Curmudgeon's Corner

The board Chairman now asserts that he made a mistake and voted “No” when he really meant to vote “Yes”.

If a mistake was made, it was that the Chairman didn’t have a sufficient feel for what the old and new board members were going to do. This is more the Chairman trying to give his board members a soft landing place. And, that is notable and shows some leadership. That is known as taking one for the gipper.

Anyone who is right-minded knows by now that the board vote in 2007 directly contrary to the board vote in 2005 was an egregious miscarriage…if even by a vote or two or three.

Supervisor Russell voted “No” on both resolutions in 2005 and changed to “Aye” votes on both issues this time around. Supervisor Stern voted “Aye” on the first resolution in 2005 and “No” on the second. This time around, Stern voted “No” on both resolutions. Supervisor Strupp voted “Aye” on both resolutions in 2005 and “No” on both in 2007.

Those are the flip flops. Something happened to cause them to change their votes. Outside pressure? A clearer thought process? We’ll never know.

The new members of the board included four who voted “No” on both resolutions this year. Those were Supervisors Justman, Gundrum, Ewert and Knodl. It is one thing to vote your mind, and an entirely different thing to countermand the action of the earlier board on a matter of this nature, at least to my mind.

That brings us back to the integrity issue. No one is going to place a whit of reliance on the future boards’ positions if this continues. People will understand that a vote may or may not be binding. We cannot tolerate this kind of waffling on the part of our county board if we expect it to have any semblance of certitude on other issues over the coming years.

Maybe the “institutional” we will have learned a valuable lesson, and can still do the right thing on May 22nd and beyond!

And then again…maybe not. Time will tell.