City Notes: Taxi biz gets approval, but owner can't drive; Props to Shakoor

James Ragland

The Journal Times' Mike Moore picked up a good story Nov. 26 when he reported a man the city approved to run a taxi business had been charged with driving without a license.

James Ragland got the OK to run Metro Taxi of Racine on Oct. 26 despite owing a $173 fine in Caledonia.

Moore's reporting made the city look bad - they'd conducted a background check on Ragland but apparently not a check on his driving record - and the Public Safety and Licensing Committee re-took up the matter Monday night.

This time they approved a business license for Ragland, but not a license to allow him to drive a taxi. If Ragland's license gets approved by the full City Council, he could hire a driver, but he can't drive a taxi himself.

The ordeal led to some humorous, if common-sensical, quotes at the meeting.

"If you don't have a license you can't expect us to issue a license to run a cab," said Alderman Jim Kaplan.

"I'm not planning to operate against the law," Ragland said. "That would be foolish."

The committee voted 3-1 to grant Ragland his business license. Alderman Bob Mozol voted against the license, saying it didn't make sense to approve a taxi business for someone without a driver's license.

In other news ...

Sunshine

Props to Alderman Q.A. Shakoor II for holding off on last week's Corinne Reid-Owens Tribute committee meeting due to open meetings concerns. We raised questions about whether meeting was properly noticed last week. Shakoor then postponed the meeting, refusing to even discuss a date for the next meeting. That's admirable conduct from the City Council president and a good example of government acknowledging it must operate in the sunshine.

Liquor licenses

Alderman Greg Helding's proposal to end refunds for people who receive "reserve" class B liquor licenses was deferred. The city now pays back $9,500 of the $10,000 reserve license fee to new license holders. Helding wants to eliminate the refund, which would make it harder, or at least more expensive, for bars and restaurants to acquire licenses. The committee will take up the issue at its next meeting.

Zoe complaint

The Finance and Personnel Committee denied Zoe Outreach Ministries $4,800 claim against the city for a broken sewer line. Assistant City Attorney Nicole Loop said the problem couldn't be traced to the city, and was, if anything, Mount Pleasant's fault because they own the line. But a claim against the village would be difficult because work done on the line occurred two months before the break occurred. That makes it near impossible to blame any one entity for the damage.

Alderman wants reviewof city's employee complaint system

An alderman is concerned over how major problems festered in the city's Health Department with seemingly few people aware of the difficulties.

Alderman Bob Mozol wants to survey city employees about the process for reporting problems and complaints to supervisors or the Human Resources Department.

Mozol said he's concerned the existing process is flawed after sitting through a brutal hearing that resulted in Public Health Administrator Janelle Grammer being fired. Several Health Department employees testified that Grammer was incompetent and the department was being run poorly in recent years.

Mozol said it was unfortunate city employees had to put their careers on the line by testifying at an open hearing against their boss. The problems should have been dealt with sooner, he said. Instead, at least one employee who raised concerns about Grammer was retaliated against. "Nothing was getting done," Mozol said.

He requested the survey from the Personnel and Finance Committee. The committee deferred action to do more preliminary work on the survey and to invite other city staff to the meeting.

Mozol said it could take some digging to restore faith in the city's complaint system. The survey could be an important first step in uncovering problems.

"We'll see how deep it goes?" he said.

Aldermen lean toward appointing 10th District council member

Chatter among aldermen suggests the council is leaning toward appointing a replacement for Tom Friedel to represent the 10th aldermanic district, which is located in the southeast corner of the city.

Aldermen Jim Spangenberg, QA Shakoor II and Bob Mozol kicked it around Monday night while waiting for the Personnel and Finance Committee to reach quorum. Alderman Bob Anderson was running late for the meeting, Alderman Mike Shields was on vacation and Tom Friedel's spot on the committee is vacant because Friedel resigned to become the city administrator.

Friedel's seat won't be up for election until April. The council could leave the seat vacant until then, but another alderman would have to address constituent issues until then. It's also one less person to sit on committees and handle city business.

"It's a long stretch without an alderman," Spangenberg said.

Shakoor added about leaving the seat vacant for 10 months: "We can't do this."

Mozol, who was waiting to address an issue before the committee, said the seat should be filled to avoid problems like the lack of a quorum at meetings.

Mozol requests outside investigation into City Council email addresses; Sets 'no time limit' on how far back investigators can look

Alderman Robert Mozol made an official request today for an outside investigation into the use of City Council members' email addresses.

Mozol said he made the request after reading a story in RacinePost suggesting a City Council member allowed someone outside of city government to log into their email account on a regular basis. The request went to the entire City Council, Mayor John Dickert and City Attorney Rob Weber.

"We need an outside investigation and let the chips fall where they may," said Mozol, one of at least two aldermen who are taking allegations seriously.

