Common Council Comments

I watched most of the Oshkosh Common Council meeting last night, but I missed the end since I was watching it on tape delay and I started falling asleep around 11 p.m. (I would propose that the Common Council changes their meeting times until after American Idol's season, which is sub-par this year admittedly.) A few observations:

Snow Removal

The Council approved a "disallowance of claim" for a woman complaining that someone complained about snow on her sidewalk and the city billed her $50 to remove it. This vote means the woman has to pay the $50.

I think we can all sympathize with her. It snowed and snowed and SNOWED this year. I have never wanted a snow blower until this year. It felt like it snowed on Monday, shovel on Tuesday, snowed again on Wednesday, shovel on Thursday. I lived in fear at times that my sidewalk would get sent to the city when there were some stretches that I couldn't keep up with the shoveling. And when the March Ice hit - wow. I would have gladly paid someone $50 to hammer away the ice on my corner lot on Main Street. It was two inches thick for weeks, solid ice. I actually took a hammer and a wedge out there, my daughter had a rubber mallet, and it took 5 days to finally get the last chunks of ice off the sidewalk on the north side.

Is the current system of "anonymous snitching" fair? Is it too arbitrary? I'm glad the city is going to be evaluating this and making recommended changes.

Miles has a conversation about this on his site today.

Councilor Pay

The pay increase for our Common Council was approved. One interesting exchange that occured during this discussion was started by Tony Palmeri when he questioned the "Government on the Cheap" perception and pointed out that due to our city manager form of government Oshkosh actually pays more for city government officials when you factor in the $130,000 estimated salary for a City Manager versus the $60,000 to $70,000 salary that elected Mayor's typically are paid. This elicited a response from acting City Manager John Fitzpatrick, who pointed out that many Mayor's also hire a "City Administrator" and that between the two Mayor + City Administrator >= City Manager.

On his blog today Tony pointed out that if we want to add these additional costs to the comparison of the two systems of government we ought to also include:

*Payouts for a retiring city manager.
*Legal fees associated with the manager position.
*Executive search firm fees.
*Fees associated with interviewing manager candidates.
*Buyout provisions in the manager's contract.

Menasha just changed their executive level leadership for the first time in 20 years and the only cost was the cost of an election. No buy out, no legal fees, no search firms, no major hike in salary to attract good candidates. Only the cost of an election.

Spring is around the corner in Oshkosh, is a referendum in the works?

Workshop

I only caught a few bits and pieces of the workshop about taxes after the meeting, but it looked pretty juicy. Unless my ears deceived me it sounded like the presenter was suggesting that corporations are using lawyers and accountants to avoid paying property taxes in Wisconsin. I hope he's got a good lawyer himself - I don't think Winnebago corporations appreciate that kind of spotlight being shined on them.

The Council meeting hasn't been posted yet, but you can eventually watch it online at Oshkosh Community Media (scroll down to select Common Council).

What was YOUR favorite part of the Council meeting???