Emergency Response

Most well managed emergency response agencies will manage the average response time within their area of responsibility. The goal is to save lives. This issue is lost when towns are contracting with cities, districts or non-profits for their emergency services. The main criteria becomes cost. Understanding that towns may lack good policy development processes, the emergency response agency considering the contract should evaluate their response time and only take what they can responsibly serve. Again, financially motivated agencies will take whatever the town is willing to give them.
The little bit of extra money isn't worth the potential loss of life. These scenes play out across Wisconsin regularly and I assume the only answer is for Town residents to realize that their lives are being toyed with for a couple extra cents of tax savings.

Revenue Evaluation at the Local level?

A good government revenue system should distribute the burden across residents in a manner that is consistent with the accepted norms of fairness and equity. These norms typically define fairness according to the relationship between the amount of revenue collected from residents and their respective abilities to pay the tax, charge, fee or assessment along with the benefits received by them from government programs. Three widely-accepted norms of fairness are:
Vertical Equity. This principle of fairness requires that the amount of revenue collected from residents with different income levels should reflect their respective abilities to pay the tax, charge, fee or assessment. Specifically, the cost of government as a percentage of income should not unduly burden taxpayers with limited ability to pay. Some would view this principle as satisfied by a proportional revenue system, where revenues collected are the same percentage of income for taxpayers at all income levels. Others believe that the principle requires that revenues collected as a percentage of income should be higher for residents with more income than those with less income (a progressive tax burden). To our knowledge, almost no one believes that revenues collected should be a higher percentage of income for less affluent residents than for those with more income (a regressive tax burden).
Benefits Received. A revenue system may be considered fair if the revenues collected are matched by benefits received by a resident from the government. This principle is most relevant when a cost is charged specifically for the purpose of providing a particular government service to a specific group of residents. Such “benefit charges” are impractical for much of government spending because the “benefits” received cannot be determined for each resident. Therefore, this principle is relevant mainly for certain types of selective fees, charges and assessments which are termed user fees.
Horizontal Equity. According to this principle, residents with similar abilities to pay a tax should pay comparable amounts of the costs. More generally, the principle of horizontal equity enjoins the government from levying charges that have arbitrary and peculiar distributions of costs across residents or from levying dissimilar tax burdens on taxpayers that are not justified by differences in their ability to pay or by distinctions in the benefits they receive from government programs.

Always Gray

The difference between a tax and a fee or charge is not always clear. A tax in its pure form is paid by citizens based on some criterion such as income, assets, or consumption spending in general or for particular items. There is no connection between the tax paid and the taxpayer’s use of any particular public service. A fee in its pure form is a business transaction, a quid pro quo, between a government and a resident in which one receives a specific service in exchange for voluntary payment. Those who do not choose to use the service do not normally pay. But there are many payments to government that fall into a gray area. For example, the fee charged for a driver’s license is a fee rather than a tax because one voluntarily chooses to apply for a driver’s license, and those who do not drive do not have to pay. But the revenue goes into the general fund and does not fund any specific services in exchange. The gasoline tax, on the other hand, is clearly a tax just like the tax on tobacco and alcohol. The revenue in this case, however, goes into the state’s highway fund and is used to maintain the roads used by buyers of gasoline.

Whose Winning?

It appears to me that highly developed countries (HDC) cannot continue to generate larger amounts of wealth through import replacing and exporting and expect less developed developing countries (LDDC) to reduce the income or wealth gap. There are always some examples of LDDCs that have closed the gap recently in a relatively short period, but this appears to be at the expense of HDCs rather than new wealth generation. Are HDCs generating wealth by replacing imports and generating exports, or does this mean that HDCs will need to allow the LDDCs to start the import-export process because the HDCs culture is to out-compete the LDDCs and their primary economic forces are better developed. There are quite a number of countries with large debts that are also large producers and exporters of commodities, most of which are suffering from a universal trend of declining prices. In general, these countries export more and more, to receive less and less. Under this scenario, the HDCs will have trouble generating enough new wealth to maintain their current standard of living. There has to be some sort of new wealth, either technology, natural resource or capital, generated within the HDCs to replace the wealth exported to the LDDCs. The economies of the HDCs need to produce products which are continuously more sophisticated and continuously more expensive, thus meaning that they could export less to maintain the same wealth. The force of technology in the form of innovation and improvisation will become the HDCs method for retaining wealth while the LDDCs accumulate wealth through import replacing and exporting. I believe that’s why cities with major research universities have been the rising stars in economic growth for HDCs.

Can We Do That?

