Front Page
WHAT THE HELL?
ONCE AGAIN..
What’s going on? There are two positions open for the city council, as Esposito and Straube bow out. There seem to be no replacements on the current horizon. Who might the community see come into the game late in the fourth quarter so to speak? The current council has done a most creditable job of not being what the last few councils have been, tools of the ‘good old boys’ who seem to sweep in whenever there’s a weakness to be exploited.
Pollard hires Fred, the last building inspector who blatantly violated his duties of inspection and enforcement when it came to anything dealing with Symphony Bay. His seeming reward? A high-paying job with Pollard, the developer of that rather shoddy chunk of supposed old people’s residences. Oh, and Flower, the former code inspector under Fred left and went to work for Pollard before him. Talk to the Geneva Shore Report about the good old boys!
This kind of shady unethical conduct has been going on in Lake Geneva for many many years. What will the city do about this blatant violation? Nothing. It is a long-followed tradition. Former employees, with Carstenson, the former Public Works director as an exception, get not only a free pass but their records sealed so that who or what entity hires them next doesn’t get to know how they might have served or not served Lake Geneva.
Meanwhile, the new city clerk came in and blew right out on vacation for the election preparations, leaving Vanessa to do all of that work. The excuse that city hall gave out for this outrage since the clerk was brought in at the usual appointed executive salary of over a hundred thousand a year, is that the vacation was already revealed in the interview process. Why was the woman ever hired then? It is being said by one and all at city hall that the new clerk is the best hire the city has done in years so there’s something to be said about that, as the current crop of leadership has been pretty wise and solid.
The election process, even in a city as small as Lake Geneva, is both complex and laborious and this time of the year deserves special attention to having personnel to handle the workload. Lake Geneva also happens to have on staff the highest-paid appointed employees of any city, town, or municipality in the State of Wisconsin. How many advanced degrees are to be had among Lake Geneva’s hired talent? None. Oh well, so much for advanced education.
One of the finalists for the open full-time city administrator position faded because his background wasn’t what he said it was. One of the four last survivors of the 60-person selection process, who was offered the position, took one look at the inflated salaries plus benefits and did some quick thinking, and asked for a lot more, as he would be the chief largesse gatherer of all. He didn’t get the outrageous counteroffer approval, amazingly, and then went back to wherever the hell it was he came out of. He was offered and took $220,000 from another small town that felt it could bear this kind of heavy salary load.
That all these candidates are interviewed and selected in secret is another bit of chicanery. So, what if they are interviewing, their existing position bosses might fire them from those current positions if they find out. Lake Geneva needs to begin using the public to help select not deny them any voice or choice at all. Perspective employees be damned, the city deserves better, and the leaders need to look at Lake Geneva’s needs first and foremost.
