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Policies for the Police and Fire Commission

Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission meets tonight at 5:30 PM, to interview patrol officers and consider several policy documents. Those documents appear below, and at the bottom of this post readers will find the video recording of last week’s PFC meeting.

There are five processes or documents to be considered tonight:

(1)  PFC Oath 
(2)  Code of Ethics
(3)  Commissioner Responsibilities and Expectations
(4)  Complaint Process Overview
(5)  Hiring Process and Commission Involvement Policy

Here are a few things to consider, in no particular order.

To his credit, the Common Council member of the PFC – who occupies a different political status in the city by being elected to Council – was the only one from the 11.6.13 meeting who posed meaningful questions of conflicts of interest or of the draft complaint process.   

Code of Ethics.  I’m not sure who wrote the draft Code of Ethics.  Last week’s PFC discussion leaves the actual authorship vague.

(That is, I’m not sure who wrote it, not who typed it.  I’m referring the actual composition, not the word-processing of it.  Writing is a leadership responsibility, not a clerical matter.)

In any event, it’s written in a poor, occasionally substandard English.  Any document may have a few typos, but this draft is littered with errors of subject-verb agreement, misuse of simple words or misspellings, and beyond all that a flowery, rambling prose.  

No one is expecting Augustan English, so to speak, but one should at least have a PFC code up to the standards of our high-school graduates.  This isn’t.  

Beyond the composition, there’s a different point, that’s truly substantive, rather than stylistic: the use of the word stakeholder in the first paragraph (‘Personal Integrity’): “…in order to inspire trust among our stakeholders…”

It’s true that I don’t like the term, and have said as much before, but my objection here is more than rhetorical: the legal obligation is to residents, to citizens, to department employees, but not to some ill-defined group through a buzz-word term that sounds impressive until one realizes that it’s empty. 

‘Stakeholder’ is just an attempt to appear profound and comprehensive without comprehending that for a code, as for good law itself, only concrete and plain terms should be used.  The use here isn’t impressive, but deficient by ambiguity.

Hiring.  The drafts maintain the current and inadequate process of having a “Command Staff” official sit in on the interviews.  I’ve criticized this practice before.  See, along these lines, Police and Fire Commission Interviewing.

Funny, truly.  The department’s leadership in this small, rural town uses the sadly trendy term “Command Staff” to refer to itself, yet it’s so insecure that it dare not let citizens appointed for oversight sit with candidates in a room by themselves.  One would think that a true command staff (think Gen. MacArthur, not anyone in Whitewater) wouldn’t be so insecure over hiring in a town of about fifteen-thousand.       

Complaints Process.  Here one finds the truly absurd and ill-considered work of the author of the complaints process against a commissioner.  

Under the Wisconsin law, itself, the PFC has oversight over the chief of police and the department.  Yet, astonishingly, the complaints process against a commissioner-overseer of the department and chief is assigned to that very chief:

Complaint Against Commissioner.  The same process is used for any complaint.  The complaint [sic] forwarded to the Chief of Police.  If the Chief of Police believes the complaint has merit and violates the intent and meaning of the Commission, the complaint is forwarded to the City Manager and the Police Commission president for review.

This method assures that the police chief will act as interpreter and gatekeeper of the complaints process against a commissioner, even though it is the commission’s principal duty to oversee the police chief and department.  

The incentive for deals, arrangements, and protection of some (and claims against others) based on favoritism is inescapable in this circular arrangement.

Worse, even if there were no deals, it presents the appearance of a conflict of interest – and avoidance of conflicts is the avoidance of both substance and appearance.    

It’s ironic that the president of the PFC, Jan Bilgen, is also on Whitewater’s Ethics Committee, yet seemingly fails to grasp this simple principle.  Had the PFC president understood half of this, the provision would not have been – as it should not have been – even in the draft process.  

That others may have reviewed this provision before the 11.6.13 meeting and let it pass is simply embarrassing.  

For an example of a public body that faced a complaint against one of its members and took the right course of using an independent attorney to conduct the investigation, see School District Investigation Finds Board Member Violated Policies.  

Public integrity is more than a florid litany of what one declares about oneself – it’s the expectation that public officials will, in serious matters, submit to independent and impartial review.  

That’s not what’s present in this draft; Whitewater deserves better than something transparently inadequate.  

Police & Fire Commission 11/06/2013 from Whitewater Community TV on Vimeo.

Daily Bread for 11.14.13

Good morning.

Thursday in town will be sunny with a high of forty-six.

Whitewater’s Police & Fire Commission meets tonight at 5:30 PM.

