Peter McKeever's Announcement

In case you missed it, here is the text of Peter's announcement of non-candidacy:

PUBLIC STATEMENT
PETER MCKEEVER
CITY OF MONONA ALDERMAN
DECEMBER 3, 2007

Six years ago Mayor Tom Metcalfe asked me to run for the city council. I was honored and pleased to be asked, and I agreed to serve. I did so because of my desire to help keep Monona a fine place to live, my interest as a student of local government and the democratic process and because I felt an obligation to serve. I think it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in some manner in the civic affairs of our city, our state and our country. Public service is rewarding and important.

At that time I planned to stay four years. I said then, and I have repeated many times that I did not wish to serve with any personal ambition for higher office. This is a high office. I never imagined I would ever have the honor to be elected and represent my fellow citizens at any level in our democracy.

I have now served three terms and it is clear to me that it is time for me to step down. I do not believe anybody ought to hold these offices indefinitely, and I have many other things to do.

Accordingly, I am announcing tonight that I will not be a candidate for reelection to the city council.

In the future I expect to stay active in local politics and issues. I would hope that the city and this mayor and future mayors would call on me to serve on various committees and in various capacities.

I have served here with eleven other people: Lisa Nelson, Tom Stolper, Mike Meulemans, Paul Ament, Jeff Wiswell, Dale Suslick, Dennis Kugle, Kathy Thomas, Doug Wood, Bob Miller and two mayors, Tom Metcalfe and Robb Kahl. All of these people have the best interest of our city at heart. I respect them all. I have not always agreed with any of them, and they surely have not always agreed with me, as tonight’s debate has shown. That is how it should be.

I believe that the last thing the citizens of Monona need is to have a council made up of people who all have similar experiences, ideologies, and perspectives. The fact that we disagree, that we engage in dialogue and discussion and compromise almost always means we get better decisions. The diversity of points of view that all of my colleagues have brought to the process has been valuable and important, and I urge the residents to elect a council with a diversity of views. A deliberative policy body such as this council should be composed of men and women (and let me suggest that we do not elect enough women) who will agreeably disagree with one another from time to time, who have the common sense and wisdom to listen to each other, and who have the commitment to work to find common ground and to accept the decisions that are made. The councils on which I have served have met these standards.

If I have one criticism of this experience at this point it is that in my time here the council has been far too willing to be reactive, to yield too much authority to the mayor and to the city administrtator. The city council needs to be more proactive. It is important that we have people here who will ask questions, who will hold staff and each other accountable, and who will initiate new ideas and new proposals. I urge the voters to elect people who are willing to explore the possibilities of change, of doing things differently that we have before. It is necessary, indeed critical. This is not the same community it was when I moved here 18 years ago, and it will never be. The fiscal pressures and demands on this city in the future will be staggering, and we will have to find new ways to meet our residents very legitimate expectations for high quality services that make this a special place to live and to raise a family. We must do so in the face of a state legislature that arrogantly does not trust our voters to hold us accountable and believes it knows more about how to run our city than we do, and we will have to do so economically in difficult times.

It will not surprise you when I say that I will have more to say in the next few months, before this term ends, and that I expect to have a few new proposals for the city to consider.

In the meantime, let me close with one last word, for my wife Marena. Merry Christmas, dear.

Thank you.

The Remarkable Samuel Pepys

I've lately been feeding my interest in the 17th century, especially England, through several books and the Internet. I just finished reading Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin. That century contained plagues, the great London fire, revolution, counterrevolution, and the emergence of science. Pepys experienced it all and for some 9 years wrote a comprehensive, perceptive, and extremely candid diary.

Pepys began life as the son of London tailor and managed to reach the highest levels of English government as an advisor to kings. Along the way he switched from being a supporter of Cromwell and Parliament to backing Charles II and James II. As a high-level naval official he instituted many practices that made the Royal Navy the greatest in the world. Unfortunately for Pepys, Charles II was a wastrel and James II an open Catholic whose religion cost him his crown. His connection to them cost him some time in the Tower of London.

