City Council Observation

I observed a Mauston City Council meeting on September 8th at the City Hall. The meeting lasted for a total of 38 minutes, 13 minutes of that time was spent in closed session. The members in attendance were Mayor Brian McGuire and council members Dennis Nielsen, Dennis Emery, Francis McCoy, Steve Leavitt, Rick Noe, Floyd Babcock, and Leslie Householder. Joining them were Acting Police Chief Mike Zilisch, City Administrator Nathan Thiel, Public Works Director Rob Nelson, and Administrative Assistant Diane Kropiwka. Many high school students were there to observe the meeting. Mayor McGuire brought the meeting to order at 6:30 pm and before starting official business, the pledge was said. First they approved the minutes and then moved to approving a new operator’s license but the applicant didn’t show up. The next items were discussion and action on temporary “Class B” licenses for St. Patrick’s Church Fall Festival, Mauston Lion’s Club Festival Foods 50th Anniversary, and Juneau County Agricultural Society’s JCAIRS barn dance. All were approved and they moved to the next item of business which was the citizen’s address to the

It seemed to work smoothly and efficiently but it was a bit confusing for me as I have never attended a city council meeting before. It was difficult to keep up with what they were saying and the topics they were going over since I had no previous knowledge of them. Thankfully the meeting was recorded so I could go over it a few times and figure out what they were saying. I recognize the difference now to if you are in the the meeting versus being an observer. I feel like it isn’t very easier for an outsider to state their thoughts if they are uninformed, or misinformed, of what’s going on. But since the one’s leading the meeting are informed it’s a perfectly reasonable way to make decisions in our local