Franklin Today

Franklin Notification System is now operational

Thanks to the Common Council taking additional steps to ensure public safety, now you can receive alerts on various issues on your home or mobile phone. The city's Notification System has launched and any interested residents can sign-up here. From the city website:

• The Franklin Notification System offers a second tier of emergency notification.
• To receive this potentially lifesaving Tornado Warning service, each household or business MUST SIGN UP for the service by registering their phone numbers, cell phone numbers, or e-mail addresses.
• The system also allows each individual to sign up for notices related to Declared Snow Emergencies and unexpected changes to the garbage and recycling service.  In the future, the City can add more special-notice opt-in groups as important issues surface.  (This type of notice will only occur between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.)   
• The City can use the system in conjunction with its 911 database to notify residents of significant public health and safety issues such as a chemical spill or potential hazardous condition in the water supply, etc.
• This is a FREE service.  There is no cost to join or register and you can unsubscribe at any time.
• Registration information is private and will not be sold to or shared with other vendors.
• Registration is FAST and EASY!

The good news about this service is that it can take on many more issues per resident demands. As parents already know, Franklin Public Schools also has a system set-up for alerts and notices related to the schools. This has been very successful in keeping parents informed on issues related to their child's school.

Common Council packets for everyone to view?

That's what the residents of Brookfield are able to do. The City of Brookfield has their council packets uploaded and allow the viewer to go to specific portions of the packet if their only interest is with a certain agenda item. Check it out for yourself - here's the agenda for their meeting on Tuesday.

Speaking with City Clerk Sandi Wesolowski some time ago, I got the impression that she personally would love to have something like this on Franklin's city website. It not only saves taxpayer dollars on paper, but also on staff time relative to open records requests or other matters that might information from packets. It is unknown if the city is working on putting packets up on the city website for public viewing, last we heard of anything the Technology Commission is doing it was on the matter of revamping the city website itself. Technology Commissioner Bryan Maersch was the individual that brought residents the latest TC updates, and perhaps he could shed some light on this matter, as well. 

With a council that has stated time and again its dedication of being transparent, something like uploaded council and/or commission packets shouldn't be much of a chore, especially since it looks like staff already does it for commissions. The Trails Committee agenda & packet I uploaded on Friday was provided to me by city staff.

Franklin Today's community calendar creates stir on blogs

Who would have thought something as simple as putting up a Google Calendar displaying upcoming community organization meetings & events would create a dust-up? However, it looks like that happened over the past few days on other Franklin blogs.

New city website "on hold"?

Technology Commissioner and former candidate for 5th District Alderman Bryan Maersch has put up a piece over the weekend stating that the new City of Franklin is completed. However, the website has encountered Franklin bureaucracy, so-to-speak, and hasn't been uploaded to the city's servers and made official. For now, residents can view the test site by clicking this link only viewing the screenshot on Bryan's blog, since the test site cannot handle heavy bandwidth. We really should get the new site up and running on the city's servers!

Bryan also stated that the new website will be able to handle digital recordings of meetings, as soon as digital recording technology is implemented at City Hall. It was indicated to me several days ago that meetings will begin being digitally recorded in the coming weeks.

These two items have been requested by residents, including myself, as a means of improving communication between City Hall and the taxpayers who fund it. It is my hope that these two items will be taken care of before June.

While Franklin cuts, cuts, cuts...

...Oak Creek OKs an expenditure of up to $55,000 to install video recording and transmission equipment, which will allow their Common Council meetings to be shown on TV via Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-Verse.

Brookfield's review of elected official appointments should be considered in Franklin

Yesterday the Brookfield NOW newspaper reported that two Brookfield aldermen are submitting legislative referrals regarding appointment on commissions. One of the proposals specifically aims at how long aldermen should have the luxury to be on a certain commission. The alderman proposing this piece, Scott Berg, is quoted in the NOW:

Berg's referral - made Feb. 3 - looks at limiting the terms of aldermanic appointments to city committees, boards and commissions. Berg proposed that no aldermen serve more than four consecutive years on any committee.

Berg said limiting the terms would give aldermen an opportunity to "be a little more rounded and be able to better understand the issues."

"I think the real problem is that people get entrenched on committees," he said.

