I. The Dirt:
How did the city manager turn himself into a dictator? The following describes the seven steps he took to dismantle our democratic process. We let down our vigilance turning our back on local government and he took us to the cleaners.
Step 1. Removed Citizen Protection;
The Citizen Board of Appeals is the citizen watchdog group. They have the authority and responsibility to reverse any city employee action that causes unnecessary hardship to a citizen or was administered contrary to the intent of the law, even if the city employee followed the ordinance to the letter of the law. The board can choose to over-ride any code or ordinance or zoning if to do so is in the best interest of the public, or to protect vulnerable citizens, or to make sure that common sense continues to be the norm. How did the city manager dismantle the authority and responsibility of this board?
The city manager changed their name to "Zoning Variance Appeal Board".
The city manager chooses the board members, which city council rubber stamps. The city council elected officials do not themselves advertise, interviewed, or choose the board members.
In addition, the board is not trained by an outside citizen-advocate firm. Instead, the city manager trains them. He tells them that they can not reverse anything a city employee does unless the city employee can be proven to have violated the letter of the law based on the city employee interpretation of the letter of the law, terms, and definitions of that law. The city employee easily justifies anything they do to anyone.
Also, the board is not their own secretary, nor do they hire their own secretary. Instead, a city employee acts as the board secretary and controls the inspection of citizen complaints, and the writing of the board agenda, minutes, and decisions.
Nor are citizens informed of their appeal rights when contacted by a city employee. Instead, city employees tell folks that there is no appeal process except to sue the city municipality in a circuit court of law if the citizen is unhappy with anything a city employee has done.
If the citizen does actually discover the Citizen Board of Appeals, the city employee refuses to accept their complaint, says they are not eligible for an appeal, and refuses to put them on the agenda. He also says they may not attend the meeting unless on the agenda.
The application fee to file a complaint with the Citizen Board of Appeals is $200 (two hundred dollars) instead of $20 (twenty dollars). If the citizen sends the complaint directly to the board members, the city employee charges $200 dollars per each item on the citizen complaint. So, for $200, the city employee puts only one of the twelve complaint items on the board agenda, and then says the other eleven complaint items have missed the deadline.
Step 2. Lined Up the Allies;
The city manager uses fat contracts to grease the palms of 4 out of 7 city council members. They must then abstain from many critical votes do to conflict of interest. And they vote an automatic annual pay raise to the city manager in gratitude for their contract windfalls. City council elections are at-large so that only the well-to-do bother to run. They take turns with each other to fill new vacancies, so that voter apathy abounds. When the occasional loan shark gets elected who is sympathetic to citizen rights, he is subjected to rapid burned out. Other members shut him down, keep him off committees, refuse to second his motions, etc. A loan shark for the people usually doesn't last for more than one term and has never lasted long enough to get three more allies on the city council with him in order to have a majority for the people. Right now only special interest has the majority representation on city council.
Step 3. Eliminated Citizen Input;
The city manager makes sure citizens have no appeal process, no voice, no representation. He labels wronged citizens as "ax-grinders", and accuses them of trying to interfere with progress that is in the best good of the whole. He does anything to prevent alderman districts. Refuses to allow ward supervisor elections or representation. Provides no meeting rooms for political groups or issues. Encourages that citizen comments be limited to 3 minutes at the end of the city council meeting. And he has the neighborhood "listening sessions" run by and over-run with city employees.
Step 4. Orchestrated Rhetoric and Seating;
The city manager has city employees seated up on the stage with the elected city council members, giving them the same nametags and allowing them to appear as though they have equal authority as our elected city council members. Four of the eleven seats are city employees. He has the city attorney, in conflict of interest, interrupt and intimidate the council members any time they get an original idea. He uses intimidation, insults, arrogance, condescension, insider-club peer pressure, etc to manipulate the members and to silence the citizens.
