All you need to do is take one look at this morning ONW and you can see that there is very little doubt that this city NEEDS to change if it is ever going to grow and become a place worth living/working in. Once again, we see that our illustrious City Attorney has given us another reason to want him replaced.
Warren Kraft has been making the wrong choices for years and now this just puts the icing on the cake. He actually RECOMMENDED using an escrow firm rather than the city to manage the TIF to keep the development away from public scrutiny. Now, had the deal been successful, it would not have made a bit of difference and we would not have even been concerned with the secrets. BUT... we all know that Ganther and his associates did not make good on the deal that they made with the city and now the city has been forced to go to court in order to recoup the loss of the TIF funds. Meanwhile the City Attorney "doesn't recall" what he recommended during the development of the project. All I can say is that his memory SUCKS.
One thing that I never thought I would say is that I agree with Stew Rieckman and his assessment of Kraft. Along with Kraft, Kinney's tenure should be looked at hard for going along with any attempt to circumvent the open records law in community development. That department is responsible for an extraordinary amount of money being spent each year. They make recommendations to the Redevelopment Authority who in turn recommends to the Council for the agreements being made with these developers. If it wasn't for his recommendation, Ganther would not have even been a part of this building to begin with. It was his recommendation that allowed Ganther to develop this parcel. And even better... Ganther admits to the ONW that he didn't read the agreement when he signed it! That should tell us plenty. The "good ol' boy" network needs to be dismantled.
A read a comment on another site (I don't remember which) that listed the personnel that NEED to be replaced on city staff. Kinney and Kraft were on that list and I agree that they both need to be gone. Now! Don't wait. Just do it. Before they get this city into really deep water that we cannot recover from.
I think that a Properly Managed TIF is a good thing. Too bad we don't have the staff to manage it correctly.
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Remind me again why Kinney and Kraft are still employed with the city of Oshkosh.
As the front page of the Northwestern points out, Mr. Kraft is just another in a line of Oshkosh employees who together make the term "Dysfunction Junction" appropriate for Oshkosh city government.
"Open records law causes a problem," Kraft responded. "Anything you collect as part of your supervisory role is generally subject to public inspection. All we need to have are costs related to TIF expenses."
The Oshkosh City Attorney thinks keeping the public informed of the use of their taxes is a problem.
I think we need to fire our city attorney.
3:21. The answer to your question is because Mr. Wollangk didn't have the balls to fire members of his staff.
We can only hope that the interim city manager will clear out the dead wood.
I just rejected a comment left by someone who found an article by Hentz in some publication. Apparently they have mistaken this blog for another. I don't want a cut and paste posting, especially not if she wrote it.
I see that Mr. Bain doesn't have a problem with it. He doesn't seem to have a problem being the blog of choice for all the other crap either now that Questioning is gone. Funny, he criticized me before I put limits on this site. Guess the road only runs one way.
I have been thinking of starting a pool on who will be gone first and how long it will take the new City Manager to fire him/her. What do you think? Any takers?
I think I will start a poll. Let me know what you think...
Monte: Are you surprised that Bain is a hypocrite?
I think your readership is down and you need to stop looking for sensationalism to keep people reading what you write.
You don't seem to understand... It doesn't really matter to me. As long as people are reading, I will continue to maintain a blog. In the last 2 months, my average monthly visits are between 1200 and 1800. I think that there is enough interest to keep going.
Thank you for your concern though and have a wonderful weekend.
The pathetic “Eye on Oshkosh” show has turned from an informational show to a pure entertainment bit. One might say this is good. I say it’s not.
The show used to be good; it challenged people in authority and held their feet to the fire. Tonight, on the second segment, they had Kevin McGee and Jon Dell’Antonia. This show was one of the worst shows ever. Speculation ran rampant and downright STUPID questions were asked. One question asked by Dan Rylance directed to Mr. Dell’Antonia was “are you prepared for snow removal on your sidewalks this winter.” Of course Mr. Dell’Antonia couldn’t resist taking a slap at Esslinger and then Cheryl says “we hope to see him down there.” Is this journalism???
I’m begging Cheryl to either put a bullet in the head of this show or get back to holding people accountable. Cheryl used to hate the ONW, now she’s eating out of Rieckman’s hands. She used to love Esslinger, Bloechl, Scheuermann, Van DeHay, Monte, etc., etc., etc., now she hates them all. She used to like Palmeri, now he’s left the show like Bloeckl before him.
Cheryl just seems to use the hour to climb on a soap box and pick people off. The credibility of the show is gone, for good I’m afraid.
The subject of the second segment tonight was the 100 block and Warren Kraft. Cheryl didn’t even bother to get THE FULL EMAIL from Kraft. In her usual fashion, she picks out the juicy things and hammers people. Did Cheryl call Mr. Kraft for comment? Did she invite him on the show? And McGee and Dell’Antonia on the show??????? Couldn’t she get a present council member? I’m betting no one even wants to be on this pathetic show.
I can’t wait until election time to see what “Eye on Oshkosh” has in store; that is if it’s still around and more than five people are even bothering to watch it.
11:23. I agree with your statements, but this is hardly news. Eye on Oshkosh is irrelevant and has been pathetic for quite a while now.
Let's move on to something worth talking about.
Kent,
Care to respond to the material linked below? Seems you may have been premature in your criticism of Mr. Kraft.
http://www.ci.oshkosh.wi.us/weblink/index.asp?DocumentID=450612&FolderID=450609&SearchHandle=0&DocViewType=ShowImage&LeftPaneType=Hidden&dbid=0&page=1
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