Everybody's going downtown

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown - no finer place, for sure
Downtown - everything's waiting for you

I know I talk about it a lot, but downtown Waukesha is open for business. Pete Kennedy takes a mini-tour of the downtown restaurants and bumps into our mayor in his snow Crocs (okay, Pete doesn't mention the Crocs). My only caution to Waukesha residents is that we shouldn't get discouraged if a few of these new ventures fail. As much as I would like to see them all succeed, I know the probabilities when it comes to new businesses failing. Still, many of them should succeed, and with any luck we'll finally put an end to the city that closes up at 6:00 PM.

I can't help but note the irony that we're building the downtown with the kind of restaurants and bars that are higher end in quality, while Pabst Farms (the planned upscale development in Waukesha County) is dead in the water. Not one big development engineered by the county in the middle of nowhere, but a city embracing a bunch of small developments. Perhaps the unique and high-end stores will follow the crowd and come... downtown.

Jerry: The song Downtown? You mean the Petula Clark song?
George: Yeah.
Jerry: You sure he didn't just mention it because you happened to be going downtown?
George: I think he was trying to tell me something, like it had some sort of a meaning.
Jerry: Okay, so how does it go?
George: 'When you're alone, and life is making you lonely, you can always go...'
Jerry: '... downtown.'
George: 'Maybe you know some little places to go, where they never close...'
Jerry: '...downtown.'
George: Wait a second. 'Little places to go, where they never close.' What's a little place that never closes?
Jerry: Seven-eleven?
George: 'Just listen to the music of the traffic, in the city. Linger on the sidewalk, where the neon lights are pretty.' Where the neon lights are pretty. The Broadway area?
Jerry: No, that's midtown.
George: 'The lights are much brighter there. You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares, just go...'
Jerry: '...downtown.'
George: 'Things'll be great, when you're...'
Jerry: '...downtown.'

Pete and Rick

Pete Kennedy thinks Alderman Rick Tortomasi is ridiculous because he appeared to be voting like a windsock on the stadium proposal for Frame Park (ht: Spring City Chronicle). Well, okay, he looked ridiculous by being for it (minutes of an ad hoc baseball committee meeting), against it (per the word of his wife County Supervisor Jean Tortomasi at the Stroll through the Park protest), and then for it (the night of the vote). But hey, by his own admission he looked no more ridiculous than he did when he proposed the smoking ban in Waukesha.

Kennedy objects to Tortomasi's claim that he would vote the way his constituents want, regardless. It's actually a sentiment shared by a few aldermen, which should serve as a strong reminder to any political group that politics is always two-pronged. Not only do you have to convince the politicians, often you have to convince their constituencies.

And while Kennedy is right we do elect politicians to make decisions for us, there are exceptions where their constituencies have a right to expect obedience. For example, when there are those issues where the politician simply is not moved one way or the other. Another example would be when the alderman has not made a case to his constituents ahead of time to explain his vote, the leadership Kennedy asks for in his column. It doesn't do a politician any credit to get so far out in front of his constituents that they lose sight of each other. Finally, and I think most importantly, when the interests of the district are so adversely affected by the proposal the alderman is compelled to vote a certain way. (That's why I make such a fuss about a representative living among his constituents.)

While I don't hold it against Alderman Ybarra for having his mind made up before he answered the first call, I'm sure many of Alderman Hernandez's constituents are left wondering at his decision. After all, it's his district and his constituents that were the most adversely affected by the vote.

Whether or not Hernandez draws an opponent in the next election will probably rest on his accomplishments the rest of his term and his responsiveness to constituent concerns. He may also want to do his part to bring his district to accept the baseball stadium. If he does draw an opponent (I think likely) than we'll see if he was too far out of sync with his district.

As for Alderman Tortomasi, whether or not he draws an opponent largely depends whether his windsock approach to government can keep him in good stead with a majority of his constituents, provided they aren't too embarrassed by his ridiculousness.

Arguing with the sleep-deprived

I like Pete Kennedy. I've spoken to him a couple of times and he even interviewed me once to find out why I don't like opinionated children (children should be seen and not heard).

I think Pete gave into his sleep deprivation this week when he accused the Waukesha Taxpayers League of getting in front of the Frame Park issue becuase it's popular.

It's popular? Really? Judging from what some of the aldermen have said, the issue is pretty close. Some even claim there is more support for the stadium than opposed, and those opposed are just a noisy minority. Heck, one of the Sound Off callers yesterday claimed that all of his/her friends and everyone met on the street are in favor of it.

I don't know if it's popular or not. We could have a referendum on the issue, preferably on the September Primary. Then we would know for sure.

Pete's "evidence" that the WTL took the position just to be popular is the timing of their opposition. They waited until after there was a concrete proposal (pun intended) to the city. What Pete neglects to mention is everyone else that waited to see what was actually proposed, including me. I guess we're all opportunists, too.

And then, in the most bizarre comment of his column, he questions if the Waukesha Environmental Action League is really opposed to the proposed stadium because they neglected to put their press release on their site. Apparently when the WEAL mailed (you know, stamps, envelopes, federal government) their press releases, they forgot to mail one to Pete.

