The Very Political Non-Political Mental Health Board

When Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele paid Teapublican Representative Joe Sanfelippo to push a bill removing local control of the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division, they tried to justify this power grab by saying it was to take politics out of the mental health system.

That rationale is about as believable as Scott Walker's claims that his agenda is working.

We already saw that Walker did his protege a favor by making the political appointment of the disgraced Kimberly Walker to the ad hoc mental health board that is supposed to take over things.  Kimberly Walker is the former corporation counsel head that got fired for giving advice to Abele on how to  illegally circumvent open records laws and for giving faulty legal advice to the board.

On Thursday, the "non-political" board voted unanimously to make the politically appointed Kimberly Walker the chair of the board.  Apparently, her skill had trying to cover up things made her to invaluable to pass up, even though she has no experience with disability rights laws.

To add to the non-political politicalizing of the board, they also voted to hire on Kathy Eilers, the political appointee of Abele's who was rejected by the board because she couldn't even articulate a plan for the mental health service outside of closing the hospital, despite there being a dearth of community-based services.

As I had said all along, this is going to be a lose-lose situation.  Not only will our most vulnerable be victimized by the corporate vultures and have their civil rights violated in the name of greed, but the taxpayers are going to have to pay much, much more - both directly and indirectly - due to Abele's greed and malfeasance.

Bipartisan Cronyism

Three months ago, I broke the story that Scott Walker had asked that the disability rights advocacy group Disability Rights Wisconsin be investigated for violating the laws regarding patient confidentiality.

Last week, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the group was found to have violated the law but that it did not rise to the level of them being stripped of their authority to be the state advocate for the disabled.

However, buried at the end of the story - where the corporate media giant likes to put stories that they really don't want people to know about but do want to be able to claim they reported it - is the news drop that people should be aware of (emphasis mine):

On Friday, Walker announced his final two appointments to the new Mental Health Board.

They are Lyn Malofsky, who will represent consumers of services, and Kimberly Walker, a legal representative.

Malofsky served as executive director of Warmline Inc. and helped establish La Linea de Apoyo for the Spanish speaking. She co-founded the Crisis Intervention Team.

Walker is executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee and previously served as corporation counsel for Milwaukee County.

What the paper doesn't report is that Kimberly Walker was fired from her corp counsel job for her incompetence and lack of ethics. Kimberly Walker was the person who gave Emperor Chris Abele advice on how to circumvent open records laws. Not only was her advice unethical and illegal but it was also faulty in that her advice wouldn't work.

Illegalities and ethics never bothered Scott Walker and he is no stranger to cronyism, so this was a slam dunk decision.

Isn't it nice to see that Abele and Scott Walker can show such "bipartisanship" to reward another crooked crony?  I'm sure that if Scott Walker ever needed the favor, such as giving Tim Russell a job, Abele has got it covered.

And isn't it nice to know that this whole scheme regarding Milwaukee County's mental health system had nothing to do about politics or profiteering?

Abele Takes Bold Stance Against Taxpayers, Workers, Integrity

Unsurprisingly, Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele waited until the day before the County Board meeting to issue his vetoes.  When one looks at the vetoes he issued, it quickly becomes apparent that Abele is continuing his personal vendetta against the Board because they had the audacity to tell him no.

One of Abele's vetoes involved a revision to a deal to sell a water tower to the City of Wauwatosa.  The Board amended Abele's sweetheart deal with them because he was giving up a lot of revenue from the cell towers.  Not to mention that by the time the reconstruction of the zoo interchange is done, that land will be worth many times its current value.  There is little doubt that Abele wanted to offer this huge giveaway to the City of Wauwatosa as they are about to make key decisions on the destruction, er, construction at the county grounds which would greatly benefit some of Abele's fellow plutocrats at the Greater Milwaukee Committee.

What Abele doesn't want the taxpayers to know is that if the county owned the water tower and worked needed to be done, the county would only charge the cost of the work. Under Abele's plan, when things have to be done, the price skyrockets due to the added profit margins.