The Constitution of the United States of America does not mention local governments. As a result, local governments are created by and regulated by the state. There are many types of restrictions on local governments.
One restriction is a court decision, referred to as "Dillon's Rule" which has been applied to municipal powers in many states. Dillon's Rule is derived from written decision by Judge John F. Dillon of Iowa in 1868. It is a cornerstone of American municipal law. It maintains that a political subdivision of a state is connected to the state as a child is connected to a parent. Dillon's Rule is used in interpreting state law when there is a question of whether or not a local government has a certain power. Dillon's Rule narrowly defines the power of local governments. The second part of Dillon's Rule states that if there is any reasonable doubt whether a power has been conferred on a local government, then the power has NOT been conferred. This is the rule of strict construction of local government powers.
Advocates of local government autonomy started pushing for Home Rule legislation nation wide. Wisconsin adopted home rule legislation in 1911 that was eventually declared unconstitutional in the state. The only recourse for advocates of municipal home rule, therefore, was amending the constitution. In 1924, the Wisconsin Constitution was amended to establish municipal home rule. Municipal home rule consisted in limiting legislative power in the area of local affairs by carving out a sphere of city and village influence over local affairs and government. The amendment permitted cities and villages to determine their local affairs and government, subject only to other provisions of the Wisconsin Constitution and to legislative enactments of statewide concern that uniformly affect every city and village.
It should be note that the amendment did not grant home rule authority to counties or towns. Municipal home rule jurisprudence consists largely in setting the boundaries between those areas of local affairs and government that are within the legislative purview of cities and villages and those areas that are of statewide concern and, therefore, subject to control by the legislature.
It turns out that the home rule constitutional amendment is not a substantial impairment to legislative enactments affecting cities and villages. The reason may be because the terms of the amendment are limited to “local affairs and government” and, for most practical purposes, “local affairs” have statewide impact and are therefore of statewide concern.
What does this all mean? City Councils are not the independent powers they sometimes try to be; they are really just tools of the State. Any Council needs to be careful that they don’t abuse their police powers or exercise powers they don’t have. The police power is a vague concept that encompasses the power of the government to promote the public welfare by restraining and regulating the use of liberty and property. The Council needs to know if they have the authority to exercise police power and then they need to reasonably exercise the police power. The also need a clear public purpose.

Maps We Can All Use

City staff wants to have access to integrated images, detailed maps, and property-level maps on our computers that can link us to a wide range of enterprise data used for various city functions. The question is what solution is the best one for us? We have accumulated or have access to significant amounts of data with no method for linking them to the daily managers who need the information.
We have now reached the point where a decision needs to be made. We had planned on hiring a GIS specialist and using arcview on a central server. There are other solutions available that may serve the city better. Because there are technology barriers for most of the staff in updating the information and utilizing the information, we need to work the process through to understand what will provide the city with the best system for serving the community.
Who can handle this problem and how is this important service going to be provided?

Ethics Still Matter

Ethics laws are put in place primarily to promote government decisions that are made through impartial and proper channels so the public can have confidence in the integrity of its government.
Councilmembers are agents of public purpose and hold their positions for the benefit of the public. As recipients of this public trust, they are expected to conform their official acts to those that are consistent with that trust. They must discharge faithfully the duties of their position, regardless of personal considerations, recognizing that the public interest must be their prime concern.
Councilmembers may not use or attempt to use their position to obtain financial gain or anything of value or any advantage, privilege or treatment for the private benefit of the member or their immediate family, or for an organization with which the member or their immediate family member is associated.
Although Councilmembers are trying hard to do what they believe is right when discharging their duties and exercising their authorities, they can sometimes run afoul of local ordinances and state statutes relating to their conduct. Sometimes the penalties imposed on them can be criminal in nature and they can have far-reaching ramifications to their lives. They are provided the materials to help make them aware of the possible pitfalls that may be “out there” so they can avoid them.

Topeka Drive Final Report

The purpose of authorizing LM Contract 1-2009 was to have the City Council direct the Manager to award the job to the lowest responsible bidder for the N. Topeka Drive Project. There where seven bids received at the March bid letting. The Manager recommended that Council direct the Manager to sign the contract with LMS Construction. The Manager recommended awarding the alternate bid as because of the amount of the base bid.

