Don't Drink The Water in Manitowoc County

It is not often that I agree with County Executive Bob Zeigelbauer

so when that happens it is worth of note. Bob has placed an administrative block on supervisor Larry Bonde's Conservation Committee's proposal to repeal the county regulatory process requiring large dairies to file manure management plans and obtain the consent of their landlords themselves not the government. Bob remembers well the catastrophes that occurred prior to the creating of this rule. He and former exec Dan Fischer worked together to craft this. 

 These ever expanding farms had exceeded the capacity of their storage facilities land compensating by overspreading and winter spreading that resulted in private wells being contaminated sometimes over night. This landmark legislation required these mostly corporate entities to ensure that they had both the storage and disposal capacity to avoid those causal practices. 

Martel wants to repeal this!

 According to Ziegelbauer last year Bonde introduced the repeal saying that it was redundant with State requirements. Well, not really. The difference being that the companies were required to obtain the signatures of all of their land owners in order to pass muster. The State regs just pass it off to the local Ag agency. Only that agency is now reeling from Trump's DOGE cuts and does not even have the resources to help me design a duck wallow on my farm much less handle that responsibility as well. With some thirty CAFOs with more coming and potentially hundreds of land owners involved foisting it off on them would seem a bit of a reach right now. In fact the companies think so for their own reasons which is why they want to be rid of it. 

 

According to Ziegelbauer last May  no one even showed up to testify at the hearing and the vote was unanimously against the repeal. Now in July, some twenty five showed up with most in favor. Something changed. Comitte chair Larry Bonde claims to be a conservationist. That does not seem to pass the scoff test. Yes, he is on the Conservation Committee, the Deer Committee, a member of Fish and Game and the State Conservation Congress. But at the same time his day job is a service whose clients are the vary livestock operations pushing for this. That's a conflict of interest. 

 Moreover, it's a contradiction in terms. Bonde is at best a sportsman who seems mostly interested in preserving his right to shoot things now including sandhill cranes. Despite this regulation stopping the more catastrophic manure spills so called non-point pollution from field run off has caused the Manitowoc River and all of its tributaries have now been declared as impaired waters, unfit for most fish and lagely unfit to eat. Yet we hear nothing from from conservationist Bonde on that. 

 This is your water whether you fish in it, drink it, wash with it or swim in it Bob's administrative block is only good until he leaves office on April 20th. After that it will be up to incoming and unopposed exec Tyler Martel to maintain that. Tell him and all of your supervisors that this is a bad idea. Protect yourself not the special interests.

Strange Times in Manitowoc County

 

T

Official Manitowoc Co. photo

hese are strange times in Manitowoc County. After some twenty years of Bob Ziegelbaur we are about to receive our first ever un-elected county executive. Current county board chair Tyler Martel was the only candidate to file so he is by default the winner. Tyler brings with him a river of contradictions.

He is what F. Scott Fitzgerald called “a cracked plate [...] fit only for display,”explaining that it was not possible to function while holding two opposing ideas in your head.

With no background in business or public policy Martel has been running for office for a long time, winning some losing others while spouting TEA party jibbrish. Opportunistic, he won his current seat by attacking then supervisor Brunner as a tax and spend Liberal when he supported a County sales tax. But now faced with Ziegelbaur;s six million dollar budget hole decided its a pretty good idea and pretends that a new tax is not really a tax increase. A public school teacher, he supported Act 10 which raided State revenue sharing yet collects school vouchers for his adopted children in private school.

A gay married Trump Republican he is the darling of the local GOP. He gives them political cover for their homophobia and sexual smears on their opponents. His most ardent supporters on the board would under any other circumstances call him a DEI hire and would if they could invalidate his marriage, take his kids away and send him off to conversion therapy. He supported the now removed MPSD school board members whose tenure was marked by obsession with rainbow art and denying school lunch aid citing the federal deficit.

At the other end of this dysphoria is the Manitowoc Democratic party. Once able to fill the old Club Bil-Mar with its membership it is a shell of its former self. Names like Fischer, Aulik, Duchow, Baumgart, Bolle and Holsbach are distant memories. Leadership has aged out or simply left. More recent leaders have had no ties to this State much less Manitowoc. They've had no public image, no family connections, don't engage publicly and dont understand their jobs. State leadership has been AWOL in discipline and recruitment choosing instead to dump something north of $20,000/yr in a mostly unused headquarters.

