?” … Not enough in my opinion.

Same with Council, County Board, Whatever.

But as always I will listen to other views in the Political Philosophy class and via written comments.

I like a good city council election. Problem is getting one. So many local elections are unopposed.

Since there are so few actual races city council candidates find no need to state what they stand for.

Then there is Trenton City Council candidate Daryl Mikell Brooks …

My name is Daryl Mikell Brooks and I’m running for City Council at Large. I’m a young man who believes in participatory democracy and equitably representative government. The Trenton City Council election in 2010 is both a job opening and a job review.

My campaign mission is to help establish a City wide Community Coalition that helps foster a greater sense of community by organizing a critical mass of residents committed to civic participation, government accountability, community responsibility and good neighborliness. I want Trenton to work together and will facilitate greater cooperation based on our common interests. We all share a human experience so we can identify common ground.

I envision a proud, cooperative, healthy, clean, safe, vibrant, and peacefully diverse city –a multi-cultural, inter-generational and mixed income community. I envision an organized and effective City Wide Community Coalition that works together to successfully: (1) overcome the foreclosure crisis, (2) reverse economic disinvestment and (3) foster opportunities for: (a) viable youth development, (b) family stability, and (c) educational and economic advancement for all. That is my campaign platform, encapsulated.

It does not matter if I agree or disagree with Mr. Brooks platform. I don’t live in Trenton. What impresses me is the fact Mr. Brooks is willing to state what he believes is best for Trenton. Very few city council candidates do that. They should.

Lobbyist … Scarlett L?

Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Even at the local level of government, lobbyists are ever present making sure their members or client’s views are considered as solutions to problems.

How lobbyists are identified varies from one city to another. What brings this issue up is the City of San Jose…

Working Partnerships a non-profit association does not object to disclosing their lobbying efforts but they object to the term “lobbyist.”

Are there bad apple lobbyists? Of course.

Are there bad apple priests and ministers? You betcha.

There are there bad apple every things.

Come on Lobbyists … say it loud … I will lead this cheer … a few bad apples won’t silence us …

I’m a Lobbyist and Darn Proud of It!

Sheila Murphy Cockrel.

A relic from the past.

Cockrel is a relic of Detroit’s past. She is the only white member of the city council and, when her term ends in late December, she could well be its last. Even though she is personally popular, she is leaving the council partly because she is tired of the scandals that have rocked the city lately. Her departure is a significant moment in the history of Detroit, the largest majority-black city in America. In the 1950s, when Detroit’s population reached its 2 million peak, nearly 1.6 million white people lived here. In 1990, though whites were still represented in several major elected posts, they comprised only about 20% of the population. Now, whites make up barely 8% of the city’s estimated 912,000 residents. 

It use to be news when the first blacks were elected to local office. 

 Now in Detroit it is news when they aren’t.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is doing his best to bring the Weak Mayor – Strong Mayor issue to the forefront.

With California’s capital city in deep economic trouble, Mayor Kevin Johnson wants to call the shots, just as he once did as a star point guard for the Phoenix Suns basketball team. But there’s an obstacle: Sacramento has what is known a “weak mayor” system, making its mayor, in effect, just another city-council member.

Mr. Johnson says Sacramento needs a “strong mayor” arrangement — with the mayor as head of the government — as do a majority of big cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco. To get there, Mr. Johnson is campaigning for a controversial ballot measure that would boost his powers to lead this city of 480,000.

“If you have to do everything by committee, it gets bogged down and you miss a ton of opportunities,” the 43-year-old Democrat said during an interview in his City Hall office.

But those who oppose the measure accuse Mr. Johnson of making a power grab. “This initiative, if it passes, will put only one seat at the table,” says Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy. “The checks and balances are lopsided” in Mr. Johnson’s proposal.

The same old tired arguements that are always used when this issue arises.

However, since the Political Philosophy 101 Class has not discussed his issue in a while, it will be soon.

I will be giving my same old philosophical view that Strong does not mean effective … nor does Weak indicate ineffective.

It’s not the system that makes or breaks a Mayor.

A couple of articles wove together for you today.

From Bellingham, WA  News Tribune we read … 

For the first time in 52 years, there will be no women on the City Council.

Now, the council looks more like it did in 1958.

And how about this from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls (IA) Courier …

Twenty-two candidates ran for city offices in Waterloo and Cedar Falls this fall. Every single one of them was a man.

I call this the old white guy syndrome.

