Surprising Stuff
Geneva Inn, and the Skull and Crossbones Society, behind closed doors in the Lake Geneva Municipal Building.
On April 8th the Lake Geneva City Council met to consider what they might do with the Geneva Inn pending annexation. Dan Draper (that mixed bag of wildly spinning carnival lights attorney) actually attended that secret meeting. The stated purpose of the meeting was to counsel over the fact that the city has been threatened with lawsuits if it proceeds with the annexation. The meetings had to be secret because the fearful sweating and hand-wringing of the principal leaders involved might be witnessed as being humorous, if seen by the general public. There was supposed to be an outside counsel attending to offer advice and legal services, but it appears the city forgot that he had to be paid and could not come up with the cash from any legal account fast enough. The attorney was promised the money, but when the meeting came he decided that he was, after all, an attorney, so he didn’t show. But the opposition attorney did. That would be “lost in the legal wilderness” Draper. What he was doing there, since he’s also now involved in the same offices as the actual attorney for the Geneva Inn, is anybody’s guess. Everyone but the public was invited and that should be an indication of just how low in esteem the city leaders appear to hold the general public. Why does the city council need secret meetings at all? Why are secret meetings tolerated by the public? Are not the city leaders paid to do what they do, and paid by the very public that does not get to know?
And then there’s this new parking thing.
All of the parking lot Ordinance changes passed unanimously without any changes being made to any of them. However, when discussing Ordinance 17-05 the city attorney pointed out that the law requires the hours of operation of a parking lot to be posted. So there would be a delay in implementing the change, limiting parking lot D to 24 hours until a sign can be made. Was that statement in response to the previous article in the GSR that questioned why the current overnight parking at lot D was not posted? The article read: “Ordinance 17-05: Why is the overnight parking in lot D, not posted in the entrance to lot D? Is it to keep the overnight parking a secret for just those who know about it, or is it to hide it from tourists…?”
Well, the answer to the secrecy of the overnight parking in lot “D” is probably the above, plus the state law doesn’t require the city to post parking hours when parking hours are unlimited, as parking lot D’s were (you could have parked there indefinitely even all summer), but limiting it to just 24 hours does require a sign to be posted. The explanation appears to be that if just a few know the loop hole in the law they can benefit from it; however, when the general public begins to learn about it, then it will be changed so that the public can’t benefit the way a select few did, and that is what just happened to the unlimited parking in parking lot D, which was not posted, but when the public found out about it, it was ended and it will now be posted and limited to just 24 hours. Is it any wonder that the city leaders of Lake Geneva have become alienated from the very community they are purporting to serve?
Person of the Week
Jill comes to Lake Geneva every Thursday for the Farmers Market to run the Decatur Dairy Cheese stand. Jill is very knowledgeable on Decatur’s award winning cheeses and is a humble loyal person and employee, so much so, she chose to keep her last name out of this newspaper to keep the emphasis on the Decatur Cheese she so professionally represents. Her presence is always pleasant and she has added to the charm of the Lake Geneva Farmers Market.