Although not a scientist himself Pepys had a curious mind and also belonged to the Royal Society serving a term as its president. (The Royal Society - the UK's national academy of science). Pepys also had a strong appetite for women, which he also details in his diary.

The Internet has some very good Pepys resources. His diary is online with an interesting presentation at Pepys' Diary. More details can be found at Samuel Pepys Home.

Late in life Pepys and his companions were accosted by highwaymen. They survived the encounter but the criminals ultimately did not. The trial is described at: Samuel Pepys, victim in trial of in Thomas Hoyle, Samuel Gibbons, theft with violence : highway robbery, theft with violence : highway robbery, 6th December, 1693.

The thieves made off with a "Silver Ruler, val. 30 s. a Gold Pencil val. 8 l. Five Mathematical Instruments, value 3 l. a Magnifying Glass, value 20 s. a Gold and Silver Purse, val. 10 s. Two Guineas and 20 s. in Money these were Mr. Pepys Goods and Money. The things they took from Mr. Jackson were, a Silver Hilted Sword, val. 50 s. a Hatband, val. 2 s. &c."

During the robbery "Mr. Pepys conjured them to be Civil to the Ladies, and not to Affright them, which they were; and by their demeanour of themselves, my Lady Pepys saved a Bag of Money that she had about her; Mr. Pepys desired them to give him a particular Instrument that was of great use to him; and one of them told him Sir, You are a Gentleman, and so are we; if you will send to the Rummer Tavern at Charing-Cross to Morrow, you shall have it there."

The account concludes "The Evidence was very particular for the King against them: So the Jury having considered the matter very distinctly, they brought in a Verdict, That they were both guilty of Felony and Robbery." Some three-hundred and fourteen years ago this week, the defendants were amoing sixteen who received the sentence of death on that single day on 6 December 1693 at the Old Bailey.

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 to 1834.

Say Good-Bye to Garden Circle

The demolition of the Garden Circle apartments is well under way this afternoon. Actually, the work has been ongoing for a couple weeks as the city wanted the contractor to recycle building materials. The buildings need to be down by the end of year for TIF valuation purposes.

License Review Commission Needs a Member

The Monona License Review Committee needs a new member (to replace John Klinzing who resigned after many years of excellent service).

The License Review Committee reviews and makes recommendations to the City Council for all applications relating to fermented malt beverages and intoxicating liquor, mobile homes, and massage establishments. No, you don't get free samples.

We meet once a month on the second Tuesday at 4 p.m. The meetings usually last less than an hour. The committee is staffed by the city clerk and the police chief. We have a good group of people, but we need one more. Current members are Wayne Kimmell, Jeff Machut, and Ken Vanden Wymelenberg.

It is usually a pretty low-key duty, but could be a good intro to city government.

If interested in this committee opening, please contact the mayor or any alder. Here is a link to short application form: Application for Committee Appointment

Collegiate Tackle Football

The CollegeFootballNews.com ranks all of the upcoming bowl games in terms of the attractiveness of the matchup, chances for a competitive game and so forth. Ranking All 32 Bowl Games They rank the Badgers game versus Tennessee in the Outback Bowl as the third best matchup.

The most dog-worthy game? The New Mexico Bowl featuring, guess who, New Mexico vs. Nevada on Dec. 22. I'm guessing the game is being played in New Mexico. On the other end they rank the Allstate BCS National Championship between LSU and Ohio State as number 1. That strikes me as a potential howler based on last year's blowout of OSU by Florida. But at least Les Miles will provide some entertainment. And how much do you want to wager (hypothetically speaking) that Miles still ends up as coach at Michigan? He still hasn't signed his gajillion dollar multi-year contract extortion, err, extension with LSU.

***

And ESPN is naming the top 25 college players of all time. Working backwards, they have gone from 25 to 3. So, who's missing? Red Grange HB, Illinois, Neon Deion Sanders CB, Florida State, Ron Dayne, RB, Wisconsin, Barry Sanders RB, Oklahoma State, and O.J. Simpson RB, USC.

