I’ve received the September 2009 Whitewater-Area League of Women Voters newsletter, and have posted it on the left sidebar of this page, under Organizations. Here’s the link: September League of Women Voters Newsletter. Here are some upcoming LWV events, with more information in the full newsletter: September 17th Program on Child Poverty Please join us…
City
City, Press
Common Council from September 8, 2009: Risk and Accountability
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Press
Bureaucrat vs. Property Owner
by JOHN ADAMS •
From the main page of the City of Whitewater’s website: Thanks for visiting the Whitewater website. If you have not been to our City, please feel free to visit us in person as well. The Whitewater Municipal Center is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Monday through Friday) to answer your questions and…
City
Janesville Gazette: Marine Fighting Whitewater for Repair Costs
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a Janesville Gazette interview, Whitewater City Manager Kevin M. Brunner reveals how unaccountable is the city’s position involving property damage to a resident, how quickly he’ll hide behind someone else, and how shameless is his self-righteous posturing. Over at the Janesville Gazette, there’s a story about Lt. Joseph Cull, a Whitewater resident and citizen…
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park
A Drive By Any Other Name…
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s in Romeo and Juliet that Shakespeare gave the world the observation, from Juliet’s lips, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.” Well, it’s time to brush up your Shakespeare, because Whitewater’s renamed Corporate Drive as ‘Innovation Drive’ for the new technology park to…
City, Press Release
Taste of Whitewater — September 11th and 12th, 2009
by JOHN ADAMS •
I received the following press release that I am happy to post — The Taste of Whitewater will be held on September 11th and 12th 2009 at the beautiful Cravath Lakefront Park in downtown Whitewater, WI. Featuring food and specialty drinks from local restaurants, Wisconsin-made beer & wine, live music and entertainment for all ages:…
City
Anatomy of a Municipal Bureaucrat’s Explanation
by JOHN ADAMS •
If you were in an auto accident, would your principal source of information about your rights be the other driver’s insurance company? Probably not. Last week, I wrote about a Whitewater resident who experienced approximately twenty-thousand dollars in damage from a municipal sewer backup. The story received coverage in Madison and Milwaukee, and I posted…
City, Press
Inside (Whitewater) and Outside (America)
by JOHN ADAMS •
A bureaucrat’s remarks about “….much media attention this past week to a recent sanitary sewer back up that affected First Lt. Joseph P. Cull’s property on Park Street in the city….” are days late and twenty-thousand dollars short. The media attention came from reporting outside the city, while the local press stayed silent. Over at…
City, Libertarians
The Antidote to Grim Forecasts
by JOHN ADAMS •
What will Whitewater do, in the face of grim economic and fiscal forecasts from Washington? Set aside the temptation – so very strong in Whitewater, Wisconsin – to say that all our hard decisions were the fault of some federal politician. They’re not – we’ve made poor choices long before the current Congress. There’s a…
City, Economy
Grim Forecast (with Local Implications) from the Congressional Budget Office
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Congressional Budget Office yesterday issued its latest economic outline, as of August 2009, as a pdf document. The CBO forecasts have been respected, traditionally, as accurate, non-partisan forecasts. They estimate both annual federal deficits, overall public debt, and unemployment to continue to rise in the near term, with annual federal deficits (and thus overall…
City
Accountability Begins….Somewhere other than in Whitewater, Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at Channel 3000, there’s a story about a United States Marine, serving in Afghanistan against the Taliban, whose house was flooded because of problems a City of Whitewater employee reportedly admitted were the city’s fault. (I have never met the officer in the story; my remarks are without personal connection.) In a story entitled, Wisconsin…
City
How Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Politicians and Bureaucrats Might Explain an Accident
by JOHN ADAMS •
I thought I’d take a moment to illustrate how different types of people, from normal people, descending to Whitewater’s politicians and bureaucrats, might describe a simple automobile accident. NORMAL PEOPLE: We were driving along, not paying attention to the road, and our car veered off onto the shoulder. We hit a rock, and got a…
City, School District
Does Anyone in Whitewater Ever Make Admit a Mistake?
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ll consider our municipal and school district budgets over the coming months. What does it say about us, though, that a quarter-million dollar shortfall is described as a “budget anomaly” occurring “for the first time in known history of the District as can best be remembered?” That’s the preface to the admission that there was…
City
Family and City, Part 2
by JOHN ADAMS •
Earlier today, I published a post against the idea that life in a family was analogous to political squabbles in a city. It’s not, and viewing the city like a family is a mistaken and troublesome notion. But if, somehow, you are reminded of your own family dynamic when you watch our Common Council, boards,…