But I know Pete is a devoted reader of this site, so while he may have missed the WEAL press release in the Waukesha Freeman, surely he saw it printed in its entirety here.

Pete wonders how the WTL could have two seemingly contradictory positions. They're not. Building the stadium is a lose-lose-lose situation. If the team fails, two things could happen. Either the community will be committed to making the team succeed and taxpayers will be on the hook for some "needed improvement" to make the team work, or the city will be stuck with a "white elephant" - an eyesore that will suck more out of the city coffers to maintain that never belonged there. If the team is successful, the park will be off-limits to the community, the stadium will need to expand, and the surrounding community will be disrupted.

If the stadium's proponents would take a little more time to study the situation, perhaps a more suitable location would be found (perhaps the old Sentry downtown or the Expo center, or modify one of the ballfields at the sports complex). Unfortunately, this is being rammed through with little thought.

Of course, if Pete had waited a little bit, say until there was an actual proposal moving through the government, before he initially wrote in favor of the proposal, he would have seen these issues. Next time he should really sleep on it before he questions the motives of the WTL.

Not even Schlitz?

Mr. Chuck E Cheese will voluntarily allow his Brookfield liquor license expire at the end of the month. That oughtta force the wrong kind of element (pictured at right) to move on to more appropriate places for their anti-social behavior.

I'm sure Brookfield will be happy to finally be rid of the riff-raff.

(Sorry Pete. I couldn't resist.)

Great googly-moogly! The city budget's on fire!

I don't know why anyone was surprised by the sudden hole in the City of Waukesha budget. Pete Kennedy in the Waukesha Freeman wrote that the city's hope for a federal grant to pay for the firefighters for the new station fell through.

And looking back, Mayor Larry Nelson and the Waukesha Common Council were wrong (or at least most of them).

The city received word a few days ago that federal funding had fallen through for salaries and fringe benefits of nine new firefighters. The city had counted on a grant for $500,000 to cover most of the $659,000 in new salaries.

The firefighters are being added to staff a new fire station on the city’s west side. That station, near Summit Avenue and Merrill Hills Road, is being built as we speak. In fact, the city borrowed about $4.5 million for building and equipping the station. (That figure doesn’t include the dreaded salaries.)

So we have a fire station going up - as the grant falls through. All of a sudden we have a $500,000 hole in the 2009 city budget. That’s a big hit for Waukesha.

What will the city do? Nelson and City Administrator Lori Curtis Luther don’t seem to have a whole lot of ideas. Cutting jobs in other areas of the city might be a possibility.

“If we have to find $500,000 above the cost increases we’re seeing for gas and snowplowing, worst case scenario is that it equates to seven city employees,” said Steve Neaman, city finance manager. That means we’d get nine new firefighters - and employees in other city departments would lose their jobs. (But I bet those who oversold the grant will still be gainfully employed.)

Mayor Nelson responded like he just lost his best friend.

One of the reasons I respect Pete Kennedy as a columnist is that he has actually taken the time to interview or talk to me to get the facts before he writes his opinion column. {I thought it was because Kennedy endorsed Nelson for re-election two years before his term ends. - JW} Unfortunately, that was not the case in his Saturday Freeman column about a federal grant to help staff the new fire station on the northwest side of the city where Pete jumped to several conclusions that are simply not true.

Pete stated that “The city had counted on a grant for $500,000 to cover most of the $659,000 in new salaries.” Waukesha never “counted on” the grant. It was clearly stated when the new fire station was voted on, and again when the grant was discussed, that the cost of the new firefighters would have to be covered in the 2009 budget, and that even if we were fortunate enough to receive the grant, the city would need to decide how to cover the cost in future city budgets.

Unfortunately, the mayor is right. The city passed then-City Administrator Jim Payne's budget with the full expectation that the city would have to go to referendum to fund the staffing of the fire station. I tried warning Waukesha in 2006, and I would be doing my "I Told You So" Cha-Cha if I wasn't one of the poor unfortunates who will be stuck paying for this planned disaster.

We’re going to spend every cent we can - and then some. He even proposes a new fire station in the budget with no plan for paying for the staff other than raising taxes further (if the state caps are lifted) or going to referendum to raise taxes (if the state caps are not lifted). The taxpayers (unmentioned by City Administrator Payne) might be unhappy to learn the proposed site of the new fire station is 1.17 miles away from a City of Pewaukee fire station. The village of Wales has a fire station five miles to the west and the town of Waukesha has a fire station five miles to the south.

My idea of reaching out to neighboring communities was attacked at the time, but somehow the Lake Country can consolidate it's fire department. Now we're stuck trying to figure out how to pay for our new firemen.

A referendum is not going to work. You can't just TIF a fire station. So pick seven city employees you want to let go. Unfortunately Jim Payne is in New Mexico.

You'll need an extra quarter

Remember, when you buy the Waukesha Freeman tomorrow for the Pete Kennedy column about Mayor Larry Nelson, the weekend edition costs 75 cents. The Thursday edition of the Waukesha Freeman that you normally buy to read my column only costs 50 cents, so remember to take along the extra quarter. Raid your kid's piggy bank or something.