The New York Times has an article about Ideas for Change in Government. Guess what Wisconsin City made the article.

The election is over and while the final canvas has yet to be done, the unofficial results are in.

Thank you to everyone who got out an voted. 33% in a spring election.... Wow! that's great!. Just as importantly, thank you to everyone who put time and effort into the election process. Even if your candidate did not win, being involved and caring enough about your community take action is commendable.

Not that the election went without any problems. Over at the New Vision Church polling location, there was a shortage of ballots. Who expected a 33% turnout across the board? Some speculated that it was the school referendum and other felt it was the Mayoral race. Since all wards are not in the Pewaukee school district, it is hard to tell without deeper analysis.

Some had been calling this election a referendum on the Police -vs- Sheriff contract. It definitely was a key item in the campaigning. If it were indeed a referendum, it looks like the majority are happy with the decision to contract with the Sheriff's office. Perhaps we can now let this issue die.

A comment was made, in the continuing thread under the CPPD presentation story, stating that another poster was worried about the election. Is that really such a bad thing? I will admit it. I am worried for may reasons.

The biggest worry I have is the issue related to Alderman Steve Bierce and an apparent blackmail attempt that was reported by the MJS. Channel 4 also did a story about it. Was it attempted blackmail? That will be determined by professionals, but it sure sounds like the definition of blackmail to me. Have we really fallen so low that these are the tactics being used in elections?

Next, I have to wonder about Carrie Wergin. I do find it odd that she files as a write-in candidate upon immediately moving into the City. Perhaps I could understand if she had been politically active prior to moving, but her mailer did not show she participated in local politics before. There were lists of personal and work qualifications, but no mention of any current issues. I also wonder how much it costs to get a full color mailer into constituant mailboxes in less that one week. If there are 3000 voters in District 1, 1st class postage alone is over $1,000. I have to question why she is running and what position she has on issues.

I do not want to get too deep into the issues related to a former Pewaukee Police Officer's, now invalid, business card attached to an Aldemanic candidate's literature. Even if this is a single incident, I think it was bad judgment. When I leave office in a couple of weeks, do you think it would be a good idea if I kept handing out my City business cards? Er... no.

There has been a lot of talk about Aldermanic candidates being 'hand picked' by Mayoral candidate Hathaway. I have no evidence to support that, nore do I have evident to disprove it. What is interesting to me is that one sitting Alderperson is campaigning for three Aldermanic candidates and a Mayor on her website. During my term as an elected official, I have never actively campaigned for any candidate on this site. Even this year when I know that I am stepping down I have not posted support for any candidate. I admit I have been been pretty harsh towards some elected officials prior to being elected. This posting is not an endorsement of any candidate, simply a statement of my observations and concerns in regards to this election.

However, if you visit Alderman Enters' site, you will not only find a encouragement to vote for a specific Mayoral candidate, but information about three candidates in the Aldermanic races. Those three happen to be the three whose names do appear together a lot. Oh, if you want contact info on the other candidates, you will have to contact the City Clerk.

Ms Enters is entitled to her opinion. And I am entitled to mine. Mine is that I think it is inappropriate to endorse local candidates on a website that that appears to be related to her position as an elected official. Some may call me a hypocrite for that, but look at the top banner on her site, it clearly identifies her and her position as Alderperson. Now look at my site. Nowhere do I show any representation that this site is a related to my position as an elected official. In fact, read the disclaimer at the bottom. There is a bit of a difference, don't you think?

Yes, this election does worry me.

I have audio recordings of both the Mayoral debate that was held on March 22nd and the Aldermanic debate that was held on March 16th. I have set up a streaming server to host those streams. There are two streams, each runs the audio in a continuous loop.

• Mayoral
• Aldermanic

Oh, and if you are interested, you may want to check out the Waukesha County Scanner. The City of Pewaukee Sheriff units are identified as 9x6x(as in 9160) and the Village PD units are identified as X-Ray. The Pewaukee Fire Department units are 28xx. Because the scanner is programmed for my interest, you will hear calls for other communities as well as Pewaukee.

This is a test of this service and I cannot promise that it will be available at all times. If you like it, let me know. If you have trouble, let me know that as well.

