Who's Really To Blame For Milwaukee County Transit Deficit

The Milwaukee Country Transit System is a hot mess right now.  It is nearly $11 million in the hole right now.  MCTS officials blame their deficit on unexpected overtime, lower ridership, people getting on board without paying their fare and private contractors not meeting their obligations.

To make matters worse, transit officials have known about this for months, but have only just now come clean on it. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the finger pointing game is already ridiculous:

 "It's like they're way too reactionary. They're way too slow moving, and the fact it takes weeks to notify us that you're starting to see a problem, that is an issue," Supervisor Steve Taylor, the finance committee's vice-chair, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after reviewing the timeline.

The report also shows on June 23, following the agency's release of its May financial report, the County Executive's Office shared concerns with MCTS that it had not communicated the "severity of the budget situation" with supervisors prior to notifying the public, and "acting independently regarding major implications of service changes."

Days later, county Comptroller Liz Sumner said she was "stunned to learn through the media" of MCTS' projected deficit for 2025, given the reports she had been receiving projected a "balanced budget" for the end of the year. Sumner called for an audit of the agency as well as an analysis of the agency's finances to be carried out by her own office.

On July 1, Donna Brown-Martin, executive director of the county transportation department since 2018, resigned. A week later, Interim President and CEO Julie Esch resigned from MCTS

OK, so the two top MCTS officials resigned. That's just a start though.  

I need more answere from Summer on how she didn't know and only learned it through the media.  Where was she for the past six months?  Maybe we should do an audit on her office as well as MCTS.

The fact of the matter is that this has been a long time coming.  There once was a time when this sort of thing would never have gotten this big or gone on for so long before the Milwaukee County Board would have caught it and taken action.  

Their ability to do that ended about ten years ago, when then Milwaukee County Executive and Plutocrat Chris Abele colluded with Republican state legislators to pass Act 14, which gutted the county board and made them less than half-time employees. Act 14 also decimated the system of checks and balances that exists in functional governments.   

While most of the damage was done, the voters approved of this by large numbers, thanks to a strong advertising blitz by Abele, the Republicans, and people like Bruce Murphy, editor of Urban Milwaukee.

It should be noted that current leaders like the current county executive, David Crowley, hasn't lifted a finger to fix the problem, or even pretend to care.

Remember this when we go to vote next year.  All levels of government needs a good cleaning and purging of thos that serve the wealthy and not the people.

What Has Act 10 Cost You - The Milwaukee County Edition

Let me start this post with two sentences that I never, ever thought I would say in my life, especially as a public sector worker:

The first one is:

Thank you, Scott Walker!

Ooh, that was painful!  OK, the next one is:

Thank you, Chris Abele!

Ugh! I'm never going to get rid of this rotten taste in my mouth!

No, I haven't gone stark raving mad.  I actually have a valid reason for those statements.

To explain, let me remind the gentle reader of something that I have reported on in the past, which is how Walker's Act 10 would have a particularly detrimental effect on Milwaukee County taxpayers:

In 1991, Milwaukee County enacted the "Rule of 75," which meant that when an employee whose age and years of service totaled 75, they were eligible to retire with full pension benefits. However, this rule only applied to non-union represented employees or represented employees that were hired in 1993 or earlier. Represented employees weren't eligible for full benefits until they reached the age of 60 or 64, depending on their date of hire.

When Act 10 was enacted, AFSCME, the union representing public sector workers, chose not to play the Republicans' union busting games and didn't bother holding a vote to recertify. Their contention was that only the unions could decertify themselves and AFSCME wasn't about to do that. Thus, Milwaukee County chose to not recognize the union and claimed that all of its members were now non-represented.

This meant that over 1,000 employees suddenly became eligible for the Rule of 75.

Recognizing this loophole, the county then passed a resolution which basically said that if the employee wasn't eligible for the Rule of 75 then, they weren't eligible for it now.

AFSCME filed a class action lawsuit, arguing that the previously represented employees were now eligible. In other words, the county was trying to have it both ways.

AFSCME had won that lawsuit in 2016.

As I had predicted at the time, Abele appealed it. He lost a second time in 2017.

So Abele then appealed it again to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. I'm sure that Abele thought it would be a slam dunk for him, given how friendly he is with the conservatives, especially his "special friend," Rebecca Bradley.

