Franklin Today

Bloggers unite behind Schwartz

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed a growing amount of support towards Don Schwartz for Milwaukee County Supervisor from Franklin bloggers. On FranklinNOW, Kevin Fischer discusses Schwartz (and only him) as an alternative solution when there's an opportunity to criticize one of Schwartz's opponents, Franklin Common Council President Steve Taylor. On his blog, Bryan Maersch displays a big banner that is similar to campaign ads on area news websites as well as a campaign website that supports Schwartz. I am curious to know if Schwartz's campaign paid for the spot or has any knowledge of its existence on Maersch's blog.

Interesting take from a "new" father on Monday's Franklin High School evacuation

Parents might be interested in reading what a Franklin blogger has to say about the incident on Monday, especially with the fact that he has a toddler at home. I've been following this issue since it broke at Noon on Monday, and this is the total opposite of what the LARGE majority of parents AND students felt on this issue. Here are a couple snippets:

With no respect intended, Franklin, get a grip. We’re not the Milwaukee Public Schools where a bullet found in the hallway is reason for a late afternoon pep rally...

...I liken this to a phoned-in bomb scare. Personally, I would have kept every kid in school. Instead, Franklin school officials evacuated all classrooms so police could conduct a thorough search.

My criticism is mild. I would have done all the searches while John and Sue were learning basic English so they’d have a possible chance at getting future employment against their Asian counterparts...

...Parents who wanted every reason to hide under a mattress: Shame on you. Way to jump to every conclusion imaginable before you know what the hell is going on.

You can read the rest at this link, and make your own conclusion. Feel free to comment below after reading the full post; you might agree that commenting on his site may not be worth your time.

Franklin's "E-Paper" would like to treat you to Miller Park

When the Franklin Independent Journal first launched several weeks ago, several friends of mine noticed and remarked on the potential it had to take-off. If anything, it has to do with Basil Ryan's influence and desire to make the E-Paper successful, and his willingness to put forward financially to get it done. Already the site has had advertising on FranklinNOW.com, and the other day it announced that residents willing to sit through a Common Council or School Board meeting and write about their experiences (in a neutral, fact-based manner) will be able to get Brewers tickets.

The promotion doesn't say how many will be eligible for tickets, or if there's necessarily a contest for the best written piece by a Franklin resident in attendance for one of those meetings. With that being said, I think they could get a lot of feedback, especially with their indication of great seats at Miller Park. 

For more information, check out their promotions page.

DA review of one candidate leads blogger to focus on another

Yesterday's post about the District Attorney's office reviewing a situation involving 3rd District Candidate Bob Schick continues to generate a lot of interest and conversation. Perhaps one of more unique parts of this conversation occurred last night, when Franklin blogger Kevin Fischer decided not to discuss Schick's issue, but rather change the subject to Common Council President Steve Taylor.

In his post, he is asking all City of Franklin employees to contact him if CCP Taylor contacted them or sold them insurance through his employer. Taylor is a financial representative with Country Financial. In his opinion, Fischer argues that if anything like that occurred, it would be a "serious, major conflict of interest."

While perhaps true, what would really puzzle me is why any city employee would approach Fischer in the first place. While I believe Fischer is honest in saying the e-mails would be kept anonymous, my gut tells me that if Fischer receives any information he'd pass it forward to someone so they could file their own complaint with the District Attorney's office. That would be when it becomes rather public, and the DA would be interested in those once "anonymous" e-mails. On a sidenote, I'd say Fischer would file the complaint himself, but that never was his style over the past 4 years I've known him on the blogs. He always passes the buck (and blame) onto someone else.

So here's my take:

1. Don't put up a false sense of security over the matter; be clear on what your intent is. 
2. Be frank with the readers that the decision to put up the blog post was made after news broke on other Franklin websites (like this one) about Schick's contract/employment with Waste Management, which happens to own the landfill in Franklin. Waste Management does business with the city, especially if you consider the recent agreement in which they're paying us millions so they can expand their landfill as a "business transaction".

With that said, I wish Fischer the best of luck as he shoots blindly into the darkness trying to find something ridiculous to post about CCP Taylor. I find it doubtful he will have any luck in finding what he's looking for.

