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Whitewater-Area League of Women Voters — February 2010 Newsletter

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The Whitewater-Area League of Women Voters’ February 2010 Newsletter is now available, and the latest issue includes a calendar of upcoming LWV events. The latest copy of the LWV newsletter is available as a link on my blogroll, and is embedded below, with coding through Google. I like the simplicity that the Google Document Viewer offers, with features including a larger-screen mode, and a link to the document, from which one can view, print, or share it.

Here is a sampling of upcoming events mentioned in the February newsletter:

2009-2010 Contemporary Issues Lecture Series

The College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is once again offering the Contemporary Issues Lecture Series. All lectures will be in the Young Auditorium at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Contact Susan Johnson (johnsons@uww.edu or 472-4766) for further information.

Monday, February 15th 2010 — “Naked Trends: What Can Basic Economics Tell Us About the Future”– Charles Wheelan

“Charles Wheelan, a faculty member at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and a former Midwest correspondent for The Economist, writes Yahoo!‘s popular “Naked Economics” column. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Chicago, Wheelan was Director of Policy and Communications for Chicago Metropolis 2020, a business-backed civic group promoting healthy regional growth in the Chicago area. He has written for the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other publications. His 2003 book, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, seeks to make economics accessible, comprehensible and appealing.”

Fairhaven Lecture Series

All lectures are open to the public at no charge on Mondays at 3 p.m. at the Fellowship Hall, located at the Fairhaven, 435 West Starin Road, Whitewater, WI 53190. Sponsored by the UW-Whitewater Office of Continuing Ed.

8 February—Putting the Bayeux Tapestry in its Place. Chris Henige, Associate Professor and Chair, Art Department

15 February—Competitive Speaking Examples from the UW-Whitewater Forensics Team. Jeanine Fassl, Senior Instructor and Director of Forensics, Department of Communication

22 February—Narrative in Music from Around the World. Alena Holmes, Assistant Professor, Department of Music

1 March —What Costumes Say to an Audience (Part I). Marshall Anderson, Professor and Chair, Theatre / Dance Department

Elkhorn

The Walworth County Judicial Candidates’ Positions, and Understanding

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The more one hears about the candidates for Walworth County circuit judge, the more one comes to see that only two of the candidates seem to understand the office for which they are contesting. Along the way, one has no trouble seeing that the Whitewater Register doesn’t understand the role, either.

Yesterday, I had fun teasing about the campaign signs for the circuit judge candidates for Walworth County.

See, Judicial Candidates for Walworth County Circuit Court.

(Quick note: I think the candidate’s sign on the lawn of the Whitewater city attorney’s firm is a matter of bad form reflecting on the city attorney, not the candidate. Then, a more important question is the quality of legal opinion the city receives, a subject for another day.)

There’s more about these candidates, over at the Whitewater Register, in its February 4th edition. On page eight of that formerly local newspaper, there’s an article entitled, “Candidates connect: Q & A with the Walworth County Circuit Court judge contenders.” The story asks seven questions of the candidates:

1. How do you differ from your opponents?
2. What is your favorite thing to do or place to visit in Walworth County?
3. What do you see as the most pressing issue facing the Walworth County judicial sysem?
4. Do you think that Walworth County is tough enough on sex offenders? Would you like to see any changes in prevention, prosecution or sentenciong with regard to sex offenses in the county? If so, what?
5. County officials are currently examing the possibility of jail expansion, which could cost taxpayers millions. How would you work to keep the jail population down, while staying tough on crime?
6. Walworth County jail is said to be the “Beverly Hills” of jails — because inmates have the ability to order food, among other comforts. Is Walworth County jail too cozy?
7. Who is your favorite TV judge?

Two of the questions — what to do in Walworth County, and favorite TV judge — are just frivolous. One silly question might make sense, but I’d guess the Register thinks only the question about a favorite TV judge is silly. They’re wrong — there’s a diminuition of the judicial role when prattling along like a candidate for town council about one’s favorite activites in Walworth County. The candidates all talk about loving their families, with mentions of the county fair, picking strawberries, boating, etc.

One of the questions is simply false, and absurdly so — the idea that the Walworth County jail might be the “Beverly Hills’ of jails, or the implication that inmates are ordering takeout. The question is oddly ignorant of how the jail operates, suggests a nickname for the jail that only a buffoon would use, and is easily and correctly dismissed by all of the candidates as false and misleading.

