The March 5th issue of the Register has an above-the-fold story entitled, “City manager’s request for hiring freeze receives support.” Whitewater City Manager Kevin Brunner’s plan, as the Register recounts it, is to implement a hiring freeze on full or part-time city jobs until August 1st. The Common Council supported this effort, with the exception…
167 search results for "Brunner "
City
Participatory Democracy
by JOHN ADAMS •
I received an email from a reader, discussing recent neighborhood meetings in Whitewater. It’s true that I have not commented on these meetings. I wrote him yesterday thanking him for his email, and I’ll offer a public post on the topic. First his message, and my reply follows thereafter in red. There will a second,…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread: January 29, 2009
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater Tonight at 7 p.m. there will be a meeting of the East Campus Neighborhood Association at the community building in Starin Park. The agenda of the association is available online. Agenda items include remarks from City of Whitewater City Manager Kevin Brunner, Councilmember Roy Nosek, City Attorney Wallace McDonell and Neighborhood Services…
City
Review — Municipal Exaggeration: Dream Towns
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a post originally published in August 2008. Whitewater’s still not a dream town — the study about these supposed towns is not about Whitewater, for goodness’ sake. The real story, in the original post, below: UPDATE: A clever reader writes with insight into the data — Regarding your post about the ridiculous nature of…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread: January 5, 2009
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater Here is the beginning — the first full week — of your new year. There are no scheduled public meetings in the City of Whitewater today. One never knows, though, if something terribly important, and offered as an exception to Wisconsin’s open meetings law, will arise. School’s back in session. Hope you…
Register Watch™
Register Watch™ for the October 23rd Issue
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last week, of the October 16th issue of the Register, I wrote What happened? I had to put on reading glasses to make sure that I was looking at the Whitewater Register. The paper has two front page stories on significant fiscal or administrative matters in our school district, and a story on the upcoming…
City, Planning
Planning Commission 10/20/08: The Administration’s Wages of Appeasement
by JOHN ADAMS •
On September 20th, I posted on a Planning Commission meeting from five days’ time earlier. In that post, I mentioned of City Manager Brunner that What’s pandering though, both intellectually and practically, is the suggestion that if the Tratt Street neighborhood becomes higher density, then as matter of balance other neighborhoods should be enforced to…
City
Assessing A City Manager’s Views on Leadership
by JOHN ADAMS •
In this single post, I will offer remarks in reply to the published or publicly recorded views on leadership of the city manager from Whitewater, Wisconsin. I am a blogger from Whitewater, but the Whitewater manager’s views are likely common to career public officials in your town, too. If anything, they’re likely familiar to you,…
City
A City Manager’s View of Leadership, Part 1
by JOHN ADAMS •
I live in Whitewater, Wisconsin — a small town of 14, 296 in southeastern Wisconsin. You may live far away, in a larger city, but your form of city government may yet be similar to ours — an elected city council and its appointed city manager. Our government talks much about excellence and professionalism and…
Register Watch™
Register Watch™ for the September 11, 2008 Issue of the Paper
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Free Markets, University
Whitewater Common Council Meeting for 9/2: Student Housing (Part 2)
by JOHN ADAMS •
On Neighborhood Associations. The Housing Task Force encouraged the creation of neighborhood associations. These associations will be well intentioned, but when they act on their own, they’ll risk overly intrusive actions toward their neighbors. When they seek action from the city, they find either too much or too little support. When they’re on their own,…
City, Development, Economy, Free Markets, University
Student Housing in Whitewater: Our Mistaken and Repetitive Approach
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are two stories from yesterday’s Janesville Gazette that describe the pressures of student housing: Students Spread Out in Whitewater City, School Address Housing Concerns. The stories ably describe arguments that residents of Whitewater have have made against student housing for years with no change in demand. I certainly don’t believe that demand for student…
Police
The Police and Fire Commission Meeting for August 20, Part 3
by JOHN ADAMS •
3. City Manager’s Oversight? Our small city has a council-manager form of government, and the appointed city manager is Kevin Brunner. On the City of Whitewater website, the city lists the dozens of functions of the city manager. Among that number one sees that he claims oversight of the Police and Fire Commission. Should that…
City
Municipal Exaggeration: Dream Towns.
by JOHN ADAMS •
UPDATE: A clever reader writes with insight into the data — Regarding your post about the ridiculous nature of calling the 101,000 population in the micropolitan area “Whitewater,” I just wanted to clear up that the census designates metropolitan and micropolitan areas based on counties, meaning that this micropolitan area is most likely all of…