Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends

“... It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

—President Lincoln, except from The Gettysburg Address

We hope you’ll take a few minutes today to watch this incredible  tribute to those who have sacrificed so much to protect and defend our Freedom and Liberty.

Here is what one YouTube commenter wrote about this tribute:

“Amazing, Every American should see this video to help them remember it's not a day off for BBQs but for giving thanks to all of those who served past present and future. There have been times when this great nation was threatened, but brave men and women have answered the call and defeated oppressors and kept this nation safe and continue to do so. God Bless our troops and their families!”

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StudentsFirst: Save Great Teachers—End Last In, First Out

As the Franklin School District prepares to tackle its first budget following the passage of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, affecting unions’ collective bargaining authority, we are bringing—what begin on BATTLE JOINED, our sister-publication—studentsfirst.org news, information and updates to THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL as part of our ongoing schools and education coverage.

Led by Michelle Rhee, the former Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, StudentsFirst formed in 2010 in response to an increasing demand for a better education system in America. This grassroots movement is designed to mobilize parents, teachers, students, administrators, and citizens throughout country, and to channel their energy to produce meaningful results on both the local and national level. StudentsFirst is a 501(c)4 organization based in Washington, D.C.

By all measures Christine Simo is an excellent teacher—precisely the type of teacher concerned parents want in their child's classroom. In fact, many fellow teachers have requested Christine for their own kids.

Why then did Christine's principal, with tears in her eyes, have to approach her just weeks ago to tell her she was being let go? Christine was one of the best teachers in the school. Layoffs were necessary and the harmful "last in, first out" policy in the state of Nevada left Christine's principal without a choice.

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Common Council Approves Government Subsidized Housing Plan

As expected, the Franklin Common Council on Tuesday approved the concept review plan for the construction of a 30-unit apartment building for seniors, located just off South 51st Street in Franklin's District 3.  The plan was submitted by Minneapolis-based CommonBond Communities, the Midwest's largest nonprofit provider of affordable housing with services.  Construction on the project is expected to begin by early fall.  A spokesman for CommonBond said the project has financing through a $4 million federal grant.  Although the property is, by state statute, exempt from property tax, Joel Dietl, Franklin’s Planning Manager reported to the Council that in lieu of paying full roperty taxes, CommonBond had agreed to pay fees equal to the City’s portion of the property taxes on this property.

In a March 24 email response to several questions posed by THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL, CommonBond representative Joseph Schwenker confirmed that CommonBond rents are based on 30% of the income level of the resident and that CommonBond has senior communities in MN, IA and WI.  Wisconsin, has by statute, complete tax exemption for properties held by nonprofit organizations like CommonBond and two of CommonBond’s 5 properties in Wisconsin qualify for this exemption which allows CommonBond to keep rents even more  affordable to residents who live on social security or other small fixed incomes.  

According to its website, CommonBond:

• Develops, owns or manages 5,000 affordable rental apartments and townhomes throughout 50 cities in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

• Close to 8,000 people; families, seniors, and people with disabilities and other barriers, call CommonBond home.
• More than 2,000 of these individuals are children.
• On average, resident household income is $14,000 a year.

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The Franklin "Monster"

Franklin City Hall awoke recently to find that it had created a ‘Monster’ by entering into an extraordinary Employment Agreement with Cal Patterson, Franklin’s Director of Finance and Treasurer.

Based upon public documents the “Monster” appears to have first emerged on Wednesday, May 11, when the Finance and Personnel Committees received a 14-page email entitled “The City of Franklin Financial Office Succession Plan” written by Franklin's Director of Finance and Treasurer, Cal Patterson.  This so-called Succession Plan addressed, among other things, the current make up of Franklin’s Finance Department, a brief comparison to a number of surrounding communities, as well as Patterson’s own recommendation for a transition plan which called for the temporary split of his current position of Director of Finance and Treasurer into two positions: Treasurer and Director of Finance and naming the incumbent (Patterson) to the part-time position of Treasurer, create and fill a full-time position of Director of Finance; theoretically  providing the new hire time to “learn the issues in the City of Franklin incrementally…”

Patterson’s Plan: According to his memorandum, the plan would come full circle at the time of the retirement of the current Treasurer (Patterson), with the adding of the Treasurer’s duties to the Director of Finance.  Patterson estimated his transition plan would negatively impact the 2011 budget by $13,000, provided that two hiring deadlines are met by August 1 and September 1.

Furthermore, Patterson claimed his plan was beneficial in that it included time for the necessary institutional knowledge transfer to occur.

