July 13 Village Board Meeting

 

 The Kronenwetter Village Board is ONCE AGAIN going into closed session on July 13 for the purpose, Joling claims, of "final further redactions" related to an open records request for a report on a special investigation initially into Administrator James Davel's alleged questionable conduct. They just did "final redactions" on June 22. Now it's "final further redactions"? What next - "final further redactions Part 3, the Sequel?"

    Joling, Coyle, Stowell, and I believe Davel, have made public statements starting in March, about how this report is going to justify their accusations about how Trustee Sorensen "caused this whole investigation", and then "interfered" with it, and anything else they came up with. It all looked like dirty politics and false accusations to me, but now, when it comes to "put up or shut up" with an actual report that says what they said it says, they create delay after delay.

    Has it occurred to anyone that the Board is not even supposed to be doing redactions like this, or controlling open records fulfillment in the first place?

    Pres Joling has never paid attention to my opinions as trustee, regarding following proper procedure to do things according to the laws which we are bound to follow. I am not not a lawyer, and like everyone else I'm on the outside looking in since April, but I do have some experience in Board behavior. My spidey sense leads me to suspect that Joling and Davel have led their troops into some kind of legal quagmire, and these closed sessions are just some kind of CYA strategy sessions more than anything else.

    Does anyone else get the sense that something is going down that we should really know about?

    Ten days is the standard for fulfillment for open records requests, but in this case it looks like it is now going into the third or fourth month. Why would a three page report take months to release? What makes the second report such an apparent "biohazard" that it takes weeks and weeks to figure out how to "redact" it?

   Have they been reading my blog posts and perhaps finally paying attention to what I have been saying? I don't know. But I do know that it seems like something unusual is brewing that taxpayers likely won't be told about until we get the bill to pay for it. Maybe not even then. Secrecy seems to be the "new normal".

 As for the "MUNICIPAL CENTER GARAGE" change order on the agenda - Can anyone tell me why taxpayers should have to pay almost $300,000 for a garage, just for the police section, just so they don't have to brush off snow from their cars? That was apparently the original story.

    Why do they need a 40X60 foot area to park a couple of cars, when a couple of carports would take care of it? Monday's agenda item of an additional $15,000 for special bathrooms for the police confirms what I have said since the budget meetings last year. I said the cover story does not make sense, and that it looks like this was actually an expansion of Village Hall for the police dept to have more deluxe male/female locker rooms, showers, maybe a lounge area, etc.

    The way I see it, this $15,000 bathroom add-on is just the beginning. Once they have the plumbing extended to that end of the building, they'll be all set for maybe next year when they'll add the showers and everything else for an additional cost, which was apparently all in the plan to begin with, but they didn't want us to know about. 

    Of course according to some people, nothing is too good or price too high for this golden group, but that is a whole different subject. My concern is more along the lines of why do they choose to go about getting what they want in such an under-the-table, manipulative, and yes, unlawful way that disrespects the taxpayers? It's no wonder that trust in Village Hall has gone down the tubes more than ever.

 Believe me when I say "hang on to your wallets".