Business to Cozy up to Local Elected Officials

City Council and County Board schmoozefests planned.

Sponsored by DMI, the Chamber, the Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Smart Growth Greater Madison – tho you can’t really find that information on their websites. Or this listed on their event pages.

And, they didn’t put that info on their flyers. (city, county)

This is all they had to say:

Please join us…
for an informal gathering of City of Madison government officials and area business leaders.
When: Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Time: 5 pm to 7 pm
Where: The Brink Lounge
Appetizers and Cash Bar
We hope you will join us!

and

Please join us…
for an informal gathering of Dane County government officials and area business leaders.
When: Thursday, July 28, 2011
Time: 5 pm to 7 pm
Where: Essen Haus
Appetizers and Cash Bar
We hope you will join us!

Of course, they will have to publicly notice these meetings and the elected officials will have to pay for their appetizers. Usually they only make them pay a few dollars, which doesn’t cover the real costs, but there’s a wink and a nod and they pretend they are doing the right thing.

I’m not sure these events are really what we should be encouraging, its not like they don’t have enough access through their lobbyists, from sitting on several city committees and through their campaign contributions.