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Register Watch™

Register Watch™ for the June 19th Issue – The Curious Incident of the Headline at Press-Time

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Headline Prediction. I erroneously predicted that this issue of the Register would feature a screaming headline announcing a solution to world hunger, a way around energy shortages, an improved state budget, better community development, an effective anti-mosquito pill, shoring up one police chief’s over-rated reputation through a checklist of tasks.

Discard the meaningful accomplishments, and what’s left is…accreditation.

There’s a whole week, though, to devise a story about how Albert Einstein wrote the standards for accreditation, women find men in accredited departments more handsome, those who worked on accreditation are genetically superior to normal humans, etc.

Stabbing at Eastsider. Editor Carrie Dampier reports on a stabbing on June 10th at the Eastsider. Two teenagers were injured, and their two alleged assailants taken into custody that same evening.

The account in the Register is fragmentary, although Dampier might believe that remarks from the chief of police are enough to make her story.

Other than his quoted remarks, there are no other reported statements, comments, or observations from anyone else.

Why not interview someone at the Eastsider, or those who knew the victims, neighbors, anyone? That would seem like a reporter’s first instinct. If the reporter tried to contact someone and couldn’t get a reply, why not say so?

Chatting up one police official is hardly reporting, in a small town paper or any paper.

Break-in at the Water Tower. There a second story about an alleged crime involving a break in at our water tower. A UWW student was charged with damage to property, battery, and carrying a concealed weapon. A municipal employee restrained the student, at personal risk to the employee’s own safety.

What’s missing is any significant background on the student. The story relies only on the police complaint, and (again) statements from Chief Coan. Has the student been ill, in some way, or is the reference to drinking whiskey the only clue to his behavior?

Why not ask someone who knew him? Did no one know him? (That might be interesting, too.)

Campaign Announcement. On page six of the paper, there’s a story on Rep. Kim Hixson’s re-election announcement. The story is the story, not the campaign or the candidate. (I support neither Hixson nor his opponent in the race.)

Take a look at the story, and ask yourself: What’s odd about this story?

What’s odd is what’s missing – there’s no byline or dateline. Who wrote this story? When? Is it a re-worked press release? It seems like one – it’s far more like a campaign statement than a news story.

It’s entirely one-sided, and told only from the candidate’s point of view. (I don’t care which candidate – it’s the failure itself that catches my attention.)

Even a cub reporter would know that a story on a candidate, incumbent or challenger, should have a byline and dateline, and have more than one source.

The Register touts its legacy to readers with each issue (“Our 152nd year”), but misses even the simplest journalistic standards.

The Register has, however, other uses:

Quick Note: My post’s title is an obvious play on the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story, “Silver Blaze”:

Detective: “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
Sherlock Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
Detective: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
Sherlock Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”

Register Watch™

Register Watch™ for the June 12th Issue

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Here’s my Register Watch™ post for the June 12th issue.

Apologies. It’s seldom that the Register publishes an apology or a correction. (The Register may avoid corrections so that they don’t have to print a second edition of the paper, a day after the first.)

There is, however, an apology that appears on the front page of the June 12th issue. The Register notes that

Some of our readers may receive their paper late this week due to an electrical failure with our printing press. We apologize for the delay. Thank you for your patience and faithful readership.

Perhaps someone neglected to change the AA batteries over at the Southern Lakes Printing Plant and Command Center.

When the Register thanks subscribers for their “patience and faithful readership,” shouldn’t they really say “for the patience it takes to be a faithful reader?”

Main Story. I wish all the graduates of our high school the very best. They have the chance, if they seize it, to make this a better community than it is now.

In the meantime, the rest of us are left with one Register cliché after another. Big, small, left, right, or center, there just aren’t a lot of newspapers where the first paragraph includes, “It was as if Mother Nature herself wanted to smile.” It’s possible to defend a line like that, but the same people who’d do so would likely defend Pauly Shore as a great actor.

City Manager. The headline reads “Brunner Passed Over for Oshkosh Position.” The sub reads, “He’s not disappointed at all.”

