Sunday, February 1, 2009

Ramifications Of Walker's Ineptitude Continue To Grow

I've been pointing out for months that Walker's refusal to do his job in properly managing the public assistance call center was going to be a big problem for Milwaukee County. It has already cost the County a multimillion dollar contract.

The news is getting worse.

Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the state, and now the feds, are starting to put more pressure on Milwaukee County to finally fix the problems that Walker has willfully created by refusing to fully staff the call center:

"Milwaukee County has demonstrated a sustained inability to successfully provide services" such as food and medical help to poor residents, according to a document obtained Friday from the state Department of Health Services. "The working families of Milwaukee County continue to be denied critical services."

Seth Boffeli, a spokesman for the state Department of Health Services, declined to comment on any potential state action, other than to say: "This is a problem we cannot allow to continue."

State officials are closely monitoring problems at the county's troubled public assistance call center and the county's response, Boffeli said. The center is a focal point for families applying for or renewing various public benefits, but staff shortages have meant many callers just get a busy signal.

"Our bottom line is we must have improvement," he said.

Federal officials are pressuring the state to prod Milwaukee County to fix its problems with food stamp clients. Wisconsin was the only Midwestern state to see its error rate for food stamps rise last year, fueled largely by Milwaukee County errors, Ollice C. Holden, regional administrator for the food stamp program, wrote in a Jan. 13 letter.

Holden said the state could get fined this year "unless performance improves significantly."

The County has already been fined $74,500 for its failure, and it is facing another steep fine for the continued failure to provide the necessary services.

The state is going to get serious about this real fast. They are also facing fines from the federal government, because Milwaukee County's poor numbers are bringing the state's numbers down with it. On top of that, they are also named as defendants in the class action lawsuit that the County is facing due to their violating people's rights.

The gentle reader who is familiar with my work here and at folkbum's rambles and rants are already familiar with the story of Milwaukee County Child Welfare. The state already took over the county's child welfare system. This move was prompted by another federal class action suit that named the state and county as defendants.

Since they took over, taxpayers are paying tens of millions of dollars more to fund the state's costly and inefficient system. Now the taxpayers are looking at another big hit if the state takes over the call center and other parts of the economic support division. And don't think they won't (emphasis mine):

Top state officials were scheduled to meet next week with Milwaukee-area legislators and county officials on possible remedies.

State Rep. Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee), chairwoman of the Assembly Committee on Children and Families, suggested the state place the county on administrative probation and impose a set of performance goals ordering the county to fix the problems under a strict deadline.

She would prefer to see the county given a chance to correct its problems instead of having the state take over administration of county income maintenance programs, Grigsby said.

"The problem is not going to go away, it's only going to get worse" if it's not addressed promptly, she said.

Needless to say, the situation is growing more serious by the day. Unfortunately for us, Walker is more interested in his perpetual gubernatorial campaign than he is in fixing the problem he has created.

Instead of fully staffing the call center with the 30 workers that the Board recommended during the budget process, Walker insists on cutting the effective work force by a third and putting in a lot of glorified receptionists. This is nothing but smoke and mirrors by Walker. He is hoping that by having people there to take messages, it will be enough to allay the complaints that are flooding his office, the County Board and the state's offices. All it will do is change the nature of the complaints.

Rather than people complaining that they can't get through to the call center, they will be complaining that even though they got through, no one could help them in a timely fashion, and that their benefits had been wrongly terminated and/or denied.

Then the state will take over, people will lose their jobs, and our taxes will go up even higher than they might have otherwise. Yet Walker has the gall to call himself a financial conservative.

Walker has got to wake up to the truth that he is not helping anyone with his stubborn and asinine stance on this issue. His so-called solution won't solve anything, and runs a good chance of actually making things worse. He is not helping the people that need the services. He is not helping the taxpayers, who would have gained no relief at his plan, but face the serious risk of their taxes going up if and when the state takes over the system.

And he is not helping himself or his campaign. He is already facing an uphill battle as it is. By obstinately sticking to his failed policy, he is only giving fodder to any opponents, whether they be Mark Neumann or Alfred E. Newman.

Walker needs to fully staff the call center with county workers who are capable of answering the phones AND do the necessary computer work.

The County Board needs to find a way to force Walker into doing this, including, but not limited to, finally killing Walker's plan to privatize the call center. That would only be signing over the call center, and more tax dollars, to the state.

And if they should fail in getting Walker to finally do the right thing, they need to petition the state from doing anything as severe as taking over yet another system from Milwaukee County.

At least for a couple more months.

ADDENDUM: The County Board should be fully prepared to not get any support from the local paper in their efforts to right this wrong. They need to remember that they think Walker's intentional neglect and sabotage of the County is him just being "honest and principled."

I would call it anything but that.

3 comments:

  1. Can't we dig up someone to run against this guy?

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  2. I have a sense that if a recall would be initiated and successfully petitioned, there would be candidates coming out of the woodwork. Walker wouldn't know if he should spend his small war chest on trying to keep this job, or go for broke by pursuing the governorship.

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  3. I'm not so sure. Less than a year ago we had trouble coming up with a credible candidate, and in fact never really did. Who do you think would come out of the woodwork?

    I'm not against the idea of having Walker spend his time trying to keep the job he has, rather than campaigning for a new one. But I fear a recall would fail.

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