Blogger feels "insulted"; rails aldermen on budgets

The other day, Franklin blogger Kevin Fischer put up a blog post discussing why he is supporting Pete Kosovich and "the opponent" of Kristen Wilhelm on April 5th. Kevin is a 3rd District voter, so his household can certainly put their words into action at the polls that day with Wilhelm's re-election bid. What's so frustrating about the post is how it simply focuses on one issue.

Granted, Fischer openly admits he's a "one issue" voter, but it seems a bit naive to cast your vote simply based on taxes and nothing else in one's community. Furthermore, when Fischer brings up his chiding of the two incumbents, he calls out his alderperson, Kristen Wilhelm, as apparently breaking a promise. You see, when a candidate has a conversation with someone at a fundraiser, that somehow equals to making promises and pledges...but I digress. Fischer writes:

Wilhelm told me she had heard from many concerned property taxpayers that property taxes were too high and that she would vote accordingly. I asked her several times if she meant it because I wouldn’t forget. Wilhelm assured me she would do everything she could to control taxing and spending.

After that paragraph, he continues on with remarks on how she apparently didn't do this. He ends up essentially labeling this inaction as an "insult" to him. To add some confusion to the logic, Wilhelm seconding motions to support Alderman Steve Olson on budget reducing measures isn't enough, either. Forget the whole point that if Alderman Olson didn't have a second on his motions, they would have died and never been brought to vote, let alone discussion. Therefore, the second to the motion is just as important as the maker of the motion. It takes two to tango on proposals, which Wilhelm did several times on Olson's proposals. Lastly on this particular matter, if Wilhelm would have made the motions, Olson probably would have been a bit peeved since they were his ideas and suggestions. It's called common courtesy and respect.

Looking at the budgets and reviewing Fischer's recollection of his conversation with Wilhelm at a fundraiser, I'd say Wilhelm (and Alderman Steve Taylor) did their parts to control spending. Some bloggers seem to forget that prior to 2008, their readers were paying city taxes with yearly levy increases of over 5%. At times, it was flirting with 6%. After the 2008 elections, the levy increases were almost cut in half, from 5-6% to 2.5-3%. In my book, that's called the start of controlling spending in the community.

To bring tax levies down to 0% in one swoop from the 2008 budget to the 2009 budget, there would have been significant cuts to services that residents depend on and enjoy. The fact that the budget's levy increases have been cut in half while maintaining (even adding) excellent services and that "quality of life" factor in the community is great news for taxpayers. With additional revenue coming from the business park and the city's recent agreement with Waste Management, expect those levy increases to perhaps drop even further.

What frustrates me are when remarks like Fischer's are made without any regard as to where tax dollars are going or what they are supporting. If Fischer or other bloggers don't want quality police, fire or paramedic services, that's fine. If they don't want any parks or community amenities, that's fine. If they don't want to see our community remaining competitive with our neighboring suburbs in terms of quality services and features, that's fine too. If they and those who share those views want that to occur, then feel free to witness our fine community lose whatever clout it has today as a high quality, top-of-the-notch suburb in the Milwaukee Metropolitan Area. 

To me, to my family, that would be a much bigger insult; to go one step forward from 2008-2011, and then take two steps back. Due to that, I encourage this to my readers: 

To continue Putting Franklin First and moving our community in a positive direction, promoting both the need for community "quality of life" amenities & features while cutting wasteful spending, VOTE April 5th for KRISTEN WILHELM in the 3rd District and STEVE TAYLOR in the 4th District.

Expect individual endorsement pieces on both Wilhelm and Taylor's bids as April 5th closes in.

New E-Paper launches in Franklin

Earlier this week, two Franklin residents began what is being coined as an "E-Paper" for the citizens of Franklin. The Franklin Independent Journal, "penned" by Fred Keller and Basil Ryan, launched the site with their results an open records request they did on city administration. While both Director of Administration Mark Luberda and Director of Finance Calvin Patterson were subject of the requests, at this time only Patterson's wage and benefits are posted.

If you wish to know what our Director of Finance makes in terms of wage and benefits, go here.

As for the contributors to the Franklin Independent Journal, a brief background on both might be worthwhile. Many of you likely know both Fred Keller and Basil Ryan from their names being mentioned past and present. Keller still is putting up posts on his blog, Battle Joined. Ryan is perhaps well-known in Franklin for being a former alderman in the 4th District and the target of a recall in the early 2000s, where he was defeated by Pete Kosovich. Ryan also ran against Mayor Tom Taylor in 2008, which ended with the mayor winning re-election.

