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City, Police

Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Police and Fire Commission Cancelled for Tonight

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Oh cruel Nature, harsh force that she is! How is it that she acts to deprive our small city of a gathering by its most extraordinary public commission?

I can think of no better example of misused and unused oversight in all Wisconsin. The many serious and dedicated officers of our town have been ill-served under the Whitewater PFC.

Any yet, has Nature extended her hand to take from us, through the postponement of this meeting, anything we could consider a loss and deprivation?

The law requires these meetings, but their practical absence takes away nothing from this community, on the principle that “nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’.” I’ve not read Billy Preston’s comprehensive treatise on the matter, but I’m sure it’s persuasive.

There will be other meetings, and some day, even serious and deliberative ones. Soon, I’d hope, but I will wait in any event.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 12-8-09

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The forecast is for heavy snow, with a high of 33 degrees. Predicted accumulation during the day is for about two inches, with considerably more tonight.

There’s a scheduled Police and Fire Commission meeting tonight, at 7 PM, and I have no idea how inclement weather may affect the meeting. The agenda is available online.

A few points worth considering:

1. Why keep meeting in a small, cramped conference room, rather than in the spacious area where Common Council and the Planning Commission meet? Everyone in Whitewater can guess correctly why the room is small, and uninviting to ordinary citizens.

2. Why not televise? If Planning is televised, if School Board meetings are televised, then why not the Police and Fire Commission?

3. Part of the meeting will be closed to the public, for interviews of patrol officer candidates. Will Chief Coan and other police leaders leave the room during those interviews, so that the PFC will interview properly and independently?

4. Why fax the notice to the Whitewater Register? Yes, I know it’s a paper of record, but why not just call up the two reporters who were part of the Citizen Police Academy, and ask them to flack whatever story you want? How much fun is it to report on the Whitewater Police Department after that weeks-long public relations effort citizen class?

5. What use to Whitewater has a member of Common Council been on the PFC? Everyone in town knows that answer. Well, probably ‘everyone’ except one.

6. Highlight of the agenda? It’s Chief Coan’s rabbit-out-of-a-hat opportunity. How about this —

B. Chief’s Report
1. Personnel/Staffing Update

Who knows what he’ll say?

It’s a sad anniversary in Wisconsin history, as the Wisconsin Historical Society reports:

1917 – Inventor John F. Appleby Dies

On this date the inventor of the twine-binder, John F. Appleby died. Appleby was raised on a wheat farm in Wisconsin and searched for an easier way to harvest and bundle grains. His invention gathered severed spears into bundles and bound the sheaves with hempen twine. His invention, which was pulled by horses, was a great success. In 1878 William Deering, a farm machinery manufacturer secured the right to use Appleby’s patent and sold 3,000 twine harvesters in a single year. In 1882 the McCormicks (of the McCormick reapers) paid $35,000 for the privilege to manufacture Appleby’s invention. Appleby spent the rest of his life in his shop trying to create additional successful machinery. [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners by Fred L. Holmes]

Press

How ’bout an Opinion Letter?

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In the post immediately below this one, I commented on a story in the Janesville Gazette on that paper’s four tries to get a response to a public records request. (See, After four requests, Gazette gets open records.)

I seldom comment on Rock County events, but the Wisconsin Public Records Law is an important safeguard of open government for all Wisconsin’s citizens.

In the story, the Gazette reports that Rock County Corporation Counsel Jeff Kuglitsch maintains that he complied with the Wisconsin Public Records Law.

It’s easy for a public employee, in defense of his own actions, to contend that he did what he was supposed to do.

One often hears public officials insist they did the right thing; one less often sees them issue a clear and compelling interpretation of the law supporting their conduct. How often does one watch a public meeting, and hear what passes for an opinion on the law, and think: wasn’t that a lot of mumbled nonsense?

So, in situations like this, how ’bout an attorney’s opinion letter, explaining the legal justification for holding the requested records so long, and despite three prior requests?

I am quite sure that corporation counsel can maintain that he acted appropriately – can he justify as much in a thorough opinion letter?

