FREE WHITEWATER

Laws/Regulations

Dallas Bans Useful Signs for Small Business

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Whitewater, Wisconsin’s a small town, but it has a big city’s thirst for regulation. We’ve had more than one fuss over whether a sign is acceptable, or a sandwich board in compliance, etc. Our town fathers have expended considerable effort on these concerns. Imagine their surprise when they learn that Dallas, Texas has jumped ahead of Whitewater in the race to regulate, restrict, and control whenever possible.

Hey, Whitewater’s town fathers — show Dallas who the real regulators are!

City of Dallas Bans Window Signs for Small Business

(h/t — Reason.com) more >>

City, Planning

Haste Makes Waste

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Whitewater’s City Manager, Kevin Brunner, trumpets what he considers a speedy advancement of a publicly-funded tech park for Whitewater. Brunner considers this a sign of accomplishment. He’s wrong, twice over. First, there’s less to Whitewater’s supposed accomplishments than meets the eye. Second, and even more important for our town, is the fundamental understanding among successful managers that a rapid pace for developing a tech park is a bad idea. Brunner may think that rushing though a project shows talent, but some tasks deserve more care & consideration than a hurried approach.

Earlier this month, the Daily Union wrote unquestioningly about Whitewater’s tech park in a story entitled, Whitewater Tech Park advances; panels to study second building. The story was, in the main, more dictation than reporting. I wrote on that newspaper story, and our tech park, in two posts entitled, On Whitewater’s “Advancing” Tech Park, Part 1 and On Whitewater’s “Advancing” Tech Park, Part 2.

(I offered several points in those two posts: (1) the story touted officials’ unverifiable claims, (2) one would expect some advancement with millions in public money, (3) there should be even more tenants by now, (4) the anchor tenant selected is unsuitable for a tech park, (5) current lack of a strategic plan is cavalier and embarrassing, (6) the building is ordinary, not unique in design, and (7) there’s nothing green about an office building, and it’s insulting to environmental concerns to pretend otherwise.)

Last week, the Journal Sentinel‘s Kathleen Gallagher wrote about successful tech parks in a story entitled, The Business of Growing Up: Madison pays attention to its young companies.

Two truths stand out prominently from her story: successful tech parks require careful thought over an extended period, and they’re filled with private ventures, not taxpayer-funded agencies.

Madison’s tech parks and the rest of its entrepreneurial infrastructure grew out of a unified strategy and long-term cooperation among the city, the state, the university and business people.

“This hasn’t happened overnight,” said David Linz, southeast regional director for the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network. “It’s been 25 years in the making.”

The list also reveals private companies after private companies that have used these tech parks to get started — even when the term ‘incubator’ isn’t used, that’s a common use for a successful tech park. These parks “…have helped breed companies including Jellyfish.com, Mirus Bio Corp., NimbleGen Systems Inc., Third Wave Technologies and TomoTherapy Inc., which have become some of Wisconsin’s biggest entrepreneurial success stories.”

Even without seeing how others have carefully, thoughtfully, and deliberately planned tech parks, one could sense that Whitewater’s park began as a slapdash effort — a scramble after federal money, a rush to issue public debt (bonds) to pay for a building or two.

That’s why a story that simply repeats what local leaders say isn’t much of a story. It’s more stenography than reporting, dutifully recording local bureaucrats praising themselves for accomplishments that simply aren’t very accomplished.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 2-24-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast today calls for a chance of snow, with a high temperature of twenty-five degrees.

This may be a day without a public meeting for the City of Whitewater. There’s our mid-week respite. Enjoy.

When one starts a timeline, it helps to start from the beginning. It helps even more when the timeline is a genuine one, not something still being ‘finalized.’ Finalized is just another word for incomplete. That beginning — when need became apparent, was August 2008, not January 2010.

That’s eighteen months ago, not merely one month ago. If Whitewater’s bureaucrats would only try harder, they could count that far back — fingers and toes would be more than enough to get Whitewater’s leaders to 18, with 2 to spare.

The Gazette reports that the urban chicken movement took a hit in Janesville, with a measure for urban chickens being defeated, 5-2 before the Janesville Common Council. They’ll be back:

Resident Diane Van Horn said she was disappointed by the decision but predicted the issue wouldn’t go away.