I would have loved to see his face when the Supreme Court issued their decision in favor of the workers. Especially when the court's ruling was written by Bradley herself:

The Wisconsin Supreme Court delivered a victory Tuesday to a group of Milwaukee County employees, allowing them to take advantage of early retirement benefits that county officials say they didn't mean to give them.

The 5-2 decision is expected to worsen the county's long-term pension liability by $6.8 million, according to a 2016 report. That would force the county to contribute more than $800,000 a year for 20 years to cover the liability.

So, you can see, while I would have much preferred to have had my rights as a worker left intact, there was a silver lining to the whole debacle. To make it even sweeter for me, because of Abele's stalling tactics, not only was I eligible to retire, I was eligible for a modest backdrop - sorry Daniel Bice and Mark Murphy, not enough for you to start frothing at the mouth like you like to do - but enough to make up for a large hunk of the money Walker and Abele stole from me over the past seven years.

Last Friday, I retired as a Milwaukee County worker of more than 24 years.

All that said, as a taxpayer, I am considerably less than thrilled about this course of events.  According to the paper, the cost of all the eligible people retiring would be about $7 million dollars.  I would love to know how Abele came up with that number since there is no way for him to really know.  The County irretrievably lost parts of workers' records in 2013, when Abele, through his negligence, set the Courthouse on fire. He has no way of knowing even who is eligible to retire due to the ruling, much less how much it might cost. 

Chris Abele Suspending Values Tour

By Jeff Simpson

Capper has well documented, the exploits of current Milwaukee County Exec Chris Abele.  Anything that happens with him should come as no surprise. 

We pointed out recently how Leadership MKE, the political arm of Abele, is working hard to temper the coming blue wave. 

The fake Democrat Abele's group, led by GOP allies George Aldrich(Abele's Chief of Staff) and Andy Suchorski(Abele's Political director), have been attacking progressives in Milwaukee.

Now "Leadership MKE" (who the hell named that), has jumped in the Sheriff's race by strongly backing Richard Schmidt.  Yes, we live in a Democratic Republic and you can back who you want to back, but when the person you are backing believes this:

The criticism surfaced Monday about comments Schmidt made last year during a podcast interview. Schmidt told domestic violence victims who are Christians to submit themselves to the Holy Spirit, adding that God would restore their relationships.
Schmidt also failed to criticize the podcast host, a minister who said the victim should change, not the abuser. 

But wait there is more - like an exact quote:

“If someone is struggling, and their marriage is just a disaster ... get off God’s throne, submit yourself to that person and love that person,” Schmidt said. “If we’re Christian we submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit ... get off the prideful ladder, [and] God can bless that marriage and restore those relationships.”

Yes, if your spouse is beating you, you need to be a better person.   As the saying goes in right wing wacko land

Q. What do one million battered women have in common?
A.  They just don't listen! 

What does the Milwaukee County Exec Chris Abele. the guy who paid to keep the courthouse open so our LGBTQ friends could get married, one of the main funders of Emerge, do about this revelation? 

Doubles down to support Schmidt!

Abele has sicced his political hit team after Lucas and supporting Schmidt.

There is a saying that you reflect your values in how you spend your money.  Abele has shown his by going all in with Schmidt.   Which means the next move is Emerge's.

Abele is a huge funder of Emerge, and everyone needs money:

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, $900,200. Abele, who was first elected county executive in 2011, is also a businessman and philanthropist who traditionally supports Democratic candidates and groups. Abele’s 527 contributions went to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which backs lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender candidates nationwide, and Emerge Wisconsin, which helps elect women Democratic candidates.

EmergeWI has the following vision and mission:

Our Mission: To increase the number of Democratic women leaders from diverse backgrounds in public office through recruitment, training, and providing a powerful network.
Our Vision: To change the face of power, politics, and leadership in this country in order to have policies that are responsive to all Americans.

A great organization, dedicated to a great cause surely would publicly let everyone know that this was a bridge too far for them. 

Unfortunately no.   

When I contacted Emerge about it, I was told that he is just a donor and not on the board and that the money does not come with strings, so while they were disappointed they have no control over it.

Money ALWAYS comes with strings. 

Readers of CogDis, will remember, that when Diane Hendricks became chief fundraiser for the Donald, that I asked that my alma mater Beloit College remove her from the Board of Trustees(Here, here, here and here). 

I was given the same basic response from Beloit College, which can be interpreted as Money Changes Everything. 

But wait there is more.  Another person who has not weighed in on this horrible controversy is Kelda Roys, candidate for Governor? 

