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WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON?
Just what is the City of Lake Geneva up to when it comes to funding stuff?
So far, the city has resisted in every way it can auditing the Business Improvement District finance, and this with the same board and chairman of the board of that outfit begging for a forensic audit. Yet, the city quietly and without any complaint or fanfare voted to pay $40,000.00 to some idiotic survey outfit to go and study what other cities of Lake Geneva’s size and revenue stream are paying their employees. After all, the city wants to be fair to city employees. Does all that sound like a crock of you know what?
What is the last name of the person behind the survey outfit? Maybe that name should be run against the last names of the people who are leading this city. Don’t get the idea that things like this are being done out of quiet unknowing stupidity. That’s not what leads people to do the jobs of supposed ‘community service’ they are doing. The most addictive thing in the world isn’t drugs, or gambling, or any of that. It’s making other people do what you tell them to do. The second most addictive is spending other people’s money while turning that money back toward ‘home.’
Maybe the forty grand is merely a dumb decision, given that the current city employees could certainly be used to get on telephones and the Internet and find out what other cities are paying their employees. Maybe the wonderfully capable people who work the counter in the city municipal building are simply too busy handling parking fines and preparing for the next election since small towns seem to have those all the time.
And writing about what’s going on that’s strange in Lake Geneva, how about the BID wanting to have itself audited? How bizarre is that? Lake Geneva’s Business Improvement District (the BID) tries to ‘get clean’ as it moves to take on the future. In a wild topsy-turvy meeting last Wednesday morning at Harbor Shores (the hotel that wonderfully hosts the meetings, along with so welcome and free coffee), some of the board members of the BID brought up stuff that was strictly off-agenda but oh so cogent.
What about murals on city building walls, murals that have been so successful in almost literally transforming other small community towns? The murals have done well in Delavan, why not in Lake Geneva, in spite of the city’s very restrictive ordinances about such decorations?
What about music? It was discussed that jazz, the predominant music presented all over Lake Geneva at galas parties and outdoor entertainment is not favored by everyone, especially young people. It was discussed that changes in this area need to be made, as well as the city coming to grips with the reality that younger people need to be attracted and entertained in order for the city businesses to move on successfully into a bright economic future.
Great discussions followed for hours, as the BID, the only city leadership group to do so, is wrestling with what must be done in the near and far future in order to change from “a management by exception kind of planning process” to a “management by design”.
According to the chair of the BID, Speedo Condos, the City of Lake Geneva has the purse strings to the BID funds, so the discrepancies that have occurred over the last three years have to be partially due to the fact that the city let these discrepancies happen. Whether it was mistakes or misunderstandings, or more, none of it is right. The BID has an obligation to the business owners in the district and the taxpayers who provide the funding that the committee uses.
The BID Chairman, and his board, want answers. When the request for a forensics audit was submitted the city discussed and decided to get proposals for the audit to be done. Once the proposals were received city officials discussed the issue and sent the proposals over to the BID. A majority of the city council felt the selection and acceptance of the proposal, and funding should come from BID members due to the fact that the BID would be initiating and responsible for the audit. BID chair Speedo Condos believes the Lake Geneva City Council has unjustifiably passed the buck. Is the city trying to stay clear of the audit in an effort to not incriminate certain city officials? Some of the members of the BID board think so. The BID is now sending the audit proposals back to the city. The BID has decided not to ‘endeavor to persevere.’
