The Result of Apathy and Corruption

Yep.

Hundreds of residents of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County shouted in protest last night as tensions rose over a report that the city’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000.

An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,” or “get out” in Spanish.

It was the first council meeting since the Los Angeles Times reported July 15 that Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637—with annual 12 percent raises—and that Bell pays its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earn almost $100,000 for part-time work.

City Attorney Edward Lee said the council members couldn’t discuss salaries in public without advance notice. The council then adjourned for a private session. About an hour later, the council members returned, and Hernandez read a statement saying the city would prepare a report on the salaries and seek public comment at the next council meeting, scheduled for Aug. 16.

Residents shouted in protest. Lee said he would have the room cleared if people continued to speak out of line. Police Chief Randy Adams said the fire department wanted to end the meeting because the crowd outside was blocking the door.

Woman Carrying Gun Not Charged

Good decision.

In a letter to police released to the public Tuesday, Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel explained that while Sutterfield did violate the letter of the firearm transport law, he was not going to formally issue the ticket, for several reasons.

For one, he said, Sutterfield had no bad intent. She had worn the gun to church services peacefully and was never asked to remove it or leave. She told investigators that a salesperson where she had purchased the 9mm handgun had explained to her that it only needed to be in a case when she was driving.

Further, Schimel wrote, the statute in question, which is a non-criminal infraction that carries a maximum forfeiture of $100, was passed before the Wisconsin Constitution was amended to clearly specify residents’ rights to keep guns for various purposes. He said he did not think the facts of Sutterfield’s case made it the right one to prosecute in an effort to set the limits of gun restrictions.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that the state’s ban on concealed weapons did not apply to a shop owner in Milwaukee who had a gun to protect his business, which had been robbed at gunpoint numerous times. But it also upheld the concealed-carry conviction of a passenger who had two loaded guns in a car.

Schimel noted that the latter case, however, did not address whether the constitutional amendment might protect someone carrying a loaded gun in his or her own car for protection.

“Given all the circumstances in this case, I do not believe this is the case to test the outer reaches of the application of the CCW statute in light of the constitutional amendment,” Schimel wrote.

Lastly, Schimel noted, Sutterfield might well be able to challenge the legality of her stop by police because she had done nothing illegal at the church and police had no separate reason to suspect that she was transporting the gun while loaded in violation of the state statute. If the stop was not legal, the evidence of the loaded gun would not be admissible.

Barrett Proposes Relatively Responsible Budget

Gee, one would think he’s running for governor or something.

For the first time since he was elected, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is trying to craft a city budget that doesn’t raise either property taxes or major user fees - right in the middle of his campaign for governor.

Barrett and his aides say the zero-tax-increase goal isn’t politically motivated and has more to do with the economy and the city pension fund than the election.

Uh huh.  The economy has been hurting for several years now and it’s been even more prolonged in Milwaukee.  Yet, despite the fact that Barrett has proposed a levy and fee increase in every singe budget while he’s been mayor, NOW he wants to hold back?

Whatever. 

Barrett is trying to change his skin.  It’s not believable.

West Bend Common Council Meeting

Ginny has some video from the West Bend Common Council meeting last night where some folks hammered the city’s RDA. 

Wow.

Racism in Wisconsin

As we discuss the racist rant on Folkbum’s site, I reflect on my experience with racism…

I’m a child of Texans, but I spent my adolescence in Riyadh.  As a white Christian in an Arab Muslim nation, I generally felt accepted as long as we kept to our own kind, so to speak.  There were certainly places for foreigners and places where we didn’t belong.  But generally, we spent a lot of time in the homes of Muslim Arab families playing with other kids and I never felt unwelcome.  My deep impression is of welcoming, gracious people, but then again, I was always conscious that I was the visitor in their culture. 

In Texas from age 12-26 or so, it was fairly racially integrated.  Horribly racist jokes and nicknames abounded - from all sides - but people of all races were just a part of everyday life.  Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, etc. were my friends, bosses, employees, colleagues, customers, acquaintances, etc.  I admit that the language could be rough from time to time to those of a more sensitive ear, but most people of all races I knew in Texas identified themselves first as Texans, second as Americans, and somewhere down the line as their particular race.  

Since moving to Wisconsin, I think it’s the most racially segregated and stunted area in which I’ve lived since Riyadh.  People are geographically and culturally segregated by race to an alarming extent.  It’s disturbing.  I understand that it’s much worse in other places, but it’s certainly not great here. 

I know… I’m a white guy, so I’m not allowed to opine on these things… but it’s my observation…

Bert’s Racist Rant

I’ve met Bert (who writes on Folkbum’s site).  Nice guy.  I guess I didn’t realize he was such a fervent racist, but his post seems to indicate such. 