Prior Council Action:
• In August of 2008, staff received approval from Public Works Board to authorize staff to present a Capital Budget Plan with the N. Topeka Drive Project scheduled for completion in 2009.
• In November of 2008, City Council approved a budget with the N. Topeka Drive Project.
• In November of 2008, City Manager determined to bid 100% of the project work rather than exclude the standard city portion of the work from the contract.
• On March 17, 2009, the City Council reviewed the proposed bids for the project and voted to approve awarding the bid for contract 1-2009, N. Topeka Drive Project to LMS Construction for $613.669.52.

Summary:
• In December of 2008, staff discussed and proposed a planning process and schedule for options for completing the project with the Manager.
• By January of 2009, information was being gathered on material prices, intergovernmental contracting, contract modification and legal issues.
• Based on this information and discussion with residents the storm sewer design was substantial modified from the original budget amount.
• By February of 2009, the bid documents were complete and ready to be advertised for the construction of storm sewer, curb & gutter, water main, sidewalk, road base and pavement for N. Topeka Drive Project.
• LMS Construction did some minor sanitary sewer work in April of 2009.
• They started the water main construction in April of 2009 and completed the work by the end of April.
• They then began storm sewer construction, pavement and base removal in May and completed this phase by the end of May and started the storm sewer installation. There were some work delays because of natural gas main installation, power line replacement, telephone line replacement and cable TV line replacement.
• They completed the storm sewer work by mid June and began installing the new base and completed related work by July 4th.
• Yeske Construction laid the new curb and gutter and then we waited weeks for the concrete to cure.
• The B.R. Amon laid the base course by July 30th and laid the surface course on by August 7th.
• The special assessment sidewalks were completed by the end of August.
• LMS Construction completed landscaping for this year by August 30th.
The project was substantially completed in a timely matter and this project was completed for $591,431.90 which was $22,237.62 less than the Contractor’s unit bid contract.

Walgreens is Selling What?

The Walgreen Drug Store operations are located on a property that is currently zoned PB, Planned Business District. At this time the property owner is requesting the ability to sell alcoholic beverages—liquor and beer—from the premises in addition to the pharmacy and general merchandise operations. The information provided with the application indicates that the proposed operations will be conducted entirely within the existing building. No building addition is proposed.
Drug stores and general merchandise operations are uses permitted by right within the PB, Planned Business District. In addition, liquor store uses are also a permitted use. The sales of alcohol will be secondary to the sale of “general merchandise,” and are not intended to supplant the primary operations or use of the premises. Because of this, the typical concerns—noise, disorderly behavior, loitering, etc.—associated with an establishment selling alcohol are minimized.
A Class “A” intoxicating-liquor/beer license authorizes the retail sale of intoxicating liquor for consumption off the premises where sold and in original packages and containers. This is the type of license a typical liquor store must have.
Management has indicated through the site plan where the sales area will be located. The site plan also indicates that they only plan to sell beer and wine, although the license requested allow for the sale of liquor. The Council may want to add restrictions to the license, such as, beer and wine only or no sales may occur after 9:00 p.m. etc. In addition, a locked storage area is available inside the building to accommodate for extra inventory. All locked areas will be controlled by management personnel. The store’s existing security is higher than we normally see in a establishment selling alcohol.
The management has indicated that the management staff will become licensed by the State, and remaining sales staff will be trained in the proper techniques for selling alcohol—requiring identification, packaging, etc. Persons under 18 years of age will not be allowed to sell liquor.

Mulberry Street

The City Manager submits this request to move $9,000 of funds from the Clerk-Treasurer’s operating budget to the Street Department operating budget to accommodate the funding of the mill and overlay work completed on Mulberry Street. The Street Superintendent received a proposal from B.R. Amon & Sons with three options. The city selected option 1 which was to mill bad areas 2” deep and furnish, place and compact 2” inches of hotmix asphalt in one lift with the city hauling the millings for $32, 226. The proposal is included in the packet. B.R. Amon ultimately billed the city $49,900 for the work completed which is 54% over the proposal. B.R. Amon did provide $49,900 worth of work and material. I think that staff was a little surprised that the contractor was willing to spend an additional $17,674 of city money without any notification before providing the additional work. Ultimately, with this transfer – we will be able to cover the cost. The overall budget amount will remain the same; the specific line items are being adjusted.