Step 5. Set Up the Henchmen and Assassin;
The city manager has added loopholes to the ordinances that allow code department threats to be made against any citizen including chamber of commerce members, who would have their businesses closed down on them by code inspectors if they squawk. He gave a blank check to the legal department so they can defend anything done by a city employee against a citizen. He gave code inspectors the authority to write citations. He conducted a Test Case in 1986; he found an attorney with business partners who owned rental property. He condemned one of their rentals saying the repair cost could exceed what the city allows. Watched them choose to demolish the building rather than incur the cost and time of municipal litigation and city retaliation. Declared victory and proceeded to raze and take any property wanted by the city, without just compensation to the owners. Janesville averages 18 to 24 raze order per year compared to sister cities who raze 2 or 3 buildings per year. Then he turned this practice of using the code department to confiscate property and he turned it on the affordable housing neighborhood to save cost on redeveloping the riverfront. He put individual neighbors into foreclosure, bankruptcy, and homelessness. And he watched four city council members look the other way while they wait for his redevelopment contracts.
Step 6. Dodged the Resistance;
The city manager dodges the resistance if angry citizens make an outcry. He reorganizes the departments. He recently split the Code Department into two departments. He put half the code department with Planning and called it "Community Development Office". He put the other half of the code department with Neighborhood Services and called it Neighborhood Services and Nuisances. He added additional layers of bureaucracy by assigning a pencil-pusher to be director over the head code inspector. He targets the citizen instigators by sending the code inspectors to their properties and writes them up for a list of allegations while ignoring the grandfather clause. He hand-picked a pretend citizen investigation committee, and limited their criteria. Dictated what they may inspect. Provided the few "solutions" from which he said they were allowed to choose. He gave last minute notice for one public hearing so that very few people found out about it or were able to attend. He provided a city employee to be secretary to the citizen committee to steer them and to sensor any information coming to them.
Step 7. Bought the Local Media;
The city manager controls the local paper and radio with a TIF district. He gives them a TIF (Tax Increment Finance) district for the building of their new facility so that they will get a ten year break from property taxes that will save them millions of dollars. Plus the small amount of taxes that they actually do pay for ten years will be used to eliminate their special assessment costs, saving them even more. The paper and radio will thus gladly slander the citizen insurgents, tell half the facts, and protect city employees from exposure of their citizen abuses. He makes sure the big paper buys out alternative newspapers like the Messenger and the Jotter. He tells the starters of new papers that they need city council approval to open their new paper, and makes sure it is turned down. He has the city own the cable TV network and control the public access TV station.
Step 8. Bought the Biggest Gun for Court;
If a citizen actually is willing and able to sue the city in a circuit court of law, the city hires the top municipal attorney in the state, Ted Waskowski, who also is the paid lobbyist for the state's City Manager Club and paid him top dollar. Spent $35,000 to $65,000 on attorney fees and city employee resources to try tromping a citizen over a $400 storage shed, against the Briarmoon Carriage Barn.
In Conclusion; We are not willing to abandon the democratic process for an increase of expediency in special interest growth. The City of Janesville is capable of growth in a way that does not harm vulnerable citizens. The City of Janesville is capable of incorporating all the ideas that matter into our plans and goals for the city.
Even though democracy takes more time and patients and input than a dictatorship, the rewards far outweigh the additional cost.
We need to end the city manger dictatorship. We need to return Democracy to the government of our city.
II. Call to Action:
Express your support in the following ways. Call and write your city council members and the gazette letters to the editor.
Speak at the city council meetings and talk to your friends and neighbors. Print this information and pass out copies.
Financially support and vote for people-responsive candidates. Collect signatures.
Support the following. The formation of four neighborhood alderman districts. An election of our two-year term ward supervisors. A revamp of the Citizen Board of Appeals. An appeal of the TIF district for the Bliss Gazette/Radio facility.
A drastic salary reduction for the city manager. A lid on city attorney budget. City Council approval requirement for law suites allowed against a citizen. A renaming of the code department to be "The Code Department". A cleanup of the local ordinances.
III. Quote of the Day:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has" Margaret Mead
City council meetings are every second and fourth Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m., on the fourth floor of City Hall (currently called the "Municipal Building"), at 18 N. Jackson Street, Janesville, Wisconsin.
