The second thing I would suggest for next time around would be to have a finalized product on-hand to promote when issuing your “call to action”. I suppose you’ll probably have a better gauge on what that end product would be after attending the next meeting and seeing how it goes, but my observation is that people tend to respond best to calls for action when said action is straightforward and easy to accomplish, rather than open-ended and complex. Hopefully, that helps for next time!

Dear Editor:

Accountability and transparency are what make for an honest government. Closed doors, secrecy, and defensiveness, whether it is by design or by simple incompetence, are what inevitably lead to distrust and suspicion. Really, the formula is pretty simple . . . as a public official, if you show all your cards, then no one can accuse you of cheating.

Accountability, by the way, is something I’m very familiar with in my own professional life. I work in the UW system on just those kinds of topics. A lot of time and expense go into making sure the public has full, yet concise information on the inner workings of the university. Institutions and government entities call the process of opening themselves to public scrutiny “transparency.” For example, want to know about enrollment trends? Perhaps you have an interest in the financial health of the university? Maybe your chief concern lies with campus safety. Then again, it wouldn’t be unheard of if you were interested in the frequency of alcohol abuse on campus or even how engaged students are in the campus learning environment. If you, as a citizen, harbored any of those curiosities, well then guess what? You can find that information out and in an easy to read format too! We at the UW will not hand you a giant binder of what amounts to statistical hieroglyphics and bid you adieu by saying, “Good luck with that!” Instead, we strive to make the information complete, clear, concise, and easily understandable to a lay audience. That, folks, is what you call accountability and transparency. Best of all though, accountability and transparency, if done right, are precisely what keep public officials honest, thus maintaining integrity in the affairs of government.

So then, are the affairs of your township board transparent? Are they opaque? Or, are they screened behind an impenetrable wall of solid black evasiveness? Whatever Linden Township is, it certainly isn’t transparent and thus not accountable. I readily arrived at that conclusion by attending the Linden Township Board meeting on July 8, 2009.

Take for example, the simple hypothetical idea of a clear, concise financial statement that isn’t cryptic and incomplete. Instead of the aforementioned, the board handed out a collection of papers detailing some of the monthly expenses for June 2009. A good summary of revenues and expenditures, so that citizens could understand the up-to-date financial status of their town, was nowhere to be found. And, in a computerized world, it’s astoundingly unfathomable that the Linden Township Board can’t produce such a simple document. Haven’t they ever heard of QuickBooks or Excel? The technology is out there and it’s inexpensive. It should be a no brainer to provide citizens the information they are entitled to.

Then, there was the “closed session” where the public was thrown out of the hall and had to wait outside. The board members and their lawyer huddled in private. Even the elected town clerk was asked to step outside. Now don’t get me wrong, a closed session is indeed allowable under Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law. However, the reasons are quite limited and the public must be informed of the subject matter under discussion before the closed session officially begins. So what subject was discussed in closed session? The printed meeting agenda labeled the closed session as “primarily personnel.” If it was primarily personnel related, then what was it secondarily? Was there any thirdly kind of topic discussed? Further, if it was a personnel issue, then was it about a promotion? A disciplinary action? A potential new hire? The world may never know! Perhaps Robert Stack, the old host of “Unsolved Mysteries,” could lend the citizens of Linden Township a hand. Maybe he could get some transparency around here!

All in all, the Linden Township Board meeting of July 8, 2009 was a stellar example of how NOT to do accountability and transparency in government. One supervisor, Kerry Kligore, is brand new to the job. Maybe he’ll end up being the great reformer and bring real change to the way local government business is conducted in Linden Township. He, unfortunately though, has his work cut out for him. The other two board members have been running the show in Linden Township for quite a long time and old habits, especially bad ones, die hard. The vaudeville team of Supervisor Larry Wolf and Chairman Dean Liddicoat have brought much folly to Linden Township and have done jester’s work in making our township a laughingstock in Iowa County. From the deplorable lack of accountability, to the inability to pay the township’s bills, to potentially saddling property owners with higher taxes, the Wolf-Liddicoat team isn’t drawing laughs from the people who actually live in Linden Township . . . only moans can be heard for miles around.

The time for accountability is today . . . right now! Transparency is the law. It’s time to draw back the blinds on town business and shine the light of day on Linden Township. The public has a right to know how its tax dollars are being managed by its elected officials . . . or, in the case of Linden Township, mismanaged. The Linden Township Board needs to be reminded that they are elected officials who are fully accountable to their constituents. They are not kings.

July 15, 2009 at 8:00pm is the next board meeting. They will be addressing the gaping township deficit and consequently the inability of the township to pay all its bills. This is citizens’ opportunity to demand what they are perfectly entitled to: transparency and accountability.

Sincerely,

Mark R. Mailloux

Cheers, and God Bless1

Thank you for the encouraging words!

Take Care, mailloux

Your other advice is excellent as well! And, I’ve already begun on some of that networking. The website too will be a great way to stay in touch with local supporters and get news to them quickly.

Thank You! mailloux

Thank you for commenting!

Take Care, mailloux

Your advice on shortening the article is very good indeed. My wife (and wayneinnh in the comments) recommended I reduce the sarcasm as it may turn off voters. I’ve done so, which reduced the length quite a bit. I’ll submit the final version to the local paper by Tuesday of next week.

Thank you again!

Take Care, mailloux

Take Care, mailloux

Thanks for your help!

Take Care, mailloux

I’ll have my wife edit the thing for grammer, which isn’t one of my strong suits. But, she’s meticulous about it, which is a good thing since she’s the main homeschool teacher!

Thanks for the excellent tips!

Take Care, mailloux

Just stay true to yourself and you’ll at least get some people thinking. That alone may be what Linden needs right now, someone with a different perspective. You’ve already gotten some good advice from earlier comments and right now I can’t add much to that. But today’s politics are just as vicious on the local level as they are in Pelosi’s House and Reid’s Senate. God will help you weather the storm, though and I wish you the best of luck.

Prayers be with you.

My sincere belief is that at least half of smaller towns in America are run RIDICULOUSLY. Meaning that nobody cares about what is going on or who is inhabiting the Town Hall, because they’re just apathetic.

The other suggestions about style and content here are good. Don’t make wild accusations or speculations. Don’t ramble. Be concise. Find some friends who think the way you do, go to their houses, have dinner and a bottle of wine, and talk about everything. Go through the town’s annual reports and documents and find out the names and terms of all the elected officials. Look at them carefully. Really try to understand how the power dynamics work in your locality. Know enough people to know whose friends are whose. Watch your back.

If you want to have a positive effect, the most important thing is to not just be positive, but also to be CLEAN. Make sure that you don’t have any outstanding troubles your adversaries will throw back in your face. Other than that, kick some ass, Mailloux.

Please keep posting your local adventures, I eagerly await the opportunity to steal any good idea you have and put them to my own use. These forums are wasted if we don’t step out there and use them. As important as the 2010 elections are, us taking our Nation back from the bottom up is much much more.

You are a brave soul, Mailloux.

I will look forward to your update’s SHINE THE LIGHT on those roaches

God bless and best of luck in your endeavor.