Of the seven questions printed for publication, two are silly and irrelevant to the judicial role, and one is simply erroneous.

Consider, though, the question about a true concern — sex offenders. The question poses a problem for society, but an even bigger problem for these candidates. As candidates Reddy and Letteney correctly note, there are limits on judicial candidates’ answers to open-ended questions like this, under Wisconsin rules of conduct. Reddy observes that

It would be irreponsible to answer the question the question as phrased. Every defendant should be sentenced based upon the specfic facts presented to a court. The law requires that a judge consider the gravity of the offense, the offender’s character and the
public’s need for protection.

Letteney notes that

This is a difficult question to answer, because under the Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules of Judicial Conduct, judges and judicial candidates are not permitted to state how they would rule in certain cases. In addition, law enforcement is primarily responsible for crime prevention and the District Attorney is responsible for prosecution.

Only Reddy and Letteney seem to have understood the obligations of a judicial candidate, at least in these published remarks, in answering the question. A version of what they said should have been the first words of any judicial candidate in reponse to a question like this.

Answering this way implies no weakness toward crime — on the contrary, it’s evidence of a much needed respect for the nature of a judicial role. I have no sympathy for violent criminals, nor other
crimes against people or property. Judges are not, however, and cannot be, prosecutors or defense attorneys. Wisconsin rules of conduct for judges and judicial candidates address the unique role of judge, apart from advocate.

Some of these answers are more political than judicial. One might at least have hoped, though, that all those answering a question would understand the simple, clear rules by which judicial candidates should be bound. Perhaps we should be fortunate, in Walworth County, that even half the candidates did.

Press Release

Press Release: 23rd Annual Wisconsin Troopers’ Association’s Art & Essay Contest

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The 23rd Annual Wisconsin Troopers’ Art & Essay Contest is accepting entries through February 14th. I have included the contest rules, and an entry form, immediately below. The forms can be viewed in a full screen mode, and are available for downloading and printing. Best of luck to all contestants.

Updated: 2/6/10 — updated to Google Documents Viewer for a cleaner format.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread from Whitewater, Wisconsin: 2-5-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast calls for a chance of snow, of little accumulation, with a high of thirty-two degrees.

Our city one public meeting listed for today: the Whitewater-University Tech Park Board meets at 2 PM.  The agenda for the meeting is available online.  The meeting will go into closed session to consider “[p]otential tenants and lease rates.”

In our schools, it’s Spirit Day at Washington School, and at the Middle School, there’s a student council pep assembly at 2 PM.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that this day in 1849 was an especially historic one for our state:

1849 – University of Wisconsin opens

On this day in 1849 the University of Wisconsin began with 20 students led by Professor John W. Sterling. The first class was organized as a preparatory school in the first department of the University: a department of science, literature, and the arts. The university was initially housed at the Madison Female Academy building, which had been provided free of charge by the city.

The course of study was English grammar; arithmetic; ancient and modern geography; elements of history; algebra; Caesar’s Commentaries; the Aeneid of Virgil (six books); Sallust; select orations of Cicero; Greek; the Anabasis of Xenophon; antiquities of Greece and Rome; penmanship, reading, composition and declamation. Also offered were book-keeping, geometry, and surveying.

Tuition was “twenty dollars per scholar, per annum.” For a detailed recollection of early UW-Madison life, see the memoirs of Mrs. W.F. Allen [Source: History of the University of Wisconsin, Reuben Gold Thwaites, 1900]

City, Elkhorn

Judicial Candidates for Walworth County Circuit Court

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A sharp reader wrote, and asked me about the upcoming Walworth County election, as judge Michael Gibbs is retiring from office. There are four candidates in the race: Mark Bromley, David Danz, Scott Letteney, and David Reddy. The Judgepedia has a page that lists candidates for judgeships across the state.

See, Wisconsin Judicial Elections 2010.

Wisconsin has a spring primary election on February 16th, and a spring general election on April 6th.

