SO MUCH FOR 100%

I know I haven't posted in almost a year...lots of reasons, my frustration at the makeup of the board, lots of time spent at my daughters' sporting events, very busy at work and just not very motivated to write.

That has now changed, two topics have me interested and motivated, this post will address the first.

When I was a candidate for the board in 2007 Ms. Monte was a candidate as well and she made a big deal in her opening and closing statements at the League of Women Voter's Forum about how she could vote on 100% of the resolutions...a dig at me.

As a guest on Eye on Oshkosh the issue came up again, here is one of Ms. Monte's quotes from the show on March 15, 2007:

“Mrs. Thiel, while very diligent – she’s been to the board meetings, she has a lot of knowledge, and she has experience – while she has all of those positive qualities, her husband’s a teacher, which means that when contracts are under negotiations, she can’t vote on the budget. She can vote on the budget reconciliation plan, but if we did the budget right we wouldn’t need the reconciliation plan, and because she works for CESA, there’s even more limitations. And as a taxpayer, that bothers me. If my tax dollars are going to pay someone to do a job, I would hope I’m getting my money’s worth. And if they have to continuously abstain from votes, I don’t feel that I am.”

I responded that my voting record was at 96 percent, to which she responded, “But you cashed 100 percent of the checks. That’s my point." She also stated on that show: "I will vote for the person that can do the entire job because that is a paid position."

Fast forward to 2009... Since Ms. Monte was elected there have been 14 regularly scheduled board meetings and Ms. Monte has missed the last 4 board meetings (29%) and yet she has cashed all her board checks up through November 11, 2009. In 3 years I never missed a regularly scheduled board meeting (and only missed one special meeting) yet she criticized me for cashing my checks. How hypocritical!

Of course I didn't vote for Ms. Monte, but if I had, I certainly wouldn't feel that I was getting proper representation. Whatever the reasons for her absence, the fact is she has not come close to voting on 100% of board resolutions. Can you imagine Ms. Monte's blog post had Mrs. Weinsheim missed as many meetings in a row?

Why is it no one seems to care that Ms. Monte appears to have better things to do than attend or at least participate in board meetings? She could at least participate by phone if it was illness that prevented her from actually attending meetings. I have heard no explanation from Ms. Monte as to why she is not attending meeting after meeting, after meeting, after meeting, after meeting. The rumor mill says it is a job out of town that is keeping her from attending meetings. I think she owes it to the voters to explain her repeated absences. Whatever the reason, don't Oshkosh voters deserve a board member who attends most if not all meetings each year rather than one who has already missed 4 meetings in a row? One of those missed meetings contained a workshop on the Superintendent Search, arguably the most important duty for board members this year.

There is a board meeting this Wed. Dec. 2nd I'll update on whether this is another missed meeting for Ms. Monte.

Any thoughts?