“We’re not done yet,” she said, noting chicken advocates now are organized and have a leader in Allison Rollette.

The idea of raising chicken in cities is spreading, she said.

Yes, it is. Go chickens, go!

Public Meetings

Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia

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Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia

Program to Contrast Alzheimer’s and Normal Aging

Milwaukee, WI – February 22, 2010 – The Alzheimer’s Association will host a community program called “Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia” on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. at the New Berlin Public Library, Community Room, 15105 Library Lane in New Berlin.

The program will provide a general introduction to Alzheimer’s in comparison to the normal aging process. Participants will develop an understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, while learning how to identify the warning signs and potential risk
factors. Information on how to obtain a thorough diagnosis and what treatments are available will also be presented.

The presenter will be Judy Gunkel, Regional Services Coordinator, Alzheimer’s Association. This program is open to all members of the community at no charge. For questions, please contact the New Berlin Public Library at 262-785-4980.

The Alzheimer’s Association is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research, to provide and enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease or local programs and services visit www.alz.org/sewi, call the 24/7 Helpline at 800-272-3900 or the Spanish line at 414-750-6640.

City, Free Markets, Libertarians

“Quiet Libertarian Victories”

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Jeremy Lott has a brief essay entitled, Quiet Libertarian Victories, about how the last year has proved libertarians right about their core principles, and some successes effecting change toward more liberty. Lott observes that

The last several years have not been easy for libertarians to stomach. The U.S. government, which had bloated under President George W. Bush and a Republican Congress – the annual budget had climbed from $2 to $3 trillion under Bush and that didn’t count much off-budget military spending – has grown even more under President Barack Obama and his Democrats.

The U.S. now has nationalized industries, out-of-control deficits, and a looming entitlement crunch to deal with. And that’s before we factor in Obama’s calls for even more stimulus and new programs. America, the joke goes, doesn’t have the change to afford hope any more. So why are so many libertarians smiling?

It’s not merely a matter of I-told-you-so. They have real cause to be happy. At the same time as government has grown so much, there have been several quiet libertarian victories that expand American freedoms and that may work to put the brakes on more government intrusions in the future. Those victories were engineered or assisted by libertarians who have decided to press their case not just in the political arena but through the courts.

Lott lists victories for more liberty, more speech, and a freer society: the U.S. Supreme Court Decisions in Heller (recognizing the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms), Citizens United (finding unconstitutional many federal restrictions on political speech), and challenges to cap and trade and for the medicinal use of marijuana. Some of these victories have been — for a while will continue to be — controversial.

They’ll prove popular and enduring, though; Americans are a people receptive to the message of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace.

There’s not the slightest doubt in my mind that local efforts to regulate more are destined for failure and disappointment. These efforts produce more work than they’re worth, and compel our local political class to conceal or exaggerate the ill consequences of these schemes. Given the choice between speaking clearly and maturely against half-baked projects, or sitting around fabricating silly and absurd lies about supposed local triumphs, I very much prefer the former.

Only months ago, at a public meeting in Whitewater, a commission member declared being tired of too much talk of supply and demand. Too funny, really — someone tired of the voluntary exchange in the marketplace between people acting for cooperative, mutual benefit. There was a brief moment, at the end of the last federal administration, and the beginning of the current one, when it seemed to libertarians that America had chosen against free and productive exchange. Those who felt that way were unnecessarily pessimistic: Americans have always returned to the unparalleled prosperity that free markets offer.

So they have returned, to that fair and sound arrangement.

In Whitewater, there’s seldom been serious advocacy of market solutions. There are those who favor regulation generally, those who favor regulation to benefit their friends, and those bureaucrats who pretend they understand private activity while using public money and public debt to finance their schemes. When Whitewater leaders wonder why they’re at a competitive disadvantage as against neighboring towns, they need only look to
their own restrictive, meddling, and unproductive influence.

America, though, has embraced — and embraces yet again — a better way.

Charity, Press Release

Press Release: Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia

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I received the following press release from the Alzheimer’s Association, that I am happy to post.

Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia

Program to Contrast Alzheimer’s and Normal Aging

Milwaukee, WI – February 22, 2010 – The Alzheimer’s Association will host a community program called “Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia” on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. at the New Berlin Public Library, Community Room, 15105 Library Lane in New Berlin.

The program will provide a general introduction to Alzheimer’s in comparison to the normal aging process. Participants will develop an understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, while learning how to identify the warning signs and potential risk
factors. Information on how to obtain a thorough diagnosis and what treatments are available will also be presented.

The presenter will be Judy Gunkel, Regional Services Coordinator, Alzheimer’s Association. This program is open to all members of the community at no charge. For questions, please contact the New Berlin Public Library at 262-785-4980.

The Alzheimer’s Association is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research, to provide and enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion
of brain health. For more information about Alzheimer’s disease or local programs and services visit www.alz.org/sewi, call the 24/7 Helpline at 800-272-3900 or the Spanish line at 414-750-6640.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 2-23-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast is for a high of thirty-two degrees, with a chance of flurries or light snow.

The City of Whitewater will hold a public meeting today at 4:30 p.m. to address the installation of a traffic signal at the intersection of Whiton and Main.

There will be a meeting regarding a Whitewater Unified School District charter schools proposal today from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Cravath Lakefront Center.

On this day in 1945, the U.S. flag was raised on Iwo Jima. Much has been said and written about the battle, and even about the flag-raising, but the image alone was inspiring to millions.

City

Whitewater Community Television

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Whitewater’s public access cable station has a spiffy new website: www.whitewatertv.org. I have a link to it on the left sidebar of FREE WHITEWATER. Recording public meetings is one way to assure an accurate and honest description of meetings and events. A camera or tape recorder tells an honest tale.

There are good newspapers and television stations in Wisconsin, surely. Yet, Whitewater is a small place, and honest newspapers and televison stations haven’t time enough to report on all that happens in town.

Worse still, we are afflicted with more than one newspaper that simply reports officials’ statements unquestioningly. Recordings of public meetings allow residents to see what really happens.

Wisconsin law also allows residents to record meetings themselves, under the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law, Wis. Stat. ss. 19.81-19.98, but that’s a worthy topic for another day.

For today, it’s enough to be happy for anything that advances an accurate account of public proceedings in Whitewater.

City, Police, Press

Whitewater Chief Coan and Mankato, MN Candidacy Update

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There are a few updates on the search for a Public Safety Director in Mankato, MN, a search for which Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan is a candidate.

First, there’s a story in the Mankato Free Press, entitled,
“Public Safety Candidates Go Public,” about the search for the next public safety director for Mankato. The story has two photographs of Coan during his public interview for the position. There’s no particular meaning to the photos, but they are odd. The larger of the two shows Coan walking away from the podium after his presentation, and both can be found on the right side of the story to which I have linked, above. The full — uncropped — photo produces quite an effect. I’ve been asked what I think of it; I have no particular view. Readers are free to make of it what they’d like.

Second, there’s also a video clip with remarks from each of the four candidates, available online at Fox affiliate KEYC TV. Coan’s remarks run from :40 to :55 in the video. (There’s no option to embed the video, but it’s online at the KEYC website.) In his remarks, Coan says that

I would hope to instill pride and enthusiasm in what we stand for and what we can accomplish to build close relationships, partnerships with the community and also to develop a sense of pride for what we stand for and what we could get accomplished.

Third, there’s a companion story at the Mankato Free Press about the Mankato Joint Civil Service Commission, a body that performs some of the functions of Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission. Yet, it reportedly performs them with considerably more diligence than Whitewater’s PFC.

Some months back, in a post entitled, Has Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan already hired a trainer for Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission members? I teased about how the agenda for a PFC meeting allotted a scant twenty minutes to interview two patrol officer candidates. Wisconsin law requires the PFC to approve officer appointments, and I thought it was absurd that the agenda allotted only twenty minutes for two interviews.

Predictably, at the next Whitewater Common Council meeting, defenders of the Whitewater PFC were quick to note that the agenda was obviously, inexplicably in error, that the PFC had actually allotted fifteen minutes or so to each candidate’s interview. This defense was, itself, absurd, because that’s still a paltry amount of time for a task so important. Still, the clueless defenders of Whitewater’s PFC must have thought that they had hit on a compelling explanation of our PFC’s interviewing process.

