359 Degrees

Roundabout & North Avenue Widening

2008-08-18T11:45:00Z

Waukesha County owns and maintains certain main arterial roads in Brookfield, including North Avenue (county highway M) and Barker Road (county highway Y). The county is now proposing a major upgrade to the intersection of North and Barker. Their budget accommodates either a traditional traffic signal with turn lanes or a roundabout. No decision has been made yet on that choice. The Brookfield City Council has limited power over this decision. You are encouraged to contact the county's engineering...(read more)

Update on June 2008 Flood

2008-08-05T00:57:00Z

The exceptionally heavy rainfall of early June was devastating for the entire Midwest. I also know that the storms were a disaster for hundreds of Brookfield residents due to both flooding and sewer backups. I can assure you that all the aldermen want to know what more can be done. The key point to keep in mind is that fixing this will be new work, new construction and new regulation, all of which have a price tag. How much can the city raise your taxes and fees to lessen (no one will make a 100...(read more)

Brookfield July 4 Photos & Video

2008-07-14T20:09:00Z

The City of Brookfield celebrated July 4 with the traditional parade in the morning and a public celebration and fireworks at Mitchell Park. I see that BrookfieldNow has many photos of the parade , so I thought I'd show a few photos of mine from that evening. So, did you go to the parade, park or fireworks? Do you think it was worthwhile? Mitchell Park, facing north The fire department display with the Pierce Manufacturing, Inc. of Appleton aerial platform truck , and other gear. The Wilson Center...(read more)

Welcome Home, Guido! (With Video)

2008-07-11T16:02:00Z

Brookfield Library installs the restored Guido Brink sculpture along Calhoun Road...(read more)

Intewedm, Google and an Apology

2008-07-02T04:41:00Z

Yesterday there was a reply to my post on deer population control by frequent contributor Santa's Elf. He included a link to an online discussion regarding a rifle he believes was written by Brookfield's own intewedm. That got me wondering what else Mr. intewedm might have written. After a little googling around, I found over 1,500 entries by a person or persons using the name "intewedm". There was one rather curious entry. You can find the entry by going to Google and entering...(read more)

Deer Population Control

2008-06-22T16:04:00Z

One of the quality of life issues the city manages is controlling the deer population. With a plentiful food supply (your lawns), no natural predators (bobcats, anyone?) and plenty of natural cover (all that green space everyone wants more of), it's a perfect environment for a deer population explosion. It's a common problem in many suburban areas. There are several options to control the population as outlined on this page from the Wisconsin DNR , all with good and bad points. The city started...(read more)

Update on Historic Preservation Proposal

2008-06-11T04:15:00Z

On June 9 the Plan Commission considered my referral on a historic building preservation ordinance. It was about 10:15 pm and all but one resident had already left. I was late to the Plan Commission meeting because I was meeting with some District 5 homeowners who had suffered flooding. You can't really understand the challenges those residents face by just sitting in your family room with a laptop and a crate of Oreos! There were many good questions from the commissioners about past commission...(read more)

Historic Building Preservation - Monday June 9 Plan Commission

2008-06-08T19:52:00Z

A few weeks ago I made a request for the city to study creating an ordinance protecting historic properties. I wrote about it in my blog entry Historic Building Preservation . It comes up for discussion at the Plan Commission meeting on Monday, June 9. As with most things in city policy, the two biggest hurdles will be community support and money. My recommendation is to start with a study determining how many historic buildings exist in the city and finding out what can be done to preserve them...(read more)

New Policy on Traffic Calming

2008-05-19T02:32:00Z

One of the most common complaints an alderman gets is someone stating their neighborhood's traffic is too fast, too reckless, in too high a volume and that the situation is highly unsafe. The Board of Public Works (BPW) adopted a new policy for "traffic calming" at its May 13, 2008 meeting. The chief architect and champion of that new policy is 7th District Alderwoman Lisa Mellone, who placed it on the 2006-2008 City Strategic Plan and wrote about it on her blog . I serve on the BPW...(read more)

Historic Building Preservation

2008-05-08T04:08:00Z

At the Council meeting of May 6, I submitted the following legislative referral to study the preservation of historic structures in the City of Brookfield, possibly leading to a new protective ordinance. Brookfield has been my home for over 20 years and I understand just how fragile our link is to the city's roots. In response to this referral, the planning office has given me several documents concerning previous unsuccessful efforts for preservation. One was the historic building inventory...(read more)

Council Committees

2008-05-07T03:50:59Z

In Brookfield city government, the first detailed debate on an issue happens in a committee. That allows a few alderman to focus on a topic and make the first judgment on what is reasonable. Here are the committees appointed on Tuesday, May 6. The Finance committee sets policy on the entire city budget. One major task is debating the annual budget proposed by the Mayor and staff every October for the following year. Continuing duties include approving purchases over $50,000, dealing with claims from...(read more)

Tuesday's Meeting & Electronic Aldermanic Packets

2008-05-05T04:23:00Z

Almost every week, each alderman receives a packet of information regarding the city. It is delivered to their house, usually on Saturday morning, by a Brookfield Police Reserve officer. This ensures delivery in a timely manner, especially for those aldermen who have full time jobs, who travel often, etc. and thus would otherwise have difficulty getting the pacet. The old joke is that once someone is elected aldermen, "the cops are always over at their place." The packets range in length...(read more)

Harmless Fun or Illegal and Dangerous?

