The Kringlesphere

JS Online:Racine mayor questions stakeout

It is so comforting that the citizens of my fair little city on the lake care so much for their mayor that someone would call the police to make sure he was not driving under the influence of liquor....

Actually I find this article a bit disturbing. Come on now. An elected official attends an event and someone who supposedly does not care for him decides to call the police to have his home staked out???

People need to grow up. If this indeed was an altercation that was (as the jsonline article below suggests) politically motivated, then I think we have some pretty silly and childish people involved in local politics here in Racine.

In ending, I think Mayor Becker is doing a fine job in running this little city.
JS Online:Racine mayor questions stakeout

Edited: Sun. June 10th at 1223AM

After having just returned from work and reading the Racine newspaper while there this evening, it seems this story had hit the front page of our Racine News. The further I read about this in our newspaper-
http://www.journaltimes.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=6148
-the more it sounds like someone "has it out" for the mayor in some way. Why would someone (clearly with some political connections) call the chief of Police at home...how many of us have the chief's home number on our cell phones or regular phones.....at 9pm in the evening??
(I will give people a hint as to who I think may be behind it all. Look at the right side of the article from the link above to the "Racine Journal story" and see which realtor is being advertised...that I have to say is pretty funny. And in case the ad changes, it was an online ad for former mayor Jim Smith!!...ha ha that is just too much!)

Something just doesn't sound right here. I am not really into local politics but even I can see that someone clearly knew what kind of car our mayor was driving, knew he was at an event where he had been drinking and knew he had gotten in his car to drive home.

Someone like that, as far as I am concerned, is a pretty rotten individual. Politics is one thing...but trying to intimidate the mayor of our city with this "calling the police crap" is a little excessive if you ask me.
I hope the chief has some pretty good answers as to who this "call to his home" came from because if

I were Mayor Becker, I would not let this drop. I have a sinking feeling that it was someone associated with the former mayor Smith or his wife. I know for a fact that he was at the same dinner.

The Racine newspaper article does say that he intends to talk to the county sheriff and others on monday to try to get to the bottom of all this.In my mind, I have no doubt whatsoever that what happened was motivated by either local politics or hate for the mayor...or both.

I have to include these posts from a blog on the Racine Paper as they seem to pretty much sum up what I kind of said above. First a post from a guy who has some good commentary and then a response from......yes you guessed it.....our very own subject of this post, our mayor himself and then a nice post from one of our local aldermen. From reading these posts and from reading the stories in the papers and from talking to others in town, it is obvious that all of this is rancid politics at it's worst.

On to the Racine Journal Times Blog posts I have copied:

jackall wrote:In reading through these comments, I find some very amusing. People can like or dislike a politician, but what the chief did here is just plain wrong. Some comments have said the mayor is paranoid. Paranoia would be when someone has a delusion of being followed, but is not. The facts are, and admitted by the chief, that they were looking for "an elected official in a red Lincoln", and had a squad car 1/2 block from his home. This is miles away from the Marriot. If he was not being singled out, how did a squad coincidentally end up at the corner of Chatham and Melvin? To suggest that the mayor was not singled out is ridiculous. One of the first comments was from Taxhell with several questions. If Taxhell actually read the article, he would know the answer to most of his questions. The mayor was at the Marriot, had a couple drinks over the course of about three hours, and he drove home. So what! The mayor was at a public funtion with many representatives from the business community. The event got over about 9:00, and he was home by 9:15. No one at the event has said anybody present had too much to drink, and I am sure the mayor is not the only one who had a drink that evening. If he had two glasses of wine, which sounds more sophisticated, it would be okay, but having two drinks is not? I have not been drunk in over 30, but I often go out and have a drink or two. There is nothing wrong with that. When the chief sends out three squads to look for one "drunk" driver, he abused his authority and should be investigated. Spenner himself said that if politics were involved it would be wrong and unethical. I am sure Spenner was not working at 9:00 at night. Clearly that call was made by someone close to the chief that they knew his home phone number, so there is no doubt that politics was involved. He then ordered the department to look for the mayor. The chief has embarrassed himself, has failed to offer any explaination, and has admitted that if politics were involved, what he did would be unethical. The facts are clear that politics were invloved. The chief should resign. 06/10 10:16:36

I say "Amen" to that poster. He or she said it all in a nutshell.
Then our mayor himself finally decided to "weigh in" on the blog postings which I think is one of the BEST things he could have done. It is nice to see he pays attention to the blogrolls!

