PART 1

I don’t normally joust at windmills, but I will if I have to. I don’t really have any thing against windmills but if they are in my way and I’m having a bad day, well, then I’ll take them on.

Well, right now I may be taking on another windmill but here goes.

Now, I’m going to use the “Z...” word now so make sure the kids are tucked away safely somewhere. It is the one word that drives fear into the hearts of common men. No, not zippers, but something even more ominous, omnipotent, and powerful. The word is ‘zoning’. And an even more ominous phrase is to follow which is always associated with the Z word…special exemption permits. (I’m sorry, but I just had to get it out. Consider it a political belch.)

Let me tell you about a case that I have become familiar with over the past few years. A case which I really feel deserves some public scrutiny because if ever there was a case that was indicative of the minnow wrestling the whale then this is it. It ties in with a number of other horror stories I have heard relating to zoning restrictions and rulings being imposed by county governments not only here but all around the U.S.

This is a case of a man, Gary Sukowatey, the ominous defendant, along with his nemesis wife Nancy and their nemesis five kids). With ever decreasing financial resources, Mr. Sukowatey has had to defend his livelihood, his reputation and his sanity against a multiplicity of zoning rules and regulations and their nebulous and varying interpretations and methods of enforcement. He is fighting stubbornly, but he is losing to a system that seemingly has unlimited funding to pursue him.

Sure, there is legal recourse he could take to continually state his case and fight but unfortunately at $250.OO+ per hour it is too expensive and beyond his present financial capabilities.

Only the great god of economic development might know (but I doubt it) just how much money has been spent by the county in pursuing this family. Like the debacle at the Little Big Horn so many years ago the anguished question rings out from the battlefield, “Who in the heck is paying for all these arrows?"

FLASHBACK TO 1986

Gary Sukowatey and his wife Nancy along with their months old baby girl looked at and fell in love with a few acres on the northeast corner of Highways 65 and 12 Village of Warren, County of St. Croix, and State of Wisconsin. It was not an attractive corner by any means. About the nicest looking thing on the property beside the Sukowatey baby girl was an apple tree. There was a house of sorts on the corner and a run down old barn building set back some. (Pay attention to the house because it holds special significance to a principal party in this story later on.)

The Sukowatey’s decided they would go for it, obtained the property, rolled up their sleeves and went to work. A number of relatives, friends, and neighbors pitched in, rolled up their sleeves also and helped them build their dream.

(SIDE NOTE: You see kids, in days gone by it actually was the custom for neighbors to pitch in and help a man ‘raise his barn’ knowing that that same man would one day pitch in to help them. Strange concept, isn’t it.)

Anyhow, it was a nice, quaint custom folks had in those good old days as opposed to today when it is more common for some neighbors to call for the ‘regulatory rangers’ to tear that same barn down.

Back then, things were a little looser and as long as you paid your taxes and were a good citizen people smiled and life was good. Unlike many folks today, back then people actually felt that you had to work for what you got and only by letting people work and generate an income could those same people be able to pay their taxes to the government (at ALL levels) so that the community could grow prosperous and would be attractive to other hard working families who had jobs and would pay taxes and that might want to live here.

However, rules and regulations changed as time went on but for the most part, if you were already living here doing what you were doing to put bread on your table you were able to carry on.

Well, something happened along the way. Farmers who raised livestock that fed the nice people living in this nice community now were told that they could continue raising their livestock but that they must now ask the animals to comply with the new county ODOR regulations.

People who mined gravel to build the streets and highways that all the new people had to travel on and build their homes on were told that they could continue mining the gravel but now they had to mine their gravel QUIETLY.

Then there were the Sukowatey’s who repaired autos as their livelihood to generate income for their family but still found time for fixing and painting cars, trailers and many other miscellaneous items for their neighbors for free.

This family which grew over the years to 7 and was happy doing what they were doing was now being told that what they were doing was in violation of numerous zoning laws. Basically, they could have auto parts for repairs but they had to be ATTRACTIVE auto parts.