I have been opposed consistently to those holding public office but seeking confidentiality or silence regarding records, litigation, or meetings.

Here’s a challenge – I invite Attorney Kuglitsch to publish an opinion letter on the matter, justifying the county’s position. He can take as long as he wants, and post it on the Rock County website, for everyone in Wisconsin to see.
That way, by posting publicly, citizens can judge the strength of a city or county position for themselves. Counties are not private entities; they should be transparent in the reasoning underlying their actions. Those citizens collectively, after all, are the source legitimate political authority.

There’s a place for those employees who don’t want the transparency of governance that public office requires.

It’s called the private sector.

Press

The Janesville Gazette and Public Records Requests

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There’s a story from December 2nd at the Janesville Gazette that describes how hard it can be to receive adequate government compliance with a public records request.

Wisconsin law has clear provisions requiring local government to supply requested records promptly following a request, even including an anonymous request. (WPRL Wis. Stat. ss. 19.31-19.39)

The story involves four requests (!) of Rock County officials before the newspaper received documents related to the resignation of the county’s human resources director.

See, After four requests, Gazette gets open records.

I am convinced there’s no reasonable, arguable claim against providing the records at the first instance.

Why does, then, delay like this happen? There are a few possibilities, as indication of political and municipal arrogance or incompetence (although in the Rock County story, I’d guess arrogance is the far greater likelihood).

A few general remarks, about no place in particular:

First, public officials are often self-interested. They may be quick and loud in declarations that they represent an entire community, but their actions reflect little more than their own self-interest. They may even dupe themselves into believing that that’s good for them is good for the while community. They see themselves as indispensable rather than (properly) instrumental.

One sees this self-interest in how a politician or bureaucrat will interpret a law. He will often interpret government’s authority broadly, but a citizen’s rights against government intrusion only narrowly.

Many bureaucrats know little of legal and political requirements on them, but a great deal about restrictions on citizens.

Second, though, there’s a desire of officials to ape the no-holds-barred approach they feel that private parties often take in litigation. That kind of private approach is often exaggerated, but more significantly, it’s impermissible for a public entity.

Truly, impermissible: for example, the ethical requirements on a prosecutor are more stringent and encompassing than those on private defense counsel. Why? Because the private attorney has an obligation only to defend truthfully his client; the prosecutor has an obligation to do justice in the name of an entire community, including deciding whether he should, in fact, decide to begin a prosecution. The prosecutor has the power of the state or county behind him, and all legal power conferred within America is conferred for limited and defined ends.

City or county officials sometimes decide that they can obstruct and argue at every turn, using the full power of the city or county, against a private party. They may feel it’s how the game is played, so to speak.

Too funny and galling, both. When the bureaucrat wants authority, he contends that he embodies principle, truth, etc. When he denies a private party its rights under the law, then it’s just a game, and the citizen should buck up and stop whining.

Those officials who operate in a no-holds-barred mode seldom help themselves or their communities. Anyone who thinks that way is often a mediocrity who cannot assess an argument properly, and winds up omitting more than he should, at embarrassment only to himself and his community. Gaps or delays are telling.

Third, how many cities or counties bother to explain to employees what constitutes a public record so that all potential record holders might be aware of their obligations?

How many distribute an actual public records request to those public employees who might be affected when it arrives? Rather than simply explain that a request arrived, how many cities and counties show employees what’s being asked in the original, to make certain the greatest level of compliance?

How many conceal the full request from employees, and simply summarize what one bureaucrat might consider the range of the request?

Employees of a city or county may be denied the chance to see the original request that is, after all, a binding on all those working in the city.

How many employees of cities or counties do more than search a few electronic databases or a local network for email, even though records under the Wisconsin Public Records Law implicate far more than just a few emails?

When a city or county conducts a search though electronic records, do they search broadly based on the topic of the request (as they should), or do they merely search based on a few keywords?

(Officials within a municipality might conduct discussion of a topic or person using a name other than the real name or expected terms, to avoid thereby the discovery of documents using a simple word search.)

The Public Records Law may be circumvented erroneously or wrongly for any number of reasons, in any number of ways. Until there is full and complete compliance, uniformly and routinely, officials would do well to put aside the self-interested description of their work as ‘public service.’