Why is this issue relevant to Kelda?  Because as a small business owner, she relied on investments.   One of her biggest investors?

Chris Abele! 

Research suggest that police officers have a much higher rate of domestic violence than the general population and since it is already very hard to get away and get help, what is the message you are sending to the community when the head acting law enforcement officer believes such incredible things?

While I admire Emerge WI and Kelda Roys for the positive difference they have made and are making in our state, their failure to publicly admonish Chris Abele in this instance, because he writes big checks, is very disappointing.

As Margaret Atwood says:

“Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”

Spring Election 2018 - People vs Dark Money

Never has the distinction between the dark money candidates and the independent candidates have been so clear.  In the state races, you have the usual suspects pushing for Screnock and eliminating the state treasurer - WMC, Kochs, NRA, etc.

In the local races in Milwaukee County, we have a new dark money threat, Boss Abele has decided to go full slime in his efforts of buy-partisanship. Abele has spent over a million dollars to buy a handful of seats on the county board because he is sick and tired of having the little people (voters) foil his plans of creating the perfect plutopia.

So without further ado, here are my official recommendations on today's elections:

Statewide races:

Supreme Court:  Rebecca Dallet
Referrendum: NO


Milwaukee County:

Board of Supervisors-

District 1: Theordore Lipscomb
District 7: Felesia Martin
District 8: Steven Shea
District 9: Steve Taylor (yes, he's a Republican but not an Abelebot like his opponent)
District 12: Peggy West
District 17: Tony Staskunas
District 18: Sparkle Ashley

Polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm. Don't forget to bring your Voter ID.

Milwaukee "Democrats" Are Sabotaging the Blue Wave

By Jeff Simpson 

 As we are on the verge of a blue wave, as we have seen all over the country, and shortly that will start ramping up towards the November election.   

In Wisconsin, before we can even start to concentrate on getting some of the hard care right wing extremists out of office, there is a major obstacle to overcome first.  

Milwaukee Democrats.  

First there is the Supreme Court race, where there are three candidates(Burns, Screnock and Dallet).  Tim Burns proudly wears his progressive values on his sleeve and that does not sit well with the right wing.  It also does not sit well with Dallet, who has decided to spend her time attacking Burns.   

While campaigning throughout the state and at many Democratic events, Dallet, (with a team run by "Democratic" consultant and former Hillary top staffer and also working with Nation Consulting) takes every chance she can to run down the Progressive name and values.   

"He'll do whatever he thinks democracy dictates," she said, "But we as courts are limited." 

Dallet contended that despite Burns' claim of candor, he hasn't fully identified his clients, or how many cases he's handled in Wisconsin courts. She's dubious he would follow the law when it would direct an outcome he doesn't like.

Yes, she is trying to get elected and needs to discredit her opponent, the thing is the opponent she gives a pass to, is a twice arrested hard core right wing Walker apologist.    

Staying in Milwaukee, we see that Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, has started his own attack on Democrats.   

Abele wrote a check to start a PAC which is poorly called Leadership MKE.   Abele launched his new PAC to attack local leaders and stack the deck with Abele supporters in the spring election.   

 Leadership MKE will focus on numerous elections this Spring, including several Milwaukee County Board campaigns, local mayor races, and potentially some suburban school board and trustee elections.       
The organization’s platform is focused on continuing Milwaukee County’s growth through sustainable investments in social services, including investing in public safety services to make our communities safer, County Parks to ensure a high quality of life for all residents, public transit to connect workers to jobs, and local infrastructure projects to grow and attract new businesses across Milwaukee.  

The reality is that Abele, who has put hundreds of thousands of dollars into this PAC, is using it to target anyone that dares criticize his budget.   

It is incredibly interesting that Chris Abele has to charge people to park in public parks, but has an extra half million to attack the county board, laying around. 

Edit note: At some point the public needs to say no more of politicians spending millions of dollars attacking each other while children starve on the streets. 

As above, who is running this dark money attack on good people? 

Why long time Democratic insiders of course.   

George Aldrich, former chief of staff for Peter Barca, and Chris Abele and head of the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee(which oversaw the Democratic drubbing in 2016) is executive director.  Andy Suchorski, former Nation employee, who also had a hand in the ADCC drubbing is Abele's and Leadership MKE's political director. 

With so many Democratic insider mercenaries working so hard to taint the Progressive and Liberal name in WI, all for a paycheck, that could be the biggest roadblock to the blue wave that Wisconsin so desperately needs. 

With friends like these, who needs enemies! 