(Well, they wouldn't dare name Simpson and they shouldn't even though he was a great college player. A civil jury found that he intentionally killed two people. A couple years ago I attended a CLE seminar called Trials of the Century by Todd Winegar and the Simpson criminal trial was one of the cases covered. And you just scratched your head wondering 'how did this guy get off?')

Dayne was a great power runner who smashed over and ran around all comers. He should be on the top 25, but he's not number or two.

My guesses: Deion Sanders #1 and Red Grange #2.


No. 3 Herschel Walker

No. 4 Doak Walker

No. 5 Sammy Baugh

No. 6 Jim Thorpe

No. 7 Tony Dorsett (Contrary to the video, he was Dorsett like 'corset' not door-set in college)

No. 8 Bo Jackson

No. 9 Roger Staubach

No. 10 Vince Young

No. 11 Charles Woodson

No. 12 Earl Campbell

No. 13 Glenn Davis

No. 14 Hugh Green

No. 15 John Elway

No. 16 Tom Harmon

No. 17 Bronko Nagurski

No. 18 Jim Brown
No. 19 Dick Butkus

No. 20 Charley Trippi

No. 21 Archie Griffin

No. 22 George Gipp

No. 23 Johnny Rodgers

No. 24 Reggie Bush

No. 25 Ernie Nevers

Monona Budget Details

The council adopted the 2008 operating budget last night and the 2008-2009 capital budget early this morning (about 12:30 a.m.). We considered some 18 amendments to the operating budget and 43 amendments to the capital plan. Here are some prominent actions:

Operating Budget:

Increased overall levy by 5.82% or $87.32 on median ($277K) home
Small increases to the senior services and library budgets
Approved $15K for a study of 911 dispatch ($7500 operating and $7500 capital)
Rejected proposal to eliminate dispatch (I'll have more to say on these two items in separate posts)

2009 and 2009 Capital Improvement Budgets

Note: The city does two-year borrowings for capital projects so we approved both 2008 and 2009. We will be considering the other three years of the five year plan (2010-2012) early next year.

Some background. In 2007 the net debt paid from taxes is $1,555,317. That was projected to increase to $1,645,490 in 2008 and $1,795,857 in 2009. We are looking at ways to temper those increases. 2008 is pretty well set, but may be reduced by a refinancing staff is working on with our financial consultant. Also beginning in 2008-2009, the city is evaluating doing 15-year bonds for roads and utilities (currently 10-year notes). Anyway, there is a general concern about the debt service and a focus of last night's debate was looking for ways to reduce spending. And we did so, cutting capital spending by about $160,000 from the mayor's proposed budget.

That being said, the commitment to catch up on maintaining our city infrastructure, especially roads, water mains and sewer lines, is the biggest chunk of our capital spending. (Monona Drive road work is being funded by TIF, except for the water and sewer work).

Capital Amendment Highlights

(Amounts are total expenditures after amendment unless noted)

Cut $120K for a proposed Kiddie Splash Pool
Delayed $60K for skating rink at Winnequah Park
Cut $56K for utility truck

$30K to finish the skatepark in 2008
$30K for rubber mulch at three parks in 2008-2009
$25K for Schluter Beach bathroom refurbish in 2009
$50K for Fireman's Park bathroom replacement in 2009
$35K for playground equipment in 2008-2009

$31K for library collection expansion
$10K for library computers

Added $56K to Road Construction to do Winnequah Road section by Schluter Beach Park
$20K to extend South Towne bike path across the railroad tracks and connect with Cap City Trail

$25K for facilities study (City Hall, Library, Community Center).
$14K for kitchen updating at Comm. Center

The council also chose to leave in $97,000 for 911 replacement equipment, but move it from 2008 to 2009 pending study results. Turns out the city only receives about 3.5 emergency 911 calls per day. Obviously the 'dispatch' workers are doing a lot of other things, like non-emergency communications, and general support work. You can go here: http://mononapolice.com/Pages/Dispatch_Budget.htm to read a report by the Monona PD. The report has some good data, but also some very one-sided analysis. And to top it off the PD has put a handy link to email the council on the same page. The lobbying by staff is blatant, heavy-handed, and in my view, inappropriate. My initial take from the report is that we probably need most if not all of the dispatch positions that we currently have to do all the non-911 tasks, but I'm not sure we can justify the capital costs (like this $97,000) to handle such a small number of 911 calls. We need all the facts and even-handed analysis and we are obviously not going to get it from our PD staff.

