Often, during a public meeting, one will hear a public employee tell members of a council, board, or commission that an item to be considered is available as part of a packet of documents provided to each member of the public body meeting that night. It’s all casual and blithe: “It’s in your packet,” someone…
City
City, Law
Good, Open Government and Email
by JOHN ADAMS •
Wisconsin has both a Public Records Law (Wis. Stat. ss. 19.31-19.39 (2003)), and an Open Meetings Law (Wis. Stat. ss. 19.81-19.98. Both are designed to ensure that citizens will have access to government actions in communication and deliberation. These laws represent the goal of an open Wisconsin, committed to good and open, limited and responsible…
City, Law
The City of Whitewater’s Test of Impartiality and Fairness
by JOHN ADAMS •
I wrote last week about the City of Whitewater’s survey for information about a community calendar on the municipal website. See, Community Calendars. FREE WHITEWATER’s not really a community calendar, but there are private ones already available, so the city’s suggestion that it might produce its own version is odd. There’s no insuperable impediment to…
City, Economy, Government Spending
Wall Street Journal: The Keynesian Dead End
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s an editorial from last week’s Wall Street Journal entitled, The Keynesian Dead End: Spending our way to prosperity is going out of style. (In fairness, many plans implemented as “Keynesian” would probably shock Keynes, himself. To reflect this truth, the WSJ refers to recent policies Neo-Keynesian. Emphasis on the “neo,” I wouldn’t wonder.) The…
City, Economy, Government Spending
Associated Press: Economy Faces Tough Road Ahead with Slower Growth – Yahoo! Finance
by JOHN ADAMS •
Status quo efforts to restore prosperity, especially to places like tiny Whitewater, Wisconsin, won’t work. We don’t need more public projects; we need more private opportunities. Whitewater’s municipal government can’t make our lives better, and the road ahead is too uneven to expect conventional solutions to help us. Our way out: dismantling every part of…
City
Community Calendars
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the City of Whitewater’s website, there’s a small survey in the left sidebar, asking questions for a possible community calendar at the City of Whitewater website. (There’s a calendar of municipal meetings now, but the survey stems from a possible community calendar on the website, listing meetings and events of community groups.) The…
City, Freedom of Speech
Whitewater’s Overreaction to Citizen Complaints: Trees, Tree Commission, and Urban Forestry Commission
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s city manager, Kevin Brunner, seems oddly inadequate to the task of managing a city of fourteen thousand people. His response to complaints about Whitewater’s urban forestry program, a successor program to our former tree commission, shows that he has trouble responding maturely to simple, lawful criticism. The mere act of citizens’ sending a letter…
City, Laws/Regulations
Update on the Urban Chicken Movement
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve written about the urban chicken movement . It’s goal is to persuade communities to allow residents to keep a hen or tow for fresh eggs. Many communities, ironically including rural communities like Whitewater, there are prohibitions on backyard hens in residential neighborhoods. Ordinances like this are more social than rational: I think it’s mostly…
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park
The City Manager’s Greetings from Ames, Iowa
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve posted cards about Whitewater from earlier times, but it’s a card from Iowa that I’ve embedded today. Imagine someone passing along a card from Ames, Iowa, site of a recent International (!) Town and Gown Association meeting on sustainable partnerships. Here’s that recent find: Click card to view larger image The postcard that I’ve…
City, Planning
Whitewater’s Planning Commission Meeting for 6-14-10 (Live Blogging)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a format I will be using for live blogging tonight’s Planning Commission meeting. I wouldn’t expect anyone to read my comments live; instead, I’m interested in experimenting with live blogging to produce commentary more quickly, and to test the format, a format that might be useful for other events. (The comments will remain after…
City, Planning
Whitewater Municipal Staff: Where’s the Packet?
by JOHN ADAMS •
In Whitewater, there’s a one-monthly Planning Commission meeting. Those meetings have an agenda that’s posted online. The agenda for the June 14th meeting is available online now. It’s common in Whitewater for city officials to refer to employees collectively as “city staff, so I’ll do the same by way of a question. Whitewater municipal staff:…
City, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending
Why is America So Successful?
by JOHN ADAMS •
John Stossel asks, “Why is America So Successful?” Stossel concludes, following Friedman, that it’s not natural resources that gave America “a standard of living that’s the envy of most of the world.” Instead, it’s limited government and free market choices that make America prosperous: More than any other American, Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize…
City, Holiday
Whitewater’s Fourth of July
by JOHN ADAMS •
I received the following press release that I am happy to post — The Whitewater Area 4th of July committee is excited to announce it has a packed line-up of activities and entertainment for the 2010 festival held at the Cravath Lakefront Park. The festival has secured national recording artist Heidi Newfield formerly of “Trick…
City, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park
Avoiding State and Local Economic Problems
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a state with high unemployment, with temporary census workers masking the true weakness of the job market, and with the prospect of upcoming tax increases that will retard economic growth, there are still ways for local governments to improve their own prospects. I posted earlier this year on the suggestions of Stephen Goldsmith of…