There has been a great deal of public debate lately regarding whether or not Dick Wollangk should keep his job as the City Manager. Now there is another news story hitting the papers regarding the "personal guarantee" given by Ganther and the 100 block investors. Turns out now that the "guarantee" isn't worth the paper it is written on (someone else's words, not mine). This "oops" is going to cost the city Millions. Millions that we cannot afford. No wonder nobody was taking care of that building. It has been falling apart for more than 2 years but nothing was done about it. Now that is in foreclosure, there isn't a thing the city can do about it.
Now, understand that although the City Manager may sign a document like this, he does not write it. An argument can be made that he has nothing to do with it. I beg to differ with that though. I think that he is ultimately responsible for the actions of his subordinates. If they do something that reflects poorly on the city, then he should take action on it. If he doesn't or fails to do it properly, then he is not effective as a manager and should be relieved of his position.
This isn't the first time that Mr Kinney or Mr Kraft have been in the paper because of actions that are less than healthy for our city. As a matter of fact, they are in the paper for more negative items than positive items. Mr Kinney has the Five Rivers mess that has cost the city a small fortune... Mr Kraft has the PMI contract mistakes, a forced apology to a council member for false information, and now a document for the 100 block that "isn't worth the paper it is written on".
Well Mr Wollangk, it is time to step up to the plate and show the city that you have the stones to do the job. Failure to do so may result in your dismissal by the council. As they say, the fat lady hasn't begun to sing. But you can bet she is warming up...
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35 comments:
Kinney: Gone
Kraft: Gone
Stephany: Gone
Inspection Dept.: Gone
Wollangk: Gone
This should be good for starters.
Yup I agree Kent.
Dick Wollangk is only the start of the 215 Church Ave. house cleaning.
Jackson Kinney and Warren Kraft need to find new employment as well. Again, this isn't the end. The entire city hall administration needs careful scrutiny. I believe there are many department managers who need to be replaced.
It seems like we have way too many highly paid city administrators and department managers who are trying very hard to lay low, fly under the radar and hold out until retirement. You know, the retirement that we Oshkosh tax payers will pay to them for years to come for possible sub-par performance.
We as a city deserve more. We need a true leader. We need someone to be held accountable and say "THE BUCK STOPS HERE"!!
The City Manager should not be a "buddy" or "pal" to the department heads, he should hold their feet to the fire to make them ALWAYS do whats in the best interest of the taxpayer.
I hope our council has the message many in Oshkosh are FED UP with the current situation. We need a major change and we need it now!
WHen you hire an office manager to run a city these are the types of problems you incur. Please remove our city manager and hire a person educated in the field. We have suffered long enough. Dick is a good man who cares deeply about our city. He is just in way over his head.
I believe it has become obvious to this relatively "new" city council what needs to be done. Do they have the stones to do their job? They need to bring forth a change of government proposal for the tax payers to review and support. A manager is no longer going to satisfy this community that derserve and demands far more accountability in the future.
It is also foolish if there are those new councilmembers that believe if they fire Mr. Wollangk that the rest of the problems will disappear! First if you hire a new manager, they will have no idea of what has been happening, and WILL not fire the personal in place.
Mr. Wollgank should have to fire those administrators prior to his departure. It's the least he could for those of us who have tryed to defend him. These administrators should feel luck to only be fired and not sued for gross neglence, and misrepresentation to the taxpaying public.
Mr. Wollgank if you hope to stay in this community, you owe it to this community to do the right thing by us now.
I'm not an apologist for Atty Kraft. The contract language in re the personal guarantees is standard when there is commercial financing. The primary lender, Bankers Bank, doesn't want the secondary lender, in this case the TIF district endangering their payback by taking any legal action without their acknowledgement and consent. No bank as a primary lender sets themselves up to loose. Clarence Darrow wouldn't have gotten any better terms for the TIF district than the ones out there.
If the ill-fated Five Rivers deal had ever gotten commericial financing via a bank-which it didn't because that dog coulnd't hunt-you would've seen similar language.
Again, I'm not apologizing for Atty Kraft. His recent gaffe in June about the conflict of interest that councilors didn't have regarding a sign project certainly shows he leaves something to be desired.
According to the ONW website, Mr. Brian Bain wants to bring forward some silly ordinance that has workshops on the first Tuesday of the month.
He Mr. Bain, if you want to keep the meeting shorter. SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!
I think the special Workshop meeting night is a GREAT idea Bryan. It would allow more input and keep the regular meetings more manageable and shorter.
