Aloof & Disinterested in Winfield

At the June 17th village board meeting the details of bond issuance for the $18 Million Road Referendum were presented for the public. This sparked an exchange between me and the village manager, Curt Barrett. The exchange clearly had Trustee Robert Mrugacz agitated as can be seen from the end of this video clip. I apologize but you will have to wait until after Bob Bersodi helps village manager Curt Barrett realize that he has no “Plan B” for raising the revenue to fix the roads.

I was disturbed by the comments of Trustee Robert Mrugacz at the end of the video clip. He mentioned something about being on somebody’s payroll. I had no idea what he meant so I fired off a very polite email, the exchange can be seen at the end of this post. What I got in response was silence. This is not entirely surprising to me. Trustee Mrugacz was appointed to the position by Village President Birutis. I have to assume that his disinterest in responding to me is borne out of not being elected by the people. There is a different level of commitment and accountability to the office when you are put in your position by a popular vote than when you are appointed. I thought it was possible that I had put myself on the “Pay No Never Mind” list through my many critical interactions with the Birutis Administration.

However, as I started walking around and talking with the citizens about Politically Districting Winfield, I started to hear the anecdotes of an aloof and disinterested village board that is too disinterested or too disconnected to return phone calls or answer their emails. While up in Klein Creek, I heard about the frustration of the people regarding the golf course that had their very own double-secret-Klein-Creek-Only-noise-ordinance written for them and how they felt they were being ignored by the trustees. When I was stomping around Fred-Farms I heard about the sexual assault and the glacial response of the village in getting out composite sketches of the perpetrator or even communicating with the the people the fact there had been an assault in the first place. I have written a pithy parody the village’s stunning use of 17th century technology to communicate here.

Two out of six of Winfield Trustees are unelected to their positions. A majority of the Birutis administration hails from the Southern most reaches of Winfield. A sexual assault in Fred Farms may as well be in Milwaukee. Noise at 5:00 in the morning in Klein Creek may as well be noise on Mars. Why respond to an email or phone call when if they are ignored long enough they will go away.

Politically Districting Winfield would help in all these situations. The Frederic Farms trustee would be held accountable for the blase response to a sexual assault. The Klein Creek Trustee would have pounded the tables for the Klein Creek residents, and my trustee would have pounded on the unelected and unaccountable Trustee Robert Mrugacz for a measured response to my very polite request for further clarification of his comments.

My quest for better, more caring and more customer centric government is the rocket fuel that drives me on my petition drive for signatures for Districting Winfield. If you feel as I do and if you have had less than acceptable interactions with our government please share your stories here at www.Winfield411.com. By working together we can make sure that customer service as practiced by the Birutis Administration never happens again.