Academy of Local Politics

Two things small time politicians need to be good at is:

1)  Chicken Dinner Circuit

2)  Parades

My State Assembly Representative is really good at both of those. She has been in office for over 20 years.

It is for this reason I was shocked... SHOCKED...to read that the Republican and Democrat  parties will not be allowed to participate in a parade.

According to the Kenosha (WI) News...

A local GOP official is crying foul over the city's refusal to allow the party to enter a float in Sunday's Kenosha Civic Veterans Parade.

Erin Decker, the Republican Party of Kenosha County's float committee chairman, recently sent a letter to city aldermen and county supervisors, asking them to request that city Project Coordinator Penney Haney allow the party to participate in the parade.

Haney, who assumed oversight of the parade after the former parade committee's recent demise, countered that she has chosen this year to simply follow previous parade policies, including a restriction prohibiting the involvement of political parties.

Excuse me? A Fourth of July weekend parade honoring veterans...and no politicians allowed? 

Well, not exactly.

While political parties and candidates for office have been excluded from the Kenosha parade, sitting elected officials - including those up for re-election - are allowed spots in the event. Those on this year's parade roster include U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; state Sen. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie; state Rep. John Steinbrink, D-Pleasant Prairie, and various partisan county elected officials.

Incumbents can ride in the parade, but challengers can't? Who's paying for this?

The parade is funded largely by contributions from the city and county governments. The county is contributing $12,500, and the city is putting $10,000 toward this year's event.

So, let me get this straight? Taxpayer money is funding the parade and the politicians  who voted to fund this parade, can be in the parade... but anyone who might run against them...can't?

And ... they are getting away with this?

What happens after you flush the toilet? Most people never think about it. As long as the water still swirls and you don't have to grab the plunger, you just don't care.

However, what happens to the waste water should be of great concern to the elected officials. This is not a problem that can be ignored. Unless...you are Peabody, MA.

The Boston Globe reports...

Peabody officials agree that the 25 foot-high pile of sludge in a lagoon next to the Coolidge Avenue water treatment plant must be removed. When the sludge will be taken away and how to pay for its removal is still an issue, however.

Twenty five feet high, no mention of length. But, I think it must be fairly long. Because...

Last week, the City Council rejected Mayor Michael Bonfanti's proposal to borrow $950,000 to remove the sludge and prevent it from piling up again.

$950,000 in local government language for a project like this, means $1.6 before it is all over. That is a pretty long pile of whatever.

The sludge saga dates to 1997, when a squabble between the South Essex Sewerage District, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Environmental Protection Agency prevented the city from discharging sediment...

A decade of toilet waste, just piling up? How could this happen?

Richard Carnevale, director of the city's Department of Public Services  said he took responsibility for the creation of the sludge areas, and said it would have been "cost-prohibitive" for the city to have removed the sludge on a regular basis during the nine-year period it had been piling up. He estimated that it would have cost the city at least $2 million a year to remove the sludge. "There was no money," said Carnevale.

NO MONEY?  What happened to the sewer charge I am sure the citizens have been paying for all those years?

Mayor Michael Bonfanti said he first learned of the problem a couple of years ago, and stood behind Carnevale's temporary remedy for the sediment. "We're not trying to point fingers and see who is at fault. What we're trying to do is fix a problem and do it as cost-effectively as possible," said Bonfanti.

Not trying to point fingers? I think someone's head should roll.

The arrogance of some local elected officials never ceases to astound me. In California it isn't just a proposal to ban washing your car, in Los Angeles there is a proposal to ban new fast food restaurants in a part of the city.

Councilwoman Jan Perry believes her constituents are too fat. Her solution to the problem is to ban any new fast food restaurants from opening in her district and wants to make it law.

If that doesn't make her constituents thin, will pop machines and candy bars be far behind? How about mandated exercise? Of course it would be not just exercise, but government approved exercise. Twenty minutes a day, three days a week or in the slammer you go. If being jailed for washing your car in Fairfax, CA is an option, why not jail if you don't exercise. One makes just as much sense as the other. 

