Sign, sign, everywhere a sign........

Time for a change in leadership at Fish Lake Township.

Dump Diane!

Vote for Elvin Norling for Fish Lake Township Supervisor on March 13, 2012.

Dump Diane?

Can Fish Lake Township tolerate three more years of Supervisor Diane Larkin?
Vote for Elvin Norling for Fish Lake Township Supervisor on March 13, 2012!

Solid Support for 5th District 2012 Election?

Tim O’Keefe has expressed his gratitude and appreciation of the overwhelming positive response to his candidacy announcement to run in the 2012 Chisago County District 5 Commissioner race. Over 1500 generous offers of help and support have flooded in from Rush City to the City of Harris, and Nessel and Fish Lake Townships. Many well-wishers offered kind words of encouragement to persevere in the lofty pursuit to change “politics as usual.”

2012 Election Spells Change in 5th District?

A Chisago County District 5 Commissioner candidacy kickoff event for Tim O’Keefe on Saturday, 10/15/11, drew a crowd of over 200 supporters. Held at a rural Fish Lake Township farm, the grass roots movement was seeking change in “politics as usual.” Many supporters expressed their anger over continued increases in local taxation while their roads crumbled and fell into ruin. They also discussed two failed attempts by Fish Lake Township supervisor Bob Carter to unseat the current 5th district commissioner. Supporters believed that Bob Carter was further “tainted” by the Fish Lake Township political corruption scandal and that he lacked the honesty and integrity to run a viable 2012 campaign.

Tim O’Keefe was highly commended for his courage and endurance to expose political corruption and institute honest, open government in Fish Lake Township. Although several supporters agreed that the current district 5 commissioner had “caused no harm” during his eleven year tenure, he failed to manage government spending or propose innovative solutions to resolve ongoing county issues. If elected, Tim O’Keefe agreed that he would also work to bring integrity and dignity to the county board on behalf of district 5. Supporters were encouraged and motivated to rally behind Tim O’Keefe, calling him a “harbinger of change.”

Time for a Change in the 5th District?

Tim O’Keefe announces his candidacy today for the 5th district Chisago county commissioner race in 2012. He states that he is looking forward to the challenges ahead and welcomes voter input. Tim O’Keefe can be reached at npnf@ecenet.com or at 763-689-3335.

The Fish Lake Karpa is dedicated to bringing important local government issues to the public and will provide more candidate information as it becomes available.

Thank you for your continued readership.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Solidarity?

The Fish Lake Township official web site www.fishlaketownship.com has once again disappeared. When this previously occurred in May 2009, the web site re-emerged after major reconstruction which included the removal of all official meeting minutes prior to 2008. As with many secret proceedings at Fish Lake Township, one can only surmise the nature of the current web site disappearance. Perhaps the inability to access the township website is simply another management oversight to timely pay the Internet service invoice as apparently happened on at least one other occasion. Then again, are Fish Lake Township supervisors demonstrating their “solidarity” to the current Minnesota State government shutdown?

FLT Annual Meeting Matters a Secret?

This year Fish Lake Township (FLT) held its annual meeting on Tuesday, March 8th, as required by law. The annual meeting provides township residents the opportunity to participate in local government by voicing their concerns, proposing resolutions and collectively voting to give direction to the town board for the upcoming year.

Traditionally, most Fish Lake Township supervisors have discouraged or attempted to limit and control annual meeting attendance so that they could freely promote their own personal agendas. Township supervisors have also resisted voter attempts to move the township elections from March to coincide with the general elections in November because such a change would allow the annual March meeting to begin at an earlier time of day when more residents could attend. Currently, the annual meeting begins about 8:10 p.m. on a Tuesday, following the annual township elections held the same day. Township supervisors such as Bob Carter have even gone so far as to single out, chastise and bully annual meeting participants who did not support their personal agendas. Other supervisors have orchestrated dealings behind the scenes to insure their supporters were prepared and organized to attend and dominate the annual meeting.

This year, in an unusual fashion, the annual meeting did not conclude after “burning the midnight oil” the night of March 8th. The Fish Lake Township web site indicates that a re-convened annual meeting is scheduled on Tuesday, September 13th at 7:00 p.m. to “approve the budget for 2012.” Short of ever publishing an agenda prior to any annual meeting, there may be other unfinished business as well.

The annual township meeting is the only meeting whereby area residents can collectively vote and direct the town board each year. Annual township meeting matters should be available and accessible to anyone seeking such information. For a web site that boasts it was “created as a public service for the residents of Fish Lake Township,” why aren’t annual meeting minutes or agendas ever posted?