Living Here

Some of the recent decisions of elected and appointed officials have been disturbing, and there is cause for citizens to be concerned about who these elected and appointed officials are really representing?
It is not just the City of Lake Geneva but also in communities around the area. The primary indicator that something is politically wrong is an increase in public attendance over specific issues because the public only attends meetings when there is concern about a decision that the council, or a commission, or a committee may be making, and there is fear that a really bad decision may be made. If enough people show up at a meeting it can influence or change the council, commission or committee vote, but it doesn’t always. Those who are elected and appointed to represent the public, like an attorney who one might hire, should be making decisions on the citizen’s behalf and the community as a whole, not the personal interests of a few.

Elkhorn’s City Council voting to block the proposed domestic violence shelter is one example.

Another example is the decision of the board of directors of GLEA, Geneva Lake Environmental Agency, to not dredge the Trinke Lagoon (the most effective method to remove Starry Stonewort) and to try another failed herbicide rather than inconvenience a few wealthy boaters and pier owners. It is unconscionable to not use the most effective method, and instead to use one that may even enhance the spread of Starry Stonewort, as the last one did.

A third example is the Hillmoor property. Why are the Lake Geneva city officials (elected and appointed) acting like they are under some sort of mysterious threat, and are therefore hell-bent on the development of the Hillmoor? The overwhelming majority of the residents, voters, property owners, and even visitors have expressed this opposition in comprehensive plan meetings, at plan committee meetings and at city council meetings. They are overwhelmingly and vehemently opposed to that properties commercial development.

Who are these representatives in city government representing? It sure appears that it is not the citizenry.

Symphony Bay Progress
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