A week in my life as a Town Supervisor

I was out to dinner last Sunday and encountered a resident who was curious as to how many hours a week I work as a Town Supervisor. I had to guess a figure, as I had never really tracked the time before. It did get me to thinking of how some people's perceptions might be that little work is required as a Town Supervisor, and they are suspicious that we receive a paycheck. I do appreciate earning a salary for the position, however, I can understand a taxpayer's curiosity. You are paying my salary.

Anyway, I threw a number out there. I think it was 8 hours. Afterward, I started counting up in my head, and realized the number was quite low. So, I decided to track on paper every contact or town-related activity that I did for a week. Here are the results:

Thursday, January 10

• 1.5 hours. Networking breakfast with Buchanan Sup. Mani and Menasha Sup. McNamee
• 1 hour. Follow up phone conversations with excavators I had contacted earlier in the week to quote additional work recommended by Boldt for fire station.

Thursday total: 2.5 hours

Friday, January 11

• 30 minutes Phone conversation with Sup. Nooyen about communication committee report
• 1 hour. Phone conversation with resident about town concerns.
• 10 minutes. Phone conversation with April Aire resident.
• 15 minutes. Phone conversation with lawyer's office regarding eviction of April Aire residents
• 30 minutes. Phone conversation with corporate business about potentially building in Grand Chute
• 30 minutes. Town Hall visit with Admin Rohloff and Lt. Martin regarding eviction of April Aire residents
• 30 minutes. Fire station visit regarding proposal update for ambulance services
• 30 minutes.Travel time
• 10 minutes. Phone call with VHBA regarding how to make members aware of upcoming fire station electrical and HVAC bid packages.
• 30 minutes. Phone conversation with car dealership owner regarding special event at the old Springz location.

Friday total: 4.45 Hours

Saturday, January 12

• 3 hours. Review Friday report
• 3 hours. Attend fire fighter's holiday party

Saturday total: 6 Hours

Sunday, January 13

• 15 minutes. Town correspondence

Sunday total: .25 hours

Monday, January 14

• 1.5 hours. Office hours at town hall
• 45 minutes. Room Tax meeting at PAC with travel time
• 30 minutes. Town correspondence
• 10 minutes. Phone conversation with resident letting her know Hwy A overpass snow removal was on tomorrow's agenda.

Monday total: 2.85 hours

Tuesday, January 15

• 15 minutes. Conversation with April Aire resident regarding police patrol at the park.
  
• 1 hour. Attend Plan Commission meeting
• 1.25 hours. Town Board meeting
• 30 minutes. Talk with town residents directly after meeting.

Tuesday total: 3.0 hours

Wednesday, January 16

• 2 hours. April Aire task force meeting with travel time

Wednesday total: 2 hours

Total: 21.05 hours

Total hours are not counting the time spent maintaining my blog, responding to emails, replying on message boards, or talking with residents outside of board meetings. I run into people who know I am a town supervisor many times—whether I am out to eat with my wife, watching the Packers game at a sports bar, or picking up supplies at Menards. They are very interested in speaking with me about developments in the news lately.

I made a pledge to be the hardest working Supervisor, and am doing my best to follow through with that pledge.

No snow removal for Hwy A overpass

The town board voted 3-2 (Marsden, Nooyen, Schowalter against, Thyssen and Pluess for) against directing the public works department to clear snow on the Hwy A overpass sidewalk. This section of sidewalk, crossing Hwy 41, is classified as part of the Grand Chute trail system. Trails are not cleared of snow. Supervisors Nooyen and Schowalter cited additional town expense and setting bad precedence as reasons for voting against snow removal. Supervisors Thyssen and Pluess countered the public's safety was more important, as those traveling by bike or foot are forced into the road when the sidewalks are snow covered. Additionally, a crest in the raod impedes motorist's view to see pedestrians. Supervisor Thyssen also noted the CE trail underpass on Buchanan Road is cleared to allow pedestrian traffic, similar to the proposal for Cty Hwy A.

January 15th meeting agenda

The agenda for the January 15th town board meeting is available for download. The agendas for the Plan Commission and Sanitary Districts are also posted.

NIMS Training

The Town Board recently met to complete National Incident Management System Training. (NIMS). There are certain areas of training I have already completed, due to my career in law enforcement, but I also need to be compliant with training in emergency situations as a town official.

What is NIMS?
Developed by the Secretary of Homeland Security at the request of the President, the National Incident Management System (NIMS) integrates effective practices in emergency preparedness and response into a comprehensive national framework for incident management. The NIMS will enable responders at all levels to work together more effectively to manage domestic incidents no matter what the cause, size or complexity.