If November does not go well, remember these people!

 

Breaking! Chris Abele Wants To Tax Lakefront Again

When Scott Walker was Milwaukee County Executive, he introduced the idea of putting parking meters up and down the lakefront.  The County Board properly shut it down.  As then Supervisor Gerry Broderick stated at the time:

“The installation of parking meters would severely restrict public access to this beautiful natural resource,” said Supervisor Broderick, Chairman of the Parks, Energy & Environment Committee. “I encourage all County residents to contact their County Supervisor and the County Executive. Tell them to oppose the installation of parking meters on Lincoln Memorial Drive and Veterans Park.”

Being a slow learner, Chris Abele has again floated the idea of taxing the lakefront, only to fail time and time again.

Even though Abele hasn't had the required public hearing for the 2018 budget requests yet, if one looks hard enough, one can find the budget requests posted on the county website. And sure enough, Abele is proving is a very, very slow learner by trying to tax the lakefront yet again:

Increase revenue by $1,662,000 by implementing pay-to-park along Lincoln Memorial Drive, McKinley Park parking lot, Lagoon Drive and easternmost lot in Veterans Park, North Point parking lot, Bradford Beach parking lot, and easternmost Lake Park parking lot.

Not only does Abele want to make sure every square inch of the lakefront has a fee attached to it, he wants to add additional park rangers to enforce these ordinances and increase revenue.

Abele says that the reason for the need to tax the lakefront is due to a tax levy reduction, which is what he wanted in the first place.  So with less money coming in and Abele going on a gifting spree, giving away hundreds of millions of dollars of county assets to his rich friends and business associates, his budget is almost as screwed up as the state's.

I'm sure Abele sees it as an added bonus that this might keep some of the common riff raff, like normal citizens, away from his plutocratic playground so that he and his friends can enjoy the lakefront as it was meant to be and by only those most worthy - the filthy rich.

The only question is does he really believe that he's screwed up the county's finances bad enough that the board will feel that they have no choice but to go along?

Abele To Pikachu: Pay Up Or Get Out!

Milwaukee County is facing a crisis!

I'm not referring to the racial unrest after another police shooting. I'm not talking about the fiscal crisis caused by Milwaukee County Emperor Executive Chris Abele giving away hundreds of millions of dollars in county assets to billionaires like the owners of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Oh no, the problem that Milwaukee County faces is much bigger than that.

The crisis is that people - members of the public - are using the public parks to socialize and recreate by playing Pokemon Go! The horror of it all!

Milwaukee County's parks director has sent a letter to the company behind the gaming sensation "Pokemon Go," asking it to comply with a county ordinance that requires a permit for game play in the public spaces, WISN 12 NEWS has learned.

So far there's been no reply, parks director John Dargle said, adding that he's only asking the CEO of Niantic to do what any organization must do when it organizes an event on park land.

"We're asking them to submit a permit so that we understand who is the contact (and) how we can get a hold of them if this should get out of hand," Dargle said.

Until that permit is obtained, Niantic "must deactivate and removal all Pokemon GO sites, including Poke stops and Gyms within Milwaukee County parks," the letter said.

Here is a copy of the pay up or get out letter.

Dargle goes on to say that it has caused a number of complaints about congestion, litter and people in the park after hours.

But Dargle's boss, the plutocratic Chris Abele, accidentally tells the real reason for this turf war (emphasis mine):

"Everybody likes fun recreation. The parks are there to be used by the public, but when it starts interfering with other people's ability to enjoy their own park, when there's more trash, you know, we have to get serious about it," Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said.

Additionally, entrepreneurs like artist Anandah Bohl have seized upon the opportunity presented by the game by selling fan art to the throngs in Lake Park. Niantic makes money through in-app purchases.

"Parks wants a cut of that revenue so we can help catch up on deferred maintenance," Abele said, adding that it's illegal to operate a business without a permit.

In other words, because Abele has been lavishing gifts to his fellow wealthy elites, he has no money left to take care of his real duties, like fixing the long-neglected parks.

So far, Niantic has not responded to the county's ridiculousness. Don't hold your breath that they ever will. Not only because it is so absurd that it doesn't deserve an answer but because Abele doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Just a month ago, Abele invited the community to all of the parks to participate in a "PokeNic," a Pokemon Go based event. He even gave the people all of the hot spots in the parks where the Pokemon are most commonly found.

The Pikachu Crisis is so huge that they have even scheduled a town hall meeting on September 2.

