Tosa Boy Scouts Get Swift Lesson in Civics

They say you shouldn't watch laws or sausage being made. But for Boy Scout Troop 117 of Christ King Parish, this was some mighty clean and efficient governmental meat-grinding.

They had come to City Hall to get a lesson in civics.

It was over in less than five minutes.

The Wauwatosa Common Council convened Tuesday night and automatically moved forward to the Plan Commission a slew of huge and small development plans.

In a blink, the council advanced the multimillion-dollar development of the Burleigh Triangle, a new Wal-Mart store, the new Montessori School and an ordinance creating a new city Community Development Authority, among other things. They will be considered much more carefully later, after being hashed out in committees.

In other business, the city paid its bills and decided that, yes, it would buy some asphalt and concrete and replace a water heater for the Police Department.

Meeting adjourned.

The boys of Troop 117 murmurred.

"That was it?"

"What, it's over?"

Yep. Sometimes, the business of the city is perfunctory and pro forma.

But Mayor Jill Didier, partly in her role as chief ambassador for Wauwatosa and perhaps also because she felt sorry that the boys had gotten such a short lesson in civics, stayed after to deliver some extra credit.

"When I first became mayor, I had an intern who had been a Scout," Didier said, "and we reached out to them. But since then, once in awhile we have one or two, but never a whole troop."

"Why did that one guy just say 'present' instead of voting?" one Scout asked.

"Well," said Didier, "that shows he was here but didn't want to go on record as being for or against it. It's like if your troop leader was an alderman, and something about the Boy Scouts came up, he wouldn't want to vote on it."

Didier also explained why that roll call vote was taken when others were taken on a voice vote.

Later, Scout Nate Cera, 13, showed he had paid attention.

"It's because it was about spending money," Nate said. "If you're spending money, you have to say what your vote is. You have to do a roll call to make sure that everybody had a role in the debate."

One Scout threw a hardball.

"Who are Democrats and who are Republicans?" he asked.

"Well, all these positions are nonpartison," Didier said. "That means the political parties don't matter. You can say whether you're a Democrat or Republican, but you don't have to.

"I chose to say I'm independent, because we should all be thinking of the good of the community, of Wauwatosa."

Troop 117 was not just stopping in at the Council chambers on a whim.

"We're doing a Citizenship and the Community merit badge," said Michael Guinen, also 13, "and this is one of the requirements."

Dan Sanders, who shepherded the group, is the merit badge counselor for Troop 177. He said that all Scouts, to earn this badge, have to go to a major public meeting and show they understood what went on.

"After the last few Council and committee meetings, I wasn't sure we would even find seats," Sanders said. "So this was a bit of a surprise."

The last Common Council meeting was long and loud, with many residents showing up to protest a proposed adoption of new union contracts, which was defeated in the face of public outcry.

But Tuesday, the boys of Troop 117 saw what day-to-day business is often like when big issues aren't on the agenda.

Short and sweet.