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 12-7-09

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The forecast is for snow, with a high of 32 degrees. There’s a 90% chance of snow, and it’s snowing lightly now so we’ve met that likelihood; accumulation is predicted to be about one inch.

There will be a meeting of the Park and Rec Board today, at 5 PM. The agenda is available online.

In our schools today, there’s a Music Parents meeting at 6:30 PM in the high school choir room.

It’s the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that day in 1941 with a story of survival:

1941 – Wisconsin Man Survives Pearl Harbor Attack

On this date Russ Warriner, a 25-year-old first class seaman on the USS Arizona, miraculously survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The explosions ripped apart the Arizona and killed nearly all his mates. At the time of the attack, Warriner was on the sky control platform, where his job was to spot enemy ships and planes. The bomb that struck the Arizona sliced through the steel deck and exploded into a fuel tank. Fire flared for seven seconds before it ignited 1.7 million pounds of explosives held in the ship’s magazine.

More than 1,000 sailors died instantly, including many on the lookout platform with Warriner. Warriner lost his balance and fell onto the platform. His hands swept through fiery magnesium remaining from incendiary bombs and were nearly burned off. He was knocked off the ship, pulled aboard a small motor boat, and eventually made his way to shore. Warriner was treated at Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois, where plastic surgeons were able to repair his hands. Warriner settled in Wisconsin, married and raised two children. In the late 90s, Warriner was a retired piano tuner living in Beloit Township. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

City, Holiday

Live-Blogging the Whitewater, Wisconsin Holiday Christmas Parade

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I’ve only live-blogged an event once before, a Planning Commission meeting.

Tonight, I have a happier subject — the 2009 Whitewater Christmas Parade. Happier yet still, as I will be drinking Spotted Cow during the event.

I am remiss not to be marching in the parade, but – and this will surely surprise you – I don’t seem to have received an invitation from anyone. I know – it was a surprise to me, too. Perhaps next year.

For this year, it’s old-fashioned blogging.

Newer remarks appear at the top of the post. The parade begins at 6 PM.

6:29:32 PM That’s it for the 2009 parade. Best wishes to all for a Merry Christmas.

6:26:50 PM The marchers will travel to Cravath Lake, in the center of town.

6:23:25 PM The parade concludes with another police car. I don’t expect a stop at my house, but there’s extra Spotted Cow here, just in case.

6:21:59 PM There are several fire trucks in the parade. We have a volunteer department, and they are among the most colorful parts of the parade. Santa and Mrs Claus are riding on one of the trucks.

6:20:14 PM There’s a Whitewater Police Association float with the Grinch on trial. It’s a set-up, I tell you! He’s been framed! (It’s a very clever idea, truly, and one of the best floats of the night.)

6:18:07 PM There is a live nativity in the parade. I was in a live nativity once, as a shepherd, and it’s a hard, low paying job (being a shepherd).

6:16:27 PM Some Girl Scouts go by – no one admires their commitment to capitalism more than I do.

6:14:56 PM There’s a car that a local bureaucrat restored and afterward some foreign exchange students. Thereafter, a float for our Relay for Life chapter.

6:13:17 PM A local candidate for county judge, a float with children in the night before Christmas, and a 4 H float.

6:12:02 PM There’s a giant snow rabbit and a gingerbread house.

6:09:58 PM A police car leads the parade. Chief Jim Coan may be on one of his nearly legendary ride alongs.

6:07:56 PM There are events around town all weekend. They call the weekend events Holly Days, I think.

6:06:02 PM It’s a cold and windy night.

6:04:01 PM It traditionally takes a while for everyone to get organized.

6:00:42 PM The parade marchers will walk along Main Street, through the center of our downtown.

5:59:43 PM I can’t wait for the Police and Fire Commission Float.

5:57:34 PM – We should be starting any minute now.

Inbox Reader Mail

Reader Mail and Comments

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I posted summaries of some replies that I made to reader mail, making a virtue of necessity (lack of a regular Internet connection). I listed some topics, and then a summary of my general replies.

