by Tony Palmeri
May 9, 2001
(Oshkosh). Shortly after receiving a letter from Commentary co-host Tony Palmeri, Winnebago County District Attorney Joseph Paulus has decided to open up an investigation to determine if the Oshkosh Common Council violated the state's open meetings laws in holding a series of closed session meetings with potential 100 block developers.
Palmeri decided to request the investigation after an April 18 Commentary interview with Councilors Melanie Bloechl and Paul Esslinger. In the interview, Bloechl revealed that one of the developers entered the first closed session "woefully under prepared," suggesting that perhaps there was not on the table a proposal substantial enough to warrant a closed session allowed under the open meetings statute's exemption clause. Additionally, during the interview both Bloechl and Esslinger expressed opinions as to what the Council had decided as regards how to communicate the proposal(s) to the public that were in conflict with opinions expressed by Mayor Jon Dell'Antonia and Councilor Mark Harris. Under the open meetings statute, it is not clear that the Council has the right to discuss such matters as "how to communicate a proposal to the public" in closed session.
As Palmeri has expressed on Commentary and in the letter to Paulus, if a Common Council can negotiate away an entire block of downtown with virtually no public discussion and with little indication that even a minority of the city's residents want a "mixed use office complex" in downtown Oshkosh, then the open meetings law is worthless.
Should Mr. Paulus find that no violations occurred, at least the Common Council has been put on notice that citizens will not sit back and watch downtown Oshkosh be given away in closed session for projects that are neither in the spirit of the historic character of the neighborhood nor of the suggestions included in the LDR International report that is held up as a rationale for such developments. The Council will also have been put on notice that citizens demand real input into decisions affecting the downtown area, espcially on projects that will include millions of dollars in Tax Incremental District Financing.
The one mystery in this entire affair is why the Oshkosh Northwestern, which usually champions the open meetings and open records laws, in this case cannot see fit to join Commentary in requesting that Mr. Paulus conduct a thorough and complete investigation. The paper's sole editorial comment on the subject has been an angry defense of the Council's secrecy.