Whoever wins this race will have to work in Elkhorn, our county seat, and a place that brings to mind Ben Kenobi’s description of Mos Eisley: “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” Some of these candidates already work in Elkhorn, and yet they are willing to stay even longer. At its most charitable, that’s confirmation that the Stockholm Syndrome is more than just a theory. County government is a place of mediocrity and mendacity matching that of my own town of Whitewater. No easy feat, but there must have been enough self-important, selfish bureaucrats left over after Whitewater’s leadership payroll was set, and I suppose they wound up in Elkhorn.

Mark Bromely is an attorney in private practice, and a member of the Walworth County Board. He’s from Whitewater, and is the only candidate living in this part of the county. He’s a private practitioner, and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School.

I first noticed his campaign signs in December, I think, before any of the other candidates. Ironically, despite the early campaign presence (he had a car in the Whitewater Christmas Parade, too), I could not find one of his signs in our downtown when looking for one last night.

I thought there were quite a few at one time, but I couldn’t find one in town yesterday. Perhaps I was looking in the wrong spots. In any event, residents are likely to recall them: blue and red, and a larger, blue version with Bromley’s picture. They’re sharply done, and are the only signs in the race give voters a picture of the candidate.

Scott Letteney is a municipal judge in the county for Geneva Township, and works as a deputy city attorney in the city of Racine. I haven’t seen any signs for him, that I can recall. I am sure he has some; I just don’t recall. It’s also possible that he has placed many of them in parts of the county that I avoid. Letteney is a graduate of Marquette Law School.

Candidate David Danz is a private practitioner in Elkhorn, and a graduate of the University of San Diego Law School. You have surely spotted his signs, if you’ve walked about Whitewater, and don’t require a seeing eye dog.

They’re unmistakable. It’s not really a matter of asking for one’s vote, as much as insisting upon it. If signs could talk, this one would be shouting.

The same sharp reader who asked me to comment on the judicial candidates also correctly observed how this town will hector every private merchant who’d like to put up a sandwich board, but candidates for the public payroll can put up huge signs without challenge. I favor a rule that allows merchants the same opportunities as candidates. If there are to be large signs, they should at least be for productive private citizens trying to make a living on their own, as much as candidates looking for a salary and benefits from the taxes of others.

The fourth candidate is David Reddy, a Walworth County Court Commissioner, who has worked in private practice and another county’s district attorney’s office. Reddy was graduated from the Thomas Cooley Law School. Reddy has a conventional campaign sign, a photograph of which appears below:

Totally apart from Reddy, look carefully at the location of the sign. It’s a familiar location to anyone in Whitewater — the law firm of which Whitewater’s city attorney, Wally McDonell, is a named partner. That’s his name, McDonell, listed as the final in the sequence of names on the firm’s sign.

McDonell’s been city attorney for a long time, and I believe that he’s actually paid as a city employee now, as a municipal cost-saving matter.

It would, and should, be obvious to anyone that this sign creates the appearance of a conflict of interest. The named partner of this firm, the city attorney, should not be displaying a sign with his preference in this race, on the firm’s lawn. It doesn’t matter that McDonell would insist that he doesn’t think it’s a conflict — reasonable people can easily see as much.

There’s so much talk about what the city manager and others ‘appreciate,’ and what’s ‘appropriate,’ etc. These gentlemen fuss over propriety only for trivial matters when it suits them.

I surely don’t expect these insiders to change, or do what’s right; they shouldn’t — and can’t — expect that I’ll not mention as much.

Press Release

Press Release: Local Conference for Woodland Owners

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On Saturday, February 27, 2010 the Madison Area Woodland Owners Conference will feature presentations in the morning that examine invasive species identification and management, continued care for established trees in woodland and an update of emerald ash borer and how to best manage for it. The afternoon program will highlight how to conduct a successful timber sale and explore woody biomass harvesting and markets. The day will close with a presentation on Wisconsin bats. In addition to the program there will also be educational and commercial exhibits to view. If you are interested in being an exhibitor, contact the number given below.

The February 27th conference runs from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and includes coffee and rolls, lunch and handout materials. The registration fee is $35 (couples are $65) if you register before February 17th and $40 (couples are $75) for a late or onsite registration. The conference will be held at the American Family Insurance Headquarters Training Center which is located between Madison and Sun Prairie, off of Highway 151 on American Parkway.

