Saturday, April 26, 2014

Walkergate: County Board Pushes For Release Of Doe Documents

More than six months ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel filed a lawsuit in which they petitioned for all of the Walkergate emails and documents to be released.

At the time, I pointed out how foolish this was and called for Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele to do his job by demanding the emails and documents since they were county property:
Secondly, there ought to be no reason to rely on the corporate media to get the documents released.  These documents are property of Milwaukee County and as such, it would be the onus of Milwaukee County Emperor to demand the release of the documents.  The fact that he hasn't done so in all of these months should raise eyebrows.  Was it because he was simply too busy hanging with his plutocratic pals at the Greater Milwaukee Committee to do his job or maybe was he helping provide cover to Walker as a political favor to get Act 14 - the power grab bill - passed?
Even the paper's editorial board had to agree with me that Abele should be doing this.
However, during all this time, Abele didn't lift a finger to do his job. As noted above, it could be that he was doing this as a political favor to Walker.

But there is also proof that Walker and Abele's gang of plutocrats, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, have been partners in the systematic destruction of Milwaukee County for years.  It makes one wonder if there were emails between Abele and/or other members of GMC and Walker's campaign/county staff.

Whether Abele is helping Walker or his fellow plutocrats with the cover up of the Walkergate documents might become a moot point now.  Once again, the Milwaukee County Board has to be the grown ups in the room and force the issue themselves, thanks to Supervisor John Weishan's diligence on spearheading this:
The Milwaukee County Board wants County Executive Chris Abele to dig up and make public county records related to a John Doe investigation that reviewed communications between Gov. Scott Walker's staff and campaign aides in his last year as county executive.

The board voted 11-7 this week to call on Abele to gather email and other records that may relate to county business from the closed investigation. The now-closed probe resulted in criminal convictions against six Walker aides and associates.

The measure approved by supervisors also calls on District Attorney John Chisholm to release the records.
Unfortunately, the Board only passed it by a vote of 11-7, not making it veto proof. And considering how Abele emulates Walker in almost every way, there is no reason to believe that Abele will suddenly want to protect or respect the public by signing this resolution into law.

That's where we come in.  Please call Abele at 414-278-4211 and/or email him at CountyExec@milwaukeecountywi.gov and tell him that the people of Milwaukee County and the State of Wisconsin have a right to know what is in those emails and other documents and that it is his responsibility to retrieve them and make them available to the public.

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