Recently Cottage Grove Village Trustee Micah Zielke went on a little rant about local participation in Government during his officer remarks.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the public for electing me to office. I need to say however, that I am disappointed in the involvement of the public in the activities of the Village such as the budget process and the merger discussions. I would like to challenge the public to get involved. There will be another election in May with possible seats open. I’m hoping there are some of you that will step up and get involved.”
As Dr. Phil is want to say “Some people get it, some people don’t get it and some people do not even come close to getting it”. Dr. Phil seems to be referencing Zielke with the latter.
First off, unless Zielke is referring to the possibility of the recall election being in May, there will not be an election in May. The official election dates in 2012, not including recalls, are the primary will be Tuesday February 21st and the spring general election will be Tuesday April 3rd. Secondly, possible seats open? seriously? Every election since the founding of our country has had seats open(hence the election). Does an elected official really NOT know these points? There will be three seats open on the Cottage Grove Village Board (David Viken, Jeff Weigand and Paula Severson\'s appointed seat) Which leads me into my final point.
The Cottage Grove Village Board has let it be known, time, and time, and time, and time again that other ideas and input are NOT wanted and that there will will be consequences if you question any of their actions.
It was zielke himself, during the incredibly unethical appointment process of Paula Severson, that let it be known that he was going to vote to appoint irregardless of public outcry or complaints. It was also Zielke who immaturely admonished Trustee Ken Dahl for pointing out how important an open appointment process would be.
So the question is did Micah Zielke truly mean “we need more people to show up and tell us how great of a job we are doing” or is he truly clueless to the behavior of the village board, including his own, the last three years?
PS: I do agree with Mr. Zielke on one point. We desperately need new people to run for Village Board in Cottage Grove. We need to change our government and get the heavily partisan divide out of it and bring people in who will work with the community as a whole. We also need people who are not using our village as a stepping stone to higher elected positions. If you are interested, know of someone who is interested, of have any questions, email me!
When wheelings and dealings keep happening in hallways, back rooms and closed meetings – we got the signal quite loud and clear that public input was not welcome.