If limits are enacted, Berg said he would like to see them in place by November, so that those interested in running for the council in 2010 are aware of the changes.

I think Berg is 100% accurate on the fact that some elected officials end up being "entrenched" in specific commissions. Franklin has several aldermen that have dug their trenches deep, including:

• Alderman Steve Olson: Economic Development Commission & Technology Commission
• Alderman Tim Solomon: Park Commission, Licensing Committee, and Finance Committee
• Alderman Ken Skowronski: Plan Commission & Economic Development Commission

The above-named commissions had the above aldermen on them for many, many years. From what I've picked up in City Hall, the thought of potentially putting in a fresher face to move these aldermen elsewhere isn't received very well. What bugs me is the notion that if an elected official keeps getting re-elected and has already planted his/her butt in a specific commission for X number of years, the seat almost becomes something comparable to the US Supreme Court.

I believe certain commissions and committees in Franklin should have some movement with regard to who the aldermanic rep(s) are. Keeping things the same for several years doesn't really promote much of a change or "new blood" for city issues relating to those commissions and committees.

The Technology Commission will review e-mail protocols

On their February 25th agenda:

VI. City Related Email Protocol for Elected and Appointed Officials

What an interesting topic to discuss! It just so happens that this pops up on the Alderman Olson-represented commission just weeks after I filed an open records request with City Hall asking for copies of ALL e-mail communications from Olson to Mayor Taylor and CCP Taylor. It's been now 2 weeks since my request was filed, and I have received no information on it. What's up with the delay? I usually receive information pertaining to my requests within 48 hours. Why are we entering several weeks with not even a peep regarding this request?

It all goes back to what I opined about yesterday regarding Olson's tactics and negative behavior. He'll point at everyone else for being vengeful, but will attempt to make himself look like a saint. If he is truly a saint, I'd like to see proof of such. If Olson refuses to supply me with his e-mails to the Mayor and Common Council President, I might have to escalate my request to a higher authority.

As for the Technology Commission's review of e-mail protocols, I just hope the Technology Commission doesn't attempt to become Tech Czars for the City of Franklin and its residents.

Individuals to be reappointed or proposed for commissions

On Tuesday, the Council will lookover the following candidates for the following spots in Franklin commissions:

• Mike Reichl-Civic Celebrations Commission.
• Jeanine Olson-Civic Celebrations Commission.
• Rob Spitzer-Community Development Authority.
• Linda Ryan-Community Development Authority.
• John Michlig-Economic Development Commission.
• Divaker Desai-Economic Development Commission.
• Norman Hintz-Economic Development Commission.
• Diane Baranowski-Environmental Commission.
• John Nelson-Fair Commission.
• David Adam-Library Board.
• Kevin Haley-Plan Commission.
• Warren Mittelstadt-Technology Commission.
• Leary Peterson-Board of Water Commissioners.
• Gary Grobner-Board of Water Commissioners.

While I'm disappointed that John Michlig didn't get the coveted Plan Commission opening, I support him for the EDC spot. I also support my good friend Jeanine Olson on the Civic Celebrations Commission and another good acquaintance of mine, Kevin Haley to continue his role as Plan Commissioner. Both Jeanine and Kevin have done excellent jobs in their respective roles. You can thank Jeanine for doing a great job yearly with the 4th of July Parade in our community, and kudos to Kevin for standing firm in demanding nothing but the best for the Shoppes at Wyndham Village.

If other commissioners get light shed on them within the next few days, you'll be certain to see a discussion here.

Another Technology Commission member responds to resident and blogger concerns on blogs

This was the comment made by an individual only noting himself to be a TC member on an earlier blog entry:

Let's see if I can enlighten some here...

1.  In the past several years, no citizens have been before the Technology Commission asking for any type of analog or digital recording or streaming of audio or video.

2.  One blogger makes infrequent visits to the Technology Commission meetings but never comments during the citizen comment period.  Silence is a virtue, but not when you wish your desires to be known.  We aren't mind readers and most of us aren't blog readers!

3.  Citizens, to our knowledge, have NOT been beating down the doorsteps of their aldermanic representatives for any recording or streaming of audio or video.

4.  I see that several individuals, through their blog postings, are expressing their strong desire for the City to enact digital recording ASAP...and there is criticism of the Technology Commission for not acting quickly...but, again, the bloggers never make an appearance at a Technology Commission meeting to comment about this.

