Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Why Doesn't Village Website Link to News Stories?

The Kenosha News wrote articles questioning KUSD finances and Village Trustee #3's concerns (click link and see below or link sidebar). Why doesn't Village website link to these stories when they occur? Not everyone receives the Kenosha News but could link through the Village's website. I believe the Village is missing out on a great opportunity to let residents know they are involved; especially when some of the quotes were not discussed during the Village Board meeting and they wouldn't be available by audio or Meeting Minutes (i.e. quote on succession).

Pleasant Prairie to conduct probe into school district’s losing CDO
BY JOHN KREROWICZ
PLEASANT PRAIRIE — An inquiry into a Unified School District investment that has lost almost half its value is to be conducted by the Pleasant Prairie School Commission. The Village Board, at Trustee Clyde Allen’s behest, voted Monday to have the commission question school officials and report back to the board about what’s called collateralized debt obligation (CDO), which is being used to help fund Unified retirement accounts. The 2006 investment dipped to $18.4 million in early April, down from the original pay-in of $37.5 million. Unified officials have said the investment is safe, is bringing in more money than it costs and will return all of the district’s principal at maturity. Unified borrowed money and added its own funds to invest in the CDO, which made loans to companies — some of which are not doing well financially now — that are to repay the borrowed dollars with interest. Allen said he hoped and assumed that Unified’s financial position was solid in the matter. He said Pleasant Prairie property owners have a major stake in the situation because they fund about a fourth of Unified’s tax levy while village children make up about 12 percent of the student body. Allen asked village Finance Director Kathy Goessl whether she would recommend investing in such an arrangement. “From what I’ve read, I would not recommend the village invest in CDOs,” she said. Allen said he wanted the commission to bring back recommendations to the board. He later said recommendations could be about anything, including that taxpayers’ money was safe in the complex investment plan.
Allen said his intention in wanting the investigation was not to promote the village seceding from the Unified district. “That’s not even in the scope” of the review, he said. “My scope was to know what’s going on.” The first commission session to delve into CDO could be in May. There was discussion by the board about the commission possibly working through the summer to investigate and prepare a summary. The commission’s members include trustees Monica Yuhas and Steve Kumorkiewicz, who is commission chairman, and residents Linda Chiappetta, Patricia Molette, Carolyn Budwick and Debbie Koessl. The group is a liaison between the village and Unified.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

An EXCELLENT idea Mr. Villaging,

It has been said over and over again by the likes of Steve K that not everyone gets cable, or the newspaper, or the internet, etc....

So, links to articles (or any media) possible on the village website/CH25 make perfect sense -- at least then those that DO WANT to investigate a little further can.

BUT wait!, This of course takes an organization that WANTS it's constituents to have all info and all opinions known -- EVEN CRITICAL.

Unfortunately, 39th Avenue likes to toot the horn when they hear things they LIKE, and they criticize/snub sources when they are critical.

You have a nice idea that would take a nice environment to implement.

Village People said...

I understand why they want to not link to differeng opinions but when Village Trustess and staff are being directly quoted, then they most certainly should link to those stories.

Anonymous said...

..I guess your PhD didn't include a study on using spell check. That's okay because we get the point it is spelled NEGATIVITY!

Village People said...

Unfortunately, you can't spell check in comments MR. NEGATIVITY. Why it bothers you so is beyond me. Glad we give you something to do since apparently the topics are beyond your comprehension and focus. How you equate spelling with a Ph.D. is amazing. Trying your you put the "I" in idiot routine again? FOCUS