The Internet’s back up in the House of Dissenting Opinion, but there are a few more topics that I’d like to catch up on.

Do I dislike advertising?

No! Advertise away! The question comes from a comment I made that I would never take advertising on this website. That’s not because I don’t like merchants who advertise; it’s really because I like them very much.

We live in a small town, where a few people are very sure that criticism is wickedness itself. Those people are wrong, surely, and ugly and malodorous, probably.

That’s a joke, but one sees my point: we’re just not the place where comments like that wouldn’t make some people, and merchants, jittery. That makes sense to me.

What makes even more sense is that I don’t want to have to concern myself with anything other than what I write. There are enough people who worry about public opinion – to the exclusion of good sense or meaning – around here. (Public opinion seldom means the whole public in Whitewater; it usually means a small collection of The Same People Every Time.)

I have neither thermometer nor weather vane beside my desk.

There’s great power in being a small website publisher, beholden to no one, just on his own.

What do I think of Governor Doyle/the Doyle Administration, etc?

I have only met our governor once, years ago. He delivered a simple, workmanlike speech. I cannot, truly, remember a single word of it, but it wasn’t the forum for anything rousing, in any event. Friendly, cordial, all very conventional.

The questions I’m summarizing are really about the economic performance of the Doyle Administration, though, not his speeches or manner. One sees that Wisconsin is in difficult fiscal straits, and will be for a few years yet, most likely.

Now I know that it would be easy to say this is all Doyle’s fault, but our state has been over-taxed for a long time, even before Doyle’s first term.

To paraphrase Billy Joel, Doyle didn’t start the fire.

I see that Jim Doyle’s not done yet; he’s on his way to the climate summit. One might wonder what Wisconsin has to gain from being there, unless one considers a more prominent attendee.

President Obama will be there, and now that Doyle’s not running for governor again, Jim Doyle has a political constituency of only one.

Biggest or Most Important Economic Events in Whitewater?

Admittedly, I’m collecting different messages into a single question. Generally, it’s a question line about what’s been the most important economic development – or the hardest – of recent years. All the messages like this come with an opinion, a statement about what’s been good or bad.

I’d say a few come to mind: the Bypass around Whitewater as a detriment, the current recession, the closing of the nearby GM plant and related closings in nearby Janesville, all other problems.

Underlying problems specific to Whitewater one finds an overly regulated and restrictive city, and one that spends far more than any small town should on marquee projects that produce more headlines than anything else. We find ourselves at a competitive disadvantage as a result.

As gains, I’d say any work over these last few years of merchants, through Downtown Whitewater or the local Chamber, to band together. Moving the Aquatic Center closer to solvency, while only affecting one enterprise, has been impressive, and is worthy of notice.

Really, though, I cannot think of a single economic success that did not depend principally on private investment and effort. Tax dollars and bonds have not made Whitewater stronger or more competitive.

There is no circumstance under which I would describe tax incremental financing, and tax incremental districts within the city, as a net positive. There’s so much more to write about TIDs in Whitewater, and I’ll not venture more now.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 12-4-09

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The forecast is for a chance of flurries, with a high of 27 degrees.

I don’t know of any public meetings scheduled for the City of Whitewater today.

There’s a holiday concert scheduled at Lakeview School, at 10 AM and 1:30 PM. It’s Eagle and Spirit Day at Washington School. At the Middle School, there’s a student vs. staff basketball game today.

In the city tonight, at 6 PM, there’s a Christmas Parade, sponsored, I think, by the Whitewater Area Chamber of Commerce. It’s not called a Christmas Parade, because that speech — those very words — would offend someone. I’m sure that they would. We are a small town, with a big city problem — that everything one says and does must be ‘appropriate,’ lest we offend.

There’s a great book, You Can’t Say That! — The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Anti-Discrimination Laws, by David Bernstein, that considers how speech suffers from complaints about the supposedly proper, correct use of words.

I cannot confirm a report that the Holiday Parade tonight may include a Police and Fire Commission float. I’m told it makes a brief appearance, travels very quickly down the route, and thereafter leaves no mark of its presence within the community. In any event, if we can televise a holiday parade, we can surely televise Police and Fire Commission meetings.

