The Franklin Common Council met this past Tuesday with some of the usual actions taking place.

The ungentlemanly LeRoy Lewandowski refused to take his hat off inside the Common Council Chambers at City Hall. The guy’s ancient. You would think he knows better when it comes to manners.  And in typical Lewandowski fashion he again spoke incoherently during the citizen comment period.

You also had Alderwoman Kristen Wilhelm (can’t wait till she’s out) drone on and on and on. God, she’s annoying.

There was this noteworthy moment during the proceedings. Alderman John Nelson who desperately wants to be mayor resurrected an old item to increase comp time hours for police sergeants from 110 hours to 200 hours immediately.

It must be noted that no one is opposed to our fine police department. They should be compensated fairly. However this is no slam dunk. As was mentioned at Tuesday’s meeting if the additional benefits were to be approved there would be ramifications for future collective bargaining negotiations.

Back on November 2^nd I blogged about a Common Council meeting held the day before, November 1^st:

A bit later in the meeting discussion turned to increasing comp time benefits for Franklin police sergeants. Alderman Mike Barber made a motion to delay any action until the council had the opportunity to hear more from the city’s Fire and Police Commission.

Looking perturbed, Wilhelm said she was “disappointed” in the motion to delay, wanting to vote on the matter Tuesday evening.

That’s when Wilhelm stepped in it.

“I think that there are staff that have jobs here at City Hall that put their lives at less risk and less stress that are already making more.”

I found Wilhelm’s comment to be insulting and disrespectful. Comparing office workers to police officers was extremely unfair. All Wilhelm had to do was contend police have a dangerous job (no one would argue) and that they deserved an answer on comp time benefits then as opposed to later. To drag other employees into the debate was uncalled for.

For the record the council tied 3-3 on delaying a decision. Mayor Olson broke the tie by voting to hold off and refer to the Fire and Police Commission.

“I don’t think it hurts to have more information,” said Olson.

At this week’s council meeting we learned the city’s Personnel Committee that studied the issue thoroughly opposed the increase in comp time.

The council voted 3-3 with Nelson, Wilhelm, and Alderwoman Michelle Eichmann voting in favor, and Ed Holpfer, Shari Hanneman, and Mike Barber voting no.

When there’s a tie vote the mayor has the authority to break the tie.

Nelson is running against Mayor Olson because he doesn’t like the mayor.

Wilhelm supports Nelson because she doesn’t like the mayor.

I’ll bet the farm that Nelson and Wilhelm with advice from outside the council envisioned the tie vote and a likely no vote by the mayor to break the tie. The hope was if that occurred the brain trust could use the mayor’s rejection against him in the mayoral campaign, painting Olson as anti-police which would be totally dishonest, an absolute crock.

But the dynamic duo of Nelson and Wilhelm probably didn’t figure on what Olson did next that blew up their devious plot. After the votes were tallied Olson didn’t personally vote. Instead, Olson ruled the motion on comp time failed due to a lack of a majority. The ‘gotcha’ plan to paint Olson into a corner bombed.

This is the kind of crap we’re going to see more of in the weeks leading up to Franklin’s mayoral election in April.