Lori Luthor, mad (political) scientist

The Waukesha Common Council decided in last year's budget to cut the mayor's travel budget and organization membership budget. Included in the cut was his membership in the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Mayor Larry Nelson tells the Waukesha Freeman he didn't fight it at the time because of the difficulty in getting a budget passed. So he claims he asked the city administrator for a solution.

Administrator Lori Luthor told him to go around the city council and ask a department of the city, the Waukesha Water Commission, for $5,000.00.

It's kind of a novel solution when you think about it. When the top governing authority in the city decides the membership wasn't worth it, climb down the ladder and find a governing body underneath to cough up the cash. Heck in upside-down Waukesha where the mayor is asking the city administrator what he should do, this makes perfect sense. And think about it from our evil genius Lori Luthor's point of view. If she gets Mayor Larry out of town, she's in control of everything, de jure as well as de facto.

Unfortunately for the mayor and the city administrator, the Waukesha Water Commission decided -unanimously- they didn't want to catch trouble for authorizing money the common council already denied, especially when citizens are already complaining about the price of water in this town.

"If the commission doesn’t think it is right to do it, then I will have to go back and find the funding elsewhere." Next stop for the mayor, the Taj Ma Library.

Shhh.... It's a secret.

Following up on this post, we have another uncomfortable example.

The building committee of the Waukesha Public Library will meet in closed session Thursday afternoon to interview two architectural firms regarding a $1.5 million expansion.

When asked why the interviews with Frye Gillian Molinaro Architects and Enberg Anderson Design Partnership will be closed to the public, Joan Quinlin, Waukesha Public Library, said she had been in contact with the city attorney’s office regarding the agenda.

Because the meeting will include negotiations, it falls under the exemption in state law allowing a municipality to conduct negotiations in private.

Quinlin said the building committee will interview the two firms and make a recommendation to the library board, which will make the final selection.

The project, which would primarily add to the children’s section of the library, was a source of controversy on the common council during the city’s budgeting process last fall.

Maybe we should rename the city "Roswell".

(Ht: Fox Head and Spring City Chronicle)