Daily Bread, Inbox Reader Mail

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 12-3-09 (Reader Mail Edition)

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I awoke to a light dusting of snow on the lawn this morning; it’s the second time, by my count, that there has been any snow this season. Today’s won’t last long; Whitewater will have to wait for appreciable accumulation.

At my home, the House of Dissenting Opinion, my Internet connection is down, so it’s posting via mobile for today. Surprisingly, my Internet service provider’s surplus Soviet network doesn’t seem to be working properly.

I’ll take this opportunity – committed as I am to turning lemons into lemonade – to answer publicly some reader mail. I have answered these messages privately already, but I will summarize some recent correspondence and my replies. The meaning of both messages and replies will be the same.

Some are light, some serious.

My favorite song.

I can’t really pick a favorite, sorry to say. I am sure most people have one, but even if I were to choose one, it wouldn’t be a firm choice. I’m just not that musical.

If I had to pick a single Christmas song, this being that season, I would pick O Holy Night. I think it’s both beautiful and compelling.

Several questions and messages on how much race does or doesn’t matter in Whitewater.

Well, I think it matters more than it should, but I have no particular theory about race, racism, or race relations. There may be someone in town who can explain all this very clearly; I claim no such insight.

The best I could offer anyone would be for him or her to read from the thousands of years of religious insight, and the hundreds of years of American political documents, that consider race, ethnicity, and equality before the law.

Hours reading there is worth years elsewhere, as those writings and documents are the consequence of real and often painful experience, deeply considered or revealed. If one sought a foundation for understanding, I could not recommend a better one.

On the film Dark City.

Yes, I discovered it, as others have, and like it very much. It’s a great science fiction and mystery film from 1998. There was recently a tenth anniversary edition issued, with commentary from the director, Alex Proyas, two of the writers, and Roger Ebert.

What is the Dark City, why is it always dark, what happens at midnight, why does it happen, and will things ever change?

The movie never answers all the questions one might have about how the Dark City came into being. In the commentary, one of the writers offers a theory on how the city came about, as a backstory, and tells viewers that the director had a different theory. I think only the director’s theory makes sense.

No matter – it’s not how the city began, but where it’s heading, that matters most.

Definitely one of my favorite films.

Assorted Questions about Our Public School District.

The questions cluster around what I think of the direction of the district and its new administrator.

I think we came through a long period of mediocre leadership under the last administrator, Leslie Steinhaus, and it’s a long road ahead to build a better district. There are few people I have ever seen in Whitewater, or elsewhere, who seemed as dull, plodding, and uniformly mediocre as Dr. Steinhaus.

There’s a long road back from wasted years, and Whitewater is a town that doesn’t handle long walks well. It’s no easy task to forge a new path here. The longer I write, and reflect on life here over even the last decade, the more one sees how inertia works to keep things at rest, rather than keeping things in motion.

Ironically, that inertia doesn’t come from someone who writes about the town, but from those same people who dislike anyone writing about the town except in a certain way.

City government is a perfect example. Some don’t like anything one writes if it’s not sugary, but writing hasn’t caused any of the fiscal and administrative problems the city faces. On the contrary, the decisions that have been troublesome to this town have come from within the municipal building, and among those who consider themselves supporters of those inside.

Former city manager Gary Boden wasn’t a failure, and current city manager Kevin Brunner isn’t indecisive and floundering, because someone wrote as such. The problems they face aren’t because someone writes.

Years of settled habits, or lack of habits, from Dr. Steinhaus’s tenure will take time to change. I don’t know what the district will seem like, after a year.

In any event, if I have no particular theory of race relations, then I also have no particular theory of education. The theory of teaching someone is beyond me.

I will tell a small story that illustrates my view. Years ago, as a student in a seminar on the history of the American south, I listened to two guest speakers: a professor of literature, and an engineer who happened to have read a lot of Faulkner. The purpose of both guests was to talk a bit about southern authors.

The literature professor was surprised that the other guest was self-taught, and she was initially dismissive of his remarks. Only initially – it soon became clear how much he knew, but more still, how much more excited and enthusiastic he was about the topic.