2008-05-02T03:56:51Z

I want to share with you some photos of recent vandalism activity in Brookfield. An important part of the city's job is ensuring the safety of its residents and protection of private property. I would like your opinions on whether this stuff is harmless or dangerous . How many of your tax dollars do you want spent on police patrols looking for this sort of midnight hijinks? Do you think it's fair to the property owner and his neighbors who have to clean this stuff up? What would you do if...(read more)

Stem Cells & Brookfield - The Shrinky Dink Connection

2008-04-22T04:34:42Z

Stem cell research has become a very hot topic, both scientifically and morally. I ran across this item on stem cells that has an unexpected Brookfield connection. A standard method for growing clusters of stem cells (embroid bodies) is called the hanging body technique. You place a few cells into a tiny chamber, let them float in a nourishing fluid (mmm, yummy!) and bump into each other. The start to grow and differentiate, e.g. generic stem cells start changing into specific purpose cells, such...(read more)

What's Next? Post your questions

2008-04-20T23:21:00Z

I was talking to one of my hundreds of readers (see below) and he suggested that I solicit ideas for future blog entries. After all, my main focus for starting this blog was to get some discussion going on topics of interest regarding the City of Brookfield government. I have a long list of things that I want to write about, but part of my job as alderman is to listen to (well, in this case, read from) residents. So go ahead. Post your ideas and I'll see what I can do. Scott...(read more)

Televising City Meetings

2008-04-18T05:08:00Z

One of the most significant changes to Brookfield government that I have been a part of is televising the meetings of the Council, Plan Commission and annual budget meetings. It was a highly controversial topic at the time, but I think it turned out well. Televising was approved in concept on October 7, 2003 . The first video recorded meeting was June 15, 2004 . Televising was expanded to include the Plan Commission and annual finance meetings on October 5, 2004 . (By the way, those are links to...(read more)

Yard Waste & Leaf Burning

2008-04-17T03:46:00Z

Brookfield residents take great pride in their homes, including landscaping. That means they produce piles of leaves, sticks, flowers and all sorts of other yard waste needing disposal. A special task force met in 2003 and proposed several new restrictions on leaf burning. They are summarized in this article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel of August 17, 2003 . At the council meeting of December 2, 2003 the council accepted a slightly modified version of that task force recommendation, which placed...(read more)

Council Highlights for April 15

2008-04-16T06:42:00Z

Well, the April 15 Council meeting held a few surprises after all. Here are the highlights. Mark Nelson and Dan Sutton ran for Council President and Mark Nelson won. The first and second ballots were ties, 7 to 7. The mayor chose to abstain since he felt this vote was unique to the aldermen. Besides, a tie breaker would have instantly alienated half the group. After the second vote, Dan Sutton asked for a recess. When the meeting started again, Dan stated that his candidacy was about unification...(read more)

April 15 Council Meeting

2008-04-15T03:45:00Z

The first meeting of the 28th City of Brookfield Common Council will be held on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 starting at 7:45 p.m. There are a few items of special interest.

The first order of business will be swearing in the 7 newly (re) elected alderman. They are (in order by district) Dan Sutton, Rick Owen, Ron Balzer, Steve Ponto, Scott Berg, Chris Blackburn and Renee Lowerr. Renee is the only new alderman. (I haven't had a chance to ask her if she prefers alderwoman.) I remember my first inaugaration very well. It's a moment of great satisfaction. Then the real work begins!

Second will be the election of the Common Council President. There are several duties for Council President, including:

Appoint most of the committee members
Chair Council meetings in the Mayor's absence
Serve as acting mayor if the mayor is unable to serve
Perform ceremonial duties such as ribbon cuttings

This year, there will be two candidates. First is 1st District Alderman Dan Sutton. Dan announced his intentions with personal phone calls to each of us. There are tight limits on what he could say as outlined in a letter from the City Attorney, but his main point was that he wants to bridge the rift that has developed in the council in the last few years. The second candidate is 4th District Alderman Mark Nelson who mailed each of us a letter (I got mine today) outlining his experience and his intentions to foster healthy debate yet unify the group. The candidate who gets a simple majority (at least 8 of the 14 alderman) immediately takes office. In the event of a tie, the Mayor is legally entitled to vote a tie breaker, but he is not required to. For this issue, the Mayor is almost certain to abstain, letting the aldermen sort out who should have the job.

The other key item will be a presentation on the proposed location for the new north side fire station (Station #2). The first public presentation was at a joint Plan Commission and Parks Commission meeting last week on April 7. Many of the questions raised by the commissioners and residents will be answered at this presentation. I will have lots more to say about the fire stations in future posts.

There are also lots of routine ("ministerial duties") items such as granting bartender's licenses which usually go pretty quickly.

If you can't attend the meeting, you can always catch it on the local cable channel during the next week. I will share my insights on the meeting in a couple of days.

Welcome

2008-04-15T03:11:33Z

Welcome to BrookfieldNow's newest blog - "359 Degrees". I chose that name because a full circle has 360 degrees, yet too many bloggers focus on the tiniest one degree segment that interests them. My intent is to be thorough when discussing issues and show you the many angles that issues can be viewed from. However, by the time I'm done I will often state which "degree" is the one I prefer.

As a City of Brookfield 5th District Alderman since April, 2000, I have been fortunate to have been involved in many important decisions for the city. The next few years will bring even more challenges and decisions. I encourage you to contact me on this blog or privately by email. I plan to moderate the blog posts, at least until I have a chance to add any required responses. Since I don't do this full time, it may take a while for me to catch up. Also, I want to be clear that any opinions and interpretations are mine and will be marked as such. I am not speaking for the Mayor, Council or staff, just myself.

So, get out and enjoy the spring weather! When you're ready for that cup of coffee, check back and see what's new.

Scott