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‘Illustration from an early edition of Moby-Dick’ via Wikipedia

On this day in 1851, Harper & Brothers publishes Melville’s Moby-Dick:

….Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville about the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, is published by Harper & Brothers in New York. Moby-Dick is now considered a great classic of American literature and contains one of the most famous opening lines in fiction: “Call me Ishmael.” Initially, though, the book about Captain Ahab and his quest for a giant white whale was a flop.

After Moby-Dick’s disappointing reception, Melville continued to produce novels, short stories (Bartleby) and poetry, but writing wasn’t paying the bills so in 1865 he returned to New York to work as a customs inspector, a job he held for 20 years….

Today is also the birthday of an American historian from Portage:

1861 – Frederick Jackson Turner Born
On this date Frederick Jackson Turner was born in Portage. Turner spent most of his academic career at the University of Wisconsin. He published his first article in 1883, received his B.A. in 1884, then his M.A. in History in 1888. After a year of study at Johns Hopkins (Ph.D., 1890), he returned to join the History faculty at Wisconsin, where he taught for the next 21 years. He later taught at Harvard from 1910 to 1924 before retiring. In 1893, Turner presented his famous address, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” at the Chicago World’s Fair. Turner died in 1932. [Source: Bowling Green State University]

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks not about a mysterious white whale, but about blue ones. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

How large is a blue whale’s heart?

The Martians Beset Elkhorn

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In many ways, Whitewater’s present fiscal and economic success depends on getting as far past the last administration’s outlook as possible. Our former city manager from 2004-2012 mastered a reverse Midas touch: turning what he grasped not into gold, but lead. We can – and I am confident will – get beyond those ill effects, but much of Whitewater’s current condition depends on working that prior under-performance and over-promising out of our political system and economy.

In this way, we’re like a patient recovering, slowly but surely, from a years’ long fever (if so long a fever were even possible for ordinary people).   

One reads that Walworth County’s Board, predictably, has approved a multi-million-dollar parkland purchase for which our prior municipal executive, now a county employee, has been a champion.   I’m not a bit surprised – advocates of the proposal failed earlier in 2013 get a super-majority for the project, and waited until 2014’s budget vote where that wasn’t required.

(They needed a super-majority earlier this year because they hadn’t planned for the parkland properly in this year’s budget.  Theirs is almost a satire on sub-par performance.)  

I’ve opposed the parkland proposal, as one can see from prior posts I’ve written about the pricey idea.  It’s both wasteful and childishly presented.

But, honestly if selfishly, I am at least grateful that the principal champion of this idea now makes policy in Walworth County, and not Whitewater. Although we feel the effects of mediocrity in Elkhorn, at least the intensity of that mediocrity is attenuated through greater distance from our city.  

By necessity, one would contend tooth-and-nail over Whitewater, but one should prefer even more that necessity not present itself.  

In this way, I’m reminded about a final passage from War of the Worlds, about which I’ve written before.  After the Martians fail in their efforts against Earth, they commence a new campaign against Venus:

Lessing has advanced excellent reasons for supposing that the Martians have actually succeeded in effecting a landing on the planet Venus. Seven months ago now, Venus and Mars were in alignment with the sun; that is to say, Mars was in opposition from the point of view of an observer on Venus. Subsequently a peculiar luminous and sinuous marking appeared on the unillumined half of the inner planet, and almost simultaneously a faint dark mark of a similar sinuous character was detected upon a photograph of the Martian disk. One needs to see the drawings of these appearances in order to appreciate fully their remarkable resemblance in character.

One should have sympathy for the Venusians, of course, but still might be forgiven for a feeling of gratitude that some troubles were no longer so close at hand…

Daily Bread for 11.13.13

Good morning.

Midweek in Whitewater will be sunny and breezy with a high of thirty-six. Winds will be from the southwest at 10 to 15 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph.

Many Wisconsin farmers have sheep or goats, and being familiar with those animals, they know how sure-footed they are. Scientists are now working to design robots with that same, useful nature, for walking amid rubble or on uneven terrain in rescues or other dangerous missions. There’s work yet to complete, but they’ve come far in these designs even now:

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a person. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

Who is the oldest person to travel in space?

The Planning Commission Meeting for 11.11.13

Whitewater’s Planning Commission met last night, and among the topics was consideration of re-zoning and a conditional use permit for Casual Joe’s, a new restaurant, tavern, and distillery to operate at 319 W. James Street (at the site of a long-unused commercial building, the former Fort Auto Body).   

On 4-3 votes, a majority of the Commission approved both the re-zoning and the conditional use permit.

I’ve supported this project, hoped that an accommodation could be reached, and think this was the right outcome. See, along this line, Whitewater’s Planning Commission Meeting for 10.14.13. (Needless to say, I have neither a financial nor a personal connection to the proposal; I simply believe it’s a good idea for Whitewater.)