I don’t mean to suggest that an autodidact is always a better teacher; I mean to contend that one cannot always tell where one will find the best learning. At least, I am not sure where one will always find it. A beginning often requires enthusiasm for one’s subject, and from there, only afterward, do discipline and rigor matter, decisively.

I am sure, though, that America was better off for the engineer who read Faulkner, and spoke of the subject with clarity and interest.

Do I Think that God Finds Whitewater Beautiful?

Oh my, that’s a profound question. There’s a simple answer, though, that anyone from among the laity can confidently answer: Yes, I am confident that He does find Whitewater, Wisconsin beautiful.

The question stems from lyrical, poetic remarks a member of our common council offered some months back that even God would find a particular view in Whitewater lovely.

That’s likely true and compelling, as poetry and hope: there are many times when the city is astonishingly lovely. Those times are most evident not during celebrations or grand events (but as the council member implied, I recall) during quieter moments: early morning, or toward the end of a day.

There is considerable natural beauty around us; those visiting often remark about how beautiful the drive to town is, past farms and pine woods. It is beautiful, and we are fortunate for it. Another reason, surely, for us to have been grateful this Thanksgiving.

When will Police and Fire Commisson meetings be on television?

Not soon enough.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 12-2-09

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Update 1:51:01 PM – I am not sure why this post did not load this morning, but here it is now –

Good morning,

The forecast for Whitewater today predicts cloudy skies, with a high of forty.

In the City of Whitewater, the Landmarks Commission meets late this afternoon, at 5 PM. The agenda for the meeting is available online.

There’s a book fair at Lincoln School today. Lincoln Elementary — home of the Leopards — wasn’t always a school with a mascot. I’ve met many graduates who can’t remember any mascot. I don’t know when Lincoln first adopted the leopard, but it’s a solid choice. I’m not convinced, though, that the logo on Lincoln’s website actually looks like a leopard. See for yourself:


I’ll leave it to others to decide if this is, in fact, reminiscent of a leopard. I still contend that the district’s whippet logo looks suspiciously like a greyhound, although others have written and assured me that it is truly a whippet. (See, About that “Whippet”….)

City

Misunderstanding Litigation

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In yesterday’s post, The Unfortunate Choice of Words, I mentioned a lawsuit against the City of Whitewater, and a now-former police investigator, among others. There’s much that’s interesting in Whitewater’s reaction to a lawsuit.

There are a few simple goals in a small town like ours: (1) avoid litigation at nearly all costs, (2) dispose of the matter as quickly as possible, (3) disclaim any error, mistake, or responsibility for reflection and correction of any kind.

That’s really how a private party thinks, and it’s a sign of how unfamiliar and uncomfortable officials in our small town are with scrutiny and review in an independent forum (a court, especially federal court, far from the comfortable venue of Walworth County).

There was a Planning Commission meeting, over a year ago, when a discussion developed over steps the City of Whitewater took to avoid a lawsuit from a property owner. I will have to look for a video online of the meeting – I recall the discussion as just too funny.

The import of it all was that the City of Whitewater faced a potential lawsuit, so drastic action – even outside of normal and required procedure – just had to be taken!.

One would have thought that little Whitewater faced a Great, Dark Plague, or that extraterrestrials threatened to invade, preparing to conquer the town as a prelude to global domination.

If we truly faced so great a danger, I’d understand the need for extraordinary measures; lawsuits are not such a danger.

Big cities are sued all the time, and no one considers it cause for calamity. A few lawsuits might make the news, and from that publicity, others in politics might take a stand, after reviewing the question in dispute.

Not here. A lawsuit is to be avoided, and if encountered, to be buried.

There’s no better example than the Cvicker case, where a feeble effort to enforce a non-existent settlement only revealed how eager the defendants or witnesses likely were to avoid trial, or even depositions before trial.

Predictably, the case finally settled for an even larger sum.

Insisting prematurely that there had been a settlement – a position the federal court rejected – and seeking to maintain the confidentiality of the supposed initial settlement shows only weakness and insecurity.