Sure, there are a few minorities … and an even smaller pool of women … and an even smaller pool of minority women serving in local government across the nation, but for the most part it is old white guys like myself running local government.

I’ve never thought this was a good situation but I honestly don’t have a clue what to do about it.

There has to be some voodoo philosophical reason for this situation that I don’t understand.

So, a panel of voodoo philosophers have been invited to discuss this issue at the next Political Philosophy 101 Class.

Any comments from women on this issue? 

Hello?

I was having coffee with my normal crew of non-political junkies.

That morning we were discussing politics. We were discussing a very young Mayoral candidate.

One guy said he thought this candidate could go far in politics if he didn’t p#ss off too many people.

I agreed somewhat.

In politics you will p#ss off people sometimes. Even, or especially, if you do nothing you will p#ss off people.

So, it all comes down to the definition of “too many people.”

Sounds like a discussion for Political Philosophy class.

It is thought by some that “big city” city councils are smarter than “little city” city councils … more sophisticated … all that crap.

I’m here today to tell you that stupid decisions are made everywhere.

NEW YORK, NY November 16, 2009 —The city council has overwhelmingly approved a new five-minute grace period for certain parking violations before those bright orange tickets can be issued. However, Mayor Bloomberg is vowing to veto the bill. “A five-minute grace period is only going to lead to chaos, and enormous increases, I think, in contested tickets and arguments,” Bloomberg says.

But the council, which approved the rule by a vote of 47 to 2, has enough votes to override any veto. Supporters say they believe the five-minute rule will end a “ticketing blitz” by the Bloomberg administration, and a “gotcha” attitude by traffic enforcers. An analysis by The New York Times found that, last year, 276,000 tickets were written within five minutes of alternate side parking rules going into effect. Of those, 28,000 were written at the exact moment the rules took effect.

But, but, but…. what if I am within five minutes of the five minute grace period?

I’m with the Mayor on this one. This will create chaos and arguments up the wazoo.

I will be anxious to see if the Political Philosophy Class agrees with me?

Mayors have power. No doubt about it. The power of the bully pulpit is one of the powers. When Mayors talk … people listen. They don’t necessarily agree but they listen.

Who’s listening now?

An outspoken Kiwi politician has proposed a new solution to the country’s child abuse problem – pay the “appalling underclass” not to breed.

Michael Laws – who stirred up controversy by calling the late Tongan King a “bloated brown slug” – has again hit the headlines.

“That there is a group within our society who give their children no hope nor opportunity from the moment that they are born,” the regional mayor wrote on the New Zealand radio websitewhere he broadcasts as a talkback DJ.

“That these ‘parents’ are known to authorities … and yet the authorities can only intervene after children have been harmed.”

Mr Laws goes on to write: “it would be far better for this appalling underclass to be offered financial inducements not to have children, given the toxic environment that they would provide for any child in their care.”

The mayor believes “the consequent financial and social savings to our community would be considerable.

“There are too many people who should not have children.”

Mr Laws said a report in New Zealand’s Dominion-Post newspaper yesterday had incorrectly attributed the view to him that all those who got welfare should be sterilised.

Mr Laws wrote on the website ”that most welfare beneficiaries are good parents” but it was the problem ones who should be offered money not to breed.

Yesterday’s Dominion-Post newspaper quotes him as saying: “If we gave $10,000 to certain people and said ‘we’ll voluntarily sterilise you’ then all of society would be better off.” 

“There’d be less dead children and less social problems.”

Any volunteers to defend this position?

With all the real issues a city council must deal with, to spend time on nonsense issues makes no sense to me.

What is a real issue and what is nonsense?

You tell me what this is.

A key committee of the Los Angeles City Council voted today to seek a law banning veterinarians from declawing cats, saying the procedure constituted cruelty to animals.

The council’s Public Safety Committee unanimously recommended that City Atty. Carmen Trutanich draft an ordinance banning the practice. The proposal was made by Councilmen Bill Rosendahl and Paul Koretz, who said the procedure caused “unnecessary pain, anguish and permanent disability” to cats.

Councilman Tony Cardenas threw his support behind the measure but voiced doubts that the city’s Animal Services Department had enough employees to enforce such a law.  He also worried that cat owners will simply go to veterinarians in neighboring cities to get the procedure, sometimes known as an onychectomy.

“I don’t want to give you false hope,” Councilman Greig Smith told the audience of cat advocates and assorted city employees. “This is not going to stop the problem.”