One important point – I don’t believe that Dampier understood when she wrote this story that Oshkosh, unlike Whitewater, has a mayor, council, and city manager. She writes in her first paragraph that Brunner interviewed to take over Oshkosh’s “top spot.” Oshkosh has a directly elected mayor, and the mayor holds the leading executive position in that city.

I was initially surprised to see that Brunner was quoted as saying that he was “not disappointed at all” in not receiving the Oshkosh city manager’s position. I found this especially surprising in light of the eager and enthusiastic interview he gave to the Oshkosh Northwestern about the position only days before his interview.

(I will have more about that Oshkosh interview, and what it reveals about our city manager’s view on government and leadership, in another post.)

I was sure that the cheerful interview Brunner gave in Oshkosh was accurate, as the reporter there is known for good, solid work. Why, then, a seemingly different take in the interview with the Register only days later?

I contacted some knowledgeable bloggers from Oshkosh, and asked if the Register‘s quote seemed to make sense. The quick and helpful reply was that it did make sense – that Brunner was probably happy with how it all turned out.

What’s missing from the Register story is why Brunner was happy with how it all turned out. That’s a predictable and useful question – why do you feel a certain way? If someone traveled to interview, gave an enthusiastic newspaper interview, and was part of a candidates’ forum, what changed his mind? That’s a question about public office that would be useful and relevant to governing in Whitewater.

Either Dampier didn’t ask that question, or didn’t bother to publish the answer that she received.

That’s why the story is more like a favorable, welcome-back press release than real journalism. I am a commentator, and not a reporter, but I can see that – in so many cases – it’s what the Register doesn’t or won’t ask our public officials that speaks the loudest.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: June 20, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, today in 1911 was an important moment in Wisconsin’s labor movement:

“Italian working men, employed by Andrus Asphalt Company in Madison, went on strike and threatened to kill their foreman if they did not receive an increase in wages for laying pavement. The men demanded a 25-cent (a day) raise, from $1.75 to $2.00.”

(Emphasis added.)

I support the right of workers to strike, make demands, and quit to seek other employment. It’s not a free market if it’s not a free market in capital and labor. Still, it must say something about the frustration of the workers that they went on strike and threatened to kill their foreman.

It also suggests that the workers doubted that threatening to kill the foreman alone would get them what they wanted. If the workers were right about that, I wonder if that made the foreman realize his threats on his life, alone, were not enough to motivate the Andrus Asphalt Company?

There are no public meetings scheduled for today in our city.

The National Weather Service predicts a chance of thunderstorms and a high of 85 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts a stormy weather for the Great Lakes then turning fair. In all these weeks of flooding, a fixed, long-range forecast like that of the Farmers’ Almanac has been useless — it never mentions the risk, and even if it had, there would have been no specific and useful guidance for readers.

Planning

Planning Commission Meeting from 6/16 (Part 2)

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In Part 1 of coverage for the 6/16 Planning Commission meeting, I remarked that

Whitewater will continue to change, though, and all the overreaching enforcement in the world will not be able to stop it. On the other side of this issue are some who see conditions changing, and decry the lack of enforcement to prevent these change, or to enforce in the way they’d like.

There were two other items on the Planning Commission agenda that I’ll mention. The first was an amendment to Whitewater’s Municipal Ordinances, to change the City of Whitewater Municipal Code’s Chapter 19, Section 19.09.520 regarding non-family households and the number of the number of residents in a non-family household.

The proposed changes had been approved initially at a previous Common Council meeting, and came to the Planning Commission for a public hearing and review. The Planning Commission voted unanimously in favor of the proposed amendment as referred from the Council.

I posted on this topic before, and opposed the amendment as overreaching. Here’s the text of the amendment as referred from Council:

This Ordinance is meant to ensure the right of quiet enjoyment of each property owner, or resident of their home. The constant or consistent presence of visitors to a particular residence can constitute the equivalent of additional persons living there, for land use purposes, regardless if they are listed as residents on a lease or deed, if the “quiet enjoyment” of other’s property rights are affected. For the purposes of this section, quiet enjoyment shall mean actions by occupants or visitors which unreasonably disturbs other property owners or occupants enjoyment of their premises.

