Dear Attorney Martens,
At a recent West Bend School Board work session I had the opportunity to view the six-minute video presentation that is to be used to inform district residents about the upcoming referendum in November.
As a citizen and taxpayer, my “first impression” of this video was that it:
1. left one feeling “guilty” if they don’t agree with the current referendum and
2. abused area officials and businessmen for the purpose of coercion.
READ ENTIRE FORMAL COMPLAINT HERE:
http://wbcommunityinfo.blogspot.com/2008/08/complaint-fileddistrict-attorney-re.html
4 comments:
Have you thought that maybe the guilt you're feeling is real? That you feel guilty because you know funding education, even when it's a bit more expensive than you'd like, is the still right thing to do even though something in your worldview keeps you from actually doing the right thing?
I'm guessing, not.
I took the time to think about your questions, just to be fair, and the answer to both questions is "no".
So you don't have to guess.
Know what I don't like?
Sneakiness.
Disingenuous behavior.
Coercion.
Misappropriation of funds.
Duping the public.
No matter WHAT the issue at hand is.
I couldn't agree with you more about Sneakiness and duping the public, but you still haven't answered my original question which was: how much money do you think is the right amount to spend on education? How much *should* the referendum be for? Or do you think we should spend no money on public education? maybe you think we should privatize the whole thing?
Best,
Mark
Mark,
You are making me smile. I appreciate your challenges. (Respectfully...)
I do not mind paying tax dollars that support public education.
One of the issues of concern is that the taxpayers are having to pay the consequences of past financial misbehavior. So are we to make up for that misappropriation of funds all at one time? Everyone gets fiscally punished with a huge referendum?
Maybe what we could do is look at something that accomplishes the "needs" in a more appropriate and conservative manner so we aren't dinging people that will feel the pain of the taxation, i.e., seniors and the like.
There is no emergent need for the proposed (expensive) security system.
If we move "steadily" toward making up for the losses that were taken in the area of school maintenance, I believe the general public would be more than happy to assist and back such a plan. All of this before we play around with grandiose ideas of rebuilding Badger and trashing Barton.
The current School Board wants to do an enormous overhaul that is overwhelming to the district residents. And to convince everyone to follow the leader, they have produced a coercive video, allowed the building maintenance supervisor to trash-talk the school conditions and had their PR guy give the "poor West Bend" interview to the Wisconsin Laborer's District Council.
They have spent a large sum of money on attorney fees, a crappy referendum survey that went nowhere, and the video (waiting to get the price tag on that). All of this $$ could have been put towards building maintenance and/or academic purchases. But no, we waste it on idiotic garbage to try to push the largest referendum in WI history.
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