Council Passes Budgets - McKeever Retiring

The city council passed both the 2008 operating budget and the 2008-2009 capital budgets. By my quick count we added $245,750 to the 2008-2009 capital, but also cut $407,000 from the mayor's proposed capital plan for net reduction of over $161,000.

On the other hand, we increased the operating budget levy from 2007 by 5.82% (including about 2% for debt service). We increased the general fund levy by the maximum 3.86% allowed by state law, which is about $178,000. However, we are using most of that increase (about $133,000) to offset planned use of fund balances. The city's property tax increase for a median $277,000 home is $87.32 in 2008. I will post more details after sleeping.

Sadly, Alder Peter McKeever announced that he is not running for reelection in the Spring 2008 elections when his term expires. I say sadly and it will be very much so for me personally and for the city as a whole. I will miss his genuine camaraderie and collegiality - not to mention losing a political ally. He's a helluva guy and we were lucky to have him serve our city. Agree or disagree you always knew where you stood with Peter. He also challenged all of us with new ideas and ways of looking at things.

But not so sadly for his wife Marena and for Peter himself. I know a couple years ago I was shocked when he mentioned late in the season that he had not been out paddling yet. I know he has other things he wants to try that don't involve sitting around discussing city government until 1 AM - although he enjoyed it as much as anyone ever has!

Snow Plow Drivers Are Heroes in Monona

According to this story on Channel3000.com, two snow plow drivers in Monona may have saved some lives. Snow Plow Driver Alerts Family To Fire in the 6100 block of Roselawn at 2 AM Sunday morning.

Link that should work: http://www.channel3000.com/news/14754277/detail.html

Get Green for the Holidays

Here are some holiday ideas from the friendly folks at The Natural Step Monona. Here's the email I received from Heather Gates (who really should run for city council some day).

Have the GREENEST holidays!

The Natural Step Monona invites you to visit their Green Holiday Ideas web-page and pass the link to all you know!

Go to www.tnsmonona.org/holidays.html to find ways to have a more sustainable holiday season.
You’ll find ideas for local gifts, green gifts, gifts of time, homemade gifts, wrapping, greetings, tree-buying, and more.

Have a happy—and green—holiday season!
Your friends at The Natural Step Monona

I have to say that I like the whole gift-giving thing and Christmas is huge for the national economy, but you can still incorporate sustainable principles in your gifts. And while you're at it, check out The TNS Monona Book Wish List and buy a book for the The Sustainability Section at Monona Public Library. But, please don't put a toothbrush with a replaceable head in my stocking! (Good idea and you can buy them at Community Pharmacy - Madison, WI , but not in my stocking). ;-)

Milwaukee JS Special Report on Chemicals

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel aspires to be a great newspaper and at times it really connects. Such is the case with its CHEMICAL FALLOUT: JOURNAL SENTINEL WATCHDOG REPORT (OK, the ALL CAPS thing is the MJS fault) featured last Sunday (Are your products safe? You can't tell. ) and today (Part 2: Chemical fallout). The stories focus on the dangers (or potential dangers) of certain chemicals very commonly used today such as pthalates, PCBs, and bisphenol A.

Click here to see an MJS graphic showing where these chemicals likely reside in your house. And here are some ways to reduce your exposure. Some of them are pretty easy, like using glass or ceramic containers when you heat things in your microwave. Use plastics that have the recycling numbers 1, 2 or 5. Avoid those labeled with recycling numbers 3 (polycarbonate) or 7 (PVC). Avoid dryer sheets and look for detergents and soaps that are fragrance free. Use caution with cosmetics. www.cosmeticsdatabase.com

Part of the problem is that federal government has not done the testing is it supposed to have done, especially over the past, ohhh, 7 years or so. Studies that have been done show a predictable pattern: industry-funded research concludes the chemicals being used safely and independent academic and government research often says the opposite. BTW, this trend demonstrates why we should all be concerned when our great research universities have to rely more and more on private rather than public funding.