Mayor Gary Becker wrote:Time to set the record straight on some things. Am I a sociable person; most politicians are. Do I think that stopping at a bar sometimes is somehow un-mayoral, not at all.Have I ever driven after too many; NO.Have I ever been stopped for an alcohol related driving offense at any time in my life,; NO. Have I ever had any contact with the police for anything more than a speeding ticket; NO.Have I ever run roughshod over a department head or staff when I do not get my way? Come down and ask any of them; my style of management is very open and I encourage staff and citizens to challenge our ideas. I take great pride in nurturing, training and working with my staff at all levels.Did I have two cops drive me to bars???I was out with them for a ride along, somthing I do somewhat regularly. Maybe you saw me walk in and use the restroom and buy a can of Diet Coke while I was waiting for them. There are not a lot of places open at midnight, so yes the bar I was standing out front of seemed a logical choice.And the officers did run through Taco Bell so they could buy their dinnerI have absolutely no problem with the cops doing their job, and have never asked for any special favors from the police. As a matter of fact when I became mayor one of the first things I did was to eliminate the officer that was posted at our council meetings and put the manpower back on the street. Nor do I take any security for the parades, which previous mayors did.I prefer these officers to be on the street serving the citizens.I would suggest that as more information comes out it will become clear that what went on was not standard operating procedure, and that the motivation was not law enforcement. 06/10 17:47:37

Gotta love this little city! (and if one does not think that the last post I copied came from the mayor, click on the link that is highlighted as his name at the top of the post....and see where that link takes you. Right to Mayor Becker's email address. I would call that proof that the mayor did indeed author that post.

And to add another post from one of our local aldermen that says alot of things that make sense in this unfolding story:

Alderman Greg Helding wrote:I think it would be best for everyone to settle down and wait for the facts to come out. It is best to do that in any case.It is easy to see or hear something and think bad about it without knowing all the facts. The previous misinformation posted about the Mayor's ride along is a good example of this.From my reading of the posts here, there seem to be some serious misconceptions about how the Mayor handles things. I can't speak to all the concerns people post here, but I can talk about my experience with the Mayor so far.Since Mayor Becker took over, Aldermen are given a larger hand in making policy - which is only proper since that is our job. Aldermen can propose legislation, attend meetings, or talk to department heads without fear of being called in the Mayor's office for reprimand or being "put out to pasture" in terms of committee appointments. People who openly challenge the Mayor are not punished. Take Alderman Fair, for instance. He took issue, as is his right, with the Mayor several times in his first year. Mayor Becker's response: Alderman Fair was appointed to the Council's Executive Committee - a plum position by any standard.I myself am politically opposite of the Mayor on many issues - state revenue caps and the recent kyoto agreement he signed just to name two of them. As a potential political adversary, he could backbench me and keep me off of committees. Rather, he has supported my efforts to represent my constituents and has given me opportunities to serve the entire city on the City Plan Commission and the Community Development Committee.I have a sincere desire to make things better for Racine. I believe Mayor Becker also has that desire. I welcome comments, suggestions, or debate from anyone who shares that desire. Since I post here using my real name and e-mail, it is easy for you to find me. It is hard to take public policy tips seriously from people whose arguments rise to the level of calling someone a "loser" (especially when they misspell the word) or refuse to identify themselves. 06/10 20:38:50

Like I said before...gotta love this little city....

posted by John @ 12:41 PM