Now, It didn’t matter that many of these laws were enacted after the fact or that one governing agency told them that what they were doing was ok not even being aware that another government agency was telling them the opposite.

As new important people came to work for the people in the zoning office, they brought with them new opinions and interpretations as to what the regulations meant or SHOULD mean.

And like people everywhere, unfortunately, sometimes even new important people bring with them something that doesn’t come in the job description and that is a predisposition toward some citizens and cases which directly mirror those of co-workers and superiors.

(Incidentally applicants qualifications as laid out in written job descriptions for county jobs versus some present county employees actual qualifications will be another interesting chapter in this saga a little later.)

In a struggle like this, like at the Little Big Horn, it is usually the guys with the most arrows who usually win.

Usually…..but not always !

As Paul Harvey would say, “Now, wait until you hear the REST of the story.”

Next week folks!

Thought for the week:

“When you are told that ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ just remember that every village usually has some village idiots and sometime they are the ones in charge of the village.”

PART 2 040504
The Sukowatey struggle has taken them through hundreds of hours of legal wrangling with the county trying to keep their lives together. I won’t go into every meeting but let me give you a couple of high (or low) points that I personally have witnessed.

In one meeting in late fall, I was at a meeting at the Sukowatey property attended by several county officials including Donald Gillen the county’s Assistant Corporate Counsel, Bob Mudge, the Sukowatey’s attorney at that time, and the Sukowateys.

At that time the county folks were explaining all the things the Sokowatey’s would have to do to get back in business. I’d like to list them all but in all honesty there were so many things brought up I don’t think there is enough room in this column nor would it make for interesting reading.

Just some of the items were: Clean up junk (which at that time was just about everything on the property), blacktop requirements, grading for drainage, soil tests, and a limit on the number of cars that could be on the property at one time.

I personally asked Mr. Gillen if, because of the late time of the year, we could sit down and work up a prioritization of what the county wanted done along with a reasonable time line. The reply was to the effect that plenty of time had already been given. At that point it was apparent to me that the county people had already made up their minds as to what the outcome of this case was going to be. As a matter of observation on my part the attitude towards me even being at that meeting was (and, incidentally still is) “Who are you and why are you here”?

Initially, the Sokowatey’s were told that just about everything was junk on their property and must be removed. This included customer cars that were being worked on that Mr. Sukowatey was awaiting payment on. It also included vehicles that were customer cars that were left there and that Mr. Sukowatey was trying to contact the owners to determine a disposition.

Now, I am sure that there are probably some very stringent state and county regulations governing the methods in which an automobile service business may dispose of a customer’s property. You can’t just take it to the junk yard particularly when you are owed money for services which were contracted for

I ‘d like to say that if the Sukowatey’s were able to collect a reasonable and proper fee for the storage of other peoples property at his site, I think that Mr. Sukowatey would have the property cleaned up, his legal bills paid, with a little left for pizza for all his county visitors.

Despite the fact that both the Sukowatey’s were in ill health – Mrs. Sukowatey having had emergency surgery just a few weeks prior to the hearing, they would have BOTH had to go to jail for contempt. Mr. Sukowatey would go first with work release (Huber) privileges and then Mrs. Sukowatey would do the same.

Do I fault the judge for the decision? Not at all. The judge is exactly that – a person who judges the facts of a case as they are presented to him. Now this is the key phrase: AS THEY ARE PRESENTED TO HIM! If you only have one side with the time and resources (resources as in MONEY) then a case being presented is going to be pretty lopsided. There are no public defender provisions here. For the most part this is a ‘show me the money’ legal defense system.

The Sokowatey’s did not go to jail. (Maybe someone finally thought about the children.)
Against the pleadings of Mr. Gillen, the county Assistant Corporation Counsel, the judge stayed the order for thirty days to give them additional time to start moving stuff out. He did, however, make exception to a number of items that he allowed them to keep that were previously considered junk.

