Whitewater’s a town of fourteen-thousand, with a university campus, but no local, daily press. That doesn’t mean that news isn’t reported in Whitewater. Some news is reported, although often in ways that are bland, and embarrassing moments in Whitewater often disappear from mention, sometimes to the benefit of incumbent politicians, career bureaucrats, and local people-of-influence.

Consider the reporting on our last Common Council meeting, held on April 8th, 2009.

Here’s an excerpt from the Daily Jefferson County Union‘s coverage of the meeting, in a story entitled, “Whitewater nuisance policy vote postponed” —

WHITEWATER – “I think it is ludicrous what has been done tonight.”

That is how outgoing Alderman Jim Allen summarized Wednesday’s meeting of the Whitewater Common Council.

After a 2 1/2-hour debate that was often heated and often Byzantine, the Whitewater Common Council voted 4-3 to postpone final action on a chronic nuisance ordinance.

The council met on Wednesday this week due to Tuesday’s election, and the Whitewater Municipal Center Community Room was standing room only with citizens. Ten residents spoke out, either for or against the ordinance.

Voting for the postponement – which took place after public input, a presentation by a Janesville police officer and a half-dozen amendments – were councilpersons Marilyn Kienbaum, Patrick Singer, Max Taylor, and Jim Stewart. Voting against it were Roy Nosek, Lynn Binnie and Jim Allen….

In fact, the council heard a special presentation from Janesville Police Officer Aaron Ellis, who coordinates the nuisance violations in that city.

After hearing the presentation and public input, and after amending the proposed ordinance several times, the council heard an idea to separate the police and code enforcement violations into separate amendments, as Ellis said Janesville did.

But since Parker was not in attendance, some council members felt uncomfortable about approving a code-only chronic nuisance ordinance without his input. Thus, Kienbaum made a motion to postpone any action until Parker was present, ideally at the next meeting. Taylor seconded the motion, which resulted in the 4-3 vote.

Coan was present at the meeting, but the council elected to postpone both halves of the newly divided ordinance.

The council actually was “booed” by the remaining audience members.

Now, consider a different account, from Whitewater’s News and Sports website, the Whitewater Banner. Below two color pictures, one of the Lincoln School choir singing the Star Spangled Banner, and the other of a city proclamation for the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, one finds this account of the same Common Council meeting:

The Council meeting included a prolonged discussion on a proposed Regulations [sic] Concerning Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance that outlined enforcement actions for combined multiple (6) Police Nuisance Activity and Code Nuisance Activity. The action was delayed due to a request to postpone since Bruce Parker, city staff. was not available for Code Nuisance questions. Several amendments were made and will be incorporated into the document for discussion and action at the next Council meeting.

Not quite the same, are they?

One might say that they’re equally valid perspectives on the same event, but one would only safely say so if one thought that description meant nothing.

It’s possible to say that an elephant is both a ‘big grey thing’ or one of “two very large herbivorous mammals, Elephas maximus of south-central Asia or Loxodonta africana of Africa, having thick, almost hairless skin, a long, flexible, prehensile trunk, upper incisors forming long curved tusks of ivory, and, in the African species, large fan-shaped ears.”

Of elephants, both are perspectives. Still, one’s so brief, so bland, that it’s likely either deliberate, or unintentionally embarrassing.

Want to know what happened at the latest Council meeting? Why not look to a video recording of the event? The recording is neither commentary nor supposed news — it’s a direct display of the event, for you to consider independently. Not the event, itself, but closer than news from Whitewater.

Far closer.

There is nothing better for an understanding of local government than seeing it, as it truly is —

Tomorrow, I’ll offer commentary on the last Council meeting, before the next befalls us takes place. more >>