Chris Abele: Adding Crimes To Ethics Violations

It is pretty commonly known that Chris Abele, the Mitt Romney of Milwaukee County, thinks and acts that he is the boy king turned emperor, and that the law is only meant for the commoners.  Whether it's driving drunk, ignoring hundreds of parking tickets or throwing firecrackers at his neighbors, Abele's behavior could easily be described as boorish and shows how entitled he feels.

Unfortunately, this feeling of entitlement and privilege has spilled over into the way he administers his duties as county emperor executive.

One of the most glaring examples is the way he tried to rig the bidding for the contract for the county's transit system.  One could tell that the system was crooked just by the way Abele fought to keep things secret, including fighting the release of the papers involved with the rating of the bids.

When the documents were released, it showed a system in which Abele had stacked the deck so much in favor of MV Transportation that the bidding process was unenforceable.  It was learned that Abele allowed the company to lowball their cost (and then ask for the numbers to be renegotiated), the scoring was unbelievably lopsided to favor the company, and they were allowed to clarify their bids where the other companies weren't.

Not only was the bidding process corrupt, it turned out that there was a reason the company scored the lowest on the four out of five parts that dealt with service.  Furthermore, it turns out that the company is up for sale and we could have really been stuck in a jam.

Fortunately, the County's Administrative Determination Review Panel saw through the corruption, called it for what it was and nixed the deal.

As expected, Abele had a temper tantrum about it and falsely claimed that the panel acted illegally by striking down the illegally rigged bidding process and said that they were acting politically.

Abele followed this stunt up by sending a letter to the county board, claiming that the review process was faulty because it wasn't the same process used in Fairfax County, Virginia and Gwinnett County, Georgia.  He also cited Waukesha County because they are such an upright government that have such upstanding people like Kathy Nickolaus.

Abele thought it would be a better system if one of his hand-picked people reviewed his bidding process. Yeah, like that would instill confidence into the system.

But Abele really crossed the line with this:

Given this context, I am proposing that we reach a solution that would allow us to move forward with a new RFP and avoid a potential costly court action. I will commit that neither the DOT or I will take this issue to court if a majority of the Board makes a commitment to work with me and the Comptroller’s Office to change the Chapter 110 process to follow best practices, including specifically to remove politicians from the appeals process. If at least ten Supervisors will commit by March 19, 2014 to changing this process as set forth above, we will not move forward with legal action. This compromise will allow the DOT to move forward with reissuing the RFP for transit with an improved and clear appeals process. My hope is that by working together, we can together improve transit service for our community.

In other words, Abele said that if ten supervisors are willing to violate open meeting laws and illegally commit their vote beforehand, he won't file a frivolous lawsuit against them. To make it even worse, he put this into writing on the letterhead of his office.

To recap, not only did Abele try to illegally rig the bidding on the transit contract, when he didn't get his way, he did the following:

• Solicited the Board to violate open meeting laws;
• Solicited the Board to pledge their vote for a political favor;
• Tried to extort their vote through the threat of a frivolous lawsuit;
• Abused the power of his office by making said threat an official document.

And to think that Abele is the guy that claims to be all about transparency, efficiency and accountability.

As for Abele's original claim that the panel's actions were illegal and political nature, as well as his demands, Supervisor Dave Cullen said it best in his response to Abele's threats (via Lisa Kaiser's blog).

Dear County Executive Abele:

I am responding to your email dated March 10, 2014, relative to the recently completed Administrative Determination Review Committee decision of Milwaukee County's transit contract. I am deeply disappointed by the tone set by your email and the accusations and threats set forth in your email.

Specifically, your email states that you "believe the committee action was illegal and political in nature". Isn't it possible for someone to disagree with you without their disagreement being either political or illegal. In my ten months on the Milwaukee County Board, my perception is that just about every time that the Milwaukee County Board disagreed with one of your positions, the Board's conduct was either "illegal", "political", or evidence of the "dysfunctional" County Board. In my 25 years of public service I have learned that it is possible for reasonable people to have differences of opinion on public policy without one side or the other acting in an illegal, political, or dysfunctional way, while continued use of such inflammatory language only exacerbates the already poor relations between the executive branch and legislative branch. The reality is that you are also a politician and that your actions are no more or no less political than those of County Board members

The Administrative Determination Review Committee took its role very seriously. We were advised every step of the way by County Corporation Counsel Paul Bargren. We issued detailed and specific findings and conclusions. The Committee set forth a simple road map for the Department of Transportation to make changes and corrections to the RFP and to the RFP process. I firmly believe that if those changes are made to the RFP and RFP process that the Department of Transportation should be in a position to issue a new RFP for the transit contract very quickly. Since the decision was issued on February 20, 2014, I have been open and willing to meet with both you and the Department of Transportation to give you additional guidance as to how I believe the RFP and RFP process can be corrected so that we can move forward and identify the most cost effective method to provide good transit service to the residents of Milwaukee County. Your threats of a lawsuit do not help this process, but only hinder the process. Threats of litigation do not constitute "compromise" but serve instead only to throw gas on the fire of an already difficult situation.

You point out in your email that the administrative appeal process set forth in Milwaukee County Ordinance Chapter 110 is flawed. Nevertheless, it is the current law. It is the law that was very strictly followed by the Administrative Determination Review Committee. I don't know why this process was instituted in 1997, but perhaps it was for a good reason unknown to both you and myself. You imply that by not following Chapter 68 that the County and County Board violated the statute when you know, or should know, that Section 68.16, Stats., specifically allows a governing body to opt out and enact its own ordinance. Instead, you are asking the County Board, in advance, with no study or public input, to commit to a process using unknown and unelected bureaucrats to make decisions rather than the officials elected by the people to make these decisions.