(NOTE: It makes you wonder that if it was ALL junk a year ago and now some of it isn’t junk then perhaps there are other items there that aren’t attractive but certainly not junk. Perhaps, something like a customers abandoned, banged up 1991 Alfa Romeo.)

The Sukowatey’s had contracted to have much of the materials removed advising the court that they would comply. Mr. Gillen then wanted to know where the materials were going to be moved to. The judge didn’t want to hear it. Mr. Gillen also said that they (the Sokowatey’s) would then probably have excuses such as inclement weather or “other” restrictions to delay moving materials. What Mr. Gillen did not acknowledge is that there are indeed seasonal COUNTY road restrictions which would prohibit some heavy equipment which may be needed to traverse on county roads until later in the year.

Despite the weather, machinery break downs, and some missed visits by the scrap contractor (due to inclement weather ), the Sukowatey’s have removed approximately 60 tons of materials. The majority of the labor was provided by Mr. Sukowatey and his family. Not a whole lot of folks to help a man with his barn nowadays. I asked him recently how he was doing and he smiled, looked me straight in the eye and said, “George, no matter what, don’t ever let anyone steal your peace.” Quite a philosophy, don’t you think?

As their advocate and as their friend, I have had the opportunity to talk to the Sukowatey kids about what was happening. When a child is asked at school by their peers if his parents are going to jail that tends to be somewhat disconcerting to that child.

I have talked to a number of people regarding this case. Most of them – including a sitting County Board Commissioner – don’t understand why this case is getting the attention it is getting. The consensus is that, yes, improvements could be made but in no way has it traumatized them. Most people don’t care and think that the county could find better ways to spend their money.

On numerous occasions I, acting as an advocate for the Sokowatey’s, contacted the zoning people both by telephone and in writing regarding this matter. To date I have not receive one return reply from them. Along with some other citizens, I am still willing to work with them to help resolve these issues and I don’t mean just giving lip service. I’m talking about burning up some calories with a little manual labor.

I would, at this point, like to make an offer to the county zoning office regarding this case.

Here is my offer: What will it take to get the problem resolved and Mr. Sukowatey back in the business he has been in since 1987? Let a citizens committee of three sit down with your office, a representative from Warren township should they desire to attend, and the Sukowateys and go over point by point what the Sukowateys must do and establish a realistic time line in which the jobs must be completed.

Nothing vague. Everything specific and detailed.

Before we begin, we would ask that they provide us with a complete history of this case including all the court transcripts. These should be provided anyway under the Freedom of Information Act. If there is a reasonable county established fee for providing said transcripts we will pay that fee. This arbitration should only take 3 - 4 hours and will cost the county NOTHING except for the wages of their attendees. They would have to pay them anyway if they had to attend any future hearings.

I will take the offer one step further. We will pay the amount of $100.00 per hour for up to 4 hours payable to any county recognized youth or family oriented enterprise that they may designate.

Perhaps, it is providential that all this fuss has been made right around this time. The citizens of this county must vote on April 6th as to the direction this county is going to take in the next couple of years and who is going to be directing it.

Let me leave you with this little story:

Lets say you owned an airplane and you took a trip in that plane and enroute to where ever you were going the plane flew up and down, left and right – all over the sky even though it was clear weather and when the airplane landed the landing was so hard you weren’t sure if you had landed or crashed, and then the airplane stops in the middle of the runway to let you off, and when you do get off you find yourself at the wrong destination. Now, it isn’t going to help if you all get angry and cuss at and kick the airplane. It isn’t the airplane’s fault. You might, however, want to consider getting a different pilot.

NOTE: In the first part of this article I brought up the matter of job descriptions and qualifications required for certain county jobs versus the actual qualifications of the people who are presently holding those jobs. This is a matter which I will not expound upon now but watch for future articles.

Copyright © 2004 A New Visions Enterprises/Speaking Out Publications. All rights reserved. This article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of NewVisions Enterprises/Speaking Out Publications
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‘ Thought for the week’: