Franklin Today

Hey - at least we got one thing going for us at City Hall!

Yesterday I was over at New Berlin's NOW website reading up on the future of Calhoun Road, which is a primary arterial road for New Berlin residents living west of Moorland Road. In reading up on the matter, I came across an entry by Ralph Heun, who is the president of their own version of "citizens for responsible government". In the post, which Heun dubbed a "public service announcement", he writes:

There will be a "Privilege of The Floor" prior the Council Meeting to enable New Berlin Citizens to make statements about anything on the evenings agenda.

You cannot get answers to questions you may ask, but you can support or oppose the items. Sometime some of the questions are answered later in the Council meeting.

I was surprised to hear that in New Berlin, citizens speaking at citizen comment can't get a response to questions that they might want to ask their elected leaders during a Common Council meeting. Fortunately in Franklin, our council and mayor seem to be more open on that angle. In past meetings, especially recent ones, whenever residents have asked questions towards the mayor they usually got some sort-of response.

Since this blog focuses on a lot of issues in the city, I figured that inserting this piece of positive news wouldn't hurt anybody. After all, we can't always dwell on the negatives!

A bummer for those who'd like to see more in Franklin

For those who've been around since my days on FranklinNOW.com, I hope you'll recall a post I had that discussed Franklin's community pride, or should I say the lack thereof regarding such pride.

It recently struck a nerve in a reader, which then ended up striking a nerve in me, when they found out that Franklin High School honors students would be receiving their awards & scholarships at a dinner...in Oak Creek. Yes, that's right - FHS students are receiving awards and scholarships at the Oak Creek Community Center, which is just a couple dozen yards from Oak Creek High School, Franklin's primary rival in sporting and academic events.

One has to wonder what the heck happened to create such a void in the community where FHS students couldn't receive their awards here in Franklin. Granted, we don't have very large facilities, but we do have some space available at the Polish Center, or City Hall, or the Public Library's Fadrow Room, or even in the FHS multi-purpose room or at area restaurants like Gus'. Options are available in Franklin, but yet Franklin Public Schools decides to bump it over to Oak Creek. What a shame.

Franklin does have funds available from impact fees to help construct a community center for, well, the community. Unfortunately city leaders haven't been too gung-ho about the idea, and I've always heard in the background an option where the impact fees go back to taxpayers and nothing gets built at all. It's frustrating to hear about this in a community where things such as community investment are little-to-none. Having been involved in Franklin and its politics since April of 2007, all I've seen is the lack of such investment, and to be quite honest if something like the Franklin Public Library was proposed today or even a year ago - I don't think the council would have ever approved of its construction!

All I'm seeing is aldermen looking only at the checkbook and nothing past that when it comes to community projects. Seeing a project, such as a community center, doesn't seem to stir a lot of thought in terms of how that center would likely attract more residents and businesses to Franklin. It also would attract more events to Franklin, which would generate more traffic into the city that would feed its retail and dining venues. Community investments generally equal out to economic development and additional tax base if one looks at a bigger picture.

Meanwhile, it seems to me that with no funding going towards community projects and investments, all of it is going elsewhere for items that quite frankly perplex me. For example, at the last council meeting the aldermen approved of over $12,000 to go to PDI/Graef for their work on our Comprehensive Master Plan. Considering that PDI/Graef has been working with the City of Franklin on our CMP for quite some time, I'm afraid to see the total numbers, especially if it ends up totalling a lot more than just simply hiring an extra employee or two in the Planning Department to work on the CMP for the city. Another expenditure that I believe was an extreme waste of taxpayer monies was all the studies that were done for the city since 2000. The Ticknor Report, the Franklin First Report, the Crossroads Plan, and others that have been approved by the council for who-knows how many tens of thousands (maybe even hundreds), and for what? From what I see, the city leaders don't even follow the reports in terms of development.

When one sits down and goes through the numbers, a lot of things begin emerging that poses the question: If we didn't spend all this cash on items we don't need, how much would we have for items we do need?

In the meantime, our students and their parents have to travel across city limits for an awards ceremony in Oak Creek...and that's only the tip of that gigantic economic and social iceberg hitting our community.

Plan Commission places wildflower regulation "on file"

Last week, the Plan Commission took up an item brought forward by a Franklin resident regarding the planting of wildflowers within city limits. The resident who brought it forward, Robert Swendrowski, was a former member of the Whitnall School Board and then recently applied for a vacant position currently on that board. Furthermore, Swendrowski was a member under Mayor Patrick Murray's Landfill Monitoring Committee, and apparently ticked off the then-Mayor Murray so much that he made an unsuccessful attempt to remove Swendrowski from the committee. It was alleged back then by then-Mayor Murray and former Muskego Alderman Mark Slocomb that Swendrowski was charging too much to taxpayers for his work, which was stated to be $100/hour for the 18 months of working on the committee prior to the unsuccessful push.