5.  While the Technology Commission has had a desire and has shown its own initiative to get this underway in the past, it was shelved because of a lack of budget or a lack of willingness on the part of the alderpersons to implement a $0.15/month "surcharge" on the bills of Time-Warner Cable subscribers in the City.  This "surcharge" is allowed by our agreement with Time-Warner as long as it is used for the purpose intended....that being the implementation of a government access channel.  At that time (under previous City leadership), no one wanted to implement this perceived tax.  These fees would have funded the necessary video broadcast equipment.

6.  When the idea for the Time-Warner surcharge was rejected, the Technology Commission put it upon itself to get a scrolling PowerPoint of information on Time-Warner's government access channel for Franklin.  This technology (including a computer and operating system license) was donated, integrated, and tested by Technology Commission members.

7.  The Technology Commission has worked on many other pressing issues....police, government, GIS, and other systems; ensuring the infrastructure of City Hall is maintained; developing a strategic plan for the IT of the City, etc.  We would love to act on every desire of every citizen, but prioritization also needs take place.

8.  We don't want to put out solutions that work on a temporary basis or are inadequate.  Ideally, any solution that the City would invest in would have utility on the web, on AT&T's broadcast system, and on Time-Warner's cable channel.  All of these delivery methods use different technologies and need to be considered to have a viable solution for the citizenry of Franklin....not just for the few tech-savvy bloggers out there.

9.  Technology Commission members are not "city officials" as was stated on a blog posting.  We are volunteers who provide our experience and insight to a City that has no IT staff.  We don't get paid, we don't get any mileage or reimbursed expenses, and we don't get invited to the City staff holiday party ;-).

10.  I'm sure that I probably speak for most Commission members when I say that the pace of movement on any technology issue at the City is much, much slower than in our "day jobs."  But, there also has to be an understanding that we are not full-time City staff and our once-a-month meetings, along with the necessary quorums, consensus-building, and governmental process is something that we have little control over.  I'd love to say, "Make it so!" and have everything implemented immediately.

11.  A blog post here says "The heat must be turned up on the Technology Commission".  Sadly, no one spoke up at the Commission's meeting tonight, or last month, or the month before that, or the 25 meetings before that!  If you want to apply heat, show up and speak up!

12.  Lastly, I would encourage anyone, including the bloggers, to apply as a volunteer for a City Commission of their desire, including the Technology Commission.  It is a rewarding experience and allows you to "give back" to your City, even if others criticize your work.

The demand for a digital Franklin takes an awkward turn

For those who read FranklinNOW, or have clicked on Technology Commission member Bryan Maersch's recent blog about "the road to E-Government," you should know that he has posted a "Goodbye" entry. Based on the "I'm Done" statement, it looks like Bryan will be leaving FranklinNOW.com as a blogger, just hours after Janet Evans uploaded several Podcasts of the TC subcommittee to lookover new technologies for City Hall meetings. Bryan is a member of this subcommittee.

Some might attribute Bryan's recent signal to depart to several bloggers (including myself) criticizing the Technology Commission regarding their seemingly slow, sluggish pace to get even a digital recorder into City Hall on an "official" capacity. I do place some of my criticism on the Technology Commission, but as of now the majority of it will be on Alderman Steve Olson, who currently sits on the commission (not the subcommittee) and has sat on that commission for many years. For citizen criticism for a simple recorder to build up this much with what seems to be little-to-no reaction from the commission or the alderman sitting on it is rather disturbing. Furthermore, since this issue didn't appear overnight, why wasn't Mr. Olson more proactive about the subject instead of allowing the issue to fester and turn into something a lot bigger than it needs to be? Another point could be the questionable decision to appoint Mr. Olson as the aldermanic rep for this commission when his business sells technology equipment to municipalities like Franklin. Olson's workplace could be doing such business with our city government if/when the TC gets into gear about this. Where are the potential conflict of interest alarms on this matter?

It's a shame that volunteer citizens have to take on the massive responsibilities that apparently didn't take shape for the past several years. This issue in of itself proves that several of those who ran with the support of "Citizens for Responsible Leadership" weren't either responsible or leaders in the first place. It's terrible and shameful that Franklin residents have to find this out the hard way.