Lake Mills Snow

Snowplowing Policy
The snowplowing program is designed to open traffic lanes to safe travel during and after a snowfall event. The street department uses labor, equipment, gas, salt and sand to complete this phase of snow removal. The city generally completes the plowing of city streets prior to 7:00 a.m. for safe traffic to work and school, to reduce conflicts with morning traffic and to begin downtown snow removal operations. This work is performed following a priority pattern designed to provide service to the greatest number of motorists where the need is the most crucial. The street system maintained by the City includes "Major Streets", "Local Streets" and several alleys that are prioritized based on traffic volumes. The City has a "Bare Pavement" level of service policy for number “1” priority streets.
Street Priority
1. Major streets such as Main Street, Lake Street, Mulberry Street and Madison Street.
2. Local streets with steep grades and sharp curves.
3. The remainder of the local residential streets and courts.
4. Parking lots, alleys and cemetery roads.
The attack plan in the City’s snow removal and ice control efforts will obviously vary considerably depending on the storm event. A sleet storm would be primarily an ice control operation involving salt spreaders. A less than 2" snowfall would find salt spreaders and plow trucks concentrating on number "1" and “2” priority streets. Number "3" and “4” priority streets may only be salted on these small events. Larger Snows (2" or more) would show an initial concentration on the number "1" and “2” priority streets with an ongoing effort to keep them open during the snow event and additional effort applied to number "3" and “4” priority streets. Overtime plowing and ice control would begin on local streets once the accumulations reach approximately 2" and the major streets are completed.
Ice control (salting) operations should be initiated when street conditions are determined by the senior police officer on duty to generally prohibit the safe control of vehicles either city wide or at specialized locations (intersections, hills). The senior police officer on duty shall notify the street foreman of this determination. To effectively provide ice control, the Department uses the application of road salt. Rock salt, even with its known environmental draw backs, is still the principal element used for ice control purposes. Occasionally, sand is mixed with salt or calcium chloride to increase traction during ice storms or periods of extreme cold. However, the use of sand is generally avoided as it tends to fill and clog storm drains.
The department will not plow any snow during initial salting operations. This allows the salt to begin reacting and reduces ice packs.
The department will use salt at the minimum amounts recommended by the American Public Works Association (APWA) for specific weather conditions. This is to reduce water runoff issues.
The department will only use sand for ice control operations when temperatures are consistently below the effective level of salt. This reduces silting in Rock Creek and improves street safety.
Snowplowing operations should be initiated when there is an accumulation of one (1) inch or more of snow, significant drifting or when the street foreman determines to initiate snowplowing operations with the goal of one hundred percent (100%) of the city streets being significantly cleared by 7:00 a.m.
There are extenuating circumstances to these policies in every snow event. The Police Department may call and request salting because of slippery conditions, wind conditions may require special actions, time of day may require plowing before staff leaves work or because of school issues. City staff makes every effort to make the best decision for the set of circumstances presented.
Level of Service - Observed or desired pavement conditions at various points in time, during and after, winter weather events.
Based on available resources
1. Pavement condition goals at various times
2. Level of effort for various storm conditions
3. Priority, timing and type of treatment for various locations

Politics and Public Administration

I enjoyed reading about Tulsa, Baltimore and Annapolis discussing moving to the City Manager form of government. I do truly believe that it is the best form of city government. The problem is the need supporters feel to oversell the product. Wilson originally oversold public administration because he wasn’t able to fully articulate his theories and definitions of public administration. The problem for him then as now is the constant tension in the selection of a point for balancing between political issues of democratic responsiveness and administrative efficiency.

Still, Wilson was making a simple statement – “Seeing every day the things which the state ought to do, the next thing is to see clearly how it ought to do them.”[1] The “what ought to be done” was clearly a part of the American political system that Wilson wanted to preserve. What he wanted to change was the “how it ought to be done” part of the governmental system. Wilson wanted the American system of government to produce the desired outcomes and felt that bureaucracy joining forces with scientific management[2] would provide an efficient way to deliver the public goods and services.

Wilson could have been overwhelmed by the issues of public policy formulation, policy execution and monitoring and evaluation of policy outcome and failed to take any action. Instead, Wilson must have decided that it was better to use the separation between the political environment and public administration to change the governments of his time.

There are so many issues that get dropped when attempting to change form of government. Just the selection of the City Manager can make a huge difference in the functioning of the government. The charter organization and the Council's commitment to formulating policy and not legislating administrative orders. The expectation of total separation of policy and administration on the executive side becomes points of confrontation. The way schools teach government and make an elected executive practically a religious requirement.

Wilson, at some level, recognized the dichotomy of politics and public administration. He discusses the fact that there are no lines of demarcation and that there are problems of trying to separate the elements of each. I don’t think he believed that the pure efficiency of outcomes generally pursued by scientific management would adequately deal with the overlay of political environments.