The Pewaukeeans for Better Government(PBG) sponsored a debate between incumbent Mayor Klein and opponent Hathaway which was held on March 22 at the High School. They asked me to help them video tape and publish the event which I was happy to do. I have uploaded the video to YouTube. Because of YouTube limitations, I have broken the video into 12 parts.

Part 1 - Opening comments.
Part 2 - Questions begin.
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5 - Questions between candidates begins about 7 minutes in.
Part 6
Part 7 - Beginning of audience questions.
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12 - Closing statements.

Instead of clicking on each link, you can click on Part 1, then from the YouTube page, click on More From: pewaukeepatriot . You can see all the parts there, though not in time sequence order unfortunately.

Hi everybody. It has indeed been a while since I posted to the site, but I am glad to see that did not stop people from commenting and keeping the conversation going.

There was a comment stating I believe this site is J-3 which in police lingo means DEAD........ I prefer to think of it as I was 10-6 which means that I was busy unless urgent. However, in this modern world, we should really follow NIMS guidelines and dispense with the coded messages and communicate in plain English to reduce mis-communication.

So why was I away so long? The simple answer is... I was not well. I had not been feeling well for several months. I had attributed this to increased stress at my regular job. Added to that the stresses of the 2010 budgeting process and the tough decisions that had to be made there. However, it turned out to be more than stress.

In January, my vision became blurred and shortly after that I became extremely thirsty and was drinking constantly. Yes, that's right, it turns out that I have Diabetes. I have been successful in bringing my glucose down to within normal ranges with medication, diet and a little bit of exercise. Since I have been able to get the sugars in line, I feel tremendously better than I had. In fact, I feel almost human again!

Does that change how I feel about this site, my decision not to run for re-election or Pewaukee in general? No. I plan on keeping this site running and hopefully be more active than I have been in the last several months. I do not regret my decision not to run again however I will not rule out running some time in the future. That depends on many factors. I will hopefully be able to continue to be active in the Pewaukee community. I hope to server on some Boards, Committees or Commissions.

While my term as Alderman is nearly over, I have to say it has been an interesting three years. Not all of it has been fun, but every minute has been rewarding. I have learned so much and become so much closer to the community than ever before. I have gained a real appreciation for all aspects of this Community, City and Village, it's people, the services provided and the people who provide those services. These experiences will stay with me forever and I believe they have made me a better person overall. I would not trade it for the world.

Alderman Dale Noll is almost 10-42 but Pewaukee Patriot Dale Noll is 10-8.

Thank you for you past and future support.

Thursday night, Captain Meister gave a very good presentation of all the services that the CPPD currently provides. The City website has the presentation posted in an embedded player on the CPPD page. For those of you who would prefer, I have a PDF1.9MB.

There has been some debate in another thread on the number of people in attendance on Thursday who were relatives and friends of members of the department. I will admit, there were officers there with their spouses, parents and friends. I think that is great. I also know there were people there who simply wanted to get more information and to state their opinion. That is just as great.

We should not forget that we are dealing with a very important decision with long term impact on every citizen of the City and every taxpayer of the City, not to mention the members of the CPPD. We should also not forget that taxpayer does not equal citizen. A significant amount of tax is paid by the businesses in the City and are users of the police services. If this issue were to go to a referendum, much of that tax base would not get a vote.

This is an important decision that should not be made strictly by emotion, nor should it be made strictly by numbers. We need to gather enough information to make a fiscally responsible decision that will ensure every citizen and taxpayer receives the best bang for the tax dollar.

That is, after all, what the members of the Common Council was hired to do, wasn't it?

A second special Common Council meeting has been scheduled for Thur Sep 10th at the Pewaukee High School Auditorium. The Agenda has been posted on the City's website.

The CPPD will present the services they currently provide and offer a response to the proposal by the Waukesha County Sheriff Department. There will also be a public comment and question period.

The City website has posted the presentation(9.5Mb) in PowerPoint(R) format. For those of you who prefer more open formats, I have created a PDF(6Mb) version.

Because of a problem with the posting of the notice for tonight's meeting, it has been postponed. The date has not been set yet. I will let you know when the date and time has been set.

UPDATE: The meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday Sept 1st at 6:00pm in the Common Council chambers.