Needless to say after I did this research on Swendrowski I was rather surprised to see this particular resident get such a high honor of having his issue regarding wildflowers being placed on the Plan Commission agenda. I believe it was done because of Swendrowski's former political ambitions that are now 10 years old, and Mayor Taylor isn't a big fan of ruffling feathers of potential politicians past, present, and future. However, in doing so, I believe it gave Franklin somewhat of a bad "15 seconds of fame", since Swendrowski is aiming for the city to impose and ordinance regulating planting of wildflowers within city limits.

In this day and age, people across the political spectrum are becoming more open to alternative concepts in protecting and conserving our local environment. If done right, wildflowers can actually enhance the property of a home or business, and perhaps even a boulevard along a busy street. This ordinance would have put Franklin on a backwards trend instead of moving forward.

Fortunately, Plan Commissioners Kevin Haley and David Fowler, who work for Milwaukee County Parks and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, respectively, moved and seconded to have the issue placed on file. Placing an item on file is worse than tabling, since there is no time table to when it would ever be brought back before the commission. It's my opinion that Haley and Fowler did the right thing on this matter, not only because the ordinance would put the City of Franklin two steps back in terms of improving the local landscape, but also because I feel that the Plan Commission has other bigger issues to be overseeing at this time, such as the Comprehensive Master Plan.

Looking over an ordinance on wildflower regulation, in my opinion, was a waste of time and at least it was dealt with as such.

Sorry about the delay...

To all my Franklin readers - sorry about the long dead silence on the site over the past 2 weeks. It's been quite hectic in the Kowalski household - fortunately all of it was very positive and upbeat.

Expect daily posts over the next few weeks, for there are will be plenty to talk about as the hot Summer months approach. These are the times when new developments appear and the council seems to get onboard to discuss controversial issues and topics. Hence Summer gets another reason to be my favorite season of the year!

Danny Gokey arrives in Franklin

Franklin Public Schools warmly welcomed American Idol finalist Danny Gokey over at Robinwood Elementary School earlier today. He made the stop there prior to his appearance at the Riverside Theater in Downtown Milwaukee later tonight.

I wonder what gave Robinwood the advantage of landing such a privilege. I'm sure many parents of Robinwood students wish they were present as well - both parents and students alike can be huge fans of American Idol. It's also a bummer that the Mayor is out of town on his usual Memorial Day vacation - I'm sure he would have liked a photo-op with the Idol superstar to use in future campaign material.

CCP Taylor, no need to worry about that aide!

Well it looks like our State Senator's aide will be hushed in the coming days regarding a smoking ban in Franklin. For the past several months, he has gave indications that Common Council President Steve Taylor, who was part of a successful effort in La Crosse to ban smoking in restaurants & bars, would do something similar here in Franklin.

Thanks to the Democratic legislature, however, CCP Taylor doesn't need to be concerned about a local smoking ban in Franklin anymore. The Journal Sentinel reports that the Tavern League of Wisconsin and state leaders have reached a compromise on a statewide smoking ban. When passed and signed (Governor Doyle intends on signing the bill), the ban would be in effect on July 5, 2010...almost a full year prior to CCP Taylor's possible re-election bid in 2011.

While I'm sure our senator's aide was salavating over the anticipation of a possible smoking ban ordinance out of CCP Taylor, I'd bet any money that in light of this announcement Taylor won't see the need of any ban prior to that date.

New stimulus money coming forward; Franklin out of the picture

Remember that lengthy debate over South 51st Street back in March? The arguments over whether the project would be sent onward for federal stimulus dollars stirred much controversy in the community, primarily over whether the potential project would have to become a 4-lane road through many subdivisions that border Franklin's 3rd & 5th Aldermanic Districts.

Well, the Journal Sentinel reports a compromise deal was struck yesterday, and funding for $38.7 million of federal dollars was allocated. Unfortunately, no Franklin projects were part of the deal; the closest that federal dollars come to our city's borders are a municipal project in Greenfield and road work on College Avenue at the Cudahy/South Milwaukee border.

While this was expected way back in March by several aldermen, and even City Engineer Jack Bennett, the issue refused to go away. This, I believe, was primarily due to the fact that residents wanted to ensure that their voices were heard on what they'd like to see 51st Street become in the future. All residents know that roads need to be repaired, and once in that "blue moon" of sorts, they need to be replaced and/or revamped. Residents living near 51st wanted to inform their elected officials, as well as the rest of the Common Council, that while they'd welcome bike lanes, sidewalks, and/or trails alongside 51st Street, they would fight tooth-and-nail if the road was widened by 2 lanes.

With the new allocations made yesterday, the chances of Franklin receiving federal dollars just continues to increasingly become unlikely. 

Aldermanic opposition to a positive addition to Franklin? Shocking!

At last night's Committee of the Whole meeting, Alderman Tim Solomon made a remark during discussion on whether the Common Council President should be a direct link to all the Boards and Commissions of the city. In that remark, he mentioned something along the lines of his displeasure over "several items" on the Economic Development Commission's agenda last week, and how he will gladly talk about it at tonight's Common Council meeting. Considering that the only item that was/is on both the EDC and Common Council agendas was/is Commissioner John Michlig's proposal for a community co-working business and/or a coffee shop (or similar), I suppose that means Solomon is all huffy on that particular piece.