Abele also vetoed funding for the Board to retain the services of a law firm to look at the legality and constitutionality of Act 14.  He is upset that the law firm the Board had chosen has a history of suing the county on behalf of the union.  Abele's ghost writer thinks it's because they have a blue fist on their website.

This is only more self-serving hypocrisy from Abele.  The real reason he doesn't want to allow the Board to hire the law firm is because he knows that Act 14 is flawed.  Furthermore, Abele really has nothing to say about it since the whole bill that led to Act 14 was written by Foley and Lardner which is to Abele as Michael Best and Friedrich are to Scott Walker.

Abele also vetoed the wage and benefit requirements that the Board had put on a hotel that is proposed to be built on the county grounds (over just about everyone's objections).  Abele called it a job killer and possibly illegal, based on his corp counsel's legal opinion.  Yes, that's the same corporation counsel head that  got fired for giving faulty advise as well as encouraging illegal behavior.

The proposed hotel has more than doubled in value from last year to this year and is currently valued at $14.5 million, and that is before they've even settled on where to build it.  Obviously, the could afford the relative pittance to allow the workers a chance to feed their families and take care of them when they are sick.  It should also be noted that the salary is only a small fraction over the level of poverty.

Of course, this is not the first time that Abele has come out against workers.  Abele felt that the striking workers at Palermo's Pizza should be happy with the jobs they had, even though they had been at minimum wage for years and working in conditions so poor that OSHA had to come down heavy on the company.

Perhaps the most telling of Abele's vetoes is the one against the firing of the above-mentioned head of corporation counsel, Kimberly Walker. The paper notes that Abele heaped praise on Walker as he vetoed this resolution.  Unfortunately, the article does not express what exactly he praised her for.  Perhaps it was for not fulfilling her responsibility as being answerable to both Emperor Abele and the County Board.  Maybe it was for the bad advice she gave out.  Possibly it was for her admission that she was working for Abele and that any advice she gave the Board would be a conflict of interest.

Most likely, it was for the fact that she solicited Emperor Abele to violate open records request laws by using her as a human secret router, as evidenced by her own email.

We all should fall to our knees and thank our lucky stars for Dear Leader Abele.  In just one day, he has taken swift action to:

• Make sure taxpayers pay their fair share and to protect the plutocrat land developers,
• Ensure that justice is not pursued and that democracy doesn't regain a foothold in Milwaukee County,
• Keep working stiffs from getting to uppity and clearing the path for the oligarchs that would exploit said workers, and
• Keeping corruption and incompetence in its place - the county executive's office.

The County Board is to meet on Wednesday at 1 pm at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, Room M210.  The meeting had to be moved due to an electrical fire at the courthouse caused by deferred maintenance, which is just another stunning example of the efficiency we can expect under the reign of Emperor Abele.

Now watch that mean old Board go and ruin it all.  They're always standing with those taxpayers, workers and are always upholding those silly, old, obsolete ethics.

Author's Note: No purple unicorns were harmed in the production of this article.

Abele Photo Prompts Walkergate Memory

On Wednesday, Summerfest opened up on Milwaukee County's lakefront.  As is the norm, the local politicians wend their way down there for their photo ops on opening day.

So it was not surprising to see photos of Mayor Tom Barrett or County Emperor Abele down there, but this photo was a bit surprising:

What was also mildly surprising was the caption:

Great to be at the opening of #Summerfest with my friend, Mayor Tom Barrett, and the best Corporation Counsel Milwaukee County has ever had, Kimberly Walker.

First, one has to move past asking why in the world the county emperor would need corp counsel at Summerfest, unless he was planning on a legal issue to suddenly arise.

As noted, the over the top comment isn't too surprising.  Abele has kept Walker on as corp counsel even though she solicited the commission of a crime - namely offering her services to try to circumvent open record requests - as Cory Liebmann pointed to a few months ago.  And even if her email doesn't constitute a crime in itself, it most definitely is in violation of the state statutes of the responsibilities of a lawyer.

