Update on the afternoon of 5.20.19: A email response from Dr. Elworthy and my reply — Dear John, I am in receipt of your records request regarding any audio or video recording of the 5.13.19 Whitewater Unified School District board meeting, including a recording of only part of the full session. The City of…
Open Government
Babbittry, Blogging, City, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Newspapers, Open Government, Press
Sunshine Week 2019
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s Sunshine Week in America: a seven-day focus from the American Society of News Editors and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on “access to public information and what it means for you and your community.” One doesn’t have to be a reporter (and bloggers, for example, are not reporters) to understand the importance…
City, Local Government, Open Government
The Disorder Nearby
by JOHN ADAMS •
All the communities in our area are struggling economically, but yet Whitewater has fared better than neighboring places. The commitment of a community to transparency inoculates against an inferior, disordered politics of the sort one sees in the nearby cities of Jefferson and Milton. Look at Jefferson (where city officials dissemble about relationships with fraudulent vendors)…
City, Local Government, Open Government, Television
Whitewater’s Channel 990
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update 1, Tuesday morning: Channel 990 is televising properly again. Here’s my original email, and a reply from Whitewater’s city manager, Cameron Clapper. (See also a message below from Kristin Mickelson, Whitewater’s PR & Communications Manager.) Original email: Good morning, City Manager Clapper. I hope this note finds you well, and enjoying a snow day in Whitewater.…
Open Government, School District
After the Referendum
by JOHN ADAMS •
In response to an email last night and two more today, here are some quick thoughts on the school district and Whitewater. The gist of these messages is similar: was support for the referendum a good idea, in light of district report cards, and the airing of a Shirley Temple movie (The Little Princess, Twentieth…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Foxconn, Free Markets, Government Spending, Local Government, Mendacity, Open Government, Politics, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Walker Cabinet Officers’ Open Letter
by JOHN ADAMS •
Four cabinet secretaries of the Walker Administration have come forward to criticize the governor, and three of them have co-written an open letter against Walker’s relentless emphasis on political gain over sound policies. One of the signatories of the letter is Paul Jadin, who was Walker’s first Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation leader. It says all…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Government Spending, Open Government, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, UW Madison
Foxconn’s Secret Deal with UW-Madison
by JOHN ADAMS •
These last several years in Wisconsin have seen a politics of corporate manipulation of public spending and a retreat from principles of open government. Businesses and business lobbying groups routinely expect public money for business projects that should be wholly private. (Scheming development gurus often refer to taxpayer money as their ‘tools,’ as though the…
Law, Open Government, Wisconsin
Brad Schimel Brings Trumpism to the Wisconsin Department of Justice
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daniel Bice reports that Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel is now demanding non-disclosure agreements from employees of the Wisconsin Department of Justice: On Aug. 10, staffers at his agency were sent an email instructing them to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring them from revealing any confidential information about their work — not just during their time in office but even after…
City, Local Government, Open Government
Video of the Whitewater Common Council Session of 8.21.18
by JOHN ADAMS •
Business, CDA, City, Local Government, Open Government, Public Records 2
Public Records Request of 6.26.18 (Grocery)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday’s post addressed open government aspects of an unrecorded council meeting. See Public Records Request of 6.26.18 (Open Government). This post will consider a slide presentation from the unrecorded Whitewater Community Development Authority presentation of 6.19.18 on grocery store recruitment. Embedded immediately below is that slide presentation, and a link to the 5.19.16 Perkins supermarket…
CDA, Local Government, Open Government, Public Records 2
Public Records Request of 6.26.18 (Open Government)
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Whitewater Common Council agenda packet of 6.19.18 promised a “report and update on grocery store recruitment,” but that session was only partially recorded, with no video or audio record of the grocery presentation. In response, I submitted a public records request of 6.26.18, about three topics: 1. Any audio or video recording of the…
City, Law, Open Government, Public Records 2
Public Records Request of 6.26.18
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a brief post to describe a public records request that I submitted to the City of Whitewater and Whitewater Community Development Authority on 6.26.18. The request – in summary – comprised three items: 1. Any audio or video recording of the 6.19.18 Common Council session, including a recording of only part of the full…
Newspapers, Open Government, Public Meetings
A Simple Truth About Open Government
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve written recently about importance of open government, for itself and for its positive effects, but a simple truth about open government is that it requires a consistent policy of openness. Open sometimes, closed others, isn’t open government: it’s caprice. I’ve a draft of a series open government in progress, and in cases where openness…
City, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, Open Government, Politics, School District
‘Stable and yet it cannot stand still’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Jurist Roscoe Pound once famously observed that “the law must remain stable yet it cannot stand still.” What is true of the law is true of communities – including Whitewater. Among some (but not all) of the few who have held sway in this town for the last generation, changes are unwelcome, and change itself…