The sponsors for the conference include Dane County UW-Extension and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. If you have questions about the conference, would like to receive a registration brochure, or are interested in having an exhibit at the conference; contact Mindy Habecker at Dane County UW-Extension (608)224-3718.

Poverty

Janesville Gazette: Hunger up dramatically in southwest Wisconsin

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From the Gazette story, the difficult circumstances nearby communities face:

Dan Stein, president and CEO of Second Harvest of Southern Wisconsin, said the number of people facing hunger has increased across the state, but the situation is particularly dire in the southwestern part of the Wisconsin.

“Throughout the state, the numbers were between 30 and 50 percent, but here, it’s 83 percent,” he said. “There are a lot of reasons for that.”

Stein said unemployment has wreaked havoc on many communities in southwestern Wisconsin, particularly in communities such as Janesville and Beloit. More people know someone—a relative, a friend, a neighbor—who has lost a job and is struggling to make ends meet, he said.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 2-4-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s forecast calls for a cloudy day, with a high of thirty-two degrees.

There are no municipal meetings scheduled for the City of Whitewater today, at least to my knowledge. There will be more, soon enough, I wouldn’t wonder.

On this day in 1902, Charles Lindbergh was born, and twenty-five years later, he flew the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

City

Real Data Describe Real People

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Although small towns like Whitewater are supposed to be places of
clear thinking and straight talk, in a small town like Whitewater, bureaucrats will flack any aparently positive data over the actual conditions of life in town. It’s how simple-minded cheerleading has replaced honesty and integrity as the lingua franca of Whitewater.

Consider, for example, how the city manager of Whitewater touted, and an incumbent politician and online publisher scurried to republish, a Moody’s bond rating as proof of the city’s supposed economic strength and fiscal management. The value of the bond rating was predictably exaggerated, and deceptively presented. It wasn’t hard to critique and to place in an honest, realistic perspective.

See, On Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Recent Bond Rating.

An even more egregious example of city manager Brunner’s sophistry was his flacking of a study that referred to Whitewater (population 14,000) as a dreamtown, when the actual subejct of the survey was the entire county (Walworth County, with more than
one-hundred thousand people)!

Brunner’s a man banking on people reading only what he writes, and delving no deeper than his often erroneous and superficial analysis.

See, Municipal Exaggeration: Dream Towns.

When I write about conditions in Whitewater, or America, I refer to actual conditions that affect people’s lives, like unemployment and child poverty, both high in our area.

See, Poverty in Whitewater, Part 2 (How many of our families have been in poverty recently, since the last census data?).

When pushing a bond rating over the truth of conditions in town, Brunner is like a man who confuses the outward depiction of someone with that person’s actual health:

It’s wrong to allow the superficial to distract us from actual conditions, commonly lived.

The strength or weakness of an economy is measured in how conditions fare for common people, not a lucky few, and certainly not for taxpayer-supported, big-talking bureacrats. It’s even worse when officials flack false claims, like conflating the city with the entire county.

The latest gross domestic product numbers are out, and the preliminary figures show seemingly impressive growth of 5.7% in the fourth quarter. I’m surprised that I have not heard the crack economic team at our municipal building contend that 99% of all national growth took place in Whitewater, in response to the visionary planning that the city manager offers Whitewater. Perhaps I just missed those remarks in the latest Whitewater Weekly Report.

In fact, the 5.7 number isn’t so impressive, when one considers that most of it amounted only to replacing depleted inventories.

Here’s a more careful assessment:

….over 60% (3.7%) of the growth came from inventory rebuilding, as opposed to just 0.7% in the third quarter. If you examine the numbers, you find that inventories had dropped below
sales, so a buildup was needed.

Increasing inventories add to GDP, while, counterintuitively, sales from inventory decrease GDP. Businesses are just adjusting to the New Normal level of sales. I expect further inventory build-up in the next two quarters, although not at this level, and then we level off the latter half of the year.

While rebuilding inventories is a very good thing, that growth will only continue if sales grow. Otherwise inventories will find the level of the New Normal and stop growing. And if you look at consumer spending in the data, you find that it actually declined in the 4th quarter, both annually and from the previous quarter. “Domestic demand” declined from 2.3% in the third quarter to only 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Part of that is clearly the absence of “Cash for Clunkers,” but even so that is not a sign of economic strength.