In addition to any other penalties or remedies the City, or any landowner within 300 feet of the property, may maintain an action or injunctive relief to restrain any violation of this Ordinance and/or to enforce compliance with this Ordinance, upon a showing that a person has engaged, or is about to engage, in an act or practice constituting a violation of this Ordinance.

The provision ‘is about to engage’ shows how far an ordinance may reach. I have no idea how many people will a avail themselves of this provision, but the ‘is about to engage’ provision brings a doctrine of preemption to Whitewater. Good luck getting that right — it’s an invitation to troublesome, meddlesome guesswork.

In two recent meetings, two different residents have pointed out that our current system is broken. Add my view, and you’d have at least three. What’s telling is that two of those people think that if only we’d have more legislation, granting more authority, conditions will be better.

I think more legislation is the least of our problems.

The Planning Commission also approved of a conditional use permit for transformation of a former fraternity house at 1036 W. Main Street, into a 4-unit apartment building. Here, I’d say, “Sure, why not?” The conditional use permit was approved unanimously.

From fraternity to multi-use apartment — easy swap for me, as I would not have been opposed to either.

What do you do, though, when you oppose students off campus and non-single family housing?

Police, Press

Question about the Register‘s Headline

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UPDATE: 6/19, 6:50 PM — What? No big story, no banner headline, no headline at all? I’m stunned, shocked, and super-surprised. Although I would not purchase a copy of the Register myself, I spent at least an hour this afternoon persuading a drunk in Starin Park to let me see his copy. (He’s apparently one of the Register‘s most distinguished subscribers.)

I’ll wait for next week, to see if there is a free-standing insert in the paper. By the way, if anyone at Southern Lakes Publishing would like to use my headline (see below), go right ahead — it’s on me.
_________________

I have not yet seen the latest issue of the Register. It’s scheduled to hit newsstands and bird cages across Whitewater today.

Here’s my question: How prominently will the Register celebrate re-accreditation of the Whitewater Police Department? I have already noted the several ways in which re-accreditation is empty and a diversion from addressing real problems in the department.

Still, the Register coincidentally ran a multi-part series on our police force just before the accreditation team arrived in town, so they must be willing to devote copy space to the accreditation announcement.

How much space, and what will the headline say?

Here’s my pick:

HIGHLY SPECIAL EXCELLENCE OF ACCREDITATION SHOWS GREAT LEADER’S SHREWD GUIDANCE

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: June 19, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are no public meetings scheduled for the city today.

On this day in Wisconsin History in 1930, according to the Whitewater Historical Society, Gena Rowlands was born, in Madison.

The National Weather Service predicts that today will be mostly sunny with a high of 80. The Farmer’s Almanac says fair, then dangerous thunderstorms.

City, Planning

Planning Commission Meeting from 6/16 (Part 1)

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In some respects, this is a new Planning Commission, with a new chair (Kristine Zaballos) now in that role, and a new term, beginning after the latest round of nominations from the Common Council. This is still true even though many others on the Commission are incumbents.

Staff reports now appear earlier on the agenda, and that’s a good idea. Setting out any updates early may prove useful for discussion later in the evening.

In those staff and community updates, Tami Brodnicki noted that Downtown Whitewater has a portable device for merchants and volunteers to help vacuum streets in the downtown area. The device may be modern, but it’s a positive step for merchants and volunteers to maintain their own sidewalks even if conventional municipal services are unavailable.

Better still – even when conventional services are available – as merchants can monitor their own areas more effectively than others. (Jane Jacobs points out — in all her works, I think — how taking ownership of one’s area and caring for it oneself is a sign of a healthy community. It’s more work, I know, but it achieves a guaranteed result. Over time, some conventional municipal services may become superfluous.)

Two restauranteurs, both mature and established, received conditional use class B permits for the sale of beer or liquor by bottle or glass at their establishments. I favor the decisions in both cases. It’s a common part of our culture to have a drink with a meal. It helps the businesses, but it helps them because it allows them to meet a common, existing customer expectation. It’s not an additional idea or concept, to my mind; it’s a effort to fulfill a common expectation.