Since Abele did not want to do his job regarding Walker, it fell upon the Milwaukee County Board to terminate her.

Responding as he usually does when he doesn't get his way, Abele decided to throw another major temper tantrum.  Among other things, Abele is keeping Walker on the payroll - even though she had been fired - until the veto and override process as been completed.

It is insulting and outrageous that he is clinging onto her job despite her incompetence and her corruption, but he was more than willing to fire a dead man for having been sick with cancer.

But this whole farce of Abele's, along with that photo, did remind me of another photo that was commonly seen here during the Walkergate investigation:

For those who are new here or might have forgotten, Tim Russell worked on all of Scott Walker's campaigns for county executive and his two runs at being governor.
In between campaigns, Russell would serve in Walker's cabinet, in several different positions.  One such position was the economic development director.
When the Board denied Russell's confirmation, Walker refused to fire him and moved him to another cabinet level position.

That continued until Russell was arrested and convicted of stealing money from a veterans fund and was eventually sentenced to prison.

But up until the time of the arrest, Walker would often sing the praises of Russell, just as Abele is doing for Kimberly Walker.  This only adds to the growing list of occasions where Abele seems to be following right in Scott Walker's footsteps.

Which makes it no great wonder that this image is quickly becoming more and more popular with many progressives in the Milwaukee area:

Abele's Tantrums Over Firing Of Corrupt Corp Counsel

Two months ago, Cory Liebmann reported on an email he found from Kimberly Walker, the then head of Milwaukee County's Corporation Counsel, in which she solicited County Emperor Chris Abele to send all emails through her in order to circumvent open record requests:

"Please see the following below... my two-cents worth.  FYI - trying to play this forward in my mind.  With the exception of my email, this email string will not be exempt from open records requests.  Should you wish to preclude its disclosure, please send additional comments, revisions etc., only to me with the names of others who should see it, and I can forward. Just a thought."

Walker's suggestion to avoid open records requests is not unlike when Tim Russell installed  a secret router and email system so that Scott Walker's staff could do illegal campaigning without fear of being found out.

This solicitation to commit a crime was compounded by her failing to perform her job adequately and giving faulty legal advice.

Despite the failings, the unethical and illegal behavior, Abele never saw fit to correct the situation.  If anything, he encouraged and enabled it to continue.  (And Abele wonders why people refer to him as "Walker Lite" and "Lil Walker.")

The inevitable result was that the Milwaukee County Board had to be the adults and voted to terminate Walker's service.

This caused Emperor Abele to have a major temper tantrum and hissy fit.

First he called upon the Imperial Ghost Writer, Aaron Rodriguez, to attack the County Board, and especially Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic.  Rodriguez' effort was a predictable failure.  The best that Rodriguez could come up with was to the effect that they hired a law firm where the janitor's sister's boyfriend's babysitter's aunt's ex-husbands stepdaughter's dog gave a donation to Dimitrijevic six years ago.

Rodriguez also tried to ignite some selective outrage by pointing out that the law firm that Board would contract with had a Blue Fist on their webpage.  The horror of it all!

 His rant about that reminded me of this famous scene from the movie "Animal House":



And in accordance with Abele's and Rodriguez' hypocritical nature, there was no mention that Abele and his plutocratic pals at the Greater Milwaukee Committee had hired the union busting silk-stocking law firm of Foley and Lardner. Foley and Lardner is the Abele equivalent of Scott Walker's Michael Best and Friedrich.

Gaining no traction with Rodriguez, Emperor Abele then turned to his own bought and paid for supervisor, Deanna Alexander.

Shortly after the firing, Alexander shot off a press release filled with unsupported and unsubstantiated allegations of having "secret meetings" and making sure that no one told Alexander.  It is not clear at this time whether Alexander wrote this release or if it was another production by Brendan Conway, Abele's spokesperson.