Please pray for us and that we might survive this calamity - Chris Abele that is, not the Pokemon thing.

The Kooyenga Revolt

By Jeff Simpson 

Milwaukee Public Schools appointed takeover Czar Dr. Desmond Means has resigned.   Dr. Means was appointed to the position by education non-expert Chris Abele, thanks to a ridiculous bill authored by Dale Kooyenga.  

This left a lot of people disappointed but not seeing the forest for the trees,  

One of the few remaining columnists worth reading on JSonline - James Causey, even did not quite get it.

He was facing a lot of opposition from MPS, teachers and some parents. There were rallies, marches and forums fighting against any changes. When Means and Abele presented a plan to the district to start to fix failing schools, the district countered with a plan of its own.
It makes you wonder why MPS didn't have a plan earlier.
Means said when he volunteered to help lead a state-mandated school turnaround district, that he would not impose anything on the district.
“It is now clear to me that as implementation of the law moves forward, the environment is not conducive to collaborative partnerships – something essential for positive things to happen in Milwaukee,” he said.

First off, its funny to call for a collaborative effort now when there was none that went into writing the bill.   Legislators from outside Milwaukee decided the best thing for the children of Milwaukee was to takeover their buildings and send the kids to unaccountable for profit ventures.  

Secondly, where Mr. Causey says "makes you wonder why MPS did not have a plan earlier", its because no one asks the School Districts for input, We have ALEC for that.  

Maciver Institute, the not very thoughtful tank, based in WI, was upset about it also.  They tweeted the silly words of the bills author - Dale "too many beers" Kooyenga, and Community Activist Jennifer Epps Addison was more than ready to offer up  A PLAN!

1. 

    Follow

   MacIver Institute @MacIverWisc

   #OSPP coauthor @DaleKooyenga comments on Means' resignation earlier this afternoon: #wipolitics

   3:39 PM - 29 Jun 2016

    
   •  44 Retweets
    
   •  11 like

2.  Follow

   Jennifer EppsAddison @jenniferlepps

   @MacIverWisc @DaleKooyenga how about you stop commenting & actually ASK MPS Families what you can do to improve the quality of their schools

   4:00 PM - 29 Jun 2016

    
   •  66 Retweets
    
   •  44 likes

3.  Follow

   Jennifer EppsAddison @jenniferlepps

   @MacIverWisc @DaleKooyenga here's a hint, they WON'T ask you for a take over

   4:00 PM - 29 Jun 2016

    
   •  77 Retweets
    
   •  44 likes

4.  Follow

   Jennifer EppsAddison @jenniferlepps

   @MacIverWisc @DaleKooyenga they'll tell you they'd like the same funding per pupil as Mequon

   4:01 PM - 29 Jun 2016

    
   •  77 Retweets
    
   •  44 likes

5.  Follow

   Jennifer EppsAddison @jenniferlepps

   @MacIverWisc @DaleKooyenga they'll tell you that class sizes should be no more than 15 to 1

   4:01 PM - 29 Jun 2016

    
   •  66 Retweets
    
   •  44 likes

6.  Follow

   Jennifer EppsAddison @jenniferlepps

   @MacIverWisc @DaleKooyenga they'll tell you they'd like to have enough desks and books for each kid in class

   4:01 PM - 29 Jun 2016

    
   •  88 Retweets
    
   •  44 likes

7.  Follow

   Jennifer EppsAddison @jenniferlepps

   @MacIverWisc @DaleKooyenga they'll tell you that they want culturally representative course work, not whitewashed ideology

   4:02 PM - 29 Jun 2016

    
   •  88 Retweets
    
   •  44 likes

8.  Follow

   Jennifer EppsAddison @jenniferlepps

   @MacIverWisc @DaleKooyenga they'll tell you that they want art, music, libraries, and electives not more standardized tests

   4:03 PM - 29 Jun 2016

    
   •  88 Retweets
    
   •  44 likes

9.  Follow

   Jennifer EppsAddison @jenniferlepps

   @MacIverWisc @DaleKooyenga mostly they'll tell u 2 stop pretending u care when ur end game is 2 bankrupt MPS so privitizers can profit

   4:05 PM - 29 Jun 2016

    
   •  77 Retweets
    
   •  66 likes   

 I am sure epic smackdown will send Dale Kooyenga back to the bar to get drunk again,

There is your plan Mr. Causey!   

Maybe Ms. Epps Addison should be the next takeover czar!