(What would be new? Something that wasn’t common elsewhere, such as a combination restaurant and dog grooming salon, for example. You just don’t see a lot of those, and you probably never will.)

The Commission considered a certified survey map for a property in the city, for division into two lots. Fred Kraege, a local historian, had several objections to current city practices. He noted that he did not trust city services and staff to enforce existing regulations appropriately, and he did not trust how private property owners had managed the current property.

Fair enough. What’s interesting to me is that Kraege has doubts, as far as I can tell, from the opposite direction of mine. I am not confident — at all — in existing enforcement, either. I think, though, that there’s too much enforcement, poorly and selectively administered. I am not unwilling to say as much.

Whitewater will continue to change, though, and all the overreaching enforcement in the world will not be able to stop it. On the other side of this issue are some who see conditions changing, and decry the lack of enforcement to prevent these change, or to enforce in the way they’d like.

Daily Bread, Uncategorized

Daily Bread: June 18, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are no public meetings scheduled for Whitewater today. (Even school is out of session.) What will everyone do? There’s lots to do, and you don’t need government assistance, guidance, regulation, or partnership to do it. A free and clever people doesn’t need a guiding hand, it needs a clear, unobstructed path.

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, Isaac Stephenson was born in 1829. I had never heard of him, but he was a banker and a politician in our state and a representative to Congress. He may have been prominent in his day, but I’d guess he’s virtually unknown today. His public service must have seemed significant once, but it’s unknown now.

Public service may have many values (and private life still more), but an enduring popular legacy is often not be among them.

City, Police

Whitewater Police Department Re-Accreditation

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Update: 6/17, 6:58 p.m.

At our Common Council meeting tonight, Chief Coan predictably lauded his department’s position (and implicitly his leadership) as one of only 16 accredited departments in the state, out of over 600. He didn’t say how many even bothered to apply for accreditation. (See Point 1, below.)

One more point, not minor at all — if you are going to acknowledge new Community Service Officers on television, either remember their names, or write them down for reference when your memory fails.
_____

I’ve mentioned re-accreditation of our police department before, and in that post I noted that it matters less than what has actually happened in Whitewater over the years.

In the City Manager’s weekly report for 6/13, there are a few brief remarks about re-accreditation:

Last Friday the Whitewater Police Department was formally reaccredited by the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Accreditation Group (WILEAG) Governing Board of Commissioners. The Board found that the Department is in compliance with all 220 applicable standards. The Board
is comprised of representatives of the Wisconsin City and County Manager’s Association, Wisconsin Department of Justice Training and Standards, the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association, the UW-Milwaukee School of Criminal Justice, and the Cities and Villages Mutual Insurance Company.

We should be very proud of our Police Department’s distinction as it remains one of only 16 law enforcement agencies in the State of Wisconsin to be accredited. The Whitewater Police Department is the smallest of the 16 agencies and the only such accredited agency in all of Walworth and Jefferson Counties. I believe that accreditation stands as a testament to the quality of our Police Department and to the caliber of its personnel. It also ensures that our policies and practices are in accord with contemporary law enforcement standards.

I’ll take a few moments to address the ways that the remarks from the City Manager’s report miss part of the story. (You’ll see, then, why I think that accreditation is mostly empty of value.)

1. Number of Departments Involved. Being one of only sixteen accredited departments sounds impressive – after all, there are hundreds of communities in Wisconsin. For only 16 to receive accreditation, from all the police departments in the state, would be a high honor.

Here’s what the City Manager’s Weekly Report doesn’t mention – the accreditation effort is self-selected. Communities join the program, and members from their forces participate in rating other departments, often nearby.

This is not like a test administered to every student in the state, where some children score at the very top.

The correct measurement is not 16 out of the entire state, but 16 out of those who voluntarily joined the program. That’s a far smaller, self-chosen pool.

2. 220 Standards Met?!? To any sensible person, achieving 220 out of 220 on a checklist would be a dubious achievement.

