Saturday, April 6, 2013

Sanfelippo Does A Gish Gallop On Usurpation Bill

With AB 85 - the Usurpation of Milwaukee County Bill - becoming increasingly unpopular, the plutocrats are getting desperate to find something to make it even seem the least bit like a good idea.

Unfortunately for them, they picked the intellectual lightweight Teapublican Joe Gish Gallop - a flurry of lies, half-lies and gibberish - to try to justify it.
Sanfelippo to be their sockpuppet in pushing this ill-thought out bill.  As a result, now that it's being challenged, Sanfelippo is forced to do a

A recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel demonstrates this well:
Sanfelippo said a key reason for his legislation was to enable the county to more effectively court economic development. He said the lack of much development on the county-owned parts of the Park East Freeway corridor was evidence of the county's ineffectiveness in promoting growth.

Sanfelippo, who served on the board for five years until he won his legislative seat last fall, said the job of county supervisor didn't come close to being full time. He said during weekdays, he only attended committee and board meetings at the courthouse, then met with constituents evenings and weekends.

"In no way, shape or form is it a full-time job," Sanfelippo said.

Dimitrijevic said it was a full-time job and that voters elected supervisors with that expectation. Supervisors are paid $50,679 a year, but their salaries would drop to about $24,000 under Sanfelippo's bill if voters approved the move in an April 2014 referendum.

Sanfelippo denied Dimitrijevic's claim that his bill was inspired by a "small, privileged group of people," an apparent reference to the Greater Milwaukee Committee.

"This is my bill," Sanfelippo said. "Nobody wrote this bill but me."
Just how stupid does Sanfelippo think we are?!

As for economic development, he cannot blame the Board for that and he knows it. The reason that economic development in Milwaukee has lagged is the fact that then County Executive Scott Walker first filled the department with unqualified cronies and campaign workers - including Tim Russell. And it was also Walker who then abolished the Department of Economic Development. Then when the Board reinstated those positions the next year, Walker was the one that never filled them, much less utilized resources the county had available.

His argument about whether the board should be full or part time is equally laughable, as I pointed out two years ago:
A couple of weeks ago, Supervisor Joe Sanfelippo said that he was going to introduce a resolution to make the County Boarda part-time job. Sanfelippo’s stunt is to cover for the fact that he spends most of his time at his taxi cab company instead of doing the people’s work.

This should be compared and contrasted with what other supervisors are doing.

This past weekend, Supervisors Marina Dimitrijevic and Jason Haas made themselves availableto their constituents at a neighborhood festival.

Dimitrijevic has also announced her 125th town hall meeting.

Supervisor Eyon Biddle has been all over the place in efforts to support andto betterhis community and reaching out to the teens in his neighborhood.

Compare that to Sanfelippo who has been more worried about political posturing than meeting his constituents. Perhaps that explains why he is in support of having Milwaukee County tax payers foot the bill so that Muskego can have sewers or why he votes on transit bills even though his company benefits from his votes.

The only logical conclusion from this comparison is that being a supervisor for the county can be a part-time job, unless you want to do the job the right way. Then it would require full-time attention.
I should also point out that Sanfelippo also doesn't feel that the supervisors need aides, but it was Sanfelippo who fought to get his aide at the county promoted to a full time status so that he could spend more time at his families taxi business. This same aide has since been transferred to the airport by Abele so that she wouldn't be cut if this bill were to pass.

The most incredulous of Sanfelippo's claims is that he wrote this egregious bill all by himself.  The man wouldn't be able to write an IOU without looking it up and having someone helping him.

Sanfelippo's claim is a bold faced lie.  The drafting documents are chock full of proof that the bill was written by Ray Carey and Mary Panzer, two lobbyists with the firm of Foley & Lardner, which was hired by the Greater Milwaukee Committee.  But then again, I had already informed the gentle reader three months ago that the Greater Milwaukee Committee was behind this power grab.  They tried to get Scott Walker to do it, but he had ambitions of his own that he was more concerned about.

Given the people who are behind this bill, their motivation for it and their desperation in trying to fool people on it, it should be enough to set off the red flags for anyone.  This is a bad bill that will undo our democracy and bring the county even further.  There is no justifiable reason for it, as evidenced by its proponents still not giving one.

1 comment:

  1. "...As for economic development, he cannot blame the Board for that and he knows it. The reason that economic development in Milwaukee has lagged is the fact that then County Executive Scott Walker first filled the department with unqualified cronies and campaign workers - including Tim Russell. And it was also Walker who then abolished the Department of Economic Development. Then when the Board reinstated those positions the next year, Walker was the one that never filled them, much less utilized resources the county had available...."

    If this were a fight, they would stop it.

    If Rep. Sanfelippo (or anyone else) thinks he was overpaid for ANY of his government service to Milwaukee County, he should IMMEDIATELY return all those funds. Actions speak louder than words.

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