Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission meets tonight at 5:30 PM, to interview patrol officers and consider several policy documents. Those documents appear below, and at the bottom of this post readers will find the video recording of last week’s PFC meeting. There are five processes or documents to be considered tonight: (1) PFC Oath (2)…
Local Government
Business, City, Free Markets, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, New Whitewater, Planning
The Planning Commission Meeting for 11.11.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s Planning Commission met last night, and among the topics was consideration of re-zoning and a conditional use permit for Casual Joe’s, a new restaurant, tavern, and distillery to operate at 319 W. James Street (at the site of a long-unused commercial building, the former Fort Auto Body). On 4-3 votes, a majority of…
City, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Nature
The Leaves on the Streets PSA
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater has a public service announcement about leaf collection, to remind residents not to sweep their leaves into the street. It’s a short, clever video. It does government a lot of good to remind someone of a policy without doing it in a heavy-handed way, but with a more light-hearted approach. This does the…
Business, Economy, Free Markets, Hip & Prosperous, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Planning
Why Plan?
by JOHN ADAMS •
All people make plans for the future, even if that should be no farther ahead than for later the same day. Why specifically, though, should government plan? Every city has plans for development, plans for budgeting, and many (as we do in Whitewater) have a public commission with lawful authority to approve or reject certain…
City, Local Government, Police
Police and Fire Commission Meeting for 11.6.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a Police and Fire Commission meeting tonight, at 6 PM. The PFC meets quarterly, but will meet twice this month, both tonight and (according to tonight’s agenda) again on Thursday, November 14th. There are three main parts of tonight’s meeting: (1) election for two PFC offices (a vice president and a secretary), (2) a…
City, Development, Economy, Local Government, Poverty
Assessing the Poverty Data for Our Area
by JOHN ADAMS •
On Friday, I posted on child poverty in our area. The Great Recession took a toll on many cities, but undeniably so in ours: from 2007 to 2011, the number of children aged 5 to 17 in families in poverty rose from 9.89 to 17.9%. The number nearly doubled. Beyond that group, state measures classify an…
City, Development, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation
What’s Whitewater’s Economy?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Like many others, I read the news each day, about our city, online and in print. When one reads about Whitewater, of its local government, one likely reads about one of two topics: (1) the city or public schools budgets, or (2) municipal development projects. They’re both important, sometimes very much so, but they’re only…
City, Government Spending, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation
Proposed 2014 Whitewater City Budget and Accompanying Budget Memo
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Government Spending, Local Government, Politics
Whitewater’s Common Council Meeting for 10.15.13 (City Manager, Budget Perspective)
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s budget season for local governments across Wisconsin, including Whitewater. Presentations beginning in October will conclude with a vote in November. A few introductory remarks on that process follow. City Manager, Cameron Clapper. City Manager Clapper has two tasks, not one: daily management the city’s local government, and normalizing the way his administration describes local government’s functions. In…
City, Local Government, Planning, Police
Zoning Debates Are Often Just a Distraction from Failed Criminal Enforcement Strategies
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the third post in a trilogy about residential housing in Whitewater. For the first two posts, see, Old Whitewater Dreams of a Student Rez and The University’s Role in Town-Gown Issues. Recap: (1) pointing to the northwest corner of the city for student rentals without actual, additional housing in that area is an empty solution, and (2) the university’s planned…
City, Local Government, Planning
Old Whitewater Dreams of a Student Rez
by JOHN ADAMS •
Old Whitewater – an outlook rather than an age, a group rather than an individual – is having the hardest time adjusting to a changing city. All these years, and all their many political champions, and still they’ve not solved even a single major problem facing the city. Residential harmony between town and gown is one those problems,…
City, Local Government
Common Council’s 10.1.13 Session
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last night was a lengthy but interesting session for Whitewater. Lots of topics, a few of which I’ll mention below. These topics are in the order of the agenda items presented last night, with two exceptions: the upcoming Crop Walk and the status of the Janesville Transit bus, that I’ve placed ahead. (See, in a post from…
City, Local Government, Police
Common Council Session of 9.17.13: Police and Fire Commission Dismissal Proceedings
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last night’s Common Council session had a large agenda, including toward the end consideration of whether to appoint outside counsel for a possible complaint against a Police and Fire Commissioner. After a closed session of about seventy minutes, Council returned to open session and unanimously voted to authorize outside counsel to be hired for a…
America, City, Law, Local Government
The No-Prior-Discussions, Wheelchair-Access Lawsuit Against Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Weighty claims require that claimants present their grievances deliberately. A serious presentation ordinarily includes (1) signaling that one has a grievance, (2) offering a chance for a negotiated resolution, and only later (3) letting others know that one might seek recourse to the courts if negotiations should prove unproductive. (This last point only applies if…