Public Accountability • Civic Literacy • Common-Sense Conversations

October 23, 2025, | Special Edition (Approx. 484 words – a two- minute read that could change your community)

What’s Ahead? –  🎭 Trick or Treat: Janesville’s Democracy Behind Closed Doors

Halloween has arrived early in Janesville — and the mask slipping is all too real.

The city has now announced its official “Trick or Treat” hours for Monday, October 27, perfectly timed to coincide with a closed-session meeting of the Janesville City Council.

According to the notice, Council will enter the shadows “for the purpose of deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties… in particular the GM/JATCO sites data-center proposals.”

👻 Translation: While children knock on doors asking for candy, the city will be behind a locked one, deciding the future of our community’s largest redevelopment site — no costumes required.

🚫 Strike One: Silence

For months, residents have begged for daylight on the data-center project rumored for the former GM plant. We’ve asked:

• Who’s funding it?
• What does it mean for taxpayers?
• How will it reshape our city’s economy, energy grid, and environment?

What we’ve received in return: silence.

Open-records requests hang unanswered. Emails go unreturned. The wall of official quiet grows taller by the week. The City that once promised “transparency and accountability” has traded its clear glass for blackout curtains.

🧱 Strike Two: Stonewalling

When challenged, we’re told that “competitive or bargaining reasons” demand secrecy. But with whom? Bargaining for what?

The old GM site is not private real estate — it is public ground, purchased, cleaned, and subsidized with the people’s money. When public assets are in play, secrecy is not strategy; it’s surrender.

And when the people footing the bill can’t even see the invoice, trust collapses. You can’t build prosperity on a foundation of withheld information. You can’t restore confidence by locking the doors of City Hall.

⚖️ Strike Three: The Closed Door

Now, once again, Council will meet in secret — conveniently framed by Halloween décor and irony. The timing could not be richer, or darker. While kids shout, “Trick or Treat,” adults in suits will quietly decide which handful of insiders get the treats — and which taxpayers get the trick.

Let’s be clear: this is not about opposing development or investment. It’s about respecting the public that makes those investments possible. Democracy dies not in darkness, but in shrugging acceptance of it.

Three strikes. Silence. Stonewalling. Closed doors. Each one chips away at civic trust, eroding the fragile belief that our voices matter.

🕯️ A Call to Show Up

This Monday night, the most powerful thing you can bring IS A CONSTRUCTIVE VOICE and your presence. Sit in the gallery. Watch who speaks. Note who looks away. Ask questions later, loudly, and respectfully.

If transparency has become a ghost, it’s time we stop pretending we don’t notice.

Because the next time that gavel drops in closed session, it might not just seal another deal — it might seal the last shred of public confidence we have left.

🧭 Thought for the Day

“When government forgets who it serves, the governed must remind it — not with anger, but with attendance.”

This Monday, see how much daylight democracy still has in Janesville. The only real trick would be pretending we don’t care.

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FINAL THOUGHT

Democracy is a skill—one that strengthens with practice.             

Stay curious. Stay engaged. Stay connected.
Because the next chapter of Rock County’s story is being written—right now.

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