Now...The Truth
I have been a citizen of Brookfield for 24 years and a member of the Brookfield Common Council for eight years, including two years as president. Many blogs in the past have contained false and distorting info about public affairs. I will provide truthful information and maintain an influence on city policy.
Congratulations to Brookfield's Fine Library
Thank You Mayor Ponto for your article that points out what some of us already knew. We have a fine library when comapred to other libraries of our size nationwide. Not only does the library focus on children to make them aware of the treasure in our midst, it provides programs and services for all age groups. And, we have a strong volunteer support group. It also provides a community center for many types of educational and social programs. Several years ago, a resident of the the rapidly growing City of Greenville in the Fox Valley near Appleton told me that its citizens voted down a library because in a few years books would be obsolete and would be all on computers! In the meantime, they will just continue to "borrow books" from the Appleton system! In any case there will still be a need to catalog and store the data for people to find it and use it.
Election News Analysis
This evening's news revealed that Janet Kloppenberg is requesting a recount after the Republican Waukesha County Clerk botched the initial vote count. With people like her, the Republican party doesn't need any more enemies. The least perception of impropriety destroys all credibility. Given the suspicion cast on the election by the error of the Clerk there is justification a recount now to restore the integrity of the system. This incident indicates that the election ststem is just as big a problem as voter fraud. Spend the money on the system rather than voter ID cards.
A bigger problem that surfaced in this election is the large number of local Clerks involved in elections: Some 5 thousand I believe. The majority of these would be township employees. Wisconsin has an extra layer of goverrnment called towns. Towns were an important part of government at the turn of the 20th century, providing basic services to a primarily rural population. Today, counties could easily provide those services like road maintenance and parks. This brings me to the next level. Major county department heads are still elected. These are County Clerk, Register of deeds, District Attorney,Coroner, Clerk of Courts, and Sheriff. From their inception, these offices provided clerical services, record keeping, and law enforcement. There were no skills or qualifications to be elected to do the job. Today, all of these functions are very complex and utilize applications of the latest technology. These positions are known as constitutional officers because they derive their existance from the state constitution. These positions should be removed by constitutional amendment and recreated by statute to require professional skills and education and appointed by a select committee chosen b y the county board..