The Political Philosophy Class will be discussing this next week.

Your comments are welcome now.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was having a new blog site designed. Well, here it is. I hope you like it. I sure do.

You will notice on the right sidebar, a box which will take you to my new ebook  WHY YOUR CITY COUNCIL MAKES DUMB DECISIONS … AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. It’s free! There is no reason not for anyone to download and read it. Pass it on to friends and family. Post a link on your website or blog.

If prior to reading this ebook you wish to nominate me for the Nobel Prize for Literature you can find that nomination procedure here. 

After reading,  any and all comments would be appreciated.

Wow, I  have internet problems for  a couple days and people think I went on strike or died. I’m back in the saddle now, scouring the country for local government issues and news.

It is never easy for a Mayor to make Police Department decisions. No matter how insignificant the decision, it could eventually have unintended consequences.

Think this one might?

The mayor of a small South Carolina town says she banned her police officers from chasing suspects on foot after an officer was hurt running after a man.

Wellford Mayor Sallie Peake said Monday she issued the order in August after the city had to pay for an officer who missed work after chasing a “guy who had a piece of crack on him.” She said a drug possession charge was not worth the cost to taxpayers. But her written order said she did “not want anyone chasing any suspects whatsoever.”

The decision came after two town-issued cars were totaled within a month, although her order applies only to foot chases.

And, keep that bullet in the shirt pocket too!

A couple days ago I wrote about some problems in Lake Geneva, WI.

The Mayor had suspended four Council members for misconduct in office.  I still doubt the legality of a Mayor suspending fellow elected representatives, but he did.

Well, here is the latest from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel…

The remaining members of the Lake Geneva City Council took a pass Monday at appointing replacements for four members suspended by Mayor William P. Chesen after deciding there weren’t enough non-suspended members at their meeting to form a quorum.

The action followed a request for a restraining order against the appointments by suspended Aldermen Penny Roehrer, Mary Jo Fesenmaier, Arleen Krohn and Thomas Spellman in Walworth County Circuit Court, according to their attorney David Williams.

“It appears that without a quorum you can’t conduct business,” Williams said after the meeting. “The city is in a bit of a pickle here.”

Chesen suspended the four Thursday, alleging misconduct in public office and violations of open meetings laws.

But the suspended council members say the suspensions were retribution for their voting to appoint former Mayor Spyros Condos, a political rival of Chesen, to replace former Ald. Gary Dunham, who resigned last month.

The suspended aldermen also filed a lawsuit in circuit court challenging the suspensions, Williams said.

Circuit Judge John Race is expected to schedule a hearing on the request for the restraining order within the next several days, he said.

Chesen, who could not be reached Monday night, has scheduled a “removal from office” hearing for the suspended council members on Sept. 23.

It’s unclear how that hearing could be held if there are not enough council members present for a quorum, Williams said.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Oh, how I wish I could be at that meeting on the 23rd!

I have to tell you this is a new one on me. I wasn’t aware a Mayor had this power.

Lake Geneva’s mayor has suspended four members of the Common Council, accusing them of neglecting their duties and violating open meetings laws.

Mayor William P. Chesen also accused the four – Penny Roehrer, Mary Jo Fesenmaier, Arleen Krohn and Thomas Spellman – of creating “inefficiencies for staff and the citizens,” according to the suspension orders.

A Mayor suspending Council Representative for neglecting their duties? Creating inefficiencies for staff and citizens?

Could this story get any screwier?

The move came on the same day former Mayor Beatrice Dale and others launched a recall drive against Roehrer and Spellman, accusing them of not voting “according to the wishes” of their constituents.

 Roehrer, Krohn and Spellman said the suspensions and recall drive are payback for their vote, along with Fesenmaier’s, to appoint former Mayor Spyro Condos to a vacant council seat rather than schedule a special election.

Spellman said Condos’ appointment gives development opponents a 5-3 majority on the council. That’s something Chesen and development proponents won’t stand for, Spellman said.

Condos also is the target of the recall effort.

Dale initiated a successful recall drive that ousted Condos from the mayor’s office in 2001 amid accusations of unauthorized spending and other abuses that were disputed by the incumbent.

Chesen scheduled a “removal from office” hearing for Sept. 23.

It should be one hellofa meeting.

Consolidation … merger … intergovernmental cooperation … call it what you want sometimes good ideas just ain’t gonna happen. This is one of them.

