Updated 9.16.20 with meeting video. Last night, among other items, Whitewater Common Council’s met and considered municipal actions in response to the pandemic, heard presentations from Downtown Whitewater, Inc. and Discover Whitewater, and appointed a resident to fill a council vacancy in AD 5. A few remarks — 1. Pandemic Responses. Whitewater’s council last week declined, on…
Conflicts of Interest
City, Conflicts of Interest, Coronavirus, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Open Government
Whitewater Common Council Meeting, 9.9.20: 5 Points
by JOHN ADAMS •
Evening of 9.10.20: Updated with full session video. As always, the best record is a recording. Original post follows — Last night, at a special meeting of the Whitewater Common Council, that public body voted 5-1 against consideration of a municipal ordinance to regulate mass gatherings during the pandemic. (The agenda packet, with the ordinance…
Babbittry, Boosterism, City, Conflicts of Interest, Coronavirus, Culture, Ethics, Local Government, Politics
Social Capital and Hardship
by JOHN ADAMS •
What role does social capital play in a community’s health? Adam Gopnik, in The Paradoxical Role of Social Capital in the Coronavirus Pandemic, ponders whether there’s a relationship between communities with high social capital and a community’s public health. Gopnik uses a traditional definition of social capital as the “parts of society that, without being…
CDA, Conflicts of Interest, Ethics, University
On Conflicts of Interest, It’s Not Enough to Ask a Question
by JOHN ADAMS •
The annual meeting of the Whitewater University Tech Park Board was scheduled for this earlier morning, and the second item of the published agenda is a superficial attempt to address potential conflicts of interest among board members: Declaration of Conflict of Interest [Watson] a. Would any member(s) of the board wish to declare any known…
Conflicts of Interest, Federal Government, Grifters, Trump, Unfit
Lining Their Pockets – White House For Sale
by JOHN ADAMS •
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Conflicts of Interest, Kakistocracy, Kushner, Nepotism, Public Relations, WEDC, Wisconsin
An Empty-Headed Man’s Next Gig
by JOHN ADAMS •
Updated with a longer – and so more revealing – video of Kushner’s vapidity. When Jared Kushner is finished impairing America’s response to a pandemic, he’ll need something else to do. Wisconsin still has the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and in small Wisconsin towns like Whitewater one finds development hucksters, business leagues of landlords &…
Conflicts of Interest, Local Government, Newspapers
APG Was Always Going to Play a Vulture’s Role
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that APG, the out-of-state newspaper chain that purchased two local family papers (Janesville Gazette, Daily Jefferson County Union) is slashing the salaries of those papers’ employees. A few remarks — I’m not a newspaperman, and have never aspired to be one. Bloggers are modern-day pamphleteers, reviving a tradition that was robust during our…
Conflicts of Interest, Gluttony, Grifters, Self-Dealing, Trump
Grifters: Episode One
by JOHN ADAMS •
We all know Trump’s a scammer. Stiffed contractors. Ripped-off business partners. False advertisements. Bankrupted businesses. But the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Development, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Local Government, Special Interests, WEDC
Miscellany on Development Policy in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a significant difference between local, political calls for urgency and genuine need. Recent discussions about development policy in Whitewater only bolster this view. A few remarks (as I’ve been asked more than once what I think of the last two months’ events) — Independence. The best decision one could make when writing about policy…
Conflicts of Interest, Federal Government, Law, Trump, William Barr
Bill Barr: Trump’s Man on the Inside
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bill Barr has now been Trump’s attorney general for a full year. He’s spent that year helping Trump weaponize the Justice Department for his personal benefit—showing that, like the man who appointed him, Barr is an urgent threat to American democracy.https://t.co/Xtr0BE6fVJ — The Moscow Project (@moscow_project) February 14, 2020
City, Conflicts of Interest, Ethics, Local Government, Newspapers, School District, Whitewater, WI Conflict of Interest Gallery™
The Whitewater, WI Conflict of Interest Gallery™
by JOHN ADAMS •
Ours is an era of conflicts of interest and self-dealing. Conflicts of interest sometimes begin with ignorance but they persist through arrogance. Simple principles of separation between roles that were once understood and respected (in the main) are now commonly rationalized away. If one bemoans degraded national ethics, one should be clear that local officials…
Conflicts of Interest, Newspapers, School District
Public Officials Should Not Be Reporters
by JOHN ADAMS •
It is a simple principle that public officials should not be newspaper reporters on their own meetings and actions. For readers, reporters, editors, publishers, and public officials this should be obvious. Worse: public officials should not be newspaper reporters when their roles as public officials are not expressly identified. A Whitewater-area newspaper and a Whitewater school…
CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Federal Government, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation, Trump
Trump’s Tax Returns
by JOHN ADAMS •
If Trump wanted his tax returns to remain private, then he should not have run for public office. So many men want to be private figures and public officials at the same time, opportunistically claiming one role or another as it suits them. Small-town Whitewater has had a problem like this for years: tiny notables…
Conflicts of Interest, Crime, Federal Government, Law
Trump’s Attorney General Nominee Wrong on Obstruction of Justice
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daniel J. Hemel and Eric A. Posner conclude Yes, [Trump Attorney General Nominee] Bill Barr’s Memo Really is Wrong About Obstruction of Justice. They respond with 6 arguments concerning federal bribery law, “facially lawful” acts, obstruction and collusion, the Starr investigation, the theory of a unitary executive, and the context of appointee Barr’s memo. I’ve…