Common Council ruled by Gang of 5

My column for the West Bend Daily News is online.  It’s called, “Common Council ruled by Gang of 5.”  That’s West Bend’s Common Council.  Here’s a taste:

The Common Council will appoint our next mayor from one of their own. That mayor will serve for 10 months and walk into the next election with the full power of incumbency, which virtually assures her re-election. I say “her” on purpose because it seems clear that the Gang of Five intends to make District 1 Alderman Kristine Deiss our next mayor.

But it goes further than that. When the council almost surely appoints Kristine Deiss to be West Bend’s mayor, they will also appoint her replacement on the Common Council. That appointed alderman will also have the power of incumbency when he or she stands before the voters in April. In effect, the Gang of Five on the Common Council is stacking the government of the city of West Bend with their cohorts.

Three of West Bend’s aldermen get it. Aldermen Allen Carter, Terry Vrana and Scott Frederick fought for the right of the citizens to live under representative government.

As Frederick said, “We have an obligation to allow the residents of West Bend to decide who their next mayor is going to be.” I suspect that most citizens of West Bend would agree. Unfortunately, the Gang of Five constitutes the majority of the Common Council and they appear to have little regard for the citizens they purportedly serve.

West Bend’s Common Council plans to appoint a new mayor on June 4. Aldermen Deiss, Krochalk, Riffel, Doberstein and Schlotfeldt should stop trying to exclude the citizens of West Bend and open up the process.