The RFQ Committee

The Committee met last Thursday and received their copies of the planning proposals. We discussed how many we thought should make the interview phase and how to score the consultants. Our next meeting is this Thursday at 10:00.

I Blame

The late economist Herbert Stein offered what’s probably the greatest economic wisdom of the past century. He stated that when trends became unsustainable, they usually don’t last. Which brings us, of course, to housing. Truly, the skyrocketing value of housing could not last. Government policy and Wall Street greed created an artificial market that has now crashed and about taken our economy with it.

This issue should take more of the blame than unions or international trade treaties for wages and benefits that are out of line with the current market. When builders, carpenters, suppliers and manufacturers were making lots of money the apparent wage package wasn’t enough of an issue to cause the destruction of collective bargaining. Now the jobs related to the construction and manufacturing booms are gone and if you can find a job – the wages are much lower. This creates the need to adjust public sector wages.

Arbitration should also get tossed into the fight. Public sector arbitration was poorly designed from the beginning and should have had a major overhaul ten years ago.

Still, there should be a place for public sector bargaining. Disengaged elected officials can be some of the toughest task masters out there. One sided relationships are the breeding grounds of abuse.

Submittals

I received proposals from Vierbicher, Mead & Hunt, Vandewalle, Graef, Crispell Synder and Yaggy Colby. Civi Tek partnered with Graef.
The committee will be made up of Ed Grunden, Wayne Magnussen, Greg Waters, Paul Hermanson and myself. We will begin the preliminary review hopefully next week. Should send notices to all announcing the top four to be interviewed the next week.
This is all up in the air as I may have a lot of holes to fill after the State gets done next week.

1919

When did non-represented public employees become public enemy number one as if we were the most damaging element in society. Public employees are being demonized by almost everyone these days as if they were a cross between Keith Olbermann and Rush Limbaugh. But the non-represented employees are taking it worst than the represented and it must be because they are the most greedy government employees. Or maybe it just shows what’s going to happen when we’re all non-represented. Reminds of some old history lessons I once had, long, long ago.

Here We Go!

Well, the reengineering of the State can definitely be defined as a drastic process. I have to believe that most employees are now experiencing a groundswell of emotions, including shock, fear, denial, anger, and anxiety. There are a few employees that think they’ve been exempted, but I think they are wrong. The slash and burn of the State’s governments is going to be a long, painful, and even confusing process.

Are You Wealthy - Probably Not

I find the following statement hard to believe. G William Domhoff states that in the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one's home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.7%.

Add on top of this that the United States controls 80% of the world's wealth and this 20% controls 85% of that wealth. Wow!

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Today's Quote

John Muir is right. "Tug on any one thing and find it connected to everything else in the universe."

Balance Is Needed

The right to organize and bargain collectively has generally been considered to be a fundamental human right in Wisconsin. What is a fundamental human right? “It is a right that is possessed by human beings solely as a function of their humanity.”[1] This characterization of human rights means that they may not be created by nor denied by governments or employers. Government employees are human beings and appear to have a fundamental right to organize and bargain collectively. Since the beginning of American government organizations, "The desire of every human being to have a voice in those activities which have substantial influence on this life motivated public employees to organize,"[2] and government employees found ways to effect their employment through the general government process, but it took until 1962 to find a moderately successful model to produce the current collective bargaining system.
[1] Howard, Rhoda E., and Jack Donnelly, International Handbook of Human Rights, Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1987.
[2] Colosi, Thomas R. & Rynecki, Steven B. (January 1975). Federal legislation for public sector collective bargaining : a trilogy

RFQs

What happens when you write a planning RFQ. You get to meet more planners than you thought were in the state. This process takes alot of time. The problem is I like planners and choosing one will be difficult.

There's a Reason

Recognizing the complexity involved in providing citizens with the services that they need on a day-to-day basis, the City of Lake Mills opted to organize a Council/City Manager form of government under Chapter 64 of the state statutes. This form of government, born of the progressive reform movement after years of back-door politics and patronage, is based on an affirmation of the National League of Cities model of professional management. Having a vision for our community is key to its success and developing and articulating future directions is an essential element of strong political leadership; but to paraphrase a popular corporate adage: “Vision without execution is hallucination.” An important element of the Council/City Manager form is that it values professionalism and the ability to translate vision into results. Whereas strong political and policy leadership can create a truly inspiring blueprint for a community’s future, successful local governments recognize that the other side of the equation involves the buy-in of employees and citizen-customers and the efficient execution of the blueprint by an experienced, highly trained management professional.
A professional manager brings technical knowledge, academic training, management expertise, and a dedication to public service. Individuals attracted to the local government management profession hold dear the values of public service and ethics. These values are expressed in the Declaration of Ideals of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), their professional association. In addition to these stated ideals, ICMA members agree to a strict Code of Ethics governing their conduct.

Changed Again Today

Sometimes I think that experiences are cauldrons, crucibles that are designed to change you one way or the other. What you are today cannot be what you are tomorrow as the heat and pressure burns away what you don’t want and forces you to focus on what you want. Some people respond by becoming great and some just disappear; some become loathsome and some lovely. What is it that I want?

SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA

This type of public policy matter may fall into the “mixed bag” classification in which the policy has both statewide and local government attributes, or it may be a matter of statewide concern.
The chief question in this case is whether the regulation of synthetic marijuana should be a matter of local, statewide, or mixed state and local concern. It is clear that factors to be considered include, the need for statewide uniformity, determination of whether the municipal ordinance has extraterritorial impact, whether the subject matter is traditionally governed by state or local government, and whether the issue should be regulated by state or local legislation.
Because the State hasn’t acted on the issue yet, the city has the right to enact an ordinance. The material facts are that this is similar to other drug use issues and is dealt with at the federal and state levels.