What can we expect from this strange young man? Who knows? These are strange times. Manitowoc at least deserved a choice..

An earlier version published in the VAlders Journal appears to have gotten under Tyler's skin

FEAR ITSELF!

Sick of the hate and bigotry of Chicago my immigrant father moved us to Wisconsin in the 60s. He wanted to return to the more pastoral life on a farm he knew in Poland. As a boy I was astonished to see how welcoming people were. Folks we never met before would see that we were new to modern agriculture and pull in the yard and offer help and advice. I made friends quickly and met a girl and eventually married her. Life was good.

We are told now things have changed and to fear immigrants, that anyone new is to be feared for bringing murder rape and drugs. We need to carry guns. That life is now a nightmare of despair and declining prospects. Watch out because someone else might get more. And sex. Everything is about sex to the point where even displaying a rainbow is promoting perversion. Any opposition to these wild assertions gets you cast as a pedophile or a “groomer” or even a communist to the point where even small towns like Kiel were beset by bomb and death threats for simply policies that called for a little tolerance.

But yet even now I look around and see none of that. I moved about these same communities with no fear. I see no more crime or decline than than in the past and in fact see the signs of prosperity all around us. We drive decent cars. Our institutions still function. We have no more war than before. Those that say otherwise don't seem to remember Korea or Viet Nam or the Gulf War or that there ever was a draft for that matter.

In a few days we have a choice. We can listen to the purveyors of doom and decline. Or, we can believe what we see around us. I see no difference from the Wisconsin I found back in 1965. It is still the land of friendly helpful people, peaceful society and opportunity that it was then if we only have the courage to see it. Anything else is what Franklin Roosevelt spoke to at the depths of the Great Depression, a nameless, unreasoning fear itself. Choose courage! The future awaits.

Bernard J. Starzewski

4823 Greendale Rd.

Valders Wi. 54245

920 684-6565

Bob's Chickens Come Home

 But the look more like buzzards to me...r:

After reading your article about the newly discovered deficit at County Government I wish I could say that I'm surprised. I and others have been warning for decades now that no enterprise government or private can simply decree that cost increases do not happen. Budget after budget Bob Ziegelbauer had declared success in holding taxes flat. Yet, even in times of nominal inflation of 2% compounded over a decade the result is nearly a 25% cut in real revenue.

Bob has preened himself as a shrewd businessman but as Ive written so many times before his practices have been more of a shell game than a business plan. Again and again we have seen millions of assets wiped out or liquidated to cover his losses not to mention deferred maintenance. Whether it was selling the then new health care center for pennies on the dollar, chopping up the fair grounds, selling off prime real estate without an appraisal or disappearing millions in cash in his first term assets evaporated as revenue shrunk.

We saw the same thing when he was Manitowoc finance director as his austere budgets cause aged and critical structures to crumble. As if by magic low taxes would fix it all. Then ever playing the curmudgeon proceeded to insult the new administrations that dealt with the challenges he created for them. Yet the city for all its expenditures looks better. Its a better and safer place to live. Things are no longer broken. The sky didnt fall. With two years to go in what hopefully will be his last term the prospects for real reform remain in doubt. One might think he could step aside and allow new leadership in but the current county board is packed with his cronies who blindly rubber stamped it all, Chairman Martel in particular. There can be no question that more progressive leadership will be dealing with his failings for years to come. That is, if we are lucky and if we at long last vote for change.

Board Chair Tyler Martel
Campaigned on Bob's no-tax-hike platform

Bob Ziegelbauer

County Exec.

"... too aggressive on holding down taxes".

Of Pens And Swords And Bullets And Bombs

 

"The pen is mightier than the sword."  

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Of  course this does not begin to consider the use of pens (or keyboard) to incite the use of swords or guns or bombs for that matter.

On May 26th 2022 I submitted this letter to the Herald Time Reporter in Manitowoc.  As yet it has not been published.

To the Editor: 

When I spoke out against the bizarre allegations made by then school board candidate Tony Vlastelica against the Manitowoc Library System I was publicly smeared by him as an

“okgroomer” because in his mind if I didn't accept the his theory that the Library was distributing pornography to children then I must be a pedophile myself. The immediate consequence of that was that my wife began receiving threatening calls on her private mobile phone in the middle of the night from a person deputies quickly identified as a convicted violent drug dealer. Vlastelica was quick to deny having instructed the man to do this. Not directly anyway.

