Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 52. Sunrise is 6:37 and sunset 4:39 for 10h 02m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 30.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM. 

  On this day in 1994, WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, launches the world’s first internet radio broadcast.

 Linked above is the Whitewater Common Council agenda for tonight’s council session. Embedded below is the full agenda packet for the session. Although I have begun embedding the council or CDA agendas on the day of the respective meetings, this post offers both the full council packet and mention of items of notable interest to this libertarian blogger. Ordinarily, I make no particular notice before a meeting agenda; the importance of tonight’s meeting requires an exception.  

All this city knows that since April the Whitewater Common Council has embarked on a course contrary to limited and responsible government, on which no one ran before taking office, and which if continued will take this struggling-yet-hopeful city into a years-long decline. See The Shape of Decline to Come (and How to Carry On) and ‘Gradually and Then Suddenly.’ This council risks turning what has been for many residents an economic Long Twilight and turn it into a Long Dark.  

Here Whitewater arrives tonight, at a session of the Common Council that will decide much about the city’s near future. A few items from that agenda draw especially this libertarian blogger’s interest. (Each resident watching will have his or her own list of notable items; these are mine.) 

Item 7. Memo on Conflict of Interest Inquiry — City Manager.

Item 8. Update on R0 Zoning District — Neighborhood Services.

Item 14. Discussion and possible action regarding motion to reconsider RFP for legal services to retain an outside law firm to advise the Common Council on employee discipline and personnel matters not to exceed $10,000 — Hicks/Dawsey Smith.

Item 15. Discussion and possible action regarding approval of the amended agreement for legal services from von Briesen and Roper SC — Hicks/HR.

Item 18. Discussion and possible action regarding MOU/MSP with the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater for the Innovation Center to extend the contract date to June 30, 2024 — City Manager.

Item 19. Discussion and possible action regarding the Whitewater Aquatic Fitness Center lease agreement between the City of Whitewater and the Whitewater Unified School District — City Manager/Park and Rec.

Item 25. Presentation of the 2024-2025 Budget — Finance. 

Item 42. Discussion and possible action regarding matters addressed in closed session involving complaints received by the Human Resources Department. – HR/Employment Attorney.

Item 43. Discussion and possible action regarding the Whitewater Aquatic Fitness Center lease agreement between the City of Whitewater and the Whitewater Unified School District – City Manager/Park and Rec.

Councilmembers are government men and women, responsible for their words and actions. The government isn’t simply the city administration; it’s every councilmember and CDA boardmember. Everyone acting in these latter roles acts in a public capacity, bound by law and reason. 

How would a starfish wear trousers? Science has an answer: 

Starfishes are weirdly shaped animals. Scientists have long puzzled over how a starfish body equates to the more typical animal arrangement of a head on one end and trunk or tail on the other. Humans wear trousers on the bottom of their trunks, so you could extrapolate out from that to suggest solutions to the ‘trouser question’ for dogs, horses, spiders and even slugs. But what about a starfish? Now there’s a new possible answer based on the expression of their genes.