Alderman's agenda lengthens meetings

Posted: July 8, 2009

Any regular attendant of the twice-monthly Common Council meetings will notice the shift in their pace since April when Alderman Gary Kohlenberg replaced longtime incumbent Edwin Hollatz for a seat in the 2nd District. For the last two meetings, Kohlenberg's comments and discussion items have contributed to at least an extra hour being added to the evening, and frustration on the part of some council members.

After Kohlenberg's discussion items concluded Tuesday, Alderman Dave Nold said an hour had been spent on a personal agenda when a store, (Sentry) is closing and he had to find out about it in the newspaper.

The former mayor's active involvement in city affairs and at council meetings has stirred rumors that the alderman is planning a second run at the mayor's seat. While Kohlenberg has not confirmed this, in any event, his domination of council meetings keeps him in the spotlight.

At Tuesday's meeting, Kohlenberg had four discussion items on the agenda. One item deals specifically with council members' communication with city staff. Kohlenberg said he does not understand why aldermen are not allowed to contact city staff directly and instead, must go through City Administrator Diane Gard. He said he has been reprimanded for attempting to contact city staff directly instead of first contacting Gard.

Gard explained that the policy was implemented long before she arrived. She explained in order for the city to operate efficiently, it can't have eight aldermen directing staff.

Gard said there have only been two instances in which someone has disagreed with this procedure - when Kohlenberg was mayor and now.

"We have a $65 million operation to run," Gard explained. Gard said that since April 7, she has had three requests for information from other aldermen, and more than 60 from Kohlenberg. While some requests are quickly resolved, many consume lengthy amounts of time and have resulted in 170 communications among staff to gather the information to respond.

Kohlenberg's rebuttal was that the majority of the requests were open records requests that he needs to make informed decisions about city issues. He added that the volume of the requests were citizen concerns he was attempting to help with.

Summer concerts

Kohlenberg, who has been involved in the summer concerts in the park since its inception, is upset after Mayor Maury Sullivan's recent decision to prohibit Kohlenberg or his family from announcing the acts at each concert. Sullivan said issues have come up in which Kohlenberg used his authority to direct city staff to send home police officers from the events. "Operations rest with the park and rec department," Sullivan said.

But Kohlenberg said this is misinformation. He said that rather than directing police officers to be sent home, he directed the person in charge - who had never worked a concert - to call the park and rec director and ask him whether he should send home extra personnel who weren't needed because the turnout was smaller than usual due to rain.

Kohlenberg had sought to have the council vote on whether he could continue to announce acts at each concert, but said Sullivan changed the agenda item to discussion only to deliberately delay the decision until events are over for the year.

Senior center

At the June 16 meeting, Kohlenberg said he had received a call from the owner of Berkshire Apartments about the need for more space for the senior center and said he would like to see this as an agenda item at a future meeting.

Instead of agreeing to put it on the agenda, Sullivan suggested Kohlenberg work with city staff on the issue.

Kohlenberg said he did meet with Gard and City Attorney Bill Chapman, but because he is not allowed to talk with the rest of staff, it precludes him from working on this further.

He also said this is a decision that should rest with the council, and he would like council to negotiate with the property owner to pursue expansion.

Gard said the city already has contributed $750,000 to the senior center and contributes $6,000 annually; the city has suggested that seniors apply outside the city for additional funding, because about 40 percent of senior center membership comes from outside Oconomowoc. She also added that Parks and Recreation Director Ray Maurer has offered the community center as a space for events.

City letterhead

Kohlenberg had requested city letterhead paper and envelopes for aldermen. Gard got a quote from the city's printer on how much the supplies would cost, but Kohlenberg said Gard's estimate was about 30 percent higher than his estimate. He said if the city is overpaying for these materials, there is a larger issue at stake.

Nold said he is sick of worrying about "frivolous agendas," a comment that drew applause from the audience.

Kohlenberg said that all of the issues were created by Gard and the mayor. "I didn't start with this, I simply responded," Kohlenberg said.

In response to Kohlenberg's demeanor at council meetings, Gard said, "Given my role, I'm not in a position to battle with an alderman publicly. I'm going to continue to perform my duties with integrity and display my values."