You have requested that board members "commit" to certain ultimatums or you will commence a lawsuit. I can't prevent you from commencing this lawsuit, however mistaken I believe the lawsuit to be, but I will commit to working with you and your office relative to a review of the County's administrative appeal process. If the administrative appeal process can be handled in a better, more efficient way, I will certainly be open to changes to that process. However, I cannot commit in advance to a specific outcome, and I'm not sure how any supervisor could commit to a specific outcome since we haven't yet studied and discussed any of the necessary information to make an informed decision.

County Executive Abele, as we move forward on the transit contract and other issues, I to respectfully ask that you please tone down your inflammatory and personal rhetoric. People of good will can, and often do, disagree. There is always a natural tension between the executive branch and legislative branch of government. Personalizing our disagreements doesn't make the situation any better and doesn't serve the residents of Milwaukee County.​

Due to his anti-Board, anti-union and pro-austerity stances, Abele is commonly referred to in the Courthouse as Little Walker or Walker Lite.

Now we can add corruption and illegal behaviors to the comparison. In fact, one of the two biggest differences between Abele and Walker is that Abele was born with the silver spoon in his mouth where Walker stole his. The other is that Walker is more of a polished politician and spins his corruption and incompetence whereas Abele just flaunts his.

These incidents of misconduct need to be referred to the Ethics Board, if not directly to the District Attorney's office, before we have another Walker-level scandal on our hands.  Furthermore, not to call Abele out on these behaviors will only serve to encourage more of this childish bullying from him.

Milwaukee County can't afford either of these things.

Milwaukee County Dodged Bigger Money Vulture Than Previously Realized

Last week, I wrote about how Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele again thought himself to be above rigged the bidding process in order to pick the for-profit, Texas-based MV Transportation (MV stands for Money Vultures) to take over the Milwaukee County Transit System.  I also pointed out that besides the shady and suspect way that Abele manipulated the process to pick MV Transportation, the company itself has a lengthy history of labor struggles, poor performance and scandalous actions.
the law and had

Fortunately, the County's Administrative Review Panel had a hearing on the bidding process and found that the bidding process was indeed flawed and that the contract could not be given to MV Transportation.

As to be expected, Abele tantrummed about it:

The Milwaukee County Board today cost taxpayers $76.3 million by rejecting a new transit contract.

MV Transportation, a nationally recognized and respected company, was awarded the transit contract last year after winning a competitive bidding process. Two of the losing bidders filed appeals with the County Board. Today, a special committee hand-picked by County Board leaders, spent five minutes in open session and quickly voted to not allow the contract.

“The decision today upholds the status quo and costs taxpayers millions and millions of dollars. Our transit system has been on life-support for years, this contract would have allowed us to put more money into bus service and remake a broken system,” County Executive Chris Abele said. “The County Board’s decision lacks factual support or legal reasoning and it should concern every resident of Milwaukee County who wants their government to save money and run more efficiently.”

Not even a week later, it is being reported that Milwaukee County not only dodged another bullet by rejecting Abele's corrupt plan, but that the bullet was much bigger and more damaging than originally thought.

Via Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express, we find an article in the Dallas News which indicated that things with MV Transportation is worse than previously known.

First we find that their service in Dallas was extremely poor, so much so that the contract had to be redone to such an extent that it was questioned whether it wouldn't be better to start from scratch.  And on top of that, the vulture capitalists running the company are ready to sell it off as fast as possible:

Dallas Area Rapid Transit board members are poised Tuesday to overhaul and extend a $185.9 million contract with the controversial company that provides transportation for elderly and disabled passengers.

The move comes as MV Transportation is putting itself up for sale and after the transit agency has spent months weathering criticisms about the vendor’s performance.

A majority of DART’s 14 board members voiced support for the contract changes earlier this month. But some board members say the alterations are so vast they should solicit other companies’ bids rather than negotiate exclusively with MV.

And yes, there's more:

Veolia and MV were among the companies that submitted bids. MV won. Its takeover of paratransit was a disaster. Passengers complained about poorly trained drivers, out-of-the-way routes and long wait times.

Many of the criticisms echoed public complaints government entities across the country faced after they hired MV for paratransit and bus services. MV declined to comment for this article, citing the ongoing contract negotiations with DART.

The contract restructuring is meant to cover MV’s costs of making operational changes aimed to assuaging riders’ complaints. DART would still save money overall, but changes would likely eat up about $26.3 million in potential savings.

Dick Alexander is the senior vice president for Veolia Transportation. He said the decrease in potential savings under the proposed contract changes is essentially a loss to the public agency.
“That would go to DART and other DART projects,” he said of the lost savings. “Under this scenario, that money’s going to go straight to MV’s pocket.”

So the company is doing such a poor job that to fix the problems is that the cost of fixing the problems was so much, it ate up the savings.  Furthermore, MV was able to manipulate the situation that it would be the taxpayers taking the hit and not their profit margin*.

And anyone's guess is as good as the next as to what would happen when and if the sale of the company goes through.

Instead of his grandstanding and pity parties, Abele should grow up and apologize to the taxpayers for putting them at risk.  Furthermore, he should just resign from office and refer himself to the DA's office for his bid-rigging scheme.  Then again, he has already shown himself to be just as bad - if not worse - than Scott Walker, so he probably has no sense he did anything wrong.

*A profit margin made by laying off workers and cutting services to the elderly and disabled.  This is what Abele calls efficiency?

Abele Wants To Take Us For A Ride

About a year ago, Chris Abele had one of his now infamous temper tantrums and fired Frank Busalacchi, the then head of the public works and transportation department.  Unfortunately