They were wrong. A look at how Mankato, MN’s Joint Civil Service Commission conducts patrol officer interviews confirms that Whitewater’s practice is shoddy and inadequate. In the Mankato Free Press story on their JSCC, one learns that

Even when the commission is interviewing a pool of potential patrol officers or firefighters, the group of three spends hours questioning candidates. Those interviews are usually in person
and the list of questions is completely different.”

For a slate of candidates in Mankato, hours; for a slate in Whitewater, minutes.

If one waits long enough, one can find refutation of every lie, excuse, and exaggeration behind the shoddy and inadequate practices of the Whitewater Police and Fire Commission.

Those who thought they had an answer for the paltry efforts of the Whitewater PFC were wrong; the defenders’ response reveals only ignorance.

Since Chief Coan, himself, wants to be part of the Mankato force, and presumably thinks it’s a place of which he’d like to be a part, one might ask if he’d acknowledge Mankato has a more thorough process. (One might ask, too, about whether our PFC members have consistently and always conducted their candidate interviews — however speedy — without Coan or a senior police leader watching over them. Independent oversight requires as much; anything else is a sham.)

By the way, in the Mankato Free Press‘s story on their Joint Civil Service Commission, there’s a clue about the prospects for Coan’s candidacy there. In any event, Whitewater will know soon enough. The effort for the quality police leadership that our city deserves will be just as important regardless of events in faraway Mankato.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 2-22-10

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Good morning,

It’s a snowy day for Whitewater, with a predicted high temperature of thirty-three, and little additional accumulation beyond the few inches already on the ground.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. The agenda is available online.

For Lakeview School, it’s a 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. PTA Culver’s Night. At Washington School, it’s the beginning of a book fair.

For those wondering how state government’s furlough program — where workers keep their jobs with several unpaid days off — wonder no more. Unlike private sector furloughs, state government has adopted a different approach. A story entitled, State agencies adopt approach to closings shunned by private-sector employers has the details:

ELKHORN — In a grinding recession that continues to affect bottom lines and tax collections, the payroll-slashing furlough — unpaid time off — has become the latest tool for controlling labor costs. The way Wisconsin state government is implementing furloughs, however, has some wondering whether officials bothered to consider how the public would be affected.

To help trim a projected $6.6 billion budget deficit for the 2009-’11 biennium, Gov. Jim Doyle and the Legislature ordered all state employees to take eight furlough days this year and eight more in 2011. But unlike private sector employers who attempt to spread out furloughs in order to minimize the impact on customers and clients, Doyle opted to shut down government on four furlough days for almost all state employees — Presidents Day (Feb. 15), the Friday before Memorial Day, Columbus Day and the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Jim Haney, president and CEO of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce in Madison, said this approach to managing furloughs is an example of the disconnect between the political class and the public.

“The whole furlough debate as it relates to state or local employees is sort of an indicator of why many of us in the private sector are leery about big-government programs,” Haney said. “Rather than focusing on the ‘business’ — in government’s case, service to the people — bureaucracies tend to focus on the care and comfort of their employees.”

Yes, they do.

On this day in 1980, at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, the United States scored a stunning upset of the Soviet Union in hockey, 4-3. The New York Times reported on the American victory:

Lake Placid, N.Y., Feb. 22 — In one of the most startling and dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog United States hockey team, composed in great part of collegians, defeated the defending champion Soviet squad by 4-3 tonight.

The victory brought a congratulatory phone call to the dressing room from President Carter and set off fireworks over this tiny Adirondack village. The triumph also put the Americans in a commanding position to take the gold medal in the XIII Olympic Winter Games, which will end Sunday.

If on Sunday morning the United States defeats Finland, which ties Sweden, 3-3, tonight, the Americans will win the gold medal regardless of the outcome of the game between Sweden and the Soviet Union later that day. If the United States ties Finland, the Americans are assured of at least a bronze medal.

America went on to defeat Finland, 4 – 2, to win the gold medal in hockey.

Here’s footage from the U.S. – Soviet game:

more >>