APPLETON — Even before Len Vander Wyst was hired as Appleton’s next fire chief, Mayor Tim Hanna had hopes of increasing cooperation among Fox Cities fire departments.

But with this week’s hiring of Vander Wyst, a former Appleton firefighter who spearheaded the merger of the Neenah and Menasha fire departments, and served as chief of Neenah-Menasha Fire Rescue for six years, the mayor is dreaming of even bigger things.

“Ultimately what really makes sense down here would be taking the heart of the Fox Cities and making it a fire district, take it off the tax levy and have it paid for in a way that is more closely related to what its purpose is,” he said.

Appleton …   Menesha… Grand Chute … Neenah … Whoa Nellie!

How many partners you think are going to get involved in this merger?

The larger the number of partners involved in a solution to a problem, the less likely the problem will be solved.

This idea is DOA.

It’s not a bad idea, it’s just DOA.

Kenosha City Council is about to go where few other City Councils have gone.

Kenosha aldermen on Wednesday will consider an amendment to the city’s profane language ordinance that would allow city police officers and firefighters to issue warnings and tickets if profane, vile, filthy or obscene language is heard while the officers/firefighters are in the line of duty.

This is George Carlin material.

Alderman Patrick Juliana, the sponsor of the amendment, said the change is intended to allow authorities to quell situations where the language may cause further disturbance at a crime scene or during an emergency response.

“This does not mean that a police officer will hear something and will give you a ticket,” Juliana said. “It all comes down to a situation where it leads to escalation or incitement to another level.

Oh, this would allow the police to issue tickets, but it doesn’t mean they will? 

Racine is the only other one of the state’s five largest cities that has an ordinance directed solely at offensive language.

“We call it verbal abuse. It’s kind of a catchall,” said Stacey Salvo, a paralegal for the city of Racine.

Racine’s ordinance states: “No person shall use, state or utter in another person’s presence any abusive, obscene or threatening word, gesture, phrase or language intended or naturally tending to provoke or incite an act of violence by such other person.”

Other cities back off

 The state’s three largest cities — Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay — do not have ordinances that refer only to offensive or inciting language. All three say language issues would fall under their standards for disorderly conduct.

“If something with language was going to be charged, it would be under disorderly conduct, which is kind of broad ordinance about conflict that could cause a disturbance,” said Kurt Behling, assistant city attorney for the city of Milwaukee.

Madison cited similar standards, and Green Bay said language had to meet certain requirements to be considered for its disorderly conduct violations.

You know, I think police officers hear vile, filthy and obscene language every day.

I think they know when that language crosses the line of disorderly conduct and when it doesn’t. 

I don’t think ordinances such as this serve any purpose at all, except it provides fodder for local political junkies like myself.

I was at a County Zoning Meeting.

The discussion was centered on if the Zoning and Planning Director should attend the State Convention of Zoning and Planning Directors.

One member said, “I don’t want her going somewhere, learning something new and trying to bring it back here.”

You may have read about …

Thousands of jumbo flying squid—aggressive 5-foot-long sea monsters with razor-sharp beaks and toothy tentacles—have invaded the shallow waters off San Diego, spooking scuba divers and washing up dead on tourist-packed beaches.

The carnivorous calamari, which can grow up to 100 pounds, came up from the depths last week and swarms of them roughed up unsuspecting divers. Some divers report tentacles enveloping their masks and yanking at their cameras and gear.

I don’t understand what all the commotion is?

If the squid are a problem we solve it like we solve every other problem nowadays.

We just throw money at them.

Did you know there are 511,039 elected officials in the U.S.?

Of those 542 are at the Federal level …  18,828 at the state level …  and a whopping 491,669  at the local level.

Those numbers to me indicate that the foundation of our government is at the local level. The foundation of our government is not based in Washington.  I have always believed that.

I guess I wrong all these years.

Or, at least that is what I am suppose to believe.

Sometimes I run across local government items that are just plain wacky. No other way to describe them.

Son of a gun, here is another one…

RACINE — Two aldermen want to offer free land and lower taxes to city, county and school employees, to attract them to the city.

Under their proposed program, City of Racine, Racine County and Racine Unified School District employees could receive a free deed to certain city-owned land if they promise to build a new home and live there for five years. The employees would also pay lower property taxes for their first five years.

So, in addition to the public employee benefit package they receive, they would be offered free land and lower taxes?

Wacky?

Or not?