NIMS establishes standardized incident management processes, protocols, and procedures that all responders -- Federal, state, tribal, and local -- will use to coordinate and conduct response actions. With responders using the same standardized procedures, they will all share a common focus, and will be able to place full emphasis on incident management when a homeland security incident occurs -- whether terrorism or natural disaster. In addition, national preparedness and readiness in responding to and recovering from an incident is enhanced since all of the Nation's emergency teams and authorities are using a common language and set of procedures.

Advantages of NIMS:

NIMS incorporates incident management best practices developed and proven by thousands of responders and authorities across America. These practices, coupled with consistency and national standardization, will now be carried forward throughout all incident management processes: exercises, qualification and certification, communications interoperability, doctrinal changes, training, and publications, public affairs, equipping, evaluating, and incident management. All of these measures unify the response community as never before.

Visit nimsonline.com if you'd like more information on NIMS training.

The evolution of town communication

Today's editorial in the Post Crescent addressed the recently distributed communication report. It contained a nice overview of the committee's recommendations, and also offered an opinion on what was lacking.

The following is an exerpt:

"...But the complaints the board and town officials received also had a personal component that the committee's recommendations don't address. People simply didn't like how some board members and town officials dealt with the public.

The board and town can set up all the tools they want to try to improve communication, but if the officials using those tools don't change their personal approach to working with the public, nothing's going to change.

With these recommendations, the town may improve on getting its messages out to residents. It remains to be seen, though, if town officials got the message residents gave them."

While I don't expect individual acknowledgement in an editorial, these kinds of comments make me feel like I'm banging my head against the wall.

As the editorial points out, communication was a key issue in last spring's election. A big part of my campaign was holding town information sessions. I believed it was important for residents to express feedback regarding issues facing our town, and the vision I have for our future . Since being elected, I've been pretty vocal on how I interact with the public, and the opportunities available for residents to directly communicate with myself as their Supervisor. It was my intention from the beginning to establish a good relationship with my constituents and make them feel like they had a Supervisor that would listen.

Ways of establishing a good relationship and communication are very tangible. Since taking office I have:

1. Created a Web blog to keep residents updated
2. Distributed Town Talk, an issue based newsletter publication that is distributed to town residents
3. Established office hours every Monday 8—9:30
4. Regularly posted on The Post-Crescent's community conversation message boards.
5. Created an email group list to keep residents informed of important issues directly affecting them.
6. Try to provide answers to residents emails or phone calls within 24 hours. Most of the time, I will personally stop by their house.
   
7. Started Supervisor Neighborhood Stops. This is a neighborhood walking tour where I go door to door asking residents if they have any questions or concerns that need to be addressed. My first SNS this fall was very successful; residents were pretty surprised/happy to interact with a supervisor in this format.

I do believe there is another important change in town communication that can be measured, yet may not be obvious to the ordinary observer. Town board meetings are on average lasting much longer than meetings before Sup. Nooyan and I took office. This, I believe, can be attributed to a conscientious effort by myself (and other supervisors) to explain to the public details on agenda items that we as Supervisors receive in our Friday packets.

Does this mean the town board communication is perfect? Definately not. There still is a ways to go, and at times even I get frustrated.

But I am trying to do my part.

Post-Crescent editorial board members are invited to respond in the comments section.

December 18, 2007 meeting minutes

Minutes for the December 18, 2007 town board meeting are available for download.

Astronomical costs for fire station redesign

I originally posted the following on the community conversation Post Crescent message boards. I think this is relevant to post here as well:

I want to address the issue of a fire station redesign for those who were not able to attend this past board meeting. There was a discussion that went much more in depth than was reported in the Post Crescent. Based upon what was said, my conclusion was that redesign is not in the best interest of the taxpayers. That is why I voted against the study.

The fire station plans are at 90% completion by the architect. There are exact engineering standards for commercial buildings required by the state of Wisconsin. Changing the fire station design at this point would require scrapping all existing plans and starting over from scratch. An entire new plan set would have to be developed and submitted for review, holding the project up by an estimated 9 months. The architect, of course, would expect additional payment for a re-engineered design.

The line of questioning was in regards to changing the slab foundation to a basement foundation. Changing the structure to a basement foundation means adding features like elevators to meet ADA standards and additional sq. ft. for stairwells, additional concrete costs for the basement floor, and fire rated floors between the basement and main level. Strand and Associates estimated a basement foundation to run about $400,000-$500,000 extra.

Additionally, switching to a basement foundation does not negate the existing soil issue. Excavating (basement) or trenching (slab) must be done to get down to the virgin soil. Either way additional costs are going to be incurred. I've encountered the same soil issues in structures I've built in other parts of Grand Chute. The same precautionary measures were taken that are being discussed. This ensures the investment is going to to last the life of the structure. I also made a motion to put the work required for rebid to ensure the town gets the most competitive rate.