Vote Kathy Carpenter for Alderman District #5 Kenosha

Just in case you were wondering- I am a mess today.I have gone in to work.

No sense in sitting and worrying at home.

Thousands of pieces of literature has been dropped.

Dozens and dozens of yard signs are out.

I knocked on over 1500 doors during this election cycle.

Not much more that I can do.

I know this- I completely outworked my opponent. He has not sent out any literature, no yard signs and he has been to no forums. He does not seem to be the least bit interested in doing this job.

Still- I could lose to him because he is a 14 year incumbent.Get out and vote.

Vote for change.

Vote for someone who will listen to your concerns.

Vote for someone who will do the work in Kenosha’s 5th district.

Vote Kathy Carpenter.

Hold them accountable

This is your chance Wisconsin.

Today is the day you hold your elected officials accountable.

From local, county and state politics, this is the voters chance to make their voices heard.

In Kenosha’s city council races, 10 of 12 incumbents are being challenged. This is a record number of incumbents being challenged.

The question you need to ask of these incumbents is:

Have they been there for you?

When you call them- do they return your phone call?

If they do return you phone call- do they listen to your concerns or dismiss them out of hand?

Did they make good decisions with your tax dollars?

Did they do enough to protect the citizens of this community?

Did they do enough to improve the infrastructure of Kenosha(ie. road repair)?

Did you know the plans that your alderman has for your district?

Have they communicated their plans to you?

Yes, Kenosha- now is your chance to hold them accountable.

Kenosha News endorsement

I was getting phone calls at 5:00am this morning telling me that I received the endorsement of the Kenosha News.

I have a couple of friends who were quite excited.

This is great news indeed.

District 5: Kathy Carpenter. This district, which includes the area around Bradford High School, has had the same alderman since 1994, when Kurt Sinclair was first elected. Since then he has not had an opponent until this year when he faced two challengers in the primary in February. Kathy Carpenter and Sinclair survived the primary to compete in Tuesday’s election. Perhaps the reason for the opposition after all these years is the challengers’ sense that Sinclair, now the principal of Round Lake Area High School in Illinois, is less engaged with the district than in the past. While we have advocated keeping experience on the City Council in most districts, in this case we see an opportunity for a positive change. Carpenter has enthusiasm for politics and good ideas for the district. We recommend a vote for Carpenter.

Taxes matter

Taxes matter

Not only do taxes matter, but spending matters also.

I visited with a nice gentleman in my district for almost an hour on Monday night. He had been waiting for a while for someone on the local level of government to come by and talk to him about the taxes.

His concerns were for himself, his wife and many of his friends and neighbors.

This gentleman is partially retired and is living off of social security, his pension and a part time job.

The taxes are just too high in Kenosha and he stated that he can no longer afford to have the taxes raised $100, 200 or 300 a year- which is what has been happening.

Kenosha’s property tax bill went up on average by $138 this past year, per the Kenosha News.

The average Kenosha resident, including senior citizens, pays about $3431.62 per year in property taxes.

Now to some (including our current city council members), what is the big deal, right?

Well, to many of these senior citizens cannot afford a single increase in property tax costs when they are living off a relatively fixed income.

The average person in the city of Kenosha is paying $286 A MONTH in property taxes alone. Even if you can ignore the cost of food, gas, electricity, water and fees going up, we cannot continue to pass one property tax increase after another year after year.

When I was at the NAACP event, several of the incumbents made the standard excuses of blaming the property tax increase on the school tax levy. The incumbents are correct in stating that the school tax levy is going up year after year, but they are not telling the entire truth that they themselves continue to add to the property tax increases also.

From the following chart in the Kenosha News, the city council and the mayor are still playing a major roll in property tax increases.

Property tax on the average home in the Kenosha Unified School District:
				2006	2007	ONE YR CHG:
	Taxing body:			Ave. Home	Ave. Home	$ Diff.	% Diff.
	City			$ 1,336.17	$ 1,385.30	$ 49.13	3.7%
	KUSD			$ 1,382.74	$ 1,472.64	$ 89.90	6.5%
	Gateway Tech Col.			$ 204.74	$ 208.08	$ 3.34	1.6%
	County			$ 632.50	$ 644.99	$ 12.49	2.0%
	State			$ 29.10	$ 29.49	$ 0.39	1.3%
	Gross Property Tax			$ 3,585.24	$ 3,740.49	$ 155.26	4.3%
	Minus: School Tax Credit			$ 194.95	$ 223.27	$ 28.32	14.5%
	Minus: Lottery Credit			$ 96.79	$ 85.60	$ (11.19)	-11.6%
	Net Property Tax			$ 3,293.49	$ 3,431.62	$ 138.13	4.2%

Of the $138 property tax increase this year, the city council raised taxes by $49 on the average property tax owner this past year.

