New Berlin School Board member Matt Thomas has been turning up the heat on the New Berlin Common Council and the Mayor challenging them to a budget with no grwoth in the tax levy. Thomas has been e-mailing Aldermen and the Mayor and has been surprised at the negative reaction he's been getting. Patrick at Badger Blogger has more on the Thomas/Gatzke e-mail exchange including audio from WISN's Mark Belling.
However, this just got bounced to me by Matt Thomas this morning, and it really shows how silly some of our local elected officials can be:
July 23, 2006
Re: Email policy
To: Aldermen, Council, Board of education, New Berlin
City staff, media.
Email is an extremely powerful and efficient tool. I
have been using it for years with very few problems.
However, due to some recent abuse of email being used
as a political weapon, I will be adopting a personal
email policy.
I will be significantly restricting my use of email
for official business. I will continue to use email
for:
*Arranging and verifying meeting times.
*Submission of RAS's to the Clerk and Council.
*Reception of meeting minutes and agendas.
I will still accept and read all email questions, but
I will only respond to them via telephone or US mail.
I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause, but
it is the best way of handling this situation.
Respectfully,
Paul D. Gallagher
3rd district Alderman
262-814-0467
Why would a public official ever be afraid of their own words unless they're hiding something from the public? If Gallagher was an alderman opposed to higher taxes, what would he have to fear?