See, We are So Screwed from the Business Insider. (The title’s less impressive than the analysis, an analysis that is more serious and detailed.)

There’s company in the view that the worst is not over, from economists Nouriel Roubini of NYU and Lawrence Summers, now a White House economic advisor:

The headline number will look large and big, but actually when you dissect it, it’s “very dismal and poor,” Roubini said in a Jan. 30 Bloomberg Television interview following a U.S. Commerce Department report that showed economic expansion of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter. “I think we are in trouble.”

Roubini said more than half of the growth was related to a replenishing of depleted inventories and that consumption was reliant on monetary and fiscal stimulus. As these forces ebb, the rate will slow to 1.5 percent in the second half of 2010.

Roubini, who chairs New York-based Roubini Global Economics LLC, has become famous for his pessimistic projections. In 2007, he correctly predicted a “hard landing” for the world economy. He said last year that the global recession would shrink through 2009, only for growth to resume in the middle of the year.

“Feel Like Recession”

He says now that while the world’s largest economy won’t relapse into recession, U.S. unemployment will rise from the current 10 percent amid “mediocre” growth.

“It’s going to feel like a recession even if technically we’re not going to be in a recession,” he said in the interview. Also speaking in Davos, Summers, director of the White House National Economic
Council, said that the statistical recovery won’t mask a “human recession.”

See, Roubini Sees Very Dismal and Poor Expansion

There’s a path to good and substantial growth for Whitewater, and an economy that lifts children and families out of chronic poverty. That way requires reform, and the simple rejection of puffery and cheerleading. A significant reduction in the size of the city of Whitewater’s budget, with a meaningful decrease in the tax levy, the easing of crippling regulations, the end of wasteful multi-million dollar schemes that feed on taxpayer money and public debt, and honesty instead of dishonest cheerleading would uplift our community.

When we embrace, in the words of a great organization, “individual liberty, limited government, [and] free markets” our city will find lasting prosperity. We’ll find even more: an end to dishonest and selfish leadership.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 2-3-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater’s weather forecast calls for a partly sunny day, with a high of twenty-eight degrees.

There are two public, municipal meetings scheduled for today.  At 5 PM, the Landmarks Committee will meet, in municipal building.  Here’s the agenda for the meeting:

I. Call to Order

II. Roll Call

III.     Approval of Agenda and Possible Rearrangement

IV. Approval of Minutes of January 6, 2010 Meetings

V. Set date of next meeting (Wednesday, March 3, 2010, at 5:00 PM)

Old Business

VI.     Report from Friends of the Mounds Meeting (Helmick)

1.  Article in The Wisconsin Archeologist by Stekel, Johns, Scherz

2.  Possible future activities, events, tours

VII.   Action on  Landmark Commission Bylaws (McDonell, Singer)

VIII. Update on Train Depot Renovation (Lashley)

X.     Update of possible moving or demolition of James and Ella Rockefeller House at 837 South Janesville Road (Scott)

XI.   Report from Indian Mound Task Force Meeting (Scott)

XII.  Report on implementing the New Provisions of Chapter 17.  (Scott)

1.  Discuss establishing criteria for designation

2.  List of possible items

XIII. Update National Certified Local Government Reports (Scott)

XIV.  Discuss possible events and projects for Historic Preservation Month

1.  Library Display Case

2.  Local Landmarks Tour

New Business

XV.   Discuss possible projects  and events for 2010

1.  Local Landmark Designations

2.  Historic Districts

XVI.  Future Agenda Items

1.  Congregational Church Clock Tower

2.  Whitewater Historical Survey Recommendations

3.  Leaflets and Educational Materials

XVII. Adjournment

Later, at 7 PM, there will be a meeting of the Cable TV Committee. The meeting agenda is available online.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that this day, in 1959, was

1959 – The Day the Music Died

Bad winter weather and a bus breakdown prompted rock-and-roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper to rent a plane to continue on their “Winter Dance Party” tour. Icy roads and treacherous weather had nearly undermined their performances in Green Bay and Appleton that weekend, so after a show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959, they boarded a four-seat airplane. The three performers and pilot Roger Peterson perished when the plane crashed about 1:00 AM on Monday, February 3rd (“The Day the Music Died,” according to singer Don McLean in his song “American Pie”) . [Source: Mark Steuer; Wikipedia]