Whitewater Common Council addresses issue with Spectrum

The Whitewater Common Council met on Tuesday, February 15 to discuss multiple issues that were raised by Councilmember James Allen. The issues range from NSO training and Spectrum TV to transparency ordinances and projects that are taking place around the community. 

The meeting started off by talking about the issue with Spectrum Television and the problem is the community is having trouble viewing live broadcasts of meetings. There is a piece of equipment that can fix this problem, but Spectrum has not cooperated with the smaller cities. 

Allen proposed “To write a letter to the state representatives to put pressure on Spectrum to help smaller communities.” Both Janesville and Whitewater are experiencing this issue and, according to Allen, it is Spectrum’s fault and we have been trying to get this piece of equipment for over six months now.”

The board voted to go ahead and write the letter.  

The board also discussed the issue of violating transparency ordinances, which means that there have been situations where the city hasn’t been fully open with the public. Since the materials for packets for the agendas need to get to city staff in time to meet deadlines for the agenda, the problem arises when topics are requested and not out on the agenda in a timely manner. 

Allen said “We have a transparency ordinance and we should follow it, it’s sad and ironic. I had insidacted to the clerk three times to add them and they weren’t added.” With materials not being on time, officials are staying at the office longer than they should. 

Allen continued “The city staff is not getting materials to the city clerk in a timely manner to meet deadlines, so the Clerk has to work longer hours than they are open for.” Cameron Clapper, Whitewater City Manager, responded by saying we are aware of the issue and we are doing our best to fix it, there is a bigger picture problem here with other actions taking longer which affects when we get it.

Following that was discussion on the Youth Build Program, which is a program dedicated to providing job training and educational opportunities for at-risk youth ages 16 to 24. The problem was the housing for these people to stay at and Allen wanted to wait until they could get high school kids in Whitewater to work at it. 

The city has only signed onto a grant for the program and that has been the only step so far in the process. 

The next item that was discussed was the update on the project at Tratt Street, where more homes are being built and a water looping fire hydrant was forced to be put in, Allen says “We need to be fair going forward and hear complaints of local developers on why they are upset.” He continued to say, “We need to know what went right, what went wrong and how we can improve.” 

The board decided to continue the discussion at a later time. 

In other news Tuesday

• The board discussed the LS Power Development Agreement, which combines greenhouse gas and electricity for more power, and how to budget that going forward. Allen wanted to remove this from the consent agenda. The board passed the motion of appraisal for the land. 
• The board also discussed the replacement of the roof at the WasteWater Treatment Plant building, which had gotten quotes from multiple companies, but Wally McDonell recommended that they do a public bidding, which is companies fair and open bidding competitively on a project, and they will do it. 
• The NSO, which stands for the Neighborhood Service Officer, will have more training that is already underway. Allen just wanted to raise the concern that they are working on these issues and will talk further about them at the next meeting.