Due to both of them being strong advocates for open government and transparency, it is expected that the Franklin Independent Journal will feature tons of open records requests. It's expected that some of those requests could turn up some interesting results, as Ryan is known for having detailed information on the backgrounds of many Franklin issues.

All-in-all, it's probably a site to keep tabs on as we move forward in discussing Franklin politics. It'll be interesting to see if the Franklin Independent Journal truly stays "independent", or if the site slowly moves to a position that's strongly against those currently in leadership positions at Franklin City Hall.

January 24, 6-8pm: Make your voice heard on Franklin's Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan

ABOVE: From a previous post on SPRAWLED OUT: An example of a trail that is certainly "recreational," but A) does not connect any destinations (it merely loops through a park), and B) empties into a blind curve on a suburban speedway, further shielded by trees and shrubs (indicated with green boxes).

The City of Franklin has been working for some time on a new Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, and is now inviting public input.

I encourage people to come to the open house and make their concerns about CONNECTIVITY in the city of Franklin heard. As a member of the city's Trails Committee, I am sorry to report that there is precious little interaction between us and the city's Parks Commission. In fact, there has been considerable tension in Trails Committee meetings when I or any other member made requests for information on the ongoing Recreation plan.

via fullyarticulated.typepad.com

Welcome to Franklin, Lee Holloway

Last week Common Council President Steve Taylor posted on his FranklinNOW blog that he was able to spark a conversation with Acting Milwaukee County Executive Lee Holloway recently, and invited him to a Franklin Common Council meeting. According to Taylor, the next day Holloway's Chief of Staff buzzed Taylor to inform him that Holloway accepted the invitation. With that said, Taylor put an item on the Common Council agenda for this evening that includes discussion about city & county services under the anticipation that Holloway will be attending tonight. For those interested in attending - go to City Hall at 6:30pm. The Council Chambers is the room directly to your left upon walking in the main doors.

This shall prove to be interesting, since Holloway is literally walking into the lion's den of suburbia. Franklin is extremely supportive of former County Executive and Governor Scott Walker, who has clashed with then County Board Chairman now Acting County Executive Holloway on a multitude of issues. I say kudos to Holloway for appearing tonight, but I also believe it is a lot of tooting horns on both sides of the fence.

Holloway can toot his horn for appearing in front of strong opposition courtesy of a suburban Common Council, and CCP Taylor and toot his horn for being able to bring real discussion and potential debate about county services to the City of Franklin. However, neither can make true reform with this one-time meeting of heads. It is a big unknown if Holloway will even make it past the February primary in the County Executive race, then move on to a April victory. If Holloway is defeated in February or April, then to be frank the whole meeting is null and void. The new County Executive will likely have a new gameplan for county services and its future with communicating and working with suburban governments.

In closing, regardless of who becomes the next County Executive for Milwaukee County, I'd argue that the executive should make it a priority to appear in front of the leaders of each municipality in the county once a year to hear their concerns upfront, so all the communities of Milwaukee County truly get their voices heard. Because here in Franklin, we give, give, and give some more to county government in taxes and very little in return.

Full time mayor referendum quickly becomes "What referendum?"

With less than a month to go before voters cast ballots, and now with early voting starting up, where has all the promotion and discussion gone relative to the full time mayor referendum question that will be on our ballots? It's crunch time now, and I've not seen or heard anything about it in weeks. CCP Taylor's blog has died down as well, only posting two items since August 17th. For those of you not aware, CCP Taylor was the alderman who truly spearheaded the initiative to have a full time mayor referendum on the November ballot. From the looks of it, I believe a good majority have significant doubts of the referendum passing, and therefore are essentially disassociating themselves from it.

51st Street sidewalk in place!

Blogger and member of the Trails Committee, John Michlig, notes today that the sidewalk along 51st Street in front of FHS is now complete. He also posted a series of photos of this positive achievement for the community, and is accessible by going to his Flickr account.

With regards to the road portion of 51st Street, I believe they still need to pour another layer of asphalt and truly put in the lines and road markers. I still believe the road is extremely wide, but perhaps that'll change when the lines are put in.