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‘I’m not looking for recognition,’ Eckman
insists again Former trustee just wants a better process, and what’s
best for the village, and what’s best for future volunteers as she details
the ways she says she was screwed by the new board that does not give her enough
credit By GEOFF DAVIDIAN In a two-minute soliloquy at Monday night’s village board meeting, Eckman read from prepared remarks meant to prove that she was not notified she would not retain a volunteer seat on the parks and recreation committee beyond the term for which she was appointed. Her remarks expanded on a similar presentation two weeks earlier in which she insisted that she was not seeking personal recognition for the years of hard work she put in over the past two decades. The village should value the experience of old hands like her, she went on, because there is a learning curve and a newcomer would not be as up to speed as those familiar with the committee’s work under her leadership, like finding a dog mascot. She just wants to make sure other residents who put in hard work like she has for decades are not cast ignobly aside as she feels she was, although she still holds a volunteer position on the village Board of Review. This is not the first time Dr. Eckman has lashed out at village officials over her sense that she is not being respected enough. In 2004, then-trustee Eckman explained why she should receive more important village committee appointments after Mark Kohlenberg was elected village president. With the descension of the ancien regime under former President Rodney Dow, Eckman was treated like other trustees and did not receive the special treatment she so earnestly pleaded to receive. Yet it is irrefutable that the village owes Eckman and Dow a debt of gratitude for the way the conducted themselves. In fact, if they had not used their work emails to conduct village business, there would not have been a lawsuit that resulted in the village setting up an email archive and requiring officials to use government email for official business. Related article: In the name of ‘equity,’ let’s give Ellen more
than she’s entitled (May 19, 2004) -- In a hideous repudiation of intelligent governance, Trustee Ellen Eckman – the person who violated campaign laws by failing to name her treasurer on signs, who violated state and village law by attaching flapping plastic to her already illegal signs, and who has shown no inclination publicly to correct the false information in a handbook for trustees created by her ad hoc committee whose illegal meeting prompted the Journal Sentinel to give an editorial lecture on the Open Meetings Law – wants a more important role in Village committees. Eckman, who in April won
re-election to a second three-year term after former Village President Rodney
Dow and his civil but bitterly malicious gang of rich political purported
do-gooders and their machine thrust her into the race despite her terrible
record and the shame their actions have cast over the entire Village, wants
“equity.”
Never mind that she is without consequence or capacity to perform well; that she cannot follow simple election law; that she can’t follow through on a project; that she cannot understand that trustees should be assigned committees on merit or ability to perform well and not on the number of votes obtained by use of illegal campaign tactics. Of course, Eckman, the only educator running and the only one who couldn’t learn to run legally, has never apologized for her illegal acts – she won, and she can be as arrogant as she wants until she goes out campaigning again and asks people to vote for her because “there is still work to be done.” Of course, she will not likely mention that it is partially BECAUSE OF HER that the work remains unfinished, and that is because she WANTS THERE TO BE A RUBBER STAMP in addition to her wanting to hold it herself. Forget all that practical stuff. She WON. So, she wants MORE. Never mind she can’t do what she already is assigned to do. Never mind that she doesn’t even yet understand that she has not finished the handbook. She doesn’t have the time to finish the handbook because SHE IS TOO BUSY COMPLAINING ABOUT NOT HAVING THE RUBBER STAMP. This pathetic turn of events is based upon the twisted need to have MORE! Yes, MORE, she wants MORE. MORE power. MORE prestige. MORE recognition, despite LESS performance. Despite LESS ability to follow through. Oh, come on, it’s Ellen. She put something in a time capsule at one of the schools a long time ago, remember? You know, good ole Ellen, she has been at the trough all these years so she should get special treatment and performance should not be a factor for Ellen, come on, not for Ellen you guys. Let’s be equitable and give assignments to the dolts as well as the competent. Hey, she’s giving her $1,000 a year to the library, so let’s reward her with whatever she wants, OK. Come on, it’s Ellen, you guys. Come on. It’s Ellen, the Rich Gang’s candidate. She should get MORE because all the rich people gave her money and so she EXPECTS TO GET MORE. And we don’t want her to be disappointed and to think she is being held back because of her utter failure, do we? Come, it’s Ellen, OK. The rules are different for Ellen, come on. OK? She just wants more and she wants it now and it isn’t fair the way that it is and historically it has been done a different way and ECKMAN WANTS A DIFFERENT COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT and if she can’t get it she will talk and talk and talk and talk and talk about it as long as it takes because there is no rhetorical argument that would persuade anyone with a sense of responsibility to give her more responsibility because she is marginally incompetent. Or maybe she doesn’t take the work seriously and although she is a genuine genius, she doesn’t apply herself WHICH TO SOME PEOPLE IS WORSE YET. There. I’ve said it. It is out there. Ellen Eckman is an example of a highly educated person who does not display much intelligence, as Scott Forbes would say. (Of course, Scott Forbes got his doctorate in education from Oxford [The one in England, Ellen, not the one in Mississippi]), not UWM. The Village president would be committing misconduct in office if he allows Eckman to fondle the ceremonial rubber stamp. President Mark Kohlenberg should consider actual performance or likely success – not academic degrees from the fourth best school in the whole darned state, and not the shrillness of the whining – in making assignments. If criteria like competence and likelihood of success prevail, there will be intelligent equity. (But come on, it’s Ellen, you guys. Let’s give the assignments Ellen doesn’t want to some lower trustee, OK guys? But which one, Ellen? Who should get the assignments that are not good enough for you? Oh, come on, Ellen, I’m just kidding. It’s you, good ol’ Ellen, and you put something in that time capsule, after all. And from this journalist’s perspective, the MORE you get, the better the stories will be. (And don’t worry. I’ll be right there with you, helping you along and making suggestions as to how to improve your performance. No one wants the public to know your abilities more than I do.) |
