There is a stark difference in the ideology of the current Menasha Common Council compared to the previous… and that is directly related to putting other people’s money at risk.
Half of the current council derives an income from the operation and owning of a business. They possess a unique perspective on the gains and fallouts from putting money in jeopardy in an attempt to reach a goal. Not every investment turns out the way it was intended and there are large risks that have a great ability to harm the investor by the lose of massive amounts of assets. This has also happened to Menasha through the steam plant, however, there is one very major difference…private investment vs. taxpayer investment.
It is acceptable for anyone in this country, who has the nerve, to try and obtain the American dream by placing their money at risk in an attempt to achieve a financial benefit from such. These same people, however, would not take the pleasure as past councils have to force others into loosing money in a risky project or goal. When a person places their own wealth on the table they accept, with full knowledge, the risks and odds involved to obtain the goal…many of these risks are not for the weak hearted and every person doesn’t possess the ability to handle the stress and volatile situations that come with the territory, nor should those people be forced to participate in the activity against their will.
The low drum lecturing from former and current politicians through willing advocates is disheartening and insincere. The surrogate lectors demean the intentions and goals of newer council members in a veil attempt to divert the attention of residents away from elected officials who still hold office and who could not resist the temptation to reach their hands into the $42 million steam plant cookie jar. As of today there has been a magical spin allowing culpable current and former officials to place a perspective on the situation that hides their very involvement where millions of taxpayer dollars have evaporated into thin air. Placing a cloud of doubt over newer council members as a form of compensation for past blunders that others have made is puerile and shameful. It would be more advantageous for the City of Menasha if the owners of disgruntled commentary would emerge from the shadows and offer constructive avenues to guide Menasha out of the black hole debt and leave behind the David Copperfield imitation attempt of placing a shadow of doubt upon those that have done nothing more than step to the plate in an attempt to correct what predecessors have created. The same predecessors who took the irresponsibility upon themselves and created a financial mess with the taxpayer’s money. An investment those officials would never have made if they had to use their own life savings to accomplish the same goal.
Dialogue is good, but using it to transfer ownership of extremely poor decision to those who do not own them is ruinous.