8:38 is a pinhead. Don't ever stop giving your opinion Bryan. You are an important asset to the council. Furthermore, I believe you should be back in the mix to discuss Mr. Wollangks employement. You had it right when you said we (Oshkosh) need a change in leadership.
Keep fighting the good fight Bryan, yo have MANY supporters!
8:38 I believe you are correct. Mr. Bain seems to be getting a little too big for his britches. Is he positioning himself for a higher elected office? Mr. Bain does talk quite a bit at the meetings. Not that talking is a bad thing, but he rarely makes sense, or he'll talk about why he should/shouldn't do something for several minutes, then he'll vote the exact opposite.
Someone please tell Brian to settle down.
8:26-
Nope, no chance of that happening. Oshkosh has had too many "sheep" as elected council members in the past. Good example is Shirley Maddox. Many of us feel we've got the best slate of council members seated as we've ever had. Good solid taxpayer minded voices on the council. Bryan and Frank are 2 of the bright young council members. Bryan has huge community support. You can see that from the polls taken regarding his position with the City Manager issue.
Keep it up Bryan!
If you read Mr. Palmeri's blog, I think his comments are the most insightful, and go directly to the problem. Community input, and directives (or lack of comprehensive directives) by the City Council.
By allowing the Councilors to speak for an unlimited time, you have prevented citizens the time to speak. workshops never allow for public input as they are suppose to be for infromational purposes only for the council. Well here's a news flash for all of you, we pay the bills, we not only want information, we demand a place at the table when the discussions begin and end with our dollars.
Mr. Bain has missed the mark again, more discussion by the same 7 people doesn't begin to solve the problems.
How does a guy that support illegal closed meetings, waiving of bids, Five Rivers,a garbage fee, and votes to give a manager he says he has real issues with a raise...become a community spokesman for the average person. Nothing he has actually DONE or voted on would seem to give a single one of you cause for this support.
Was it just that he acted like a boorish child, because he had the power to do so? That's what you are supporting? Then you must love George Bush!
How come BIAS on Oshkosh hasn't had much to say about this issue?
Well, I guess it's a good thing seeing that Cheryl Hentz has a hard time telling the truth when she writes. She would probably just spin a little more for her buddy Bain.
If you check the blog polls-if you read comments on the blog sites and in the Northwestern, you will see the vast majority of support is directed to Bryan.
Bryan has the respect and support of a large voting base in Oshkosh.
We have a good slate of council members. Bryan, Paul, Frank, Tony, Dennis are all quality taxpayer minded elected officials.
I support Bryan, as do many many others.
What an outstanding council meeting last night. Again we had some excellent discussion and comments from all six of the council members present. Frank, Burk, Tony, Paul, Dennis and Bryan all made good points at one time or another during the meeting.
I congratulate this group for turning up the pressure on city staff (Wollangk). At several points, our council members needed to go back and drag the information out of Wollangk, but they ended up receiving the info they needed. A good example of that was when McHugh was discussing the water utility. Wollangk kept going back to the statement that the “utility” was not on the property tax roll so therefore it wasn’t a concern. McHugh kept pressing him and Wollangk finally, reluctantly admitted that although the utility isn’t on property taxes, the cost of the utility is born by the users and is an expense Oshkosh residents need to budget for. McHugh’s comment of “Smoke and Mirrors” was right on target. Just because the cost isn’t on you property taxes, doesn’t mean that as a separate water/sewer bill Oshkosh residents don’t care about those costs.
The votes were also split in the short meeting. One vote was 6-6. Another was 4-2. It’s good to see that dynamics of this council are not “canned”. You never know how the vote will come down. You never can place most of these council members in a compartment and expect they will always take the same side or align their votes with a specific cause.
I applaud Palmeri for taking the approach on the Mayor’s appointment. He brought out some great comments and this is one of the first occasions I’ve ever encountered a Mayors recommendation for a committee appointment being deigned.
I also can see that due to budget issues, a further belt tightening will be coming soon. It sure appears that the rising cost of healthcare and wage increases are making for few options other than staff reductions. Tough decisions ahead.
I again could quite easily see that Wollangk is much too protective of all city staff. He jumped on McHugh for even suggesting possible staff reductions at the water plant. He also tried to make it seem like the city healthcare plan was not great by mentioning it WASN’T a “Cadillac” plan.
Well Dick, I’m sorry to bring this slice of reality into your world, but city employees have a far better plan than any Oshkosh industry I’m aware of.
I congratulate the council. I’m glad to hear Bryan will be back in the City Manager discussions. I hope that the result of the discussions are a new leader for Oshkosh!!
8:29, you make excellent points.
I was, however, disappointed with Bryan Bain’s vote on the guy that wanted to be on the Redevelopment Authority (I don’t remember his name.)