Partterson’s memo was followed shortly thereafter by a memo from Director of Administration, Mark Lubrda, regarding “Succession Planning for Director of Finance and Treasurer.”

During the May 16 Special Joint Meeting of the Finance and Personnel Committees a number of commissioners expressed concern over the lengthy (several years) transition period proposed by Cal Patterson, who as a Finance Committee member was also in attendance during the panel’s debate.

Taking his responsibility seriously, at one point Dennis Ciche, Vice Chair of the Finance Committee rebuked the joint committee’s decision to recommend a plan to the Council, pointing out that he had no confidence in recommending a [transition] plan without seeing the qualifications of the new person being considered for the job; calling the current process utterly ridiculous.  EDITORIAL: Who are you going to believe, me or my lying mouth?

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“Board's Eye View” is back on FranklinNOW

THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL welcomes back Janet Evans and her Board's Eye View blog back to FranklinNOW.  We higly recommend that you visit Janet’s blog regularly for the latest insight on what's happening in the Franklin Public School District.

Janet and her husband have lived in the community of Franklin for over 34-years and have two married children who attended Franklin Public Schools. Our friend Janet is a hard-working, conscientious school board member and an outstanding baker (Mmmm… almond cake) and cook.  She is in the third year of her first three-year term serving the people of Franklin as a member of the Franklin School Board.

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Washington Wire: "It is Time for Democrats to Get Serious"

In a May 18 press release our Senator Ron Johnson called on Senate Democrats to introduce a budget resolution.

Franklin School Board Leadership Mostly Unchanged

During last night’s Annual Reorganization Meeting of the Franklin School Board, Linda Witkowski was sworn-in to her second three-year term on the Franklin School Board and Tim Nielson was sworn-in to his first.

Also, in an apparent show of confidence in its current leadership the Franklin School Board reelected all of  its sitting Board officers, with the exception of the Treasurer’s position,  which had been held by David Works who was unseated in April by Tim Nielson.

The nominations for and the election of School Board president was the first order of business following the swearing-in ceremony.

Linda Witkowski was nominated for president by new board member Tim Nielson and sitting president Debbie Larson was nominated by sitting vice president Jeff Traylor.  In the final vote, Debbie Larson retained her president's seat defeating Linda Witkowski 4-3.

When nominations for vice president were taken, Janet Evans was nominated by Linda Witkowski and sitting vice president, Steve Traylor was nominated by board member Melissa Klein. In the final vote, Janet Evans fell short and was defeated by  Traylor, 4-3.

Nominations and voting for the vacant Treasurer position was next with Debbie Larson nominating Melissa Klein, to the post and Janet Evans nominatining Linda Witkowski.  In the final vote count, Linda Witkowski lost , 4-3 to Melissa Klein.

For the Clerk’s position, Janet Evans was nominated by Linda Witkowski and sitting Clerk, Judith Bialk was nominated by Board vice president, Jeff Traylor with Judith Bialk defeating Mrs. Evans by a vote count of 4-3.

Recapping; Debbie Larson retained her seat as school board president, Jeff Traylor will continue to serve as school board vice president, Melissa Klein was elected to the school board Treasurer post  and Judith Bialk kept her seat as Clerk.

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City Assessor's Office to Investigate Property Undervalued by nearly $7 Million

Franklin taxpayers are regularly told by the mayor and some aldermen that business contributes to the tax base and drives down residential taxes, overall.  But in reality is this truly the case and is this a fair and honest claim?

While reviewing recent property sales in Franklin we came across Brenwood Park senior housing Apartments at 9535 W. Loomis Road, which was assessed in 2010 at $2.757 million, along with an adjacent two-and-one-half acre parcel valued at $553,600.  When the property owner was notified of the increased valuation, they objected.  Consequently the City lowered its valuation to $2.588 million and $261,500 on the adjacent two-and-one-half acre parcel. In March, the same piece of property, minus the two-and-one-half acre parcel was sold for $9.6 million. This was confirmed by the Milwaukee County Register of Deeds office. What does this mean to Franklin taxpayers?

Based on the $2.588 million assessment the owners were paying roughly $64,000 in property taxes.  If and when the City of Franklin changes the value, based on the current sale price, this property will generate $237,000 in property tax. THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL brought this to the attention of Mark Link, Tyler/CLT, City Assessor. Tyler/CLT is an outside company hired by Franklin. We asked Mr. Link how a property in less than a year could be so drastically undervalued. We supplied him with our documentation and were assured that he would look into the matter and let us know; because iquite frankly, he had no explanation.