Now it is being reported that Alexander, through the Bradley Foundation's Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, has filed a complaint with the Milwaukee County District Attorney, the state's Attorney General and corporations counsel's office. (Oh, no conflict of interest there!)  The complaint alleged that Supervisor Theo Lipscomb, who originated the movement to fire Walker, and the other supervisors had violated the open meeting laws.

Not once did it occur to any of these fools that Lipscomb might have done what any supervisor would have done and met with the other supervisors on a one to one basis, which is perfectly legal.

Make no doubt about it - this move by Alexander and the other sockpuppets is for no reason other than to try to scare the supervisors into switching their votes and upholding Abele's veto of the firing.

It should be noted that many people have stated that Alexander is over her head on this stuff, which she found out today when Supervisor Gerry Broderick issued his own press release with some interesting questions in it:

Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Gerry Broderick said today that Supervisor Deanna Alexander was disingenuous in filing an open meetings complaint against 13 members of the Board because she herself secretly met with colleagues in seeking the removal of Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic.

The Board fired Corporation Counsel Kimberly Walker last week in a 13-5 vote that Alexander said was “irrational.” The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed a complaint on Alexander’s behalf on June 21.

“I can’t help wondering if Supervisor Alexander had these same concerns in mind last month when she set about meeting behind closed doors with colleagues intent upon unseating Chairwoman Dimitrijevic,” Broderick said. “Shouldn’t her failed coup attempt be subject to the same level of scrutiny as the successful dismissal of Corporate Counsel Kimberly Walker? Or is there a politically convenient double standard being applied here?”

Broderick also questioned who was paying for the attorneys involved in the complaint.

“Is she paying for this out of her own pocket? Because that’s what she should be doing,” Broderick said. “If she is getting free legal advice, then she is engaging in unethical, if not illegal, behavior as a public official.”

It will be interesting to see if Alexander has suddenly become expendable to Emperor Abele, who has a long track record of abandoning friends.

Lastly, for now anyway, the sour and boorish Sheldon Lubar, who is one of Abele's fellow plutocrats at GMC, shows his true nature by some very bitter and acidic personal attacks on both Dimitrijevic and Lipscomb in a tantrum that rivals one of Abele's. It must be a plutocrat thing:

In a letter to Lipscomb, Lubar said "you and the rest of your mindless plotters of 13 supervisors should be ashamed of yourselves" for working to oust Corporation Counsel Kimberly Walker. The board voted 13-5 to fire her, with no debate.

[...]

In an interview, Lubar criticized Dimitrijevic as "a child... She has no maturity." He compared her unfavorably to her predecessor as chairman, Lee Holloway.

It truly is amazing to see the way these plutocrats act when they are told no. It's also very disappointing that Abele and his apologists act when the person saying no is a strong woman like Dimitrijevic. Their bigotry and misogyny really shines through.

In an effort to sum up the oddness and inanity of the situation, Kimberly Walker was inept, unethical and dishonest.  As a result, she rightfully lost her job.  In a pique of rage, the elitist and arrogant Chris Abele has made his friends, apologists and minions look like fools and boors, possibly gotten them into their own legal trouble.  To top it off, the person that Abele and minions were trying to defend, will have her own name dragged through the mud as her behaviors are made more public than a blog.

The only thing missing from this circus is the clowns at Citizens for Responsible Government issuing their empty threats of recalls.

All in all, Abele should have done as he did with Patrick Farley and just tried to sweep this all under the rug while he was behind.  But by not choosing his battles wisely, he has made things much more difficult for himself and his dwindling allies.

Crooked Corp Counsel Canned

As had been reported, the Milwaukee County Board fired Kimberly Walker, the head of corp counsel.  Among the reasons was that she was overreaching her authority and for advising Milwaukee County Emperor Abele on how to violate Freedom of Information Act laws:

"Please see the following below... my two-cents worth.  FYI - trying to play this forward in my mind. With the exception of my email, this email string will not be exempt from open records requests. Should you wish to preclude its disclosure, please send additional comments, revisions etc., only to me with the names of others who should see it, and I can forward. Just a thought."

