Legal Closed Session?

There are reasons for government officials to sometimes hold parts of meetings in "closed session". One example is that everyone has a right to medical and employment privacy. To protect those rights, government bodies can go in to closed session. Another is when negotiating. A third example is when the body is conferring with a lawyer. There are others but the basic idea is that there is a good reason to go in to "closed session" to keep certain information secret. Wisconsin law covers when it's allowed.

How does a company's, "presentation to show that it can save the county money if it handles duties that are currently managed by the county planning department" fit in to that?

In a previous article about secret meetings on this same planning privatization topic, '[Chair] Zima said a "well-known person in the community" initially made contact with Patrick Engineering.' I'm curious, who?

Dogs and Poultry

At my Mom's house in California we used to have ducks, chickens, cats and dogs. The two ducks roamed free through the three acre property. Then, one day, some sort of predator moved in. We had a Mallard named Sir Francis Drake and a Muscovy named Mertle. She could fly, he couldn't. So what did he do? Well, Francis moved in to the dog house with our hound mutt named Red. Red didn't seem to mind the company but I do think he minded the fleas that came along with his house guest.

This story reminded me of that.

5 Myths About Health Care Around the World

With congress grinding away on healthcare bills this article caught my eye. There are several interesting points that make sense to me. This one really hit home with me: '...the most persistent myth of all: that America has "the finest health care" in the world. We don't. In terms of results, almost all advanced countries have better national health statistics than the United States does. In terms of finance, we force 700,000 Americans into bankruptcy each year because of medical bills. In France, the number of medical bankruptcies is zero. Britain: zero. Japan: zero. Germany: zero.'

That and an MRI being a $1500 here and a hundred bucks in Japan. Wow.

My overly simple solutions:

* Make all risk sharing pools that cover basic needs non-profit. At the very least, give co-ops a meaningful advantage through tax code or some other mechanism.

* Require them to cover anyone who applies for the same price. I believe this will result in pushing the industry to look seriously at wellness and prevention.

* It bothered me when I asked a doctor, "How much does this cost?" and they couldn't answer my question. They then asked why it mattered to me since insurance was paying for it. So I'd like to see a cap what the insurance companies can pay so that everyone is responsible for a small fraction of every bill they generate. If I have to pay 1% or even 0.1% of my bills-- every bill-- you better believe I'll shop around.

Annoyed by FaceBook Innovations

Facebook keeps trying to improve their service. I don't doubt their intentions but it's almost as frustrating as when Microsoft changes the menus on the version of Office every few years. FB seems to change something every month or two. I like the content of the News Feed but it's in some psuedo-random order... Like everyone else, I'll probably just deal with the annoyance until I get used to it.

Younkers Deal & Insurance Note

This all started well before I was elected. It's unfortunate that well intentioned elected officials spoke directly to the opposing party undermining our negotiating position. I suspect, we could have settled long ago if the entire council acted professionally and presented a united front. It seems like some folks can't resist stirring the pot. Perhaps they feel it's the most effective way to defend the underdog. Sometimes mixing things up does good but in this case it would have been much better to work together.

How did it all start? Alder Zima blames the beginnings on former Mayor Jadin. I don't know the full truth but the "dumbed down" term sheet missing the indemnification line that was presented to the council was incomplete at best. Probably a deception. Maybe even criminal though the federal investigators didn't think so. Certainly the answer Adler Nicholson got to his question-- and I'm paraphrasing it-- asking if there was any way the city could lose money on the deal was incorrect. I'm not even sure who answered him anymore but history has proven them very wrong.


It's unfortunate that the lawyer who screwed up the paperwork on the value didn't have enough insurance to cover his mistake. It's very unfortunate that the legal advice we followed resulted in losses in the court room. I suspect Alder Zima's figures are inflated but it could still turn out to be eight figures by the time we're done paying interest on the debt.

Note to self: Always ask about professional insurance.

Unfortunately, aside from the portion that may be covered by the insurance company of the attorney, this obligation can only land on the backs of we the taxpayers at this point. Luckily this money doesn't come out of the same revenue stream that pays for compensation and services.

Green Bay Police Call Info

The Green Bay Police Department call information has been available for years here.

Lieutenant Bongle of the Community Police sent out an announcement of another site that displays info on a map at My Neighborhood Update. It's nice to see the information in map form!

I need to see if current plans include getting other information-- especially inspection calls-- out there on the same site.

StarWarsUncut.com

I've been meaning to finish that post on open carry but work here in Pune has been long days. On top of that doing constituent services from 10.5 hours ahead presents it's own special challenges.

I did get one day of sightseeing in Delhi while I was fighting jet lag but my photo sharing site is down so I can't post that link either.

So how about a site that showed up in my feed reader this morning? Any Star Wars IV fans out there? Some of these scenes crack me up.