Academy of Local Politics

The price of energy is hitting governments hard. Thus, it is hitting the citizens, again and again and again. Because we are the government. All levels. It is us who pays.

What to do? Obviously, hoping for a national energy program to emerge is wishful thinking. For over 35 years we have waited for that through Republican and
Democratic administrations and Congressional majorities. Nothing.

Ethanol and Biofuels have been touted as alternatives. But, are they really?

Lisa Stiffler of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes...

Local officials behind the enthusiastic rush toward biofuels are tapping the brakes, thanks to mounting concerns about the effect on food supplies and the environment. Representatives of Seattle, King County and the University of Washington this week said they wanted to take a closer look at where the fuel comes from and what effect it's having on the planet.

Over thirty five years and this is the best solution to our energy problems that has been "discovered"? More questions than answers.

We aren't paying increased costs for energy... we are paying increased costs because of neglect of duty of our elected officials over the past 35 years.

Vote Out Incumbents Democracy (VOID) has the solution to that problem.

Vote them all out. Every damn one of them.

We couldn't do worse.

As someone who is fascinated by tourism promotion, I have been very interested in following where the Fonzie statue will be located in Milwaukee. It has been a journey. If you don't know who Fonzie is..or why he deserves a statue you can stop reading here.

According to the Milwaukee Journal...

The latest location - and project organizers insist it's the final location - is on the east bank of the Milwaukee River, just south of Wells St., it was announced Tuesday.

The site near E. Wells St. is the third proposed location since the project surfaced publicly in September. At that time, project organizers were looking at the RiverWalk plaza south of E. Wisconsin Ave. and one-half block west of N. Water St. But that site was dropped in part because arts supporters said the Fonzie statue could detract from future public art planned for that area.

Fonzie detract from "future public art planned for that area?" How snobbish!

In March, Visit Milwaukee said the statue would be on the RiverWalk next to Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, 740 N. Plankinton Ave., on the river's west bank. That section of the RiverWalk draws a fair number of people, especially in summer.

But members of the RiverWalk District, which contributed $10,000 of the project's $85,000 cost, wanted the statue be in a more visible site.

More visible site?

Aaaah... this is Fonzie.

Build it anywhere and "they will come".

The statue, which is being created by Lake Mills artist Gerald Sawyer, will be dedicated Aug. 19 ... 10 a.m., and will be an invitation-only event, because of limited space.

Anyone who thinks that it might detract from future art in the area need not attend.

More County Board Representatives get elected (or re-elected) without opposition than any other level of government. I have no facts to back that statement up... just observation.

Case in point... Oneida County, Wisconsin.

News of the North tells us the story of how a new Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) ordinance was passed.

For those readers who live in areas that do not have lakes, AIS is the transportation of weeds from one lake to another on a dirty boat. It is similar to a bee cross pollinating from one plant to another. However, while the bee is doing good work, AIS is definitely not.

Members of the Land and Water Conservation committee proposed the county ordinance after receiving the green light from the state attorney general's office as to its legality, when it became clear that there would be no state law concerning AIS regulations this year. "At least we will have this in place in the meantime," said committee member supervisor Tom Rudolph.

The new ordinance will impose a $200 to $500 fine on any person transporting a watercraft over county highways which has aquatic invasive species attached to it.

Supervisor Romelle Vandervest said that the county had to "start somewhere" and that the ordinance was as good a place as any. She said that when she visited Minnesota she learned people there clean their boats immediately after pulling them out of the water. "The kids got under the boats and pulled off the weeds and the parents had their shammies out wiping down the sides," she said.

I don't know of anyone who believes AIS is a good thing. But. this ordinance did not get passed without controversy.

Supervisor David O'Melia, chairman of the law enforcement committee, was concerned that enforcing the law would put an undue burden on the sheriff's department. "You mean we're going to arrest people for having weeds on their boats now? Somehow, I don't think the sheriff's department will think this is very important," he said.

Agreed. It won't be at the top of their enforcement list. However, there are many laws that aren't on the top of the enforcement list that are "on the books" for a purpose.

Supervisor Pat C. Peters agreed. "This is just another excuse to stop the poor fisherman who just had two beers, for drunk driving or whatever," she said.

That statement is bordering on "I got elected unopposed."

But, the winner for the "I got elected unopposed' statement goes to Supervisor Gary Baier.

"I don't know how many people can identify AIS. If someone has a dandelion hanging off their trailer, will they get pulled over?

The county's AIS coordinator Jennifer Holman gently responded...

The identification of weeds, she said, is not important, since if a watercraft has vegetation on it, the vegetation is aquatic. "These boats are not navigating through dandelion or grass fields," she said.

Except for maybe... the drunk driver?

Poop...Crap...#2... call it whatever you want...it's all the same.

It is also one of the biggest responsibilities that local government has. Treating and/or safely disposing of this normal bodily function.  

Then we learn from this AP article in the Mansfield News Journal ...

Members of a small, isolated Amish community are refusing to follow state code in their handling of waste from a school's two outhouses, citing their religious convictions.

The Amish property owner said he is even willing to go to jail to defend his beliefs. Local officials aren't eager to go to that extreme, but are in a quandary over how to assure the laws are applied uniformly and the raw sewage doesn't contaminate water supplies.

Waste from the outhouses has been collected in plastic buckets, then dumped onto fields. The county is demanding the Amish install a holding tank and contract with a certified sewage hauler for disposal.

A district judge last month found Andy Swartzentruber, on whose land the outhouses sit, and school elder Sam Yoder in violation of state sewage disposal law. They have until Tuesday to pay more than $500 each in fines or to appeal the ruling.

"I'd rather go to jail, and abide by our religion," Swartzentruber told The Associated Press one recent afternoon while taking a break from tilling a field.

Yoder and five other Amish men laid out their beliefs in a handwritten letter to the sewage enforcement agency in January.

"We feel this sewage plan enforcement along with its standards is against our religious (beliefs)," they wrote. "Our forefathers and the church are conscientiously opposed to install the sewage method accordingly to the world's standards."

Conscientiously opposed? I go along with their religious beliefs and their being conscientiously opposed to going to war. But, conscientiously opposed to treating their poop?

"People respect their religious beliefs," township supervisor Giles Dumm said. "Nobody's coming down on them about that."

But, he said, "it's not fair to the rest of the community if some people have to abide by the sewage laws and some don't."

Ahhh, a voice of reason.

The newest in crime fighting? A golf cart?

It will be in Pine Lawn, MO.

The 13th Floor of Governing.Com alerted me to this story.

Pine Lawn aldermen voted 5-0 Monday night to support Chief Rickey Collins' idea to buy two battery-operated golf carts to improve community policing without a costly fill-up.

"It's basically about putting more police on the street to serve you better," Collins told residents and aldermen.

The chief says the carts will help the force engage in more "old school policing" of the town's streets. And there's another advantage, too:

He said the carts would bring "an element of surprise" in crime fighting.

I thought that was what pedal-powered bikes were for?