One well-understands that the idea is controversial to some; in two consecutive Planning Commission meetings, concerns were both heard at length and (I’d say) thoroughly and methodically addressed.  

One of Whitewater’s planning commissioners offered an observation about a prior project that was controversial at the outset, but has turned out very well (my transcription, however imperfect):

….Some of the conversation we’ve had reminds me of the drive-thru liquor store conversation over on the Westsider.  Some of you may not even know that we have a drive-thru liquor store, but if you’ve been here, calamity was ensured.  And, I don’t want to make light of this, because in that case there are residents nearby, but the slippery slope argument was used.

What happened in this case is that it was approved, and it was approved because the person, the applicant, did his homework, involved partners, amended the plan, and it was a known…it was somebody who was established in the neighborhood – long-established in the community, and he had a stake….

Well said.  I remember that discussion clearly; there are advantages to a long memory.

It’s also true that the project proposed for 319 W. James Street is exactly the sort of project that Whitewater’s Comprehensive Plan – whatever one thinks of it generally – does contemplate for a location like this one.  To read from those planning documents and believe otherwise, really, is a misunderstanding of what those documents both say and strive to foster.

To paraphrase from a recent presidential campaign slogan, this is the change for which we’ve been waiting.  

For us, in Whitewater, this is the emerging business and entrepreneurial culture, of restaurants, merchants, and independent professionals, for which we have been hoping.  

Big has failed us, stodgy has failed us, top-down has failed us. 

Not everyone sees this as opportunity, I know.  Much of this is comfort with the past, even if for the whole city the past has been embarrassingly less than a reasonable person would hope, excuses and exaggerations notwithstanding.    

What comes to us now, fortunately, will not be yesterday’s environment – it will be a new and better one, more prosperous, more vibrant, of greater opportunities for all the community.  

Best wishes to Chef Sailsbery and his staff for another successful venture.

Daily Bread for 11.12.13

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny, clear, and crisp, with a high of thirty.

Whitewater’s Parks & Rec Department meets today at 5:30 PM.

The most recent FW poll asked whether there should be Another Star Wars Film? Just over sixty-percent of respondents wanted to see more films in this series.

Here’s a very young man who, in not-too-many years, is likely to be among those in line to see new additions to the series. After all, even the sound of the Star Wars theme soothes him:

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a number. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

How many nations were involved in building the International Space Station?

The Leaves on the Streets PSA

Whitewater has a public service announcement about leaf collection, to remind residents not to sweep their leaves into the street.  

It’s a short, clever video.  It does government a lot of good to remind someone of a policy without doing it in a heavy-handed way, but with a more light-hearted approach.

This does the trick nicely.      

Leaves On The Streets? No! – PSA from Whitewater Community TV on Vimeo.

Why Plan?

All people make plans for the future, even if that should be no farther ahead than for later the same day.

Why specifically, though, should government plan?  Every city has plans for development, plans for budgeting, and many (as we do in Whitewater) have a public commission with lawful authority to approve or reject certain private construction or mercantile proposals.  

Whitewater’s Planning Commission, I think, has a choice before it: will you establish fair rules by which private parties can engage in entrepreneurial activity, or will you pick and choose who succeeds and fails, at the outset?  

It’s the oft-repeated distinction between planning for others to compete and planning to control competition.  Watching Whitewater’s Planning Commission, it’s clear that some commissioners would like merely to establish fair rules, and others feel a right to engineer specific results, including preventing entrepreneurs from building and creating in response to consumer demand.

Commissioners who feel they have a right to stop projects based on their personal preferences, or even the authority to stop projects because as appointees they may decide the destiny of others rather than allowing consumers to decide for themselves, overstep legitimate, responsible authority.

Hayek, among so many others since, saw the difference between government planning to facilitate any number of private, voluntary possibilities and planning of a few to compel particular outcomes.  Here, from his Road to Serfdom, are succinct expressions of his views:

“PLANNING” owes its popularity largely to the fact that everybody desires, of course, that we should handle our common problems with as much foresight as possible. The dispute between the modern planners and the liberals is not on whether we ought to employ systematic thinking in planning our affairs. It is a dispute about what is the best way of so doing. The question is whether we should create conditions under which the knowledge and initiative of individuals are given the best scope so that they can plan most successfully; or whether we should direct and organize all economic activities according to a “blue-print,” that is, “consciously direct the resources of society to conform to the planners’ particular views of who should have what.