The CDC says:
"How Phthalates Affect People's Health
The health effects of phthalates in people are not yet fully known. Although several studies in people have explored possible associations with developmental and reproductive outcomes (semen quality, genital development in boys, shortened pregnancy, and premature breast development in young girls), more research is needed." National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals

The EPA says: "What are the Health Effects?
Short-term: EPA has found phthalate to potentially cause the following health effects when people are exposed to it at levels above the MCL for relatively short periods of time: mild gastrointestinal disturbances, nausea, vertigo.

Long-term: Phthalate has the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL: damage to liver and testes; reproductive effects; cancer."

Seems to me it makes sense to reduce your exposure to these chemicals until more is known, espeically when doing so is easy.

More Book Reports

In October, Board President Andrew Taylor continued the Library Board’s new tradition by sharing several books. He presented Art as Experience by John Dewey, a printing of Dewey’s 1932 Harvard lectures, which discuss what art is. You can read Andrew's discussion of Dewey's work at The Artful Manager: Art as Experience, on his ARTSJOURNAL weblog.

BTW, "John Dewey was a leading proponent of the American school of thought known as 'pragmatism', a view that rejected the dualistic epistemology and metaphysics of modern philosophy in favor of a naturalistic approach that viewed knowledge as arising from an active adaptation of the human organism to its environment." Ouch...I hurt myself.

This quote was from the entry for John Dewey [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] where they apparently rigorously practice obscurantism. Obscurantism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

That entry puts me mind of the Postmodern Essay Generator. Spend a few minutes playing with that. It generates essays that sound terribly serious and erudite, but are really just terrible gibberish. Go to historymike and his post Postmodern Essay Generator for more.

Anyway, he (Andrew, not John Dewey) also mentioned Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson, which draws connections between ant colonies, cities and software. Amazon further describes it: "An individual ant, like an individual neuron, is just about as dumb as can be. Connect enough of them together properly, though, and you get spontaneous intelligence."

Andrew also offered poetry by Mark Strand, “Eating Poetry” and “Keeping Things Whole.” Being a philistine at heart my interest in poetry never got past Casey at the Bat. Go to Casey at the Bat by Ernest Thayer on Baseball Almanac and click on the radio icon at the bottom of the page to hear William De Wolf Hopper give an over-the-top reading of the iconic American poem.

"We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck."

From Feed a book by M.T. Anderson

As previously noted (Book Report ) the Monona Public Library Board (Public Library) takes a little time at the end of each meeting to share a few books. This month Philip Heckman offered Feed (Amazon link) a story about the near-future where everyone gets an implant at birth that connects them to some sort of hyper-consumerist super Internet - except one girl who doesn't get hers until she is seven and it later begins to fail. A cyberpunk book for the YA audience that should be read by us OA's too.

Here's an interesting review: Feed by MT Anderson - an infinity plus review

Here's a link to the library's catalog (so you can check it out from the comfort of your wherever): Feed /

Philip also offered the somewhat more conventional True grit : a novel / (LinkCat catalog) and as usual it appears the book is better than the movie (which is going some in this case). The author has been described as "one of the most inventively comic writers of western fiction. With an unerring ear for the rhythms of speech and idiosyncrasies of language, he delivers deadpan humor as his characters strive to come to terms with their own limitations and an increasingly cockeyed world." Portis

I enjoy good literature set in the Old West, like A.B. Guthrie (The Big Sky and The Way West)and Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove: A Novel (Simon & Schuster Classics) and Comanche Moon : A Novel) and Guy Vanderhaeghe (The Last Crossing), but have somehow missed Charles Portis.

By the way, I see that the LinkCat catalogs lists 22 copies of True Grit, but none of them at the Monona library. We have a beautiful building with great staff, but we need to improve the collection! And the city council will have a chance to do that tomorrow night.