Success at that level would raise an obvious question: What was on that checklist, anyway?

This should be a tip off: If you’re measuring hundreds of checklist items, some of them may be small or obvious. Even Cal Tech students don’t do 220 important things right. They may operate at a high level of achievement, but not that high.

Consider the items, from the WILEAG accreditation checklist, available on that group’s website. Most involve procedural matters that are the minimum any department should achieve, including organizational structure, fiscal management, collective bargaining, recruitment, communications, etc.

Many of these items are mundane, and no more related policing than they would be to running a candy store or dry cleaning business.

It’s easy to run up the score of items completed when many of them are not unique to the real community concerns of policing.

Achieving 220 items on a checklist of 220 only sounds impressive until one thinks about what it really means.

3. Who Accredits? There is no truly independent rating authority – they’re often representatives of community police departments.

There is no Consumer Reports for accreditation, so to speak; these are often local forces checking lists of standards for each other. Many know each other well.

They’re not afraid to mug for the camera, either. A local website ran a photo during the onsite visits of someone from the accreditation team with a smiling member of our Police and Fire Commission. A true auditor would avoid a happy-time photo in the very middle of the onsite visit.

(A police leadership with any real cunning would also shun a photo like that, the better to preserve the appearance of a serious process.)

It’s as though Ford, GM, and Chrysler joined forces to rate their cars. Can you guess what they’d say?

The Pinto – There’s more to life than ‘safety’
The Aztek – Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
The Hummer – Only the weak worry about gasoline prices

They want you to look away from their problems, and a lengthy checklist of (often simple) items helps divert your gaze.

That’s why the ACLU correctly notes that “Current accreditation standards represent minimum, rather than optimum, goals. They are very good in some respects but do not go far enough in covering the critical uses of law enforcement powers….a police department can easily comply with all of the current standards and still tolerate rampant brutality, spying and other abuses.”

(More on the ACLU in a bit.)

4. What Accreditation Ignores. Consider sensible standards that serious, unaffiliated institutions and organizations have proposed that directly concern the most important matters in policing.

First, from the U.S. Department of Justice, Principles for Promoting Police Integrity.

Second, from the ACLU, a Community Action Manual with goals and strategies to assure a good, community-oriented police force.

I know that Chief Coan might say that the ACLU is a liberal group – and from one of his emails one might suspect that he doesn’t like liberals – but what does he say about these points?

Forget the group, and focus on the substance of their ideas. You’ll see that these are good suggestions.

To follow the suggestions from the Department of Justice and the ACLU, though, would require a real effort to make this a well-led force. It’s hard, but far better for our community.

I am neither liberal nor conservative, neither Republican nor Democrat — I’m a libertarian.

Most police departments are well-led. When they’re not, they’re a mess for officers and the community. Cheerleading won’t make our city better.

To laud the current police leadership for an empty checklist is easier, but places their interests over the community interest.

Our local officials will often talk about their years in government, considerable experience, etc., but that makes me wonder: Do they not understand this, or do they hope that others won’t?

In the end, this is a feel-good, praise-me-but-do-not-look-too-closely achievement. Accreditation has the same relationship to meaningful policing for our community as a chocolate bunny has to a live rabbit.

Uncategorized

Wisconsin’s Long Path to Recovery

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Over at the Wisconsin State Journal, there’s a story on the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s assessment that Wisconsin will not see economic recovery until 2010.

That’s a long way off for many businesses and families.

The Dept. of Revenue report is a statewide assessment; some areas may lag the Wisconsin average. One could guess — but it’s just a guess — that communities that have been strong will recover more quickly.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: June 17, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

In Wisconsin history, on this day in 1673, Marquette and Joliet reached the Mississippi. The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that they did not discover it; tribes and other explorers knew of the Mississippi far earlier. It was an amazing accomplishment nonetheless.

Like yesterday, the city has three public meetings scheduled for today: a CDA board of directors meeting at 4:30 p.m., an Alcohol Licensing Committee meeting at 5:45 p.m., and a Common Council meeting at 6:30 p.m. All will be held in the municipal building.