One might describe this as a case for limited planning, and for expansive private activity.  Hayek draws this distinction:  

It is important not to confuse opposition against the latter kind of planning [of state-mandated outcomes] with a dogmatic laissez faire attitude.

The liberal argument does not advocate leaving things just as they are; it favors making the best possible use of the forces of competition as a means of coordinating human efforts. It is based on the conviction that, where effective competition can be created, it is a better way of guiding individual efforts than any other. It emphasizes that in order to make competition work beneficially a carefully thought-out legal framework is required, and that neither the past nor the existing legal rules are free from grave defects.

Liberalism is opposed, however, to supplanting competition by inferior methods of guiding economic activity. And it regards competition as superior not only because in most circumstances it is the most efficient method known but because it is the only method which does not require the coercive or arbitrary intervention of authority.

The case for a liberal, private order rests on arguments of efficiency and morality.  

Conditions are better, in both ways, when one is free.  

Whitewater will be more prosperous when planning returns to its proper, limited, responsible role. We’ll not have broad-based growth – we’ll not be both hipper and more prosperous – until then.  

Many can achieve here, but only under conditions of political and regulatory restraint.  

Veterans’ Day 2013

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The presidential proclamation for Veterans’ Day 2013:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

On Veterans Day, America pauses to honor every service member who has ever worn one of our Nation’s uniforms. Each time our country has come under attack, they have risen in her defense. Each time our freedoms have come under assault, they have responded with resolve. Through the generations, their courage and sacrifice have allowed our Republic to flourish. And today, a Nation acknowledges its profound debt of gratitude to the patriots who have kept it whole.

As we pay tribute to our veterans, we are mindful that no ceremony or parade can fully repay that debt. We remember that our obligations endure long after the battle ends, and we make it our mission to give them the respect and care they have earned. When America’s veterans return home, they continue to serve our country in new ways, bringing tremendous skills to their communities and to the workforce— leadership honed while guiding platoons through unbelievable danger, the talent to master cutting- edge technologies, the ability to adapt to unpredictable situations. These men and women should have the chance to power our economic engine, both because their talents demand it and because no one who fights for our country should ever have to fight for a job.

This year, in marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice, we resolved that in the United States of America, no war should be forgotten, and no veteran should be overlooked. Let us always remember our wounded, our missing, our fallen, and their families. And as we continue our responsible drawdown from the war in Afghanistan, let us welcome our returning heroes with the support and opportunities they deserve.

Under the most demanding of circumstances and in the most dangerous corners of the earth, America’s veterans have served with distinction. With courage, self-sacrifice, and devotion to our Nation and to one another, they represent the American character at its best. On Veterans Day and every day, we celebrate their immeasurable contributions, draw inspiration from their example, and renew our com- mitment to showing them the fullest support of a grateful Nation.

With respect for and in recognition of the contributions our service members have made to the cause of peace and freedom around the world, the Congress has provided (5 U.S.C. 6103(a)) that November 11 of each year shall be set aside as a legal public holiday to honor our Nation’s veterans.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby pro- claim November 11, 2013, as Veterans Day. I encourage all Americans to recognize the valor and sacrifice of our veterans through appropriate public ceremonies and private prayers. I call upon Federal, State, and local officials to display the flag of the United States and to participate in patriotic activities in their communities. I call on all Americans, including civic and fraternal organizations, places of worship, schools, and communities to support this day with commemorative expressions and programs.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

Daily Bread for 11.11.13

Good morning.

Monday will be a mix of rain or snow in the morning, with a high of thirty-eight for the day, and temperatures falling into the twenties by late afternoon.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission will meet at 6 PM tonight.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends:

At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.

The Rolling Stones play in Milwaukee on 11.11.1964, and a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal is not impressed:

1964 – Rolling Stones Play Milwaukee
On this date the Rolling Stones first performed in Wisconsin, to a crowd of 1,274 fans at Milwaukee Auditorium. Although Brian Jones remained in a Chicago hospital with a high fever, the rest of the band performed. According to a dubious reporter for the Milwaukee Journal, “Chances are, few in the audience missed his [Jones’] wailing harmonica. Screams from a thousand throats drowned out all but the most insistent electronic cacaphony and the two-fisted smashes of drummer Charlie Watts.”

The reporter continued, “Unless someone teaches guitar chords to chimpanzees, the visual ultimate has been reached in the Rolling Stones. With shoulder length hair and high heeled boots, they seemed more feminine than their fans. The Stones make the Beatles look like clean cut kids. You think it must be some kind of parody – but the little girls in front paid $5.50 a seat.” [Source: Milwaukee Journal November 12, 1964, p.14]

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a letter. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

What is the only letter that doesn’t appear on the periodic table of the elements?