Playing Favorites

As any parent will tell you, even though they are supposed to love and treat all of their children the same, they do have favorites.  There's one child that isn't as exasperating, behaves better, excels at everything and isn't likely to cause the family great embarrassment.  And there is that other kid whom they love, but secretly fear will be featured on an episode of Cops or Live PD someday and that they will have to disavow.

And as any child will tell you, parents tend to treat their favorite differently from the others.  Punishments are less harsh, gifts are a little more extravagant and they are given a longer leash.  Parents like to brag about their favorites too, extolling their virtues and letting everyone know how great that one kid is--often using the phrase "why can't you be more like your brother/sister?"

The Oshkosh Common Council is a lot like a group of parents when it comes to Special Event Permits.  Tonight, they will again try to come up with a way to cut some kind of deal for the Downtown Farmers Market to avoid the ever-growing list of fees the City is imposing for "services" provided to special events.  You can tell the Farmers Market is the Council's favorite event.  It allows them to use phrases like "commitment to sustainable, farm-to-table production" and they can extoll its "benefit to the Downtown area".

Juxtapose that with another Downtown event--Pub Crawl--which most of the Council members detest more than their worst enemies.  The same downtown businesses benefit from a large number of people taking part--but every effort, including legal challenges, has been made to shut down Pub Crawl because some folks at City Hall "don't like it".  It should also be noted that the Special Event Permit fee structure was adopted to put another event--Sawdust Days--out of business because, again, some people in high places aren't fans.

When parents play favorites, kids just have to learn to live with it.  But when governments try to play favorites, that's when things tend to get ugly.  We expect our statutes and laws to be applied fairly to all people and groups--not just those that meet the fancy of the select few elected to a majority of the Council.   If the Council decides to cut the Farmers Market a break tonight, it should also develop the list of "Favorites", "Events That Will Be Tolerated (But Not Given A Discount On Fees)" and "Events We Want To Drive Out Of Town With Even More Additional Fees"--just so everyone knows where they stand in the pecking order.