Instead of apologizing for not running a clean administration in the first place, Abele stays true to form by having another temper tantrum:

The public is the loser, if Walker or Eilers winds up losing her post, Abele said.

"This is not something that's going to hurt me personally," Abele said after the board votes.

Abele strongly denounced Walker's firing and said he'll veto it. It takes a two-thirds vote of the board to override a veto, and the firing vote exceeded that.

It is striking how Abele is becoming to sound more and more like Scott Walker.
Only Walker or Abele would even have the gall to say that the public would lose by having more transparency in government instead of cover ups and avoidance of open record requests.

Even more disappointing are the allegations of racism. As Supervisors Stamper, Bowen and Rainey point out, race had nothing to do with Walker's firing. From their joint press release:

Three Milwaukee County Supervisors said today that they voted for the dismissal of Corporation Counsel because the Board has lost confidence in her ability to perform neutrally and serve Milwaukee County with appropriate and independent legal counsel.

Supervisors David F. Bowen, Russell Stamper II and Khalif Rainey said the Board could no longer trust Corporation Counsel’s ability to remain neutral. They issued the following statement:

“This is not about personalities, this is not about race, this is not about the Board’s relationship with the County Executive, this is about our confidence in the Corporation Counsel’s ability to represent Milwaukee County. We believe Corporation Counsel cannot perform neutrally.

“She abdicated her responsibility on an issue that affects the very heart of the Board’s ability to govern. The fact that she herself said there might be a perception of a conflict of interest in interpreting Act 14 – several times on the record – indicates that she does not believe the Board trusts her to represent them. We don’t.”

It must also be pointed out that Abele sent out a press release in which he pointed to the opposition from the NAACP and other groups. Funny thing is, Abele didn't give a hoot about what they had to say when they expressed their vehement opposition to Act 14, aka the Plutocracy Bill.

But I have to say the greatest disappointment is the fact that some people who condemned Scott Walker and his minions like Tim Russell for doing this sort of thing are just fine with Abele showing the same behavior.  In fact, some go as far as actively trying to defend the poor behavior by the corrupt corp council chief and the county executive.

If it's wrong for Scott Walker and Tim Russell to conspire to keep things from the public, it's just as wrong for Chris Abele and Kimberly Walker to do it.

Milwaukee County Board Gets Late Start To Spring (Court)House Cleaning

At the beginning of May, Cory Liebmann, writing at Eye On Wisconsin, found a very troubling email from Milwaukee County Corp Counsel head Kimberly Walker.  In said email, she advocated for Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele and his crew of reprobates to send all their emails through her in order to thwart the County Board as well as any Open Records Requests.

I also wrote about this, including about the ramifications of the top lawyer for the county soliciting faulty advice on how to circumvent the law:

I would add that there is another problem with this. Walker's role is not that of a company lawyer answerable to only the CEO, as it was in her old job. Walker answers to both the county executive and the County Board.

To summarize, Ms. Walker overstepped her authority by advising Abele how to circumvent not only the Board - which is inappropriate - but also any future open records requests - which is unethical and illegal.

The fact that she wasn't actually aware of the laws and was giving not only illegal, but faulty, advise only further proves that she is not qualified for that job.

There are a couple of things that need to happen, sooner rather than later.

One, Walker needs to resign from her position. And if she won't, Abele needs to fire her. He can always sweep her under the rug like he did with Farley when things got too hot after Farley's botched attempt of framing former Supervisor Johnny Thomas.

Walker cannot effectively remain in her position given that she was providing faulty information, advising Abele to circumvent open record laws using that faulty information and was working against the Board, to whom she also reports.

Secondly, Abele needs to explain why he left her in that position for more than a year after she sent that email. It is pretty obvious that Abele thinks he is above the law, but he still needs to be held accountable, especially since he is pushing so very hard to have all the power consolidated in his hands.