"We shouldn't even consider someone close to the city" looking into the matter, he added.

Mozol said he set no limit on the scope of the investigation.

"I have no time limit," he said. "If it goes back five years than so be it."

He said he called for the outside investigation after being repeatedly surprised by news out of City Hall. The email issue is just the latest in a series of allegations and revelations over the past year.

"I wake up in the morning and wonder what I'm going to read today," Mozol said.

RacinePost has filed a records request with the city as part of its own investigation into City Council members' use of emails. The request is pending with the City Attorney's office.

Former public health administrator criticized for delaying progress on infant mortality program

Attorney Matthew Mac Kelly (left) with Janelle Grammer (right) at Grammer's
hearing before the City Council Tuesday evening.

Embattled Public Health Administrator Janelle Grammer's trial before the City Council continued Tuesday night with bruising testimony that portrayed the department head as a nonexistent leader who gave half-hearted support to a program to prevent baby deaths.

The entire trial is playing out in public at Grammer's request. It's a stunning move given the barrage of negative testimony that's coming her way from former employees and her former boss. But the highly personal case is open to the public, including the media.

The bulk of Tuesday evening was spent on testimony from former City Administrator Ben Hughes, who Grammer accused of intimidating her for taking Family Medical Leave. A state investigator dismissed Grammer's claim.

Hughes testified that when he was hired former Administrator Steve Nenonen described Grammer as an underperforming city employee who was "in over her head." Hughes said he drew the same conclusion after working as her boss. (The JT's story from the first day of the trial also reported criticism of Grammer's job performance.)

Grammer's attorney Matthew Mac Kelly, of Milwaukee, attempted to pick apart Hughes' testimony during a two-hour cross examination. A key point was that Hughes sent Grammer a performance evaluation while Grammer was on medical leave in December 2008.

Hughes said it was only a follow-up to previous performance evaluations and was not in any way a retaliation against Grammer.

Infant Mortality Program

Regardless of the outcome of Grammer's trial, unfortunate details were released about the lack of progress in establishing a program to reduce Racine's infant mortality rate.

Dr. Teresa Johnson, of UW-Milwaukee, testified Grammer's leadership was "nonexistent" on creating the program, despite the city receiving $500,000 from the state to run the program. Johnson worked from the beginning to establish a program to review and prevent infant deaths in Racine.

"She provided no leadership whatsoever," Johnson said of Grammer.

Johnson added Grammer "slowed down" city efforts to implement the program.

Grammer's attorney entered a RacinePost article into the record as evidence that the infant mortality program was making progress under Grammer's leadership. Our article from February 2009 quotes state Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, as saying the program is "moving forward" and that he's "happy" with its progress.

As background to that story, we'd been hearing that Mason wasn't happy with the progress and that he'd been working with city officials to get the infant mortality prevention program going. That was supported by a memo from Hughes stating Grammer hadn't hired nurses for the program seven months after she was first asked to make the hires.

I've been following the infant mortality committee's work in Racine because the city has the highest infant mortality rate in the state. Mason's $500,000 grant was designed to help reduce the mortality rate (aka keeping babies alive), but there seems to be relatively minor progress for a program established over a year ago.

Fortunately, the city's Health Department is now making progress, according to monthly reports to the Board of Health. At last month's meeting, Healthy Birth Outcomes Coordinator Ana Stier reported hiring two nurses to make home visits to pregnant moms, and this month the program reported 47 home visits this year and 18 total cases.

But the program is still behind schedule, Johnson testified. The city was supposed to take over data collection responsibilities by the end of 2008, but wasn't ready to take on the job, Johnson said. Instead, UW-Milwaukee retained control of the collection and then stopped altogether, because the money ran out, she said.

Acting Public Health Administrator Marcia Fernholz said Tuesday night that the city intended to resume collecting data. She added that she's seeing progress in the infant mortality program, a fact Johnson reiterated during her testimony. Johnson said the program began moving forward once Fernholz was named acting head of the Health Department.

"She was able to provide leadership," Johnson testified about Fernholz.

But Johnson said the program has been embarrassment for the city of Racine.

"I can't tell you how many times I've had to apologize in public to state leaders," she testified.

Hearing extended

To get an idea of the unusual circumstances of Grammer's hearing, no one on the City Council can remember ever holding a similar proceeding. (Usually, departing department heads reach some kind of settlement with the city and leave without demanding a trial.)

The case comes down to the city serving as prosecutor and making the case to remove Grammer, Grammer's attorney serving as the defense, the City Council is the jury and Mayor John Dickert and City Attorney Bob Weber act as judge.

The trial began Monday night and ran three hours before continuing Tuesday night for another nearly three hours. It's hardly close to finished.

The attorney representing the city said Tuesday he had six more witnesses to call and Grammer's attorney said he intended to have Grammer testify. The City Council also needs to deliberate before making a ruling.