Harris is a black with an asterisk. Like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Harris reaps personal benefits from his black status for himself by perpetrating the structural disadvantages for fellow blacks. This gets James T. paid and publicized because it is soothing to many whites to hear blacks deny those structural problems are real, or to attack those black leaders who are trying to fix them.

Harris also sounds like a phony black, trying a little too hard to speak the way suburbanites think blacks should sound, as in the quotation above when he throws out “that’s just the way I roll” or “my brother” to a fellow black.

Harris is a conservative with an asterisk. He takes the position all the way down the boilerplate of a conservative for fiduciary reasons. Harris wants pub. That’s why he was doing the video thing at WMCS, and that’s why he grandstanded for the news cameras in a phony rant during the campaign stop for McCain.

If Harris were a dog, he would walk around on two legs. If he were a woman with unusually large breasts, he would show them off in skimpy clothes. Harris sports phony conservative implants because they are unusual on a black man and thereby attract the leering attention of conservatives and their media outlet managers.

Ummm…. yeah.  OK…  So if a black man speaks or has opinions contrary to Bert’s liberal orthodoxy then he’s “black with an asterisk?”  Wow.  I was unaware that the color of one’s skin dictated a certain political view.  Now I know.

Fun Raid Ruled Unconstitutional

Yup.

A ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court has blown a $200 million hole in the state budget.

The court ruled Tuesday that a $200 million transfer out of a medical malpractice fund to help balance the budget in 2007 was illegal. The court in a 5-2 ruling overturned a lower court’s decision dismissing the lawsuit by the Wisconsin Medical Society.

The society, which represents doctors argued the transfer amounted to an illegal raid by the state and the Supreme Court agreed. The fund is used to help Wisconsin health care providers pay medical malpractice claims.

A Dane County judge dismissed the case in 2008, but the Medical Society appealed. The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent the case back to circuit court with directions that it order the state to pay back the money with interest.

School Board Votes On Pool Upgrade

I disagree with this decision.

The West Bend School Board approved a plan to modify the high school pool on Monday.

   The pool, which is more than 30 years old, is an annual expense of $85,000. Upgrading heating and lighting technologies would reduce this expenses, according to Director of Facilities Dave Ross.

   The board’s action enables Ross to capitalize on about $40,000 in grant funding he has already secured to augment the pool’s natural gas heating with solar energy and gives a green light to a community group to start fundraising to make up the difference.

[...]

Board members showed their support for the improvements in a 5-0 vote. Excused from the meeting were president Joe Carlson and Todd Miller.

   “I can fully support it — if I know the money is going to be there,” Kris Beaver said. “We can advance the (request) but not start work until the money is there.”

   The first pool project the district will take on is the installation of solar panels, Ross said. The total cost is estimated to be $70,000. The payback for the project is estimated at less than two years.

   Dommisse and Smale are confident they can secure funding.

   “The district would only commit to the HVAC,” said Board vice president Tim Stepanski. “That would need to be done anyway.”

   According to Ross, the air handling unit would need to be replaced in the next five to 10 years regardless of the pool’s status.

I understand where the board members are coming from here… they are basically saying that they would have to do the maintenance projects anyway, so they vote for the spending on the maintenance and will bump the decision on the pool down the road in order to give people time to raise private funds for the pool upgrade.  The problem with that is that the district is facing a budget “crisis” NOW and the pool will continue to cost $7,085/month to operate as long as it’s open.

Is anyone listening?

My column for the Daily News is online.  It’s called, “Is anyone listening?”  Here’s a part:

It is clear that for the last several years, the voters of West Bend have been strongly and repeatedly making their wishes known through the electoral process. They are electing conservatives, voting down reckless refrendums and showing their displeasure with elected officials by replacing them at every turn. The question is: Are those elected officials listening?

   The evidence is mixed. The Common Council has done a much better job in recent years of listening to constituents. Its members have done a reasonable job managing spending and community priorities as evidenced by the Library Board fiasco. On the other hand, they also recently supported a low-income housing development that was strongly opposed by people in that district.

   The School Board appears to still be utterly deaf to community concerns. Its members passed a budget predicated on another maximum increase in the property tax levy. They are already whispering about an operating budget increase referendum. And while they complain about a lack of funds, they pump tax dollars into a fitness facility and consider upgrading and operating the high school pool to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars of spending.

   The citizens have been clear about what they want from the School Board, but the district leadership and the School Board continue to pretend that they know better than we mere rubes.

   Next April brings up another opportunity for the citizens to speak. Mayor Kristine Deiss, School Board President Joe Carlson, School Board member Todd Miller, Alderman Nick Dobberstein and others will be on the ballot. Time will tell how the voters evaluate their behavior between now and April.