It comes as no surprise to me. While Tim Solomon can attempt to claim his fiscal conservatism on a regular basis to his fellow aldermen, the city continues to struggle on figuring out what exactly the future game plan for the community will be. Furthermore, it's my opinion that while Solomon seemed to be a-OK with spending city dollars on a trail in the middle of nowhere (St. Martins Trail), building/marketing a future facility that would house a community gathering place near one of our biggest gems, the Franklin Public Library, seems to be a no-no in his eyes.

Priorities seem to be questionable with the alderman, and hopefully some answers will become more clear later tonight when the item is brought up for discussion. I mean, what else would the city do with an open parcel of land after the city tears down the home currently on it? Leaving it as purely open space seems to be a waste of precious land that can quadruple its usefulness to the community with something on it.

Lastly, if the alderman had such concerns with topics being brought forward to the EDC by Commissioner Michlig (the agenda clearly states it was items requested by him), why didn't he simply call Michlig to get some answers? Why didn't he sit down with him and share thoughts over a cup of coffee? Oh wait, that's right...you can't have a coffee in Franklin unless you drive all the way to the fringe of the city (along 27th Street) these days!

Bummer.

A ton of passion...over what, exactly?

That is what I was thinking about during last night's Committee of the Whole meeting. When the topics regarding the role of Common Council President were discussed, Alderman Steve Olson wouldn't have any of it. He remained insistent that modifying the CCP's position on paper was nothing more than a waste, since Olson stated several times that potential situations that the CCP would handle can already be achieved through other means right now.

What sparks my interest in Olson's opposition is primarily due to the fact that even if Olson has these feelings about the current status, where would the harm be in attempting to try the new methods out?

For those who might not be up-to-date on what's happening at City Hall, for the past few weeks discussion has formed over two things relating to the CCP:

1. Can the CCP chair the Committee of the Whole meetings instead of the Mayor?
2. Should the CCP have an expanded role with regards to being a more direct conduit between the Council and the Boards and Commissions that are supposed to communicate with them?

Personally, I don't believe it goes far enough. While I'm sure CCP Steve Taylor doesn't want me out there vouching to give him more work, I will go on the record with the belief that anything related to the legislative portion of city government should be controlled or have more control by the Common Council President instead of the Mayor. This would include the two questions above as well as appointing new members to the Boards and Commissions. In my opinion, it's puzzling to see the Mayor having the ability to appoint, re-appoint, or deny applications to such Boards and Commissions when their duties and responsibilities lie with the Common Council, and the Common Council approves the members.

It is my opinion that Alderman Olson is 100% wrong with his view that things are working OK, and thus the current plan should remain in place. I personally believe that Olson is going out on this limb at the moment for two reasons:

1. He doesn't want the CCP to have any sort-of power and experience/knowledge. This way, it makes it difficult for potential competition.
2. Olson has been rumored as a potential candidate for Franklin Mayor in 2011. Tom Taylor's future in city government is unknown, and for all we know he could pull something similar to what Mayor Christine Nuernberg did in Mequon by announcing well in advance that he won't seek a third term. Since I have the opinion that the Mayor's office currently has a lot of control over the legislative branch, and Olson could be interested in the office, then maybe Olson would warmly welcome the broad power grabs as possible Mayor in 2011. Of course, the big question would be - is he going to run?

As the title states, folks, why all the passion over the two issues relating to the CCP? I would have thought the passion would have been aimed elsewhere.

A unique and ideal structure to highlight the civic center

At next week's Common Council meeting, discussion relating to a recently purchased property by the city will be on tap. This piece of property, which currently has a home on it that will be demolished, could become a symbol of a new and revitalized Franklin community when it's all said and done. Economic Development Commissioner John Michlig presented, and later received the EDC's recommendation to the Council, a plan that would include a "coffee shop" or similar along with a co-working space for residents here and abroad. Taking advantage of two Franklin gems, the library and Lions Legend Park, Michlig's idea would connect both facilities and encourage people to make Franklin a destination rather than a drive-thru.

Seeing that this project is something I personally would have liked seeing at the Shoppes at Wyndham Village, I'm fully supporting Michlig and the EDC's efforts at the Council next Tuesday. The lingering question will likely be around the potential funding for such a project, and I believe if the city gives Michlig and several other EDC members an opportunity to reach out to area developers they will find an interest. It would be my opinion that both chain and independent "coffee shops" would have an interest in this unique site. Furthermore, if the Council and EDC can put thinking caps on, a two or three story building on that site could cater to several other options as well. For example, Franklin doesn't have a FedEx Kinko's yet...and this site would work perfectly for such a use with the nearby governmental and office buildings.

I have consistently been a champion of building up instead of out, and have always aimed for bringing more of a unique community feel to the City of Franklin. This is desperately needed in a community that struggles to find its own identity.

With that said, it's time that we look above and beyond numbers and attempt to see other aspects of projects, such as promotion of the city and community perks and benefits to residents.

Good luck to John Michlig and those on the EDC.