The trial is expected to continue Thursday evening and probably extend into Friday. Alderman Aron Wisneski suggested it should continue into Saturday, if needed.

Dickert initially suggested to the council that the trial continue on June 24th and 25th, but Alderman Bob Mozol objected, saying the case should be finished as quickly as possible. Aldermen Terry McCarthy and Wisneski backed up Mozol, the lawyers got together and agreed to push on this week. (They couldn't continue Wednesday because a meeting could not be legally posted 24 hours in advance.)

Thursday's session is expected to start earlier - probably around 5:30 p.m. - to allow more testimony to be squeezed into the evening. The trial will resume with Mac Kelly's cross examination of Dr. Johnson, followed by the city's witnesses.

Committee rejects alderman's plan to require physicals for city employees

Alderman Bob Mozol’s proposal to require physicals for all city employees who drive vehicles failed to pass committee Tuesday.

Mozol wanted to require the physicals to minimize the risk of an accident in a city vehicle and to cut down on the city’s health insurance costs. He said the idea came to him after realizing the city’s fire department spends less than other departments for health care. All firefighters are required to take an annual physical.

Mozol said extending that requirement to all city employees could catch health problems early. It could also reduce the risk of health problems leading to an accident.

"I don’t think it’s unreasonable given the amount of money the city spends on health care," Mozol told the Personnel and Finance Committee.

The proposal would cost about $30,000 per year.

Committee members were skeptical of the proposal. Alderman Mike Shields said Mozol’s idea sounded like a “waste of money.”

"There are plenty of rules out there to protect the city," Shields said, dismissing Mozol’s contention that the physicals would prevent accidents.

Numbers provided by city staff didn’t support Mozol’s concern about accidents. Interim City Administrator Scott Letteney said he didn’t find a single accident involving a city employee caused by a health concern.

Alderman Tom Friedel questioned if Mozol had thought through the proposal. The plan would require the city to renegotiate its contract with its unions to require the physicals. It could also, if taken to extreme, cost a city employee their job, he said.

Letteney added there may be privacy issues with requiring the results of a physical being reported to the city.

The committee voted unanimously to receive-and-file the proposal, which means they rejected it.

Mozol proposes three-year terms for City Council members

A few notes from the City Council meeting:

* Alderman Robert Mozol wants the City Council to consider extending aldermanic terms from two years to three years. The proposal was referred to the city's Committee of the Whole, which is the entire City Council meeting as a committee.

* Mayor Tom Friedel wants to adjust staffing at the city's CAR25 TV station. He wants to switch from three part-time employees to one full-time employee and one part-time employee.

* The Council voted to send a collective bargaining agreement with Local 430, AFL-CIO, Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, back to the Personnel and Finance Committee. The proposed agreement runs from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2010. The Personnel and Finance Committee had voted in favor of the agreement at its April 13 meeting.

*

New two-way streets will cost at least $19,000

It'll cost the city $19,000 to study turning Marquette Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive into two-way streets, an official said at Monday's Traffic Commission meeting.

John Rooney, the city's assistant engineer, said the study may just be the start of the cost. Converting the one-way streets to two ways may require construction that could run the bill into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

None of the costs are budgeted, so any change would mean finding money in the city budget - not an easy task these days.

Mayor Gary Becker asked the commission to consider the idea.

The commission voted unanimously to defer action. Commissioner of Public Works Rick Jones said he would meet with the mayor to talk more about the idea.

STOP SIGN: There won't be new stop signs at Carlton Drive and La Salle Street, but a homeowner may be pulling their pruning shears out soon.

A city study found no reason to add stop signs at the intersection, Rooney said. There were eight accidents at La Salle and Carlton in the past five years, well below a level of concern. Traffic levels were also too low to warrant new stop signs, Rooney said.

The city studied the issue after a complaint from Terry Martini, who lives in the neighborhood. Alderman Ray DeHahn, who represents the area, agreed with the study's findings.

The only change out of the report involved a shrub. One of the homes had a shrub that was more than 30 inches above the curb level - technically a violation of city code. The city will require the homeowner to prune the shrub.

WARNING LIGHTS: The city will review flashing lights near the police and fire departments to make sure they alert traffic when emergency vehicles are leaving for scenes. Alderman Robert Mozol raised the concern. The commission deferred action until they could contact the fire chief.

STOP SIGN II: Alderman Bob Anderson wanted the commission to consider a four-way stop at 18th and Villa streets. The intersection doesn't warrant the four-way stop, but Anderson hoped it could demonstrate to neighborhood residents that the city is responsive to their concerns. The commission denied the request, but agreed to ask police to post the speed limit trailer in the neighborhood.