Think about the issues that our senior citizens are faced with year after year. They have a limited amount of money and they need to make that money last for the rest of their lives. They must also absorb the cost of higher gas prices, higher food prices and higher living costs.

The biggest problem my new friend had with all of this is that he cannot stand the way our government is spending that money.

The wife of my new friend stated that she has heard ENOUGH out of him about the museums. He is so upset that we have to pay for new museums but we cannot get the roads repaired in a timely fashion.

He believes that our current aldermen are spending taxpayer dollars incorrectly.

I could not agree more.

Museums do not take priority over fire and police protection.

The trolley does not take priority over road repair.

It is time for the city council to put the people of Kenosha over the special interest groups squawking for our tax dollars.

My hope is that my new friends in the 5^th district will stick around Kenosha long enough to make the needed changes to Kenosha government.

Yes, it has gotten expensive but…

Today’s Kenosha News highlights how expensive it has become to run in local races. Gone are the days of spending a couple of hundred dollars and hoping for the best.

Today you probably will end up spending a couple of thousand dollars and still hope for the best.

This is what the Kenosha News is listing as having been spent so far on aldermaic races:

G. John Ruffolo- $4292.75

Ray Misner, alderman for the 13th District, $3,945.67.

Ralph Nudi, a 4th District candidate, with $2,456.84.

Anthony Nudo, a 11th District candidate, with $2,456.72.

David Bogdala, a 17th District candidate, with $1,793.30.

Fausto Fioravanti, a 6th District candidate, with $1,759.70.

Kathy Carpeneter, a 5th District candidate, with $1,753.93. (seriously, is it so difficult to spell my last name- this is a least the second time this has happened)

Peter Hellenbrand, a 13th District candidate, with $1,612.19.

Ron Frederick, alderman for the 11th District, with $1,469.01.

Mary Lou Christiansen, an 8th District candidate, with $1,460.63

CoryAnn St. Marie-Carls, a 2nd District candidate, with $1,448.

Michael Conforti, a 9th District candidate, with $1,305.56

I guess what this really means is to give generously to your favorite candidate.

Yes, it has gotten expensive but it has been worth it.

To donate to my campaign, try Paypal.

I’m listening

I have listened to the complaints for the last several months. The people of Kenosha’s 5th district believe their needs are not being met.

You call with a problem and no one ever returns you phone call.

Years ago you used to get a newsletter about what was taking place in Kenosha city government, the newsletters have dried up.

Like many of Kenosha’s 5th district, I have had the same problem. Years ago, I called and left a message- I received no response.

Kenosha’s 5th district needs an advocate. Someone who will listen to your concerns and take those concerns directly to the other city council members.

You deserve someone who will address your concern about losing the fire station. This action directly affects the people in our district.

You deserve an advocate and a voice on the city council. I will be that advocate.

Call me anytime 262-657-5098 or email me kc_for_alderman@yahoo.com

I will respond.

My first act as your alderman would be to call a meeting together at Gateway, centered right in the middle of the 5th district, and listen to concerns of the residents and the business owners of the district.

My second act is to put together a plan to address the issues that have been ignored in our district for too long.

My third act is to take the plan and bring it to my fellow city council members and give the 5th district a voice in the Kenosha city government.

Let’s build a better Kenosha together.

Fix the roads!

If I have heard it once, I have heard it 100 times- FIX THE ROADS.

City officials have used the excuse that the roads are in such bad condition because of the awful winter we have had.

To a certain extent this is true.

However, the people I have been talking too said they have been complaining since the end of last winter, to no avail.

Their complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

Not anymore.

We are not spending nearly enough money on our roads.

It is time to stop spending money on items such as museums and spend it on fixing the roads. This is how taxpayers expect their taxes to be spent.

And the politics continues…

Yes, the politics continues. I am down to crunch time and snow, rain, sleet, subzero temperatures and more snow has not stopped me yet.

Although- it has really slowed the process down.

I need your help.

I need lit droppers. Most of my area is filled with walking routes, so sending people out for longer than an hour is difficult to do.