Wilson decided to advocate a politics-administration dichotomy saying that administration would best be done outside the sphere of politics. This wasn’t a methodological base for orthodox public administration, but an opening shot at the existing spoils system.[3] Still, this dichotomy prompted the development of the so-called "Technical Theory of Public Administration." This tradition was based on a system that relied on hierarchy, unity of command, political neutrality, recruitment and promotion on the merit principle, public service accountability, objectivity, and probity. [4]

The success of our government depends on the quality of the legislation generated from the political process providing for the operationalization of public administration. Given the broad nature in which legislation is framed and the political climate within which public administration takes place, public administrators are often directly or indirectly given authority to frame the legislative question and then interpret delegated legislation. Due to the sociocultural factors of American democracy, its evolving intellectual expectations and its inferred values, democracy and thus public administration are not constituted by a single set of principles and concepts.[5] Being time and place bound, and acknowledging changes in our culture and levels of development within our society and country, public administration is forever in ferment and a state of flux. This is the nature of our system and is to be welcomed as it reflects the dynamics of our government and the discipline.[6]

The citizens of these cities should believe that the City Manager form of government is neither a paradigm nor a panacea, but more fairly represented by this Churchill statement "the worst form of government, except for all the others." The government seeks to "improve" things in terms of making social arrangements more just, but there are so many variables in the administration that they should start with modest expectations for success and work up from there. In the words of T.S. Eliot: “There is only the trying; the rest is not our business.” The City Manager and his staff is the government’s toolbox for trying.


[1] Wilson, Woodrow (1887). The Study of Administration, Political Science Quarterly, 2 (June):197-220.
[2] Taylor, Frederick W. The Principles of Scientific Management (New York: Harper and Bros., 1911).
[3] Imasato, Shigeru. Toward a Public Science: A Paradigm Shift of Public Administration. Journal of Law and Politics (March, 1993).
[4] Dwivedi, O. P. Challenges in Public Administration from Developing Nations. University of Guelph, Canada. November 1, 2001.
[5] Jones, Chuck O. An Introduction to the Study of Public Policy. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. 1984 (Third Edition)
[6] Abakholwa Sindane, “Public Administration vs. Public Management: Parallels, divergences, convergences and who benefits? ” (September 2003)

Lake Mills' New Judge?

Historically, the electors of the city elect the Municipal Court Judge. The judge appointed the Municipal Court Clerk, who served and will probably continue to serve at the direction and pleasure of the Judge.

The Municipal Court was and still will be convened at such times as the judge determines, and it enters judgment or dismisses matters that come before it as the court deems just. Ordinance violations cited by police officers, the building inspector or fire inspector are all referred to the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court. Most traffic law violations are also matters for the Court’s determination. All judgments entered by the court are reviewable by the Circuit Court if an appeal is brought within twenty days of any judgment.

The City Attorney represents the City as Prosecutor in all matters brought before the Municipal Court.

The big difference is that after forty years Judge Kiessling is retiring and a new Judge will be elected. Combine this with the fact that the City has also joined with the Town to form a joint court system and there is potential for substantial change in Lake Mills judicial system. Ordinance 1053B established the Municipal Court of the City and Town of Lake Mills. The Ordinance states:

Municipal Judge: Such Court shall be under the jurisdiction of and presided over by a Municipal Judge, who shall be an attorney licensed to practice law in Wisconsin, and who shall reside in either the City of Lake Mills or the Town of Lake Mills at the time of his or her election and throughout his or her term of office.

1. Such Munici­pal Judge shall be elected at large in the spring election for a term of two (2) years commencing on May 1. All candidates for the position of Municipal Judge shall be nominated by nomination papers as provided in § 8.10, Wis. Stats., and selection at a primary election if such is held as provided in § 8.11, Wis. Stats.

2. The City Council of the City of Lake Mills and the Board of Supervisors of the Town of Lake Mills s­hall provide for a primary election in the event that more than two candidates file nomination papers for such position of Municipal Judge, as provided in § 8.11(1)­(a), Wis. Stats., and such primary election shall be held on the third Tuesday of February as provided in § 5.02(22), Wis. Stats.

3. Because a Municipal Court has previously been established by the City of Lake Mills, and because the Judge presiding over the Court has been elected to a term of office until May 1, 2010, the Judge of the previously established Municipal Court shall preside over the newly organized Municipal Court for the City and Town of Lake Mills until the end of the existing term.
This is the end and beginning of a new era!

Another Year

The City has completed another Budget and related tax levy. Congratulations to the Lake Mills City Council for bringing in a reduced tax rate, lowering taxes and maintaining community services. In these challenging economic times - this sort of budget process shows that the City had a plan and was able to follow through on it.