There’s a story at Channel 3000 (the website for WISC-TV) entitled, Janesville resident to petition council’s decision to build a new fire station. The story says much about (1) government spending, (2) unlawful use of closed sessions to conceal projects, and (3) press competition. Here’s the cause of residents’ ire: Janesville resident Billy McCoy is…
Open Government
City, Local Government, Open Government
Confronting Bad News
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are always a number of accidents, crimes, or tragedies in a community. One hopes for as few as possible. The best way for government to address those misfortunes is to act quickly and openly to take whatever actions law and charity require. Along the way, however, it might be useful for big talking officials…
Open Government, School District
The Whitewater Schools’ Recent Budget Cuts
by JOHN ADAMS •
I wrote last week about proposed budget cuts in the Whitewater Unified School District. (See, The Whitewater Schools’ Budget Cuts.) Since that post, the WUSD School Board met Monday, and following that contentious meeting made modifications to proposed cuts on Wednesday afternoon. (At each stage of this process, proposed cuts have been in the aggregate…
City, Good Ideas, New Whitewater, Open Government
‘Best Practices, Fair Treatment, Transparency’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Writing about the city requires reading the public documents of local government, even if one chooses not to write about what one’s read. Reading and observing come well before writing. Daily observation inclines an observer not to the immediate, but the distant – one takes a longer view of things. Along the way,…
City, Local Government, New Whitewater, Open Government, Politics
Could the Koch Brothers Dominate Whitewater’s Politics?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Assume for a moment that Charles and David Koch decided to use their vast billions to dominate Whitewater’s local politics. They’d spend whatever they had, under this hypothetical, to put their hand-picked candidates in office, for advertising, public relations, goodwill community events, and lobbying to get their way in elections, appointments, and in pressuring local…
Local Government, Open Government
The Daily Union (Rightly) Forges Ahead
by JOHN ADAMS •
In nearby Fort Atkinson, that city’s municipal manager, Evelyn Johnson, recently resigned after somewhat over a year in her role. The Daily Union submitted to the City of Fort Atkinson an open records request, to learn more about her departure from a public position. In reply, Fort Atkinson’s city attorney, Chris Rogers, wrote denying the…
Federal Government, Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Local Government, New Media, Open Government, Politics, State Government, Writing
Steps for Blogging on a Policy or Proposal
by JOHN ADAMS •
For bloggers who cover politics, policy-making, etc., just as would have been true of essayists and pamphleteers in an earlier time, it helps to have a method to one’s writing. In the paragraphs below, I’ll list steps one should take when approaching a topic. The steps are in a rough order, but in any method,…
City, Corporate Welfare, Local Government, Open Government, Politics
It’s Not a Communications Problem
by JOHN ADAMS •
A few months ago, during a public meeting, a commissioner mentioned that an applicant and the applicant’s neighbors might have done more to communicate with each other. (I thought that was true, too; as it turned out, there was a great deal of communication in the weeks afterward, all to the good.) It’s not…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, New Whitewater, Open Government
What Standards for Whitewater?
by JOHN ADAMS •
This post is a companion to one from yesterday on rights, entitled, How Many Rights for Whitewater? Whitewater is a place of great natural beauty, hundreds of years of indigenous and settled living, and a quaint, small-town scene. If residents of Whitewater should have the same rights as those elsewhere in Wisconsin and America –…
City, Law, Liberty, Local Government, Open Government
Closed Sessions in an Open Society
by JOHN ADAMS •
Consider a review of three grocery lists, labeled A, B, and C, respectively: List A: Purchases (1) One gallon, skim milk (2) One dozen navel oranges (3) One loaf of whole wheat bread List B: Purchases (1) fruit and/or (2) something made of flour List C: Purchases (1) something to eat They’re all lists; they’re…
City, Local Government, Open Government, Public Meetings
The Open Government Presentation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last week, at Common Council, the city heard a presentation from City Attorney McDonell on Wisconsin’s Open Meetings and Public Records Laws. In the embeded video below, from 1:07:00 to 1:43:03, readers will see that presentation. (Sadly, it starts off poorly, with a deprecating joke about the subject matter being boring. That’s false, of course:…
Business, Law, Local Government, Official Misconduct, Open Government
How Local Government Has It Easier Than Yelp
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yelp may be a popular website for positing restaurant (and other) reviews, but it has a controversy on its hands. Some businesses are complaining about Yelp’s practice of hiding some reviews behind a link (that is, where one has to click the link to see all posted reviews). Some restaurateurs contend that Yelp hides favorable…
Local Government, Open Government, Press, Public Records
Biting the Hand That Fed Him
by JOHN ADAMS •
Janesville City Manager Eric Levitt has decamped to Simi Valley, California. Readers will recall that Mr. Levitt touted the supposed benefits of a Generac-supporting ‘Innovation Express’ bus costing hundreds of thousands in public money. He kindly visited Whitewater last budget season to ask Whitewater taxpayers to kick in for a private company’s needs. (See, Whitewater’s…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Law, Official Misconduct, Open Government, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, Wisconsin
The Truth about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
by JOHN ADAMS •
A person should be able to make simple distinctions, as between the sensible and foolish, or practical and impractical. Sometimes those distinctions should be clear, and as stark as the difference between the contents of a sample cup and a glass of Chardonnay. You’ll hear a lot locally over the next few days about a…