I received an email once, from a member of our Common Council, who wrote to tell me that, after all, the Cvicker case had settled. (The settlement agreement was a court filing, publicly accessible; there was no need to send a copy my way.) Presumably, the email reminding me of a settlement was meant to suggest that no further discussion was necessary.

At first, I thought the email a kind of joke, a spoof, as I could not imagine that anyone might be serious on those grounds. Perhaps, in the end, it was a joke or spoof. No matter; one should not be surprised.

Consider a simple lawsuit, where someone sues a manufacturer after a toaster explodes, resulting in severe burns to the plaintiff. The manufacturer settles the lawsuit, for a large sum, to be kept confidential.

Although the plaintiff has received compensation, does anyone think that this necessarily settles the question of whether the toasters might be dangerous? A settlement leaves open the question of whether the toaster is the result of a manufacturing or design defect that might affect countless other consumers.

(One of the reasons for a confidential settlement is so the manufacturer can limit a broader, public inquiry into the possible risks from its toasters. Municipalities that seek confidentiality place themselves in the position of toaster makers. All the grand claims about the nobility of public service fade away when self-interest is at stake.)

By contrast, if the plaintiff withdraws her lawsuit, would one be sure that the toasters were problem-free?

(Three quick notes on more recent litigation involving the Whitewater Unified School District. First, it’s nearly impossible not to see a connection between the Minetts’ school case and the Cvicker case, not only in plaintiffs’ counsel, but in the role of police leadership in both actions. Second, I don’t think it’s possible to read the complaint in the WUSD case and not wonder if a different response from Whitewater Chief Coan might have precluded any lawsuit at all. Third, one takes all sorts of risks in life, but seldom something so daring as issuing a haymaker celebration of the voluntary dismissal of the Minett case. One seldom so tempts the Fates.)

It’s the burying of a lawsuit like the Cvicker case that so illustrates the fundamental problems with Whitewater’s municipal government. Certainly, there are other towns as unwilling to consider the underlying meaning of a lawsuit. We’re not alone in that regard. We must be, though, somewhere near the bottom.

When I write that there is something wrong with the politics and culture of this town, I refer only to culture in the narrow sense: a small number who advocate and support a closed and narrow governance.

Most culture develops apart from government, does not need the assistance of city or state, and should be protected from political interference and government meddling. The best things in life aren’t just free, they’re private.

But we are not so fortunate, and the political culture of the town favors the positive to the point not merely of ignorance, but of deliberate ignorance and dishonesty.

After a lawsuit, here we find only the hope that people will forget and look ahead. The more mature, sober, and public-spirited approach to the Cvicker case would have been to ask what it meant for governance – not just cheerleading management – of the city.

Not yet.

City, Police

The Unfortunate Choice of Words

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I have contended that a community benefits from a vigorous press, one that is willing to question incumbent politicians and bureaucrats. It’s one of the ways that the press in Whitewater, Wisconsin fails the community: asking hard questions of officials seems like treason.

To someone in Chicago or Atlanta, that’s absurd; newspapers, television, and radio in those cities routinely investigate public officials, and routinely criticize official actions.

Here, in our small town, a few particularly small people have convinced a few hundred others that criticism is a betrayal of Whitewater. They think only of themselves, and conflate their own positions with the very city, itself.

I have been a critic of police leadership in this town, and to be as much one need only criticize mediocrity, vanity, and shameless self-promotion. Chief Jim Coan, whose folksy moniker Chief is the only folksy thing about him, has left those immediately below him clueless to everything except the collection of flimsy awards.

One knows as much, when his leaders venture to speak on their own. They share the singular gift that Coan seems to possess – saying the wrong thing because they do not seem to consider the right things.

Consider Lt Lisa Otterbacher, one who might once have seemed – and perhaps still might be – the heiress apparent to Coan, himself.

(For admirers of Coan, those words must be hard to read; someday, the great man will retire, and relinquish his place on the city payroll. As for those admirers, I have often thought that if they collectively stepped across the city line for only a moment, the per capita intelligence of those remaining within Whitewater would double during the interval.)