As more of these stories come out, it makes one wonder what else is he trying to hide from the public he is supposed to represent.

The only thing that it doesn't make one wonder about is why people are referring to Abele as Little Walker.

Since Emperor Abele believes himself to be above the law, it is unfortunate, but not surprising, that he took no action regarding the ethical concerns surrounding Ms. Walker.

That left the spring courthouse cleaning up to the County Board, which will be addressing this issue on Thursday.

Needless to say, this set off a new round of tantrums by Emperor Abele and his court jester, Brendan Conway:

In a surprise move, Corporation Counsel Kimberly Walker has been notified that at least 12 of the 18 County Board members are planning to vote to fire her at Thursday's board meeting.

Abele appointed Walker to the $134,000-per-year job two years ago, but the board can remove her over Abele's objection if two-thirds of the members back the effort.

"The county executive is beyond surprised -- he's outraged," said Abele spokesman Brendan Conway. "There is nothing that they could find factually that she's done wrong."

Conway accused the board of carrying out a "political vendetta" against Abele for supporting Act 14, a newly passed law that curbs the board's staff and resources while beefing up the county exec's power. It would cut supervisors' pay by more than 50% to about $24,000 a year if approved in a binding referendum in 2014.

One County Board leader dismissed any suggestion that supervisors are trying to punish Abele.

"That's crazy," responded Supervisor Theo Lipscomb, chairman of the Judiciary, Safety and General Services Committee. "I'm not that petty. Maybe they are."

The melodramatics continued when Abele's bought and paid for supervisor, Deanna Alexander, issued a hysterical and histrionic press release :

Members of the Milwaukee County Board have been consipiring [sic] for weeks to focibily [sic] dismiss County Corporation Counsel, Kimberly Walker.

County Supervisor Deanna Alexander has watched fellow board members hold ‘secret’ meetings and circulate signature pages calling for Walker’s firing. Alexander questions how legitimate the dismissal
proposal could possibly be. Knowing that Alexander would not support an irrational ousting of a County employee, the board’s number one rule of executing this plan was “Don’t let Alexander find out!”
Supervisor Alexander issued the following statement:

“Kimberly Walker is an excellent attorney and a model public servant. She is responsible for providing legal advice in the best interest of the county as a whole, regardless of the personal interests of elected officials. As a result of offering legal advice that the board did not want to hear, she has been placed on the notorious ‘County Board hit list.’

It is ridiculous that they are going through with this—they are making fools of themselves! It is absolutely not in the County’s best interest for the board to dismiss her. It’s as if they don’t like the fair actions of a good referee, so they have decided to gang up, kick the ref in the knees, and call for a replacement that will make calls in their favor. Let’s all do the math here: the only reason that our attorney is in hot water is because she crossed paths with some politicians looking to settle a score. Shame on them! Any board member supporting this removal does not want the best for the County – they want what is best for themselves.”

My, oh my, but there is a whole truckload of unsupported and unsubstantiated accusations in that screed, which makes me wonder if this isn't just another example of Conway literally putting the words into Alexander's mouth.

Walker does herself no favors when she accuses Supervisor Lipscomb of racism and sexism, even though he is married to an African American woman.  But that shows just how low the Emperor's minions will go.

Another bit of courthouse cleaning will come with the rejection of Kathy Eilers, Abele's appointment to be the fifth administer of the Behavioral Health Division in the past six years.  Abele wanted Eilers in the seat because he wants to close down the mental health complex (not just parts of it, but the whole damn thing), and nobody else was willing to take on the task of abandoning our most vulnerable citizens.  In fact, that is exactly why Paula Lucey, the last director, had been forced out:

Abele tapped Eilers in April, after Paula Lucey left over a disagreement on how to best transition patients from the long-term units at the complex to private facilities. Eilers, 68, was given the interim position and a salary of of $137,500 a year.

Eilers had not once met with staff at BHD, although it was reported that she had called for an all staff meeting on Thursday.  There is no report if that meeting will now happen.

