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9:47 PM Meeting adjourns. A rough start ends well, and only two glasses down. Not bad.
9:37 PM Atty. Simon refers to a prior post of mine on meeting frequency. I think, but I am not sure, that this is the post he means.
My opinion is unchanged — many city commissions should meet less, handles less, manage less, as should the city council, city manager, etc.
I don’t remove my posts — I keep an archive, in fact. Anyone can look back at what I have written.
(Thanks, though, for thinking of me. And who, after all, would not be charmed by visits to the municipal building?)
9:21 PM Planning Commission start time and meeting frequency. Should the meeting start earlier? Should applicants pay for a special meeting?
9:20 PM Answer for the developer: Yes.
9:15 PM The question for the developer: would the Commission entertain a more detailed plan for a senior cottage apartment development?
9:04 PM A calm, relaxed discussion on the senior apartments. This is how a meeting should be, if only people would see it, and act on it.
8:47 PM Item nine from the planning agenda — a senior cottage apartment on the Hoffman property on Walworth Avenue.
8:43 PM If someone has a procedural concern about how a committee operates, or contends that there might be a conflict of some sort, then he or she should present it in writing, with ample opportunity for others respond (also in writing), before a meeting.
Everything else is grandstanding, or backbiting, that makes trivial the supposed concern.
I have limited regard for supposed complaints that are not carefully detailed with advance notice, so that someone can answer fully and with fair opportunity.
For example, people can always reply to my posts via email, to adams@freewhitewater.com. Topics that I raise are presented in writing, and anyone can write back, or write in reply via another publication.
8:30 PM East Towne market discussion. If the economy is bad, and it is, will the city grant an extension to the concern? Yes.
8:24 PM Prediction — the meeting will come back to order with participants more composed and agreeable.
8:20 PM A break — a really good idea. The live broadcast started off with contention (and there was likely more beforehand that I did not see), and a few minutes’ recess is a smart move.
8:09 PM A resident complains about water runoff from the storage units, and the consultant responds in ways that show he has no feel for responding to ordinary people. I don’t see a future for him in elective office. Plus, no one with a tie that looks like a leopard pelt should stand for election. (I just couldn’t resist.)
Now, that’s snarky. But where does it get a consultant to bristle at a citizen, after all? We have enough of that here as it is, where sometimes citizen comments at Council amount to small debates between citizens and officer holders.
8:03 PM A self-storage company wants additional buildings. Okay. If the business owner will take the risk of renting out the containers, let him have the opportunity.
8:02 PM Riesling — one of the best things from Germany, ever.
7:55 PM Time for another glass. If we served wine at our public meetings, would our politics improve? Alternatively, would our politics simply be easier to take?
7:51 PM There’s so much that probably seems like inside baseball to an ordinary person, when there’s a Planning Commission, Design Committee, staff, consultants, that someone who wanted to position himself or herself against a given action can do so by saying that it’s all deliberately confusing (even if it’s not).
7:48 PM There’s a discussion of whether a developer acted properly, understood what it should have done, or might have filed a lawsuit — but the explanation will be hard for someone not a party or well-familiar with the matter to follow.
7:35 PM Television is a harsh, almost cruel, medium. It is revealing and unforgiving. Only cool plays well on television, with the rarest of exceptions. That’s why local politicians who lose their cool at Council, or consultants who do the same at meetings, look ridiculous or arrogant to others. The burden is always greater on city staff members, consultants, or politicians.
7:31 PM Tami Brodnicki speaks on behalf of DW – I have not had a chance to remark on her presentation to a meeting in some time. It’s a solid, clear presentation. I posted on the Clean Sweep effort, and I am glad that it went well.
Retail is hard — keeping a business open is not easy. Some will fail, while others will emerge.
7:29 PM Various Reports — CDA, tree commission, Council rep., Downtown Whitewater, Inc., etc.
7:27 PM Modern is dull. Look around at the meeting room – it’s generic modern, with no style unique to our city, Wisconsin, or even America. It could be any meeting room in Europe, Canada, Japan, etc.
This not the time to spend money on a room, but if we ever get the money, then when our current building decays and needs to be replaced, we could pick something more suitable to our peculiar heritage.
7:23 PMMs. Zaballos is right — some of these issues of roles will have to be addressed with the administration apart from commission meetings.
7:17 PM There is no prudent reason — none — that the consultants should be asking what their role is at the meeting. I am not sure if it’s ‘snarky,’ but it does show a vulnerability that will be evident to ordinary people.
7:14 PM Property owners will not be reassured easily, and saying ‘technology park,’ will not be captivating to many of these landowners.
7:07 PM Suspicious, or concerned, people will be upset with any plan that they hear, no matter how many times you tell them that it’s not cast in stone. If you offer a plan, expect people to assume that it’s definitive, even if it surely isn’t.
7:00 PM Can it be that Hoffman is more knowledgeable about some of these points than the consultant? He comes across as equally knowledgeable. Those representing the city seem less reassuring, less certain. That shouldn’t happen.
6:56 PM A citizen, John Hoffman, with 300 acres is surprised to see that the technology park is penciled on a chart on display. He remarks that there is also a Retail Coach study that is different from the chart on display. The live feed started late, but I am curious to see what administration’s position is.
Citizen’s concern — will this be a municipal project, where landowners have to sell to a municipality?
6:48 PM I hope the air conditioning is working.
6:45 PM Live feed starts with a citizen complaining about the consultant. The consultant doesn’t want a citizen to point at him (the consultant). Let it go — respond without worrying about whether he pointed at you. It shows too much concern about someone else’s reaction.
6:44 PM Live feed just starts. I’m on.