Palmeri said the guy was responsible for outsourcing not only U.S. jobs, but jobs right here in Oshkosh! The jobs that Oshkosh B’ Gosh outsourced were decent paying union jobs. And Bryan voted for this guy?! I thought Bryan was a good Democrat, someone that protects union workers!! He didn’t show it here.
Why did you let us down Bryan? Please explain yourself!
10:13. I'm wondering why Jef Hall hasn't come out against Bryan Bain's vote on the outsourcing guy. Isn't Jef a union supporter? Maybe Hall and Bain are a little hypocritical.
The fat lady is warming up. Kent's crony Paul Esslinger must be feeding info to Kent for him to post on his website.
8:55 Miles.
Still bashing Mr. Esslinger I see.
You appear transfixed on Mr. Esslinger. One has to question your addiction. Have you sought help?
8:55. You're close but a little off. Paul Esslinger is actually sitting near the grassy knoll on River Mill. He's waiting for John Dellantonia's motorcade to pass.
Kent,
Thanks for not including my comment in support of appointing Dave Omachinski.
Jack Straw
Jack, if that was meant to be sarcasm, I hear you loud and clear. I did read your comment in another venue but did not receive it on this one. Be sure that I would not have had a problem publishing it despite my opposite opinion of the situation.
My main reason for agreement with the denial of his appointment is that his resume brags about outsourcing jobs to foreign countries and ultimately led to the departure of Oshkosh B'gosh. A name that was part of this community that is now gone.
I am opposed to outsourcing, especially manufacturing jobs.
If you would like to resubmit your comment, I would be happy to put it up. I don't want to copy it from another site though...
Thanks.
How does Jack Straw feel about the current compensation (wages and benefits) paid to our city employees?
Kent. Don't bother with this jack straw idiot, he's just another dellantonia clone.
It's unfortunate, but the goof probably sleeps well at night.
By "the goof" I mean dellantonia and jack straw.
Anonymous, Aug 15 @ 8:55, by fat lady do you mean Cheryl Hentz??? Or is there another fat lady you are referring to warming up? By warming up do you mean Cheryl is being fed info by Palmeri as you incinuate Kent is getting his from Esslinger? I don't suppose your fat lady is sitting in a black kettle now is she?
Kent: I would say this is the last straw.
Jack
Jack...
I have not received it either time. When you submit it, does it tell you at the top that it has been saved and is awaiting approval? I can speak from experience that sometimes the letter verification creates a problem and needs to be entered a second time. It happened to me early this morning on T2T.
If you continue to have trouble, please email me kmonte@new.rr.com and I will post it. Your identity will remain anonymous.
Thanks and please accept my apology for Blogger.
Jack,
If Omachinski was able to do for Oshkosh what he did for his corporation he would privatize city programs, give public work to illegal central American immigrants, sell off city property, produce shoddy public services and then provide the city manager and the department heads with golden severance packages after citizens moved to oust them. However, he couldn't provide shareholders like himself with any riches from the sale of the city since Oshkosh isn't a for-profit entity.
If the council wants businessmen on city boards and commissions for their vaunted expertise, why not pick former executives from successful Oshkosh companies?
Mr. Straw:
Re:
"Kent: I would say this is the last straw.
Jack"
Pun intended?
What's wrong with current pay and benefits of city employees?
Kent: In order for Mr. Straw to post, he would actually have to read the letters that are displayed. From reading his posts, it is quite evident that this is where the problem lies.
In our lives today...in business, industry and commerce, it's all about the customer. In Wollangks world it's all about not rocking the boat and cow-towing to the employees. I believe the Northwestern has picked up on this problem and feels we need change.
We need someone like Patton for our city manager and all be have is Beetle Bailey.
I love how ignorant posters talk about having a "Patton" in charge of Oshkosh, boy oh boy, then things will get done. Ya, right!!!!! No matter what the City Manager wants to accomplish the City Council has to bless it so count out the Pattons of the world, they would not have anything to do with this place. The Council always has the last word and always will. Ya, we got Beetle Bailey but he goes by a couple names in Oshkosh - McHugh, Esslinger, and if he doesn't get his act together soon, we can add Palmeri to the list as well.
Do we have to have multiple postings on different blog sites? I read the last two on Bain's blog. Isn't that enough?
Based on what the dellantonio clone said above, I hope Palmeri doesn't get his act together!
Miles your Esslinger bashing is so old. Rather than continuing to whine and rant about how bad the guys who voted for your sidewalks are, go out and enjoy them...Both your sidewalks and 2 wonderful Oshkosh Common Council members!
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