Here’s part two of a series of posts on Whitewater’s 2010 City Performance Plan. Part 1, and the document itself, appear in the preceding post.
Far worse than a ginned-up success rate is a claim so shameless that a reasonable person would never venture the proclamation.
Under City Manager Kevin Brunner’s supposed accomplishments, one finds this item:
2. Complete all TIF and CIP projects on time and within budget. All projects completed on time and within budget.
In a city with a distressed tax incremental district — a failure present in only a small minority of Wisconsin cities — Whitewater’s city manager proclaims TIF success.
This is a shamelessness and arrogance nearly unbounded. It also confirms that maxim that mediocre leaders don’t get better, they get worse.
You know, and I know, too, that there’s a way to rationalize all this. It’s all definitional; under the intended definition, the statement of success supposedly makes sense.
What nonsense that is.
A man who burns down his own house is in no position to declare himself a prudent homeowner because he habitually took out the trash on time.
In these municipal claims, one sees the descent into self-parody, and further fall into absurdity.
The residents of Whitewater deserve much, much better than this.
Next — There’s something even worse than inflated percentages and shameless declarations of success.