So, the more people I get the faster I can get this done.

We are meeting today at 9:00 am at the Fireside Restaurant. If you cannot make it at 9:00am, I will be at the Fireside again at 1:00pm

Meeting place:

Fireside Restuarant
2801 30th Ave.
Kenosha

Call me for any reason 262-960-1852

On Kenosha Fire Station #5

I have learned a bit more about the closing and moving of the Kenosha fire-station. According to one of our current alderman, there originally was talk about closing or moving more than the four fire stations currently on the chopping block.

So now I am even more upset about our Fire-station #5 closing.

For some reason, during the negotiations, no one bothered to get our fire station #5 off of the chopping block.

I am 100% opposed to closing and moving our fire station further away from our district.

Kenosha District #5, Ward 9, which is adjacent to this fire station, has many elderly residents living there. Literally hundreds of these residents need the fire and ambulance services to stay right where it is at.

Moving this station further away from them will only cause hardship to the people living in Ward 9.

Kenosha city council take a coward’s stance

Like most of Kenosha, I woke up this morning to quickly hit the paper and find out how our city council (alderman) voted on the extremely important issue of sexual predators in our city.

On last night’s docket was the issue that has been debated in Kenosha for a very long time. Restrictions on where sexual predators can live were front and center at the city council meeting last night.

Finally, the moment of truth had come.

Kenosha alderman would be given the opportunity to do their jobs and represent the people that elected them into office. Their jobs were to reflect how the community felt about where sexual offenders are allowed to live in our communities.

In a complete act of cowardice, our city council voted to table the ordinance. There would be no vote on the city ordinance limiting where sexual predators can live.

They chickened out. The city council shirked their responsibility to Kenosha residents. Instead of dealing with this very difficult issue, they tabled it.

Yes, the issue is difficult. We all know that. This issue is also very important to Kenosha residents.

Let me be clear, not all of them were our city’s alderman are cowards. The vote to table the motion was 11 to 6 in favor.

The 6 city council members that had the courage to do their jobs and voted NOT to table the ordinance were:

Alderwoman Julia Robinson- District 7
Alderman Ray Misner- District 13
Alderman Mike Pitts- District 14
Alderman Frank Pacetti- District 15
Alderman Jesse Downing- District 16
Alderman Ken Polzin- District 17

I applaud the Kenosha News for naming in today’s newspaper the Alderman that voted NOT to table this issue.

However, I believe that as important as it was to applaud the alderman that are willing to take a stand and be counted on this issue, it is equally as important to call out the alderman that shirked their responsibility to the people that have continually elected them.

Here is a list of Kenosha aldermen that shirked their responsibility and chose to hide from the issue instead of taking a stand either for or against this city ordinance:

Alderman Eric Haugaard- District 1
Alderman Don Moldenhauer- District 2
Alderman Donald Holland- District 3 (City council President)
Alderman G. John Ruffolo- District 4
Alderman Kurt Sinclair- District 5
Alderman Sam Spair- District 6
Alderwoman Katherine Marks- District 8
Alderman Donald Ruef- District 9
Alderman Everett Butler- District 10
Alderman Ronald Frederick- District 11
Alderman Stephen Casey- District 12

This issue has been debated in Kenosha for months and months. There was no excuse for not voting one way or another on this issue.

Yes, we have heard the typical excuses, such as:

The county government should be… blah, blah, blah.

The state government should be… blah, blah, blah.

The town of Somers is… blah, blah, blah.

Enough with the excuses for not dealing with this issue! The city council in Kenosha has had plenty of time to debate. There is plenty of information out in the public domain on recidivism rates of sexual offenders. The Kenosha community as a whole has spoken very clearly on this issue. The community does not want convicted sexual predators near their schools, parks and playgrounds.

I expect our aldermen to lead on this issue, not follow! Waiting for someone else like the state, county or Somers to make a decision on this issue and then follow along behind them is a cowardice stance.

We elected leaders, not followers!

On Monday night a previously convicted sexual predator stood and made his voice heard to city aldermen, which he has a right to do.
We elect our aldermen to be our voices as a community. Where were those voices?

Where was our representation when we need them the most?

Probably the worst part about this entire thing, the alderman don’t really want to talk about it either.

From the Kenosha News-

The tabling of this ordinance happened with little discussion from
aldermen.

Not only do they not want to vote on this important issue, but now they do not feel they should have to talk about it either.