My Unedited Answers to Reporter's Most Recent Questions
Kronenwetter Residents and Voters,
In an attempt to help voters be as fully informed as possible, I have provided the complete text of my answers to reporter Brian Kowalski's questions that he used as a basis for his latest City Pages Article.
Overall, I won't complain too much about how Mr, Kowalski presented things, but since he ignored so much information, I am hoping that this post will be much more informative to you about my work as trustee, than the news article was.
I think that what could have been a much longer, more informative article, was cut short due to insufficient answers by incumbent Voll (candidate Straub apparently got cold feet at the last minute and did not provide any answers).
Also, while we realize that everything cannot be included in every article, compare the answers below to the article, and note how selective reporters and editors can be in what they choose to publish and not publish, and how a few words paraphrased do not exactly convey the true intent of the answer. Not just in this case, but in almost all articles.
Thanks!
Ken Charneski
My email of Feb 13 to Brian Kowalski:
Brian,
Here are my answers. There is probably more than you want, but I thought I'd provide enough for a good understanding of my position on the questions that you asked. It should give you plenty to work with.
Thanks,
Ken
Please start by telling me a little about your background - age, occupation or last/main occupation if retired, political experience, time in the village, and any other background information you would care to include.
I’m a life-long resident of Kronenwetter, and first elected as a Village Trustee in 2018.
What’s the main reason you chose to run for village board?
Originally, it was because the Village very nearly opted in to the County re-addressing and road renaming plan of 2017. The majority of the Board demonstrated both extreme gullibility, as well as a complete disregard for the will of the people of the Village; many of whom were not aware of this scheme until it was almost too late.
Because something this bad almost got approved, I thought that the People needed a watchdog on the Board, so I got on the ballot.
What do you see as a board member’s role? What do you see as the president’s role?
First and foremost, they both need to abide by their oath of office. That oath, and the requirements built into it, covers a lot of territory.
The subject of the oath alone could take a whole article. In fact, I did write an article on it for the Village Board, and also one similar, directed at the Citizen-Committee level. I recently wrote a general Code of Conduct centered around it as well.
The role of the trustee is to be trust-worthy in applying their best rational, independent judgment and best efforts in pursuing the over-all best interests of the People of the Village. This may include extensive homework, or establishing communication and a working rapport with staff members as well as with the People of the Village.
I believe there should be no “friends” or insiders connected with any elected position; No cliques, no favoritism, selective treatment, or “free passes”, no secrecy, withheld information, hypocrisy, collusion or conspiracy, or any of what is commonly called a “Good Ol' Boys Club”.
All of the above would also apply to the Village President position, but in addition, there are duties of the president which are specifically directed by both local ordinance and State Statute, as well as a more general moral obligation to provide leadership.
The President is not a dictator, but attitudes and examples, whether good or bad, flow from the top down. The president therefore, should set the tone of the meetings, the administrative organization, and the priorities of the various issues facing the Village.
The president does not need to be the smartest person in the room, but should know how and where to find reliable knowledge or advice, and have the discernment to evaluate and put that information to good use.
The Village Administrator should be one of those sources, but at the end of the day, it is the Village President who should be directing the Village Administrator on policy and action, not the other way around.
The position of Village President is not just that of a figurehead of assumed prestige or self-glorification that some people might derive from it, but instead it should be viewed as a position of additional obligation and service.
This person should be putting forth twice the time, effort, and concern, as you would expect from an average trustee. It is no place for slackers.
The President is also responsible to maintain peace and good order, and to ensure that all ordinances are obeyed. Technically, for anything that goes wrong in the Village, the buck stops with the Village President.
What’s the village’s biggest issue right now, or top three issues if that’s more appropriate? How would you address it?
1. Rebuilding an entire better, more efficient organization basically from the ground-up.
We have addressed a lot of it already at the Administrative Policy Committee that I chair. We have recommended to the Board new and revamped policies, realistic pay scales, technology upgrades, a rational and legal employee handbook, and have applied new hiring practices.
There is more on this in the attached handout, or at www.kencharneski.com
or www.kencharneskireport.blogspot.com
2. Along with the above task, goes the issue of dealing with the carry-over effects of more than a decade of mismanagement. Add to this the scorched-earth effect of having no written standard operating procedure in place, and very minimal hand-off instructions left behind by the former administrator or many of the employees.
