Curmudgeon's Corner
cur-mud-geon: anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner
Village Buzz - April 9th
Election Decisions...
The races for Germantown School Board seats were about as I had expected in this largely conservative district. The group of three who were touting their conservative perspectives won rather decisively (with margins of 2-1 or better). This was a highly contentious set of races and we will now observe what this means for the School Board. Will there be contentious issues through-out the terms of these new Board members, or was that discussion largely politically-driven? Will these races prove to have been the precursor to a more contentious overall political climate, or was that largely the result of the 'education system' being the driver of those feelings?
Extremist?
A person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, esp. one who resorts to or advocates extreme action.
Things Political....
Governor Walker's Act 10 bill was hit by a federal judge who found that unions could not be required to re-certify on an annual basis, and who found that the State of Wisconsin must collect union dues as has been done for many years. That was not quite the victory that it is being billed to be, but it does take a little of the sting out of Act 10 from the unions' perspective. It is a long way from overturning the law.
Village Buzz - March 21st
St. Patrick's Day resulted in less-than-expected incidents from the Germantown Police Department's perspective according to Chief Hoell. He described the activity level as "manageable but steady" throughout the day, but the department did have extra staff on duty using state grant traffic enforcement funding. There were officers held over from the second shift to the third shift given the number and magnitude of incidents escalating that night as could be expected.
Election Thoughts
Sheboygan voters decided they wanted to end the saga with their current mayor and turn a new page. To his credit, the mayor stated that he had now been sober for 200 days, but the damage was done. I hope he will continue to be sober.
Village Buzz - February 2nd
I read of the Milwaukee School Board's refusal to permit the food service work to be outsourced in spite of the fact that these union employees were being favored with "fringe" benefits equal to an additional105.8% of their compensation. That is right; if they are earning $10 per hour (and I feel certain that is way too low but it is easy for comparison purposes), their benefits are costing another $10.58 per hour for a total of $20.58 per hour.
Village Buzz - June 6th
Every ten years we revise our voting districts to reflect the findings of the decennial census. That process is going on now in Germantown and in the county and the state. There are population targets that guide this process and sophisticated software developed at the state level is used to draw the maps.