4. Why so few meetings? If one looks at the schedule of PFC meetings, they meet regularly – if they do – only quarterly.
Many other Commissions meet more frequently. Is their work more important?
Notes from one meeting are not approved until the next – an entire season goes by before they are approved.
On the bright side, the PFC agenda does have a colorful new logo.
The agenda is available at
http://www.ci.whitewater.wi.us/Your_Government/Agendas/policefcagenda.html
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 be so, one would expect that he would assure that the PFC meets the same notice and procedural standards as, for example, commissions whose meetings are actually listed in the local paper.
Why the exception? Why so long – four years of the current administration – without consistency now?
2. Notice. Does the Register not publish a notice for the PFC the way it does for other committees? If the notice were faxed on 8/8, as it says, why does it not appear with other legal notices in the Register’s 8/14 issue for meetings the week of 8/20?
The Common Council and Planning Commission notices appear – do PFC members not care as much about public notice as members of those other public bodies?
Other commissions often have two weeks’ notice – do their members care more about notice?
Surely our PFC should meet the same standard as other commissions, not a lesser one.
Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission will meet tonight. Here’s the first of some quick questions.
1. Who prepares the agenda? By Wisconsin statute, the PFC oversees the police department, not the other way around. One who drafts a meeting agenda typically controls the meeting.
The current PFC agenda, like others before it, says that it was “Sent to PFC members.” They should be sending it to the Municipal Building – did this agenda and those before it come from the department, not citizens?
It’s easy to say that it’s drafted by citizens, but sent by the city. The agendas are so alike a common municipal draftsman is more probable.
Good morning, Whitewater
The City of Whitewater has one public meeting scheduled for today. There will be a meeting of the Police and Fire Commission at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, in the City Manager’s Conference Room.
The agenda for the meeting includes the following items:
I. Call to Order, Roll Call
II. Approval of minutes of May 14, 2008 minutes.
III. Citizen Comments
IV. Old Business ? None
V. New Business
A. Downtown Parking Enforcement
B. Fall Resident Education
C. PFC Support of Department/Share Accreditation
D. Member Training
E. Freedom of Expression Resolution
F. Chief’s Report
1. Accreditation Status
2. Personnel Updates
a) Community Service Officer and Dispatcher Hiring
b) Field Training of New Patrol Officer
c) Probationary Status of Patrol Officers
VI. Adjournment
Today in Wisconsin history, in 1938, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, a “wind storm wrecked the Janesville Canning plant, nearly ripping off the entire third story that housed the cream corn department.”
The National Weather Service, predicts a high of around 85 with patchy fog. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts showers for the Ohio River Valley, then fair and pleasant. That’s as close as they come to Wisconsin.
I am unsure if America would benefit if states could lower the drinking age to 18 without federal penalty, but I am sure the current restrictions are a failure.
Recently, a group of college presidents from among 100 of America’s finest schools called for a debate on lowering the drinking age to 18.
Note that these are serious, accomplished men and women who recognize that current efforts are a revolving-door failure.
Many towns benefit practically from fines from the drinking that they condemns so vociferously. It’s a cottage industry.
Often no one succeeds meaningfully in reducing year over year underage drinking.
We say it’s wrong, but if it did not continue, we’d be at a financial loss.
An entire apparatus has sprung up, a handsome set of municipal machinery, to enforce these laws.
It produces no permanent gains in reducing underage drinking, but lots of show about combatting the problem.
Here’s a link to the college presidents’ call for a debate on the matter:
http://www.nysun.com/national/college-presidents-want-lower-drinking-age/84123/
Talent and experience raise daunting expectations.
Watching the Planning Commission, one feels that they have all the ability that success requires. If they should fall short, it won’t be for lack of ability or commitment.
A dozen outside events might obstruct their efforts; still, they have as strong a roster as any commission in the city, and better than many.
I am no advocate of government planning, but I see that even skilled planners would have trouble in a political culture so odd and distorted as Whitewater’s.
Whether any group of citizens, no matter how dedicated, can make headway in Whitewater is a question yet unanswered.
At last night’s meeting, a local church sought a conditional use permit to move into a former liquor store’s location.
Although, I firmly believe that a church should be treated like any other conditional use applicant, I see easily the political and social risk in not treating the application delicately.
To serve the city well, a document for display should not have too many markings regarding a church or charity.
It should have a minimum of notes, as brief as possible.
Marking up a document for a proposed orphanage, for example, would just be giving a hostage to Fortune. It’s too risky that someone might grandstand on the issue.
That didn’t happen last night, but there is no reason to run that risk.
Part of our town’s Planning Commission meeting last night involved a discussion of the chairperson’s roles and responsibilities. It’s not a bad idea to review all members’ roles every so often, but citizen-volunteers are not the only ones with roles in these matters.
City leadership and staff might possess the authority to act expediently, but it is reasonable for them to explain the exercise of that authority. The matter is as much about professional staff as citizen commission members or legal counsel.
In any event, there were other matters on the agenda.
Whitewater, Wisconsin has a Plannining Commission, like most towns, that meets regularly. Last night was its monthly meeting.
Here are a some observations on a meeting with a ten-item agenda.
Citizen comments and staff reports. It makes sense to place citizen comments and staff reports early in the meeting. The order of the two changes what citizen comments might be like.
If staff reports follow citizen comments, then the public comment period will represent prior citizen concerns, and not comments on staff reports from the night’s meeting.
I have no preference in the order; I merely note how order might change the kind of comments one might receive.
(It’s vital to address citizen comments with equanimity; our Common Council meetings sometimes devolve when Council members interrupt those commenting to engage in an impromptue debate.)
The major parties are quick to applaud themselves at selecting, or even considering, ethnic or religious minorities for high office.
Both internally and externally, they spend a lot of time enlightening others on how enlightened they are.
The Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate is Wayne Allyn Root, who is Jewish. Thankfully and true to its principles, the LP chose a vice presidential candidate without a lot of identity-politics posturing.
For more on Root, here’s a story available online:
article/16812/
Good morning, Whitewater
The City of Whitewater has a Common Council meeting scheduled for today. The meeting will begin in closed session, to consider the city manager’s contact, and then begin open session about one hour later.
On this day in world history, according to Wired.com Louis Daguerre in 1839 “reveals the secrets of making daguerreotypes to a waiting world. The pioneering photographic process is an instant hit.”
The National Weather Service, predicts a high in of around 81 with mostly sunny skies. The Farmers’ Almanac concludes a multi-day series with the prediction of hot & dry, then turning wet.