Now in Kiel there was an incident allegedly about “pronouns” only it does not take much imagination to realize that this more than a case of bad grammar. It was harassment the exact nature of which the school district cannot publicly discuss. Enter now the right wing politicians like State Rep. Sortwell and their stalking horse, the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty selling their particular brand of fear and loathing. The district and the

board are now receiving death and bomb threats. Who gave those orders?

In two cities dozens of people are now dead. Adults and children shot to pieces because the same sort of manufactured outrage over “Replacement Theory” or this theory or that and the over arching theory that heavy weapons can cure what ails you.

So far we have not seen these slaughters up close and personal. These threats and intimidations are the echoes of more distant battles. But they are getting louder and closer. How long before our families are the ones weeping before the TV cameras? Words can be as deadly as bullets when spoken by immoral men. Reject them before the war comes home.

DENIALS AIN'T JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT 

Topps Shooter In Buffalo

Uvalde School Shooter

WORDS MATTER!

MPSD Ethics Complaint

I have maid the following ethics complaint to the Manitowoc Public School District regarding the conduct of member elect Antonio (Tony) Vlastelica.

Say It Ain't Voter Fraud!

 

Tony Vlastelica has become an interesting character in Manitowoc Politics.  He has formed a political group known as "The Constitutionalists".  that together with his pals Matthew Spaulding and Matthew Phipps have now won effective control of the Manitowoc Public School Board (MPSD).with considerable help from the local GOP.  The board already had a couple crackpot reactionaries appointed by curmudgeon County Exec. Bob Ziegelbauer such as Tyler Martel and GOP County Chair Collin Braunel.  Together they waged their own version of an Infowar assault on both the public school system and the public library claiming that the School district and library were in cahoots to distribute pornography to school kids. (yeah you read that right!)

Constitutionalist HQ

The Constitutionalists show their address to be 314 North 8th Street in Manitowoc which appears to be a pet grooming business called "Daisey Woo".  County records show it to be owned by an individual from Rural Two Rivers.  We have not been able to locate any records that identifies them as either a political party or lobbying group.

Tony (Antonio) appears to own a business known as Contemporary Energy Solutions, LLC which according to his linkedin account is located in Manitowoc Wisconsin.  Only no street address is listed.  Just a PO box.  The only known address for him is his residence at   The business is not a Wisconsin corporation but is registered in Illinois.

What is interesting about this is the address of the officer and registered agent.

State of Illinois Corporate record

Address of Registered Agent

Illinois law requires registered agents of its corporations to reside in the State of Illinois according to Article 2B of Illinois corporate filing laws.

" Who May be a Registered Agent? The registered agent must be either:

     • a person who resides in Illinois, OR 

    • a corporation specifically authorized by its Articles of Incorporation to act as a registered agent and which has an office in Illinois."

So, in Illinois Vlastelica is claiming that he is a resident of Naperville.  In fact an apparent relative lives in the house but that person is not the company's registered agent.  What is even more curious that that the owner is someone named "Teddy Bear".

Who is 'Teddy Bear'?

At the same time Wisconsin law requires all overs and especially candidates to live in the district that they vote in.

So, for purposes of voting and running for office Vlastelica has been claiming to live in Manitowoc while at the same time also claiming to live in Naperville IL to satisfy Illinois corporate law.

Which is it?

All the while he has been doing this he has been siding with former President Trump in claiming that the election was rigged.  

All this is before you consider the crack pot positions he has taken such as claiming that the Public Library has been distributing pornography to minors and therefore wants to stop the school district from distributing library cards to students.     

NOTE:

12.13  Election fraud.

(1)  Electors. Whoever intentionally does any of the following violates this chapter:

(a) Votes at any election or meeting if that person does not have the necessary elector qualifications and residence requirements.

113(1)(b)

(b) Falsely procures registration or makes false statements to the municipal clerk, board of election commissioners or any other election official whether or not under oath.

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/12/04

UPDATE 4/14/2022

Tony has now transferred the agent status to his mother (Or sister?) living at the same address in Naperville.  However he continues to show his address as "manager" at the same house on Beth Lane in that city.

UPDATE 4/15/22

Yesterday Mr. Vlastelica posted his official response on his facebook campaign page.

Just after midnight one of his supporters made a threatening call to my wife's cell phone which I reported to the police.  The man said his name was Jonathan however the officer said they had tracked him down and his real name was Julian Valdez, a convicted criminal on probation.