Very shortly, THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL will begin a new, Franklin real estate feature with data links to properties sold in Franklin. We hope this will help residents with determining fair market values, in addition to keeping our readers informed of emerging trends.

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Sen. Ron Johnson Statement on Federal Budget

For Immediate Release

May 10, 2011

JOHNSON STATEMENT ON FEDERAL BUDGET

Supports Toomey Legislation

Washington, D.C.- Senator Ron Johnson (WI) today announced that he is an original cosponsor of Senator Pat Toomey’s (PA) Balanced Budget Proposal:

“The reason I came to Washington is that we are bankrupting America. Watching Washington from afar, I knew that the process in Washington was broken. And in the last four months, nothing has happened that changes my view.

“Evidence of that is the fact the Democrat-controlled Congress did not even pass a budget for the last fiscal year.  They have already missed the date set out in law for submitting a budget for 2012.

“Certainly as a manufacturer, I realize that if you are going to produce any product – in this case a budget – you need a process that works, and one that is in control. We do not have one.

“We also need a willing partner. Unfortunately we don’t have that. Evidence of that is the fact that Congressional Democrats were only willing to cut $4 billion from a deficit of 1,650 billion dollars. This president has shown no leadership, either. His 10-year budget would increase our deficit by $13 trillion.

“The folks on the other side of the aisle simply aren’t being serious. From my standpoint, if we are really going to get our arms around this problem, and start addressing our fiscal situation, it’s going to require a couple of steps.

“The first step should be to establish hard spending caps to instill fiscal discipline, and to force Washington to prioritize spending.  That’s why a proposal like Senator Toomey’s is so important.

“I am supporting this budget because it is a serious proposal that shows that balancing the budget is possible, and everything needs to be on the table. It’s not going to be easy, but it is possible. We should start acting now.”

FIRE AT FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL

This morning at approximately 9:00AM the Franklin Fire Department responded to a fire at Franklin High School.  According to Battalion Battalion Chief Greg Muth, all Franklin Fire stations responded to what turned out to be an electrical fire in the maintenance shed in the high school court yard.  Chief Muth said the fire was knocked-down within minutes, but due to heavy smoke, fire fighters remained on-scene to ventilate the court yard area. No injuries were reported.

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School Board Vice President unsure of how to be 'fiscally responsible'

In our ongoing committment to hold Franklin's elected representatives, including Franklin School Board members, accountable for their actions or lack thereof on the crucial issues facing our City now and in the future and with the Franklin School District facing a $2.5 million reduction in state funding, school board vice president Jeff Traylor asked how can the Board be fiscally responsible?  Mr. Traylor’s remarks were recorded by our cameras during the Franklin School Board’s Special Meeting on April 6, 2011, during a discussion between board members concerning the board’s annual self-evaluation.

After writing Franklin School District facing $2.5 million decrease in state funding about two weeks ago, we decided to take another look at some of the statements and comments made by Franklin School Board members during this meeting, which we had video taped portions of.

Our goal in writing this story was to try to determine whether school board members seemed aware of this potential multi-million dollar decrease in state funding for the District.  We also decided to review the Board’s latest Goals to see how they compared with board members’ views and beliefs.  Following is Franklin Public Schools’ latest Board Goals taken from its website.

DISTRICT FOCUS: CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

STATEMENT of PURPOSE

The primary responsibility of the Franklin Board of Education is to ensure that the District operates under sound fiscal management, that student achievement is our highest priority, and that operational processes and procedures are efficient and effective.

Here is Mr. Traylor’s statement which appears on the Franklin Public School District’s website.

"I serve on the Franklin Board of Education as a way to make a difference in the schools. I want to improve educational opportunities for all students and also keep the district financially responsible to both the students and community."

Here is another quote by Mr. Traylor from our video, which comes at approximately the 3:00 mark in the video.

“We’re here to get the best education for the best price, that’s really the bottom line.

If we spend a whole bunch of money discussing, or wasting time, or wasting the administration’s, then we’re counter-producting [sic] what we’re really doing.  Everybody throws up that word; oh, ya gotta be ‘fiscally responsible.’  Really, okay, how?  What would you like?  Or, should we spend a whole bunch of money looking for hidden ‘air bubbles’—looking for hidden problems, so we wasting a bunch of time; a bunch of administrative time, or are we trying to move things forward…”

We‘ll leave you with this final quote on government.

“Men, to act with [vigor] and effect, must have time to mature measures, and judgment and experience, as to the best method of applying them. They must not be hurried on to their conclusions by the passions, or the fears of the multitude. They must deliberate, as well as resolve.”

—Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, May 23, 1808 – March 3, 1809.

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