To "B" or not to "B"
B. (Burk) Tower, freshman to the Oshkosh Common Council, has not scored a lot of points with us or others in the community. And it's not just been since he was elected this last April. He lost credibility with us when, among other things, he refused to give his position on the smoking ban debate while campaigning for a council position. Instead he wanted to sit on the fence, and did! Some of the other biggies, since actually being elected, were refusing to give the people a voice in whether or not we should vote for our own mayor and how strong that mayor should be; and voting to spend more than $1 million of our hard-earned tax dollars for the Riverside Park redevelopment project (i.e., bandshell project), especially when he asked good questions, but got no real answers. Yet, he voted to move the project forward. This is not operating in the best interest of the public, no matter how you look at it.
And by the way, not only was the project poorly thought out at the time it was railroaded through the council at breakneck speed, but we are still learning how, because of poor and little to no planning, they left “this, that and the other” out of the project (like a ticket booth, for example, that was just recently brought to the planning department's attention and which will now cost us approx. $32,000).
So this bandshell “gift” from the Leach Foundation is going to end up costing a lot more than they told us originally. Hell, the lowest of the bids for the first phase of the project alone came in at somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 more than the council had approved or planned on spending. But that discussion is for another time - like one of our upcoming shows. Here's where B. Tower has struck another nerve.
We have heard from an extremely reliable source that B. Tower privately told him at a recent meeting that, while he understands things have to be done in public, more could get accomplished if the council could just do a lot of its business behind closed doors, away from the public and media. Now, we're paraphrasing here, of course, and those are not B. Tower's exact words, but the gist of them is quite accurate, says our source. If this is true, then THAT, ladies and gentlemen, should be frightening to us all.
Forget about state laws regarding open meetings, B. Tower. Just feel free to take our checkbook and spend us into the poorhouse in private where we can't see what you're doing and who's getting preferential treatment, etc. YIKES!!
These laws were put in place for a reason, with the basic concept being that you are doing the people's business with the people's money and, therefore, the people should have the right to see and hear what you're doing and participate in the discussion, should they so choose.
While B. Tower seems to understand the spirit and necessity of the law, it is alarming and disturbing, nonetheless, and should be a wake-up call to each and every voter in Oshkosh, that we have a councilman who actually could feel that way; someone who apparently would, if given his druthers and left to his own devices, prefer to sneak around behind our backs instead of having an open forum. It is shocking and he should step forward to explain his comments right now. That will not likely happen, but if this "public servant" opts to run for re-election in 2006, he must be held accountable not only for his voting record in his first term, but also for comments like this that he is alleged to have made. Same goes for any other council member or elected official anywhere who feels this way. These people were elected to perform a public service, not a public disservice.
Elected officials like this need to be watched, and believe me, watching we are!!!
And by the way, not only was the project poorly thought out at the time it was railroaded through the council at breakneck speed, but we are still learning how, because of poor and little to no planning, they left “this, that and the other” out of the project (like a ticket booth, for example, that was just recently brought to the planning department's attention and which will now cost us approx. $32,000).
So this bandshell “gift” from the Leach Foundation is going to end up costing a lot more than they told us originally. Hell, the lowest of the bids for the first phase of the project alone came in at somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 more than the council had approved or planned on spending. But that discussion is for another time - like one of our upcoming shows. Here's where B. Tower has struck another nerve.
We have heard from an extremely reliable source that B. Tower privately told him at a recent meeting that, while he understands things have to be done in public, more could get accomplished if the council could just do a lot of its business behind closed doors, away from the public and media. Now, we're paraphrasing here, of course, and those are not B. Tower's exact words, but the gist of them is quite accurate, says our source. If this is true, then THAT, ladies and gentlemen, should be frightening to us all.
Forget about state laws regarding open meetings, B. Tower. Just feel free to take our checkbook and spend us into the poorhouse in private where we can't see what you're doing and who's getting preferential treatment, etc. YIKES!!
These laws were put in place for a reason, with the basic concept being that you are doing the people's business with the people's money and, therefore, the people should have the right to see and hear what you're doing and participate in the discussion, should they so choose.
While B. Tower seems to understand the spirit and necessity of the law, it is alarming and disturbing, nonetheless, and should be a wake-up call to each and every voter in Oshkosh, that we have a councilman who actually could feel that way; someone who apparently would, if given his druthers and left to his own devices, prefer to sneak around behind our backs instead of having an open forum. It is shocking and he should step forward to explain his comments right now. That will not likely happen, but if this "public servant" opts to run for re-election in 2006, he must be held accountable not only for his voting record in his first term, but also for comments like this that he is alleged to have made. Same goes for any other council member or elected official anywhere who feels this way. These people were elected to perform a public service, not a public disservice.
Elected officials like this need to be watched, and believe me, watching we are!!!
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 11:20 AM
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