Traffic Commission: Commission members Alderman Greg Helding, Jones, Assistant City Attorney Nicole Loop, Lt. James Dobbs and Charles French attended the meeting. Chairman Martin DeFatte didn't attend. Dobbs ran the meeting.

Health Notes: City may require muzzles for biting dogs

Dogs that bite would have to be walked with a muzzle during their probationary period under an ordinance being considered by the Board of Health.

The board voted at its meeting Tuesday to ask the city attorney to draft the ordinance. While the board seemed supportive of the change, they were skeptical that it could be enforced. There is not enough city staff to follow up on complaints and ensure owners are compling with the muzzle requirement, said Marcia Fernholz, the city’s director of environmental health.

Fernholz also told the committee she is working with the police department to get quicker notification of incidents involving dog bites. Sometimes the health department doesn’t learn about incidents until well after they occurred, Fernholz said. That limits measures that can be taken to quarantine the animal and have them tested for rabies.

City/County Health Clinic

Alderman Bob Mozol reported he’s received three or four flyers in recent months talking about the city/county health clinic, which was opened in an attempt to save local governments money. Mozol was concerned not enough was being done to publicize the clinic. The flyers were sent out in response to those concerns. “Everyone knows about that now,” said Mozol, who sits on the Board of Health.

Outbreak in Unified

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is continuing to investigate the outbreak that made about 90 students and staff sick in October. Tortillas served at three middle schools are believed to be responsible for the illnesses, though no final ruling has been issued. The health department is awaiting the FDA’s final report on the incident.

New Employees

Two new health department employees were introduced to the Board of Health. Ana Stier was hired as the healthy birth outcomes coordinator and Tara Needham was hired as the new teen parenting nurse.

Stier is filling a new position created to address the city’s high infant mortality rate. A $500,000 grant from the state is paying for the position. Stier will oversee the Racine Healthy Births Healthy Families program.

Needham is replacing Diane Lange, who left the city to take a job with Racine Unified. She started on April 21.

Measles

The city’s health department worked for 2-1/2 weeks on the measles outbreak in the city in April. Twelve people were quarantined for 21 days after the case was discovered. A second case was discovered after it had been through its infectious period, so no quarantine was required.

Public Health Administrator Janelle Grammer noted that there is an aggressive response to measles because it is highly contagious. One outbreak in 1989 infected 2,200 people in Chicago and led to eight deaths.

“Our staff was like a well-oiled machine,” Grammer said. “They did everything the right way.”

Kenosha Country Club

The city’s Health Department recently got a nice surprise. The Kenosha Country Club gave the department $10,000 to help Racine women get tested and treated for breast and cervical cancer. The city had anticipated receiving $5,000 from the country club, but found out the number doubled when they went to accept the check.

The money will be used to support the city's Well Woman program. The department has screened 75 women for breast or cervical cancer through the state-sponsored service. It’s on pace to reach a goal of serving 252 women with little or no health insurance this year. For more information about the Well Woman program, call the health department at: (262) 636-9201.

Clean Water

The city will have a graduate student from England here for the next year studying water quality at beaches and in the Root River. The student has a master degrees in civil engineering and environmental engineering. He will work with the city unpaid.

The department’s current grad student, Jenny Lavender, is leaving the department after completing her master’s degree from the UW-Parkside.

Racine continues to receive international acclaim for its work on cleaning up its beaches. Julie Kinzelman of the health department, met with representatives from the United Kingdom Environmental Agency and the Scottish Environmental Agency about her work in Racine.

Racine was also chosen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the site of a national press release about a newly created beach sanitary survey. The press release will bring national attention to Racine’s clean beaches.

Recycling

Here’s a note to clarify confusion: Racine residents can recycle plastics labeled with numbers 1-7.

The news came up during a Board of Health meeting where members of the board were confused about what can be recycled in the city. One member thought it was 1-5, others had given the issue much thought.

John Berge, a member of the board and president of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, said the issue gets confusing when you start looking across communities. While the city may accept 1-7, others may accept fewer numbers. The Sierra Club is hoping to standardize recycling across local communities.

Medication collection

811 pounds of medication were collected and safely disposed last month, instead of dumped in the garbage or flushed in the lake, according to Fernholz,

The city’s Health Department sponsored a medicine collection at the same time as the household hazardous waste collection in April. Sites were setup throughout southeast Wisconsin. An estimated four tons of medicine were collected throughout the area, Fernholz said.

She added that she is working with the police department on creating a secure drop-off location for unused prescription drugs. The site would have to be inside the police department because narcotics would be involved.

“We’re looking at a more permanent solution,” Fernholz said.

Board of Health meeting

The Board of Health met May 13. Dr. Mohammed Rafiullah, John Berge, Maria Morale, Alderman Bob Mozol and Alderman Ray DeHahn attended the meeting. Dr. William Little showed up about halfway through the meeting. Dr. Sarah Fouse and Mary Sollman were excused.