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TODD TAKES OVER!
Todd Krause stepped up on Tuesday night and definitively took over the job of mayor that he was elected to in a landslide of proportions never before seen in Lake Geneva politics. He immediately took the ‘ceremonial’ oath of office he’d already taken earlier the week before in chambers following the election. The Former tried to stay on in some ways, but Todd is slowly prying her talons loose one by one. Her office may eventually be cleaned out and replaced with the new mayor’s stuff, although so far there’s no sign of that. Todd’s attention isn’t on offices right off the bat, however, it’s on setting a team in place to get things done.
Hillmoor decisions hang in the air, as do decisions much needed about short-term rentals and the coming highway project. It is going to remain to be seen who Todd puts in place as members of all the important committees and appointed positions open. Emily Soli Johnson has been assigned the novel task of reviving a personnel committee that went dead for lack of interest under the past administration. The former was not big on personnel, except for paying some of them a whole lot of money, and neither was her luckless city administrator.
In fact, no employee reviews have been done for some time and that will be right at the top of this newly appointed wonder woman named Johnson, no doubt getting some of her internal horsepower from the mythical character named Jerimiah Johnson from America’s earlier days. She has her work cut out for her. Nice call, Todd. Todd is also well aware that the Geneva Shore Report, such a big supporter in helping him get elected, is not his best friend. The role of a small independent newspaper is to do exactly as the GSR has done through the years, and that’s looking into existent projects, point out new ones coming down the road, and then criticize everything the GSR deems to be worth criticism, which includes those elected or appointed to serve the public.
The GSR itself, and its staff, have been barred, criticized, accused, and lied about but this is part of what the community also needs to rumor, hash out, concentrate on, or ignore. Secrecy breeds corruption, and the need for it is seldom easy to explain. The open meeting rules (which ironically allow for the closing of meetings) of small-town politics and operations in Wisconsin are not good things for the public. From Todd the expectation is that he will give the public that hugely backed him and put him in the town’s major leadership role, did so because it wants someone serving them that gives them the bad news as well as the good, spends the people’s money with reticence demanding that projects be worth it, and makes sure that the friendly ambiance and pleasantry of Lake Geneva are fully in place and operational.
It’s going to be most interesting to see how Todd handles the building inspection problem, the Business Improvement District (BID) board, and Tom, over there across town in his public works ‘prison-style’ headquarters. The winds of change are blowing and as many people who voted in favor of that many are living in some fear of that. Without reservation, as things begin, the GSR says to this new captain of the rollicking and rolling ‘ship of state’ called Lake Geneva, the staff writes: “Welcome aboard, sir.”