It should be noted that Abele is claiming that he did a nationwide search for a new director, but no one but Eilers was allegedly found.  Then again, who would want to move to a new city for just two or three years and working for such a sociopath as Abele.

But the main reasons for the rejection of Eilers is not that she is a hatchet woman, but that she had lied to the supervisors in claiming that the results of a federal audit were not available even though they were and for claiming that they had safe plans for moving out the most vulnerable citizens at BHD when they didn't.

The really ironic part of this whole mess is that Abele, who willingly and with deliberate premeditation created the hostile work environment which permeates the courthouse, is now whining about there being a hostile environment.

Chris Abele's Corrupt Corp Counsel

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and his administration sure have problems when it comes to emails and ethical behavior.

First we learned that Abele has been emailing his BBFF (Best Blogger Friend Forever) Aaron Rodriguez for over a year, using the unwitting Rodriguez as   his ghost writer.  Abele then took advantage of his ghost writer to spread unfounded innuendo and false rumors against the County Board and specifically against Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, all in order to give impetus to his plutocratic power grab bill, which was stalling in the state senate.


This was quickly followed by the news that Abele was using his personal email account to conduct county business, which in Abele's mind includes bad mouthing other county elected officials.

As story after story of Abele's inappropriate conduct started coming out, Abele decided to start playing games with open record requests by charging exorbitant amounts of money for requests that he was filling for free just weeks before.

But just like with Scott Walker, when it comes to all things Abele, it seems that there is more.  There is always more.

Cory Liebmann cracked open another major ethical lapse by Abele's administration.  This time it deals with the head of Corp Counsel, Kimberly Walker.

Liebmann found an email from Walker which had some very disturbing implications:

"Please see the following below... my two-cents worth.  FYI - trying to play this forward in my mind.  With the exception of my email, this email string will not be exempt from open records requests.  Should you wish to preclude its disclosure, please send additional comments, revisions etc., only to me with the names of others who should see it, and I can forward. Just a thought."

It should be noted that the email was addressed to Abele, Abele's Chief of Staff Amber Moreen, Abele's then Director of Administration Patrick Farley and other staffers.

Liebmann was concerned about this and rightfully so.

He asked Walker for clarification on what she meant by this and got a run around.

He then consulted with Bill Lueders, President of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, who looked at the original email and the following run around and gave Liebmann this statement:

"I am troubled by her response. Communications to and from corp counsel are not automatically protected. The public is entitled to know what her office does and to whom it communicates as much as for any other office. Attorney client privilege pertains to those communications in which the office is providing or being asked to provide legal advice, not anything that comes its way or whenever it feels like. I don't see that she is making those distinctions in these communications; I do hope her office is making them in practice."

I would add that there is another problem with this.  Walker's role is not that of a company lawyer answerable to only the CEO, as it was in her old job.  Walker answers to both the county executive and the County Board.

To summarize, Ms. Walker overstepped her authority by advising Abele how to circumvent not only the Board - which is inappropriate - but also any future open records requests - which is unethical and illegal.

The fact that she wasn't actually aware of the laws and was giving not only illegal, but faulty, advise only further proves that she is not qualified for that job.

There are a couple of things that need to happen, sooner rather than later.

One, Walker needs to resign from her position.  And if she won't, Abele needs to fire her.  He can always sweep her under the rug like he did with Farley when things got too hot after Farley's botched attempt of framing former Supervisor Johnny Thomas.

Walker cannot effectively remain in her position given that she was providing faulty information, advising Abele to circumvent open record laws using that faulty information and was working against the Board, to whom she also reports.

Secondly, Abele needs to explain why he left her in that position for more than a year after she sent that email.  It is pretty obvious that Abele thinks he is above the law, but he still needs to be held accountable, especially since he is pushing so very hard to have all the power consolidated in his hands.

As more of these stories come out, it makes one wonder what else is he trying to hide from the public he is supposed to represent.

The only thing that it doesn't make one wonder about is why people are referring to Abele as Little Walker.