If there is an abundance of fast food joints in her district now, how about passing a law that requires a few to shut their doors?  Enie, meenie, miney, mo...let's kick out Wendys with the Councilwoman's toe.

The comments that follow this story are overwhelming negative towards this idea as it should be.

Local elected officials should stick to providing the best police and fire protection possible. Keep the streets in good condition. Provide for parks and recreation.

USC legal scholar George Lefcoe is quoted in the article saying, "It is an intrusive regulatory move, well-intentioned, but certainly signals the fact that whoever makes these proposals doesn't see any boundary to the limits of government controls."

 The word Sheeple comes to mind.

One of my favorite talk radio programs is the Joe Soucheray show on AM 1500 KSTP in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. On this show Joe is the Mayor of the mythical city of Garage Logic.  The philosophy of Garage Logic is that "most problems can be solved using the type of discussions that commonly take place in garages. Hence: Garage Logic."

Mayor Joe also likes to say that Minnesota is the state "where absolutely nothing is allowed". Mayor Joe may be close when he says that, but the Town of Fairfax, CA wants to go where even no city in Minnesota has ever gone. There is a proposal in Fairfax to ban the washing of cars in residential neighborhoods. If passed, in Fairfax you would be required to wash your car at a car wash. The reason is to reduce pollution of the streams and groundwater.

Now I have never been accused of being an Environmentalist. However, I do drive a PT Cruiser which gives me 30 mph under ideal conditions. I burn corn in my stove to heat my home in the winter. I'm not out to intentionally harm the environment, so I do things that simply make sense to me.   

I also spent 2 hours yesterday morning cleaning my car. Inside and out. It was a mess. It was more than a mess, it was absolutely filthy. I did it in my driveway. It took a lot of elbow grease to get some of the dirt off. It gave me quite a workout. When I was done, I looked at it from a distance with some pride in the job I had done.

I don't care what kind of car wash it is, a self-serve or automatic, you simply cannot achieve the results I did, when I worked my tail off cleaning my car. While cars depreciate in value from the minute it is driven off the lot, I still consider my investment in that car something I want to preserve as much as possible.

As for me, automatic car washes are a waste of money. When I do have to use a car wash in winter I always do the self-serve. I always end up rushing that job because there is a line of other people wanting to get in. The car never ends up "clean". It is simply better than when I went in. I certainly don't get home and admire my job from a distance and think I did the best I could.

If I lived in Fairfax, under the ordinance proposed, I could be facing a fine ... imprisonment ... or both. You read that right. Imprisonment for washing your car.

It does not make sense to me to propose an ordinance which would land someone in jail for washing their car in their driveway.

What does make sense to me is to attempt to educate the citizens on which soap to use. That is the essence of Garage Logic.

I agree with the quote from Roger Hoffman in this article. "I think it's nuts."

We all have our enemies in politics. Even in local politics. It normally doesn't go to this extreme, but it makes for a great story.

Five Atlantic City men, including a former City Council president and a current councilman, were indicted Tuesday on charges they took part in a scheme to blackmail another councilman.

That is the lead to the story...it gets better.

They are accused of setting up fellow Councilman Eugene Robinson, who was lured to an Absecon hotel room and videotaped having sex with a prostitute. Authorities have claimed the scheme was orchestrated by Craig Callaway in an attempt to embarrass Robinson politically and induce him to resign his council seat.

Could it get juicier than this? Oh, yes.

Robinson, though, refused to quit, and contacted authorities. The councilman, who also is a Baptist minister, said the sex was consensual and that money he gave the woman was to buy sodas.

Buy Sodas ?!?

Anyway, the five charged have multiple counts against them.

The Baptist minister?

Authorities have said Robinson did not pay for sex and that the Callaway brothers and Tally recruited a 23-year-old prostitute to lure Robinson.

The moral of the story is if you are a man in public office, don't go into a motel room with a 23 year old young lady.

Or, as we have learned this week, tap your right foot in a public restroom.

What next?