Some of the items on the Common Council agenda include the following:

STAFF REPORTS:

Police Chief 1) Accreditation; 2) New CSOs

RESOLUTIONS:
R-1 Waiving No Wake Ordinance for July 4th celebration (4th of July Committee
Request)
R-3 Resolution Approving Acquisition of 4th Street Properties (CDA Request)

ORDINANCES – First Reading
O-1 Amending Chapter 19 relating to waiting period required before applying for
rezoning. (City Manager Request)
O-2 Rental Registration Ordinance (City Manager Request)
O-3 Amending Chapter 1.21.010, Schedule of Deposits (City Attorney Request)

ORDINANCES – Second Reading
O-4 Amending Chapter 11.48.100, Regulation of School Bus Warning Lights. (City
Attorney Request)
O-5 Amending Chapter 19 of Municipal Code to allow three cars to park in front and
side yard instead of current limit of two cars. (Neighborhood Services)
O-6 Ordinance Amending Section 19.09.520 Concerning Limitation of the Number of
Residents in a Non-Family Household (Neighborhood Services Director Request)
O-7 Amending Membership of Police and Fire Commission to include one council
representative in place of a citizen member (Councilmember Singer Request)

CONSIDERATIONS:
C-1 Presentation on University Research Park Feasibility Study (CDA Coordinator
Request)
C-2 Approval of Class B Beer and Liquor License for The Cowboyz, Craig Martin,
Agent, for former Novak’s property at 111 W. Whitewater St. (City Clerk Request)
C-3 Approval of transfer of Class B Beer & Liquor License for College Pub LLC, Kirk
Rasmussen, Agent, Whitewater Street, effective 8/4/2008 (City Clerk Request)
C-4 Approval of renewals of Class “A” Beer Licenses; “Class A” Beer and Liquor
Licenses, Class “B” Beer Licenses, “Class B” Beer & Liquor Licenses, and
Wholesale Beer License (City Clerk Request)
C-5 Appointment of Citizen Member to Police and Fire Commission and to Plan
Commission (City Clerk Request)
C-6 Action on Fourth of July Committee’s Request to Close Whitewater Street in
conjunction with Fourth of July Celebration (July 3 thru 6th – various times) (4th of
July Committee Request)
C-11 ADJOURN to Closed Session per Wisconsin Statutes 19.85(1) “(e) Deliberating
or negotiating the purchase of public properties, the investing of public
funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive
or bargaining reasons require a closed session.” Item to be discussed:
Possible purchase of Unit 2 in building located at 261 S. Fourth Street / 332
W. Whitewater Street

The National Weather Service predicts a slight chance of thunderstorms with a high of 75 degrees. Over at the long-range Farmers’ Almanac, there’s a prediction of fair weather, then dangerous thunderstorms during the 6/16-6/19 period.

City

Our Low Expectations

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Wisconsin has been a high tax state for years, stretching well back from the Doyle administration through Tommy Thompson’s many years in office (Gov. McCallum having served only briefly in between).

The Wisconsin State Journal recently noted positively a study contending that Wisconsin was out of the rankings of the ten highest taxed states for the first time in years. In fact, one of the few times times out of the top ten highest-taxed states since 1969.

(As the Journal correctly notes, even this belated and dubious accomplishment — we are still highly taxed, and ranked that way — is disputed. Another study still places us within the top ten on the list.)

The next time that someone mentions to me how much Tommy Thompson did for the state, I will remind him or her (as I always do) that he did too little to reduce our tax burden and size of state government. Far too little.

This high tax burden statewide presents an opportunity for Whitewater. If we significantly reduce our local tax burden through a significant reduction in the size of local government, we can offer an comparative advantage for new residents and businesses.

(I am convinced it would be a comparative advantage, not merely in tax burden, but it quality of life even apart from taxation. When I post on the ongoing budget process in the months ahead, I will present the case for a much smaller municipal budget. A reduction in government’s size doesn’t just save money — it reduces the scope of meddling and intrusion into private life.)