Madeline Island News and Information
Feature Story
TOWN BOARD APPOINTS NEW TOWN PLAN COMMISSIONER
TOWN BOARD MEETS 01-08-07
The La Pointe Town Board met Tuesday night for their regular meeting, with several members of the public including many members of the Town Plan Commission in attendance. The first public comments was about a new website that has recently appeared, www.madelineisland.org (sound familiar?). Chair Greg Nelson suggested that it may be time for the town to develop its own website.
Among the motions last night, was a motion that was passed to remove Dick Hoffman from the Town Plan Commission. Dick Hoffman, who has left La Pointe for the winter, recently resigned from the Winter Transportation Committee. However, he did not resign from the Town Plan Commission. This was brought to the attention of the Town Board at their 12-27-07 meeting, who voted to post an open position on the Commission. Mike Starck was the only member of the Town Board to vote against removing Hoffman.
Immediately followed a motion that was moved and passed with no discussion, to appoint Sue Ellen Soucek to the Town Plan Commission as Hoffman's replacement. The only other applicant was Holly Tourdot, who is also running for Town Board in the upcoming elections in April.
Also discussed at length, was the "revised" junk/nuisance property ordinance with much discussion coming with members of the Town Plan commission also present at the meeting. The Town Board voted to hold another "Public Workshop" to be held on Tuesday, January 29th.
The subject of Public Information Requests was also discussed at length. Clarification of the cost of creating photocopies was among the discussion topics. Photocopies of any Public Information Requests were clarified to be $0.25 per sheet rather than "per side". Also, a discussion followed about Public Information Requests that required a large amount of time and copies including Board members opinions on what would be considered "unreasonable" requests. This discussion was due to the fact that there has been a recent increase in public information requests, in particular, in relation to the activities of the Town Plan Commission. Mike Starck demonstrated to the board that a recent information request constituted a large amount of information and stacked several large folders onto the table. Starck stated that information request was over several hundred pages and more discussion followed concerning Public Information requests.
Also discussed was the combining of the jobs Town Clerk and Town Treasurer or possibly changing the Town Clerk position from an elected position to a appointed position. Greg Nelson informed the board that to do this would require a referendum as the Town of La Pointe has a population of less than 2,500 and would be need to put to a vote by the public. Opportunities to do this discussed could be during the primary Town (Board) election in February, the National primary elections in March, the Town election in April, or the National elections in November. (We will keep you posted on this important issue.)
Click here for the audio recordings
Click here for the minutes
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