This situation has required a lot of re-inventing and innovation. Fortunately, we have some new employees and committee members who are re-inventors and innovators. The whole process will take time to clean up all the issues left behind; some of which are still being discovered.
The village has had a number of employees leave in recent years. There is some debate about why that is. Why do you think the employee turnover has been so high and what can be done about it?
I don't know that there ever was any real debate about the matter, just one-sided baseless mud-slinging by political activists. “Debate” implies that they would have some facts to deal with in a rational discussion. Accusations do not constitute facts.
This is a pretty stale, shopworn issue by now anyway. We have moved forward, well beyond the point of your question, as I mentioned in my reply previous to this one.
This issue was overblown and politicized to begin with, but since you asked, let's summarize:
In one corner, we had self-proclaimed activist Alex Vedvic as spokesman and agitator for what I can only refer to as a small group of perpetually discontented individuals looking for a cause to complain about. They have made all kinds of very broad and unfounded accusations, misrepresenting the situation for their own political purposes.
In the other corner, the simple answer to your question is, in my opinion, that the sudden abundance of ex-employees was the almost inevitable result of administrative mismanagement, ongoing office politics/gossip, and overworked employees coupled with a below-average pay scale. People could get better pay elsewhere for less work, without the drama; so why wouldn't they leave?
All that the activists have accomplished with their irresponsible clamor and insults, was to unjustly defame the Village to the surrounding communities while actually having no idea of what they were really talking about, and making the problem appear worse than it needed to be.
As a reporter, I think you contributed to the problem by engaging in yellow journalism by pandering to these negative individuals. There was a day when reporters would not write a story like you did, without checking the character or veracity of their sources.
Some Kronenwetter residents have been calling for an ethics board. Should Kronenwetter have an ethics board?
I believe I have a thorough knowledge of the history and application of the previous Ethics Code, and my conclusion is that maintaining functional ethics in Kronenwetter bears no relationship whatsoever to having an Ethics Board; particularly a Board that would involve those people (mentioned above) who are currently promoting it.
I wrote fully documented reports on this subject to the Administrative Policy Committee and also reported to the Village Board on it (see the meeting packets for May, 2020)
I included suggested changes to the old Ethics Code to actually make it ethical and workable, and I also made a case for scrapping the whole thing.
In my opinion the bottom line is that the creation and application of the former Village Ethics Code was so malicious, incompetently (I would say illegally) done, and so UN-ethical, that it was no surprise that both the APC and Village Board voted unanimously to get rid of the whole thing.
Fast forward to today; we have the same agitator and that crowd of activists mentioned above, working from the same playbook that I saw happen in 2015 and 2020 with the virtue signaling about ethics, but apparently only as a means to other political purposes.
A year or two back, I had written another report separate from those mentioned above but much more direct, on what a disaster the previous Ethics Code was and how it appeared to be weaponized and selectively enforced (by some of the same people supporting this current effort). I offered that report to everyone at one of those activist meetings, but big surprise - NO ONE was interested in it.
You would think that at least one person there would have been interested in what went wrong with the old code before they talked about a new code, but they were not. That leads me to believe that this isn't about ethics at all, but (again) about manufactured shaming, false accusations and dirty politics.
It is interesting to note that no one in that group cared about ethics violations a few years ago when they or their friends were in office, but now suddenly it is a big deal. The hypocrisy here is obvious and in itself violates the concepts in their own petition. Where is their demonstrated “honesty”, “integrity” “accountability”, or “impartiality”? It's all smoke.
So, the bottom line now is the same as it was three years ago – in my opinion we have a proposed Ethics Code born out of malice and hypocritical intent, and we have a proposed Ethics Board that we know from past experience is more trouble than it's worth.
Having said all that, I'll say that I have always been in favor of a basic, reasonable code of conduct, and as Chairman of APC, I have started the committee on that project as directed by the Village Board.
Why should residents chose you over your two opponents?
I think my work ethic, honesty, and numerous accomplishments have been of substantial benefit to the residents of the Village.
I don't want to get into negative campaigning. I'll only say first, that I think it would be better for everyone if Mr Straub could focus on doing a good job in his County Supervisor position without getting bogged down in Village business.
Secondly, that if I am elected Village President I believe I will be filling a performance void which has existed for years in that position under the current president.
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