Joe Wernig – Granite Grok

Tales from the BudComm – So how do you rectify those two statements, Sean?

As I said in the last issue in this Tales from the BudComm series, I became real concerned when freshman Joe Wernig first said, and then Chair Sean Murphy assented, that we weren’t supposed to be changing GL accounts – the line items in the “recommendations” (verbiage from RSA 32) that the School District / Municipality give to the BudComm. The troublesome verbiage in the transcript is after the jump.

So this past meeting, I decided to pin Sean Murphy down on his assent on Wernig’s supposition that changing any amount is MicroManagement and that’s no our job. Either we do change the GL Line item amounts because we think that the recommendations are too high (or too low), or what are we doing is a farce and waste of time. And I told him that. Here’s the snippet from the hour long meeting when Sean Murphy recognized me during the meeting to raise the issue.

RRftSotRP – I get stuff. Third lesson: “if only the opposition would just go away or agree with us”

by Skip

Not a freaking clue:

Wow – just wow. RRftSotRP (Republican Republican for the Sake of the Rebin big steaming piles on this one. The writer is obviously upset in that there is not total agreement with NH GOP Party anointed candidates. The overriding message is exemplified by this:

(courtesy of uber-Progressive Joe Wernig)

Er, no, I’m not. Not that from the writer. Nor should you.

Tales from the Budcomm – they don’t want to do their jobs?

by Skip

I’m a bit late on commenting on this – the last meeting was on May 24th. While the entire 2 hour video can be seen here (and if you are concerned with openness and transparency, there’s quite a dollop of it, care of moi), I’ve clipped out the part that had my eyebrows up over my head (it starts up around 40 minutes for a better context).

The heart of what a good Budget Committee does (and is mandated to do) is to go over the budget at the General Ledger line item level (GL Account, or “line item” as it is often referred to). But rookie BudComm member Joe Wernig (a hard Progressive who ran on a platform that NOTHING should be cut from government, especially the School District budget) actually said that he isn’t going to do what he was elected to do; “I don’t want to do that!” (at 2:16, below):

You know, it would be good to get it right, Mr. Kitch

by Skip

Yesterday was a “day off from work / a day of blogging activities” for me as I had promised a lady in our town, Barbara Aichinger, to video record a Supervisor of the Checklist hearing. The back story is just before our local election last month, local Democrat activist and public employee Joe “No Show” Wernig decided on a crass political stunt and accuse her of not being eligible to vote here in town. Which, as it turns out, meant that she could not run for office to. More on this later (full video of the hearing is here at the ‘Grok’s “little sister” blog I keep just for local activities) and in my opinion, an attempt to silence a strong voice that advocates for exactly for everything that Wernig stands for: smaller government, less taxes, and more personal liberty. Why else call a press conference when issuing a voter challenge based on flimsy Internet based information?

Well, two of the local pro-scribblers showed up; Michael Kitch from the Laconia Daily Sun filed his report and did a decent job (after having a “discussion” with Barbara, but that’s for another post) but got something wrong:

David “Skip” Murphy, who video recorded the session for his blog — Granite Grok — upon learning that Miller’s services cost the town $160 per hour wondered if there was any means of compelling Wernig, who has complained about the cost of frivolous litigation to the town, to foot the bill.

“No,” said Miller. “There is no recourse.”

Er, no. This is why one brings a recording device to such an event – as he got this part of the my “public input” absolutely wrong:

Another thing that this Voter Challenge made me realize

by Skip

Like I said here, we had a political ideologue by the name of Joe Wernig issue, in my opinion, a thinly veiled attempt of political intimidation by trying to keep local Libertarian activist Barbara Aichinger off the local ballot via a Voter Role Challenge (complete video here of the hearing, with more commentary above that post). As the hearing slowly wore on, the thought hit me: how often is this now happening, where the most basic philosophies of American jurisprudence is being turned on its head? Just like we are loosing our freedoms as the Government continues to loom larger and larger and inserts itself into more and more areas of what used to be off-limits.

All of us have been brought up believing “innocent until proven guilty” and that you should have the ability to confront your accuser. This hearing, through no fault of the Supervisors of the Checklist, seemingly turned that upside down. Joe Wernig had made sure that when he accused Mrs. Aichinger of not being eligible, she was out of the country on business. He didn’t notify her of his press conference or his intention of going to the Supervisors in issuing that challenge. He made sure that she could not directly confront him and his charges.

Yesterday, he doubled down – he was a “No Show” – but his baseless charge put all three Supervisors through hours of research during the 30 day interval. Barbara had to spend hours in assembling her records in her own defense. This political coward couldn’t muster the courage to even make a token appearance before skidaddling back to his secure government job. He couldn’t face the person he challenged. Yes, I meant that word: Coward.

So much for the Mrs. Aichinger being able to face her accuser: he simply ran away like when a bully runs up against someone who isn’t willing to back down. In fact, I’m betting he really thought she’d fold – not a smooth move.