Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 45. Sunrise is 7:22 and sunset 4:24 for 9h 01m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 79.3% of its visible disk illuminated. 

On this day in 1864, Savannah, Georgia, falls to the Union’s Army of the Tennessee, and General Sherman tells President Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”

 Whitewater has a pool and fitness center, and has had one for many years. The local school district owns the building and the city manages the pool. Negotiations for a new agreement between those two parties have dragged on for centuries decades a long time. 

There are only two ways for a serious person to describe the length of time these negotiations have carried on: as a straightforward, neutral account or as a farce. Professional reporting presents these events, as it must, straightforwardly (leaving readers to decide for themselves how nutty this all is). See School board says it will consider arbitration regarding aquatic center agreement; city cites contractual changes, issues of transparency.

Commentary, however, is not so constrained. And so, and so: These protracted negotiations have long ago descended into farce. What’s wrong with some of these people? Honest to goodness.

I have advocated for months in favor of an agreement. See The Pool (‘The rational course is a settlement that assures ongoing operation at minimal cost while further discussions on medium and long-term solutions are crafted. A reduction in political temperature — down to, let’s say, negative 30 Fahrenheit — would serve this community well’), Prioritization in a Small Town (There’s a tendency in Whitewater for people to flit from issue to issue, supposed crisis to crisis. For example, is there a need to address the substantive quality of a Whitewater public education, an athletic field, or a pool? Is there a need for housing, to address poverty, or to improve the lakes, etc.? These and other matters are important, but which matters more, and in which order should they be addressed?’), and Chronologies (‘From the school board, this has stopped being responsible dealmaking and has descended into negotiations as a fetish. Those who wish to be taken seriously behave seriously. These board changes aren’t serious; they’re ridiculousness cosplaying as seriousness’). 

And now, and now… the Whitewater Unified School District describes its view of the negotiations: 

To which the City of Whitewater comprehensively responds in a 49-page reply (link and see embed at the end of this post). 

A few key points.

This matter should have been resolved months ago. 

This matter was not, and could not, have been resolved by a councilman and a school board member sitting in the middle of a room tryin’ to hash all this out. It’s about a detailed contract, and hugging it out wasn’t going to work. 

Nothing about this matter will be settled by a ‘save the pool’ committee. A superintendent with an evident will to power was always going to walk all over that tiny band. See More on Messaging in Whitewater (‘At a council meeting about a month ago, a resident pointed out that the City of Whitewater’s success in moving toward a resolution of the funding dispute for the pool rested with Whitewater’s city manager, John Weidl. You know, although I’m not in the habit of touting the public sector, the resident’s observation is spot on. There was a ‘Save the Pool Committee’ formed in the winter or late spring of this year, not long before the April spring elections. That committee held a few of its own meetings, and leading members of that group attended a few public meetings, but it contributed next to nothing to the work that moved pool negotiations along’). 

The city administration suggested arbitration months ago; it would have been more economical than protracted negotiations. 

Money spent on the pool is a serious matter; time lost when this district’s board president discusses a pool rather than education is irrecuperable. 

Finally, the nuttiest development so far is the appearance on the Whitewater Common Council dais of the school district’s press release before the latest council meeting.

Here’s the reporting on the mysterious placing of those documents on the council table:

Responding to questions posed by WhitewaterWise, Whitewater City Manager John Weidl said that he was first made aware of the district’s statement when he found a copy “sitting with my (Tuesday common council) agenda packet materials at the dais.”

He noted that the council president, upon seeing the distributed statement, asked about its appropriateness as a handout.

Weidl said he told the council president that handing the statement out without it undergoing the appropriate process for inclusion on a council meeting agenda would be a violation of the city’s transparency ordinance.

Said Weidl: “I further explained that I would have the city clerk enter a copy of what was received into the public record at the next available opportunity.”

Weidl added, that, to “everyone’s credit, the paper copies were collected and given to the clerk.”

Wait, what? How did copies of the district’s press release appear at the council table before the recent council meeting?

Did Whitewater’s superintendent, ensconced in the district’s office, snap her fingers and summon one of her many elves to scamper across town to deliver the press release? 

And if so, did anyone see School Board President Larry Kachel anywhere near the city council table before the meeting?

The memo from the city administration in reply to the district’s press release appears below:  

Download (PDF, 1.58MB)