Lt Otterbacher gave an interview last week to the Royal Purple, in which she commented on efforts to help identify a hit and run driver:

“We’ve been searching and destroying all of our records trying to find a partial plate and see if we can’t connect it that way,” said Lt. Lisa Otterbacher of the City of Whitewater Police Department. “We would appreciate any assistance with this.”

Too funny. Presumably, Otterbacher does not mean that she has been destroying any records, or that the department needs help in that regard. One would assume she is trying to say that she’s working diligently to find the records, and sort them.

See, UW-Whitewater student struck on Main Street.

What’s odd is that we are, after all, the city that faced – and settled for six figures – a lawsuit that alleged, among other things, violations of Fourth Amendment search and seizure provisions. For more information on that case, see Clear Information on the Lawsuit Against Larry Meyer.

I am surprised, too, that Lt Otterbacher – someone I believe received recognition as accreditation manager for Whitewater’s Police Department, would – even for a moment – speak so erroneously. After all, was not accreditation and re-accreditation, with its hundreds of details, proof of our police leadership’s astonishing excellence? Hard to believe, really, that one so lauded for that effort might ever make a mistake.

(For an assessment of the flimsy spectacle that is accreditation, see Whitewater Police Department Re-Accreditation.)

Abandoning a focus on core principles for peripheral details leaves one unprepared to speak, or perhaps even think, clearly.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 12-1-09

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Good morning,

There’s a forecast for Whitewater for sunny skies, with a high of forty-nine. The new month begins warmer and brighter than November.

School is back in session, for a full day. Over at Lakeview School — an elementary school without a mascot of its own — there’s a PTA meeting at 6:30 PM.

Common Council meets tonight, at 6:30 PM. The agenda — deceptively light — is available online. It’s not always consideration of ordinances, but simple reports to the community, that tell the most about the direction of government.

There was a time — a euphemism for more than a century ago — that Wisconsin had a heavyweight (wrestling) champ — if only for a brief time. (Beell lived in Marshfield, but he was born in Germany.) The Wisconsin Historical Society offers the details:

1906 – Fred Beell Crowned Heavyweight Champ

On this date Fred Beell, of Marshfield, Wisconsin, won the American heavyweight wrestling championship in New Orleans, taking two of three falls from Frank Gotch. Beell’s reign was brief. Sixteen days later, he lost a rematch to Gotch. Beell’s victory was the only match that Gotch lost from 1904 until his death in 1918. [Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

Beell went on to become a police officer in Marshfield, Wisconsin. He served with distinction for over a decade, before being killed in the line of duty. The City of Marshfield has more information about Beell’s life and career with the Marshfield Police Department available online.

Uncategorized

Refreshingly Apolitical Hunting

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Not long ago, before the principal deer season of the year opened, I posted a video to tease about discomfort some people have with hunting. In fact, that’s not common in Wisconsin – most people are comfortable with hunting.

One can go to a Packers game, for example, and find that many of one’s fellow fans are wearing warm, blaze orange coats otherwise used during hunting season.

Good for them – one should be comfortable in one’s own skin, and in the long tradition of game hunting. Stigmatizing gun ownership and hunting is a departure from our heritage on this continent.

We are so comfortable, really, that even a liberal town like Madison has a newspaper website that features photos of impressive success during the Thanksgiving hunt.

The Wisconsin State Journal showcases some impressive deer – see for yourself at the Wisconsin State Journal’s Deer Trophy Room.

It’s even more remarkable because the liberal, online Capital Times is part of the same publishing group.

Yet, perhaps not remarkable at all – Wisconsin has a better respect for hunters than many other states, and Wisconsinites enjoy gun rights closer to the intent of the Second Amendment than residents of many other places.

Hunting and gun ownership have been swept away, in other places, into a false conflict between left and right. Scholarship supporting a clear right of individuals to bear arms has been ignored during this political battle.

It’s not all that it should be, but we are fortunate to live in a place where a fundamental constitutional right is so distorted through politics that one cannot exercise – or even recognize it.

I’m not sure how successful the overall season was, but congratulations to those who had good luck in hunting this year.