The key to successful government, at any level, is ACCOUNTABILITY.

In the past an “After Action Report” was included in monthly Council meeting agendas. We believe the last one was April 8, 2025. If you follow the Village efforts, as we do, that “status” report was very valuable.

For continued value it must be up to date. What happened?

At the January 6, 2026, council meeting, the “After Action Status Report” was discussed by council and was to be revived. Great news!

They explained that the report would include any efforts the staff is directed to undertake by a “consensus of the council” at council meetings. Why restrict the report?

By saying “directed staff” does that translate into the report not including the status of projects that have been farmed out to contractors, i.e. our Comp Plan, the wastewater rate study, canal restoration projects, just to name a few?

The status of these projects is critical to the transparency and competency of the Village. “Consensus of Council” should include ALLL projects including

the aforementioned studies and projects.

These are accountability and tax dollar issues.

There have been numerous projects that were not discussed at public meetings. There was the change of the zoning designation of the now, Village owned church. Who directed that change request?

Some projects have been discussed but no “consensus” vote was taken. i.e. to evaluate a rider charge for ride-share services; issuing an RFP for ride-share services. Status of these projects?

What is the fate of issues “directed by council” via the annual budget approval.

At the January meeting, Council members were given a sample “After Action Report” to approve. There were no objections. The public did not get to see the report before the directive from council to proceed.

Manager Saunders promised a complete report for the February meeting.

February report: 4 entries: Create Charter Review Committee, Comprehensive Plan Update; TDR Bank; Wastewater Rate Study.

Is this the complete status report promised? Or is this the “sample” provided to council last month? Please advise! We are getting mixed signals.

I believe the format is deficient. Include dates and steps taken toward completion of items, not just the date requested and the date completed. A complete status.

Click here to see the “After Action Report” in the Feb 10 agenda.

Click here to see the April 2025 report.

Once a project is completed, the council wants it removed from the list. Good business dictates that it be “moved” to an archive file of completed tasks. That is transparent and informative.

Ongoing Responsibilities: now that the council and public will have a way to follow the staff efforts for specific projects, let’s talk about ongoing responsibilities.

Why not providing semi-annual statistical reports by department? Surely the departments have a compilation of this data. The Village manager would need this to monitor progress and efficiency.

Examples:

Fire Rescue: # of employees in department, number of calls for service – for fire,

medical, etc.

Wastewater. Calls for sewer back-ups, leaks, maintenance calls.

Parks and Rec: number of folks paying entrance fee, fees for aquatic center broken down to include income per contracted service and/or Village provided service.

Marina: How many slips are rented long term, monthly, daily, and the charge etc. Number of boaters using ramp.

Without more information how are taxpayers assured that the Village is spending their tax dollars efficiently? We need this feedback.

Our staff has grown significantly over the past several decades. Our property taxes have increased over 50% in 5 years. Our population is dwindling a bit each year and many full-time residents can no longer afford the high cost of living here.

We need to do a better job of managing the cost and necessity government services we provide.

As we previously stated, ACCOUNTABILITY is the lynchpin to successful government at all levels. It’s time Village Council and management paid attention.

We want to preserve our way of life and this unique environment. Without accountability we will continue to be in a downward spiral. Throwing money, indiscriminately, at problems always fails.

Let’s be leaders!

 

Tom Raffanello