December 12, 2001

Dear Courtney and Ryan:

I just wanted to send you a note thanking you for the fine manner in which you defended student interests at last night's meeting of the Oshkosh Common Council. Your intelligent and eloquent presentations demonstrated clearly the fundamental unfairness of the Common Council's actions as regards changes to the City's recycling program. How unfortunate that the Common Council had its collective mind made up before you even spoke. Don't feel too bad: this is a Common Council that with no significant public input gave away an entire block of Main St., allowed a Wal-Mart Superstore into the community, and placed restraints on citizen speech. All with no significant public input. Hardly a dignified Roman Senate, this bunch.

Two elements of the Council's response to you were particularly appalling. First, the argument from Dr. Hintz and others that you should suggest other areas of the budget to cut in order to keep the recycling program intact. Even if you had come to the meeting prepared to talk about alternative cuts, was there a chance in Hades that Hintz or the others were going to consider such suggestions seriously at this stage in the budget process? Here are some cuts for the Council to consider:

• City Council--$17,400 : Since the Council made it clear last night that they bear no more responsibility than you, I or other citizens for analyzing the budget and lobbying the state legislature, why are we paying the Council? The Council compensation of $17,400 is thus an excellence place to cut.
• City Manager's Office--Cut the $6,000 Auto Allowance, $3,000 for conferences and training, and $920 in professional dues. When Ron Heilmann or Joe Maehl receive the slightest perk, the local newspaper goes after them with a vengeance.
• City Attorney's Office--Cut $5,000 in training, $1,575 in dues. We need proof that the training and dues result in activities that actually help citizens as opposed to helping the Mayor and City Council go after citizens.
• City Clerk's Office--Cut $7,000 in marketing/advertising (bringing the budget back to its 1998 level).
• Assessors Office--$3,700 Auto allowance.
• Purchasing--Cut $500 from advertising/marketing.
• Management Information Systems--Cut $50,000 from software maintenance (bringing budget back to year 2000 level).
• Police--$8,000 in training (bringing the budget back to its 1998 level), possibly cut $100,000 from "indirect labor."
• Planning Services--$1,400 Auto Allowance
• Inspection Services--$8,500 Auto Allowance
• Housing--$360 Auto Allowance.

These cuts would be painful (just think of how awful it would be for the City Manager, Assessor, Planner, and Inspectors to go without an auto allowance), but certainly more fair than what the Council did last night. Taxpayers also shell out many thousands of dollars for "conferences and training" and "professional dues" for most City departments. Surely some of that is largess that could be cut, but absent a newspaper in town willing to take a critical look at City Hall, we are really in no position to know.

The second appalling part of the Council's response to you was the demeaning lecture--led by Mrs. Bloechl but not contested by any of the others--that you should be doing more to lobby our state legislature about matters such as recycling subsidies. A lecture on civic responsibility is always welcome and always necessary, but not from this Common Council. This is a Council that refuses to even criticize their chosen Mayor for instructing the City Attorney to "nail to the cross" a citizen whose web site he found disturbing; that refuses even upon the advice of the District Attorney to record closed sessions; that forces citizen speakers to abide by an arbitrary standard of "relevance" during citizen statements while they pontificate from the dais; that will allow a Wal-Mart superstore into the community without even showing concern about the inevitable impact on smaller businesses; that will pass a resolution against an ethanol plant on behalf of Town of Algoma residents concerned about quality of life at the same time showing no concern for the quality of life of Jackson St. residents in Oshkosh. The list could go on and on.

FROM THIS COUNCIL WE DESERVE LECTURES ON CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY?

Last night's council action proved that students (not to mention small business owners, renters in general, and poor retirees) have no voice on the Oshkosh Common Council. This Council represents Sam Walton, Ben Ganther, and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation primarily. The encouraging thing in all of this is that young people like you are ready to take them on.

Thank you again for your fine statements.

Sincerely,

Tony Palmeri

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