In the Race
Now, here, you see, it takes all the blogging I can do to keep in the same place.
If I want to get somewhere else, I must blog twice as fast as that!
You see, I'm in
the Red Queen's Race...
Franklin: Should the EC get Some TLC or an 86 by the CC?
By Janet Evans
Thursday, Nov 20 2008, 01:18 AM
At the Common Council meeting on Tuesday, the 18th Alderman Sohns brought forward some issues regarding the Environmental Commission (EC). Some of you may recall the EC was a hot topic on these blogs one year ago. That was when current Alderman Kristen Wilhelm was Chairman of the EC and the Mayor had thrown out there that perhaps it would be better if the Environmental Commission was not…maybe it would be better if it was a Committee instead. During that time, former FranklinNOW blogger, Greg Kowalski was Vice Chair of the EC, and current Common Council President, Steve Taylor was just appointed as a member of the Commission. And some in this blogging community, including myself, highly criticized the EC for “not getting anything done.”
The first time I met Kristen Wilhelm, briefly, and chatted with her one year ago, she didn't make much of an impression on me. I based my commentary back then on blog comments rather than on personal interaction. I’ve learned a lot in the past year in this blogosphere. Partly because of fellow blogger, John Michlig, who, by the way, was appointed to the Economic Development Commission Tuesday. It was his harsh criticism of me that made me actually want to go out and meet the other bloggers, and the other people I was reporting about. And it changed everything.
I now know and respect Kristen Wilhelm very much. And, now that I have seen what she can do when she isn’t forced to work while under someone’s thumb…well…The EC Kristen was trying to direct was like a horse with a broken leg…it just couldn’t go anywhere. The best thing to do was to put it out of its misery. And the EC today appears to be even worse.
And so, Alderman Wilhelm, as an inside “joke” that some readers may remember…I say to you, after your words at the Common Council meeting last Tuesday night, I think you can smile…and smile broadly. You deserve it. You can finally have your say. What will you do? Should the Mayor keep appointing Commission members who don’t even have an interest to show up to meetings? Who don’t take an interest to educate themselves on environmental issues? Why are some of these EC Commission members there? Just for Arbor Day? Or is it time to go….Maybe the city needs paid environmental consultants. Something is wrong…It really appears that the “something” is coming from the top in my view. It’s time for this Common Council to fix the problem. But once again, they appear very split.
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