Gallaher: Mount Pleasant board needs to be transparent

Under Wisconsin law, all motions and roll call votes of each meeting of a governmental body shall be recorded, preserved and open to public inspection. These are usually called the minutes. They are the official and permanent record of what happened.

Municipalities like Racine, Sturtevant and Caledonia, and nearly everywhere else, review and approve the minutes at the very next meeting. This way, any corrections are fresh in the minds of public officials and residents can have quick access to records of local government activities. Minutes should be presented and approved in “a reasonable amount of time.”

Not in Mount Pleasant, where rules and ethics go to die. On Feb. 12, the Village Board approved the minutes of seven board meetings, all at once, dating back to early December of 2017. The last time they approved minutes was for 11 meetings, which dated back to July.

During this time, village trustees spent tens of millions of dollars purchasing property, hiring consultants, and paying Foxconn invoices with no public record of their actions.

Does this seem reasonable to you?

The public’s ability to know and oversee what their government is doing is essential. Foxconn is real. The money being promised is real. The homes people are being asked to leave are real. The village must make timely and consistent public disclosure a priority. The stakes could not be higher. It is no time for amateurs.
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Kelly Gallaher
Mount Pleasant