SEE UPDATE BELOW

“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
Harry Truman

Kristen Wilhelm is my alderwoman. I am her constituent. Therefore, I have every right to question, and even criticize her.

Because I have a blog my freedom of speech rights allow me to write about what a huge disappointment she is as my representative at City Hall. Disappointment actually doesn’t begin to describe my feelings.

My blog about the Common Council’s latest slap in the face to Kayla’s Playground sent Wilhelm into an absolute frenzy, swirling in the wind, desperately searching to crawl out of the crater she dug for herself. She went to social media and responded to anyone, just about everyone who dared to comment not so favorably of her.

We touched a nerve. Folks like Wilhelm are what’s wrong with local politics. They don’t want to be noticed, paid attention to. They want to go about their business and say whatever they want, do whatever they want.  No feathers rustled. Let’s just show up at meetings and the less said about us the better.

We don’t want no press or bloggers pokin’ around!

I posted a factual blog based on what occurred at a public meeting this week at Franklin City Hall. Wilhelm’s reaction was that of a desperate individual, fearful of what the public might think. Since she had no defense she attacked the messenger, me, and also despicably played the victim card. Woe is me the whiner moaned and groaned.  Woe is me.

Here’s what could be the most disgusting tactic used by Wilhelm, yes, disgusting. Let’s bring in her very own words, posted in one of her frantic social media comments lately:

I’ve been dealing with this I hate the handicap push for over a year.

WAH WAH WAH.

I’ve never written that Kristen hates the handicapped. Never said it. In fact, I don’t know of anyone that has ever said that.

Kristen is quick to claim that anyone who disagrees with her is inaccurate, doesn’t have the facts, is misleading.

OK, Kristen. In reality you’re the one who’s lying, and I’ve put up with it for a long time.

Here’s a direct challenge as I counter your victim card. Specifically show me where you’ve been accused of hating the handicapped. Did I write that? Did anyone else write that?

This is a common ploy used by folks like Wilhelm and her political persuasion. You divert and distract attention from the issue at hand that you’re losing by bringing up something totally unrelated, untrue, or both.

Kristen has been saying, as she has in the past, that my post is misleading, inaccurate, etc., etc. Yet she NEVER EVER points out specifically what areas are incorrect with substantiated corrections.

HE’S JUST WRONG, I’m sorry, doesn’t cut it.

Wilhelm also claims that the Common Council members who voted AGAINST improvements at Kayla’s Playground were merely concerned about space issues the tables presented and wanted more time to study the matter. After having covered or been involved in a gazillion political meetings I can tell you that’s a big pile of crapola.

If Wilhelm, Susanne Mayer and Steve Taylor truly wanted more time to flush this issue out, then the amendment offered right out of the box would have sounded something like this:

DUE TO REMAINING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE IMPACT OF 12 TABLES AT THE PLAYGROUND I REQUEST CITY STAFF FURTHER EXAMINE THIS ISSUE AND IT BE MOVED TO THE NEXT MEETING OF THE COMMON COUNCIL.

THAT should have been the amendment, not the gamesmanship of messing around by reducing tables down to six. Mayer’s amendment to reduce the number of tables at the park is a clear indication THAT was the real intent, not to request more time for study.

Here’s hoping people see through the smokescreens Wilhelm and her fellow obstructionists are throwing up.

This is a big deal, not to be trivialized. And there are larger issues that have come to light, even though someone like Wilhelm didn’t want that to happen.

More on that to come.

UPDATE 4/22/16: Alderwoman Wilhelm needs to update her talking points. Still steaming because of the current location of Kayla’s Playground she keeps insisting the cost of the project was $1.5 million.

The budget for the playground presented at the November 3, 2015 meeting of the Franklin Common Council shows  the following:

Total appropriation by the city: $1.1 million.