Yesterday, I received a request from a resident for any communication records between Janesville Mayor Dave Beenblossom and me, related to our mutual aid agreement, which was brought up in our March 2nd City Council meeting. I'm providing the materials here so that all residents have the same information, direct from me. It's important to me that you have both the records and the context for those conversations -- especially when phone calls were involved. I've let Mayor Beenblossom know that this information is being released, and he expressed no concerns about it. So here's what happened:
- February 22nd (Saturday): Mayor Beenblossom e-mailed me and I responded with a request for more information. Link to the E-mail String (please note, all these e-mail conversations start last-first. The most recent e-mail is at the top of the PDF)
- February 24th (Monday): Mayor Beenblossom agreed to meet with me at Janesville City Hall, so I could hear in person about his concerns. Janeville's Fire Chief (Tim West) and several Janesville volunteer firefighters also attended. At the end of the meeting, Mayor Beenblossom reiterated Janesville's intent to end its 28E agreement with Cedar Falls if the veto was overridden. Link to the E-mail String.
- February 25th (Wednesday): Mayor Beenblossom e-mailed me a letter for inclusion in the March 2nd Cedar Falls council packet, which expressed Janeville's intent to end its mutual aid agreement (aka "28E Agreement") with Cedar Falls if the veto was overridden and firefighters eliminated. ** It's also important to note that there's a communication in that e-mail string from Mayor Wessel (City of Hudson) to Mayor Beenblossom, that Mayor Beenblossom forwarded to me; I've been asked a few times if any other mayors have communicated concerns to me about their 28E agreement. Because that e-mail from Mayor Wessel was a conversation with another mayor and not with me, I did not believe it appropriate to publicize what was still basically a "draft" discussion. If Mayor Wessel or any other mayor had communicated with me directly about 28E concerns, I would state so. I just wanted to be clear there.** Link to Mayor Beenblossom's Letter Link to the E-mail String
- February 26th (Thursday): I contacted Mayor Beenblossom via phone to suggest that our two cities keep the 28E agreement intact and instead pursue an add-on Memorandum of Understanding (an "MOU") . This MOU would delineate what level of support the Janesville Fire Department can/will provide to Cedar Falls when mutual aid is requested. He stated that he was amenable to the idea, as was Cedar Falls Public Safety Services. Mayor Beenblossom then agreed to my request to remove his original letter of 2/25 from the council packet, and in exchange, I agreed to inform the Cedar Falls Council at our 3/2 meeting about Janesville's expectation for an MOU if the veto was overturned. [Phone call, no recording]
- February 27th (Friday): I set a tentative date of Thursday, March 5th for Cedar Falls and Janesville staff to meet and discuss a draft Memorandum of Understanding. I set up this meeting before the veto outcome was decided, as a good-faith gesture to Janesville that we were serious about working out a solution. [Phone call, no recording]
- March 2nd (Monday): To fulfill my 2/27 agreement with Mayor Beenblossom, I gave this statement at the Cedar Falls City Council Meeting:
- I chose to wait until the end of the council discussion to give the above statement because, given the lack of specificity about what this MOU might entail, I did not wish for the public to latch onto it as part of their own public comments, and to potentially make assumptions and accusations about a policy document we'd not even discussed yet. I thought it would not have been helpful for the debate, but the statement needed to be expressed prior to the vote. That decision was mine. But I DID need to make that statement because I told Mayor Beenblossom I'd do so.
- March 3rd (Tuesday): I received a written Public Records request from a resident asking for "a copy of the correspondence/email/statement from Mayor Beanblossom from Janesville." I asked that resident if I could instead post the information here in this blogpost, and was given approval to take this blogpost route this instead. I also contacted Mayor Beenblossom to let him know that I'd be releasing this information as part of the Public Records request, and he expressed no concerns.
I'll just close that all written correspondence (with just a few legal exceptions) are a matter of public record, and the public has a right to inspect these documents. I support that right, and appreciate, as I'm typing out emails, that anything I put down could be in the public eye the next day. I fully support sunshine laws, and will do my best to be forthright with residents in answering these kinds of requests. That said, I also want to make sure the context is clear, so that you have the best understanding of what actually transpired.
Thanks for reading to the end, and for taking an active interest in being an informed and engaged resident.
Very respectfully,
Mayor Rob Green
March 4, 2020