February Update: County Newsletter
Happy February everyone. I hope you all are keeping yourselves warm and safe as we go through the last hard dregs of winter. I have a few items to update about, only a few of which are from the actual County Board meeting proceedings. I unfortunately had to miss the last County Board meeting because I was hit by a car in a crosswalk walking to work last week. I appreciate all the support I’ve gotten–I am doing much better and healing quickly. I have links to all the County Board meetings from February below, and if you have any questions please feel free to reach out.
We received an update about the casino project from the Chairman of the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin. One of the steps in obtaining federal approval is establishing compliance wit the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). The administrative paperwork for this approval was submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in November. Once the review is finalized, the public will have the opportunity to comment on the environmental assessment. Based on that determination, the BIA will send its approval to the governor for concurrence. The governor has one year to approve. Anyone who is looking for updates in real time on the casino, they can follow casino.hardrock.com/Kenosha.
We also received a message I wanted to pass on from our Financial director about how executive orders can affect services locally in the county. The Sheriff’s Office, Human Services, and Public Works receive various grants which are federally funded. As a result, if federal assistance disbursements are paused or discontinued, many services at the county would be affected. The majority of these services are in the area of Human Services. Earlier in February, there was a temporary pause that was fortunately rescinded the next day. Underlying Executive Orders are still in effect and agencies must be in compliance with these Executive Orders. As Federal agencies determine what is impacted by these Executive Orders, Federal funds that had been frozen, and sites that had been locked, are now accessible and funds are available. Division heads, the County Executive, and the Financial Department are working to make sure all units comply with Executive Orders, to keep our resources active and provide for all our constituents in Kenosha County.
Adding a bit of perspective from my day job at the University, there is a great deal of fear and scrambling to maintain compliance with executive orders. I work on many committees to make higher education more inclusive and accessible, and I’ve watched entire multi-million dollar grants disappear; I’ve seen our committees’ websites be removed from the university server until we adjust all the language to be more “appropriate”.
While I do not ever want to use this newsletter for political posturing, I do think it is important that leaders speak truth to the reality. Accordingly, I want my constituents to know that I don’t see any of this as a partisan political issue: the censorship of equity programs and honest telling of our American history, the erasure of LGBTQ+ people and their history, and holding the resources hostage from our most vulnerable community members until they fall in line is beyond a failure of leadership. It represents contempt for all of us. I hope that we can speak honestly about this with each other and hold each other up in truth-telling. If we don’t, I don’t know who we can depend on to do so.
Thank you to everyone for listening; thank you to all who heard about the accident and sent healing; I hope you all enjoy our transition into spring and I will see you in March.
County Board Meeting (Feb 4): https://www.youtube.com/live/4Dq0JzXRvz0?si=ec6hkaL-iEljBhZF
County Board Meeting (Feb 19): https://www.youtube.com/live/ePrnaWLrcS8?si=lDxEJF_UqJkJB_VJ