Monday, July 02, 2007

Report From the West Bend Common Council Meeting

For those who have been following along, tonight was the West Bend Common Council meeting where they were going to decide what to do about appointing an Alderman for the 1st District.  I didn’t make the meeting, but I have a report.  As of last week, there was only one applicant on record: Tony Turner.

Well, there was a last minute applicant.  At the last minute on Friday, Roy Justman submitted his application.  Unless I have the wrong guy, Justman is the Washington County County Board member for the 1st District.  He was elected last year and it is his first elected office.  His actions on the County Board have been mixed.  He opposed the ridiculous PDR program, but he supported the continuation of the county sales tax.  Seems like a decent enough guy, but I’m not sure why he needs to hold two elected positions. 

Think of this… if Justman gets appointed he will be an Alderman and a County Board Member.  And the Mayor is also the Washington County Clerk of Courts.  So the Alderman with which the Mayor works is also a County Board Member who oversees the Mayor in her county job.  If Justman gets appointed, he would vote on the budget for the Clerk of Courts and the Mayor, who is also the Clerk of Courts, has power over him in his role as Alderman.  Seriously, there are so many conflicts of interest here that the Common Council should really think this through before appointing Justman.

What’s really curious is why he waited until the last minute.  He mentioned at the meeting that he got a lot of pressure to run, but didn’t specify who pressured him.

I’ll look into it. 

In the meantime, the Common Council will interview both applicants on July 16th.  I don’t know if they’ll just vote on the appointment then or schedule the vote for a subsequent meeting.  I do find it interesting that they are on a pace to take two months to appoint an alderman when they would have slammed through the mayoral appointment in three weeks had not three alderman broken the quorum and delayed the vote by a week.  Even as it was, the Common Council will likely take twice as long to appoint an alderman than they did to appoint a mayor.

(3) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2124 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. He may give up the County Board seat.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 03, 2007 at 1056 hrs


  2. Hey John, I may also have a bridge to sell you too!

    Posted by TomInGrMi on July 03, 2007 at 1112 hrs


  3. The point I am making is did anyone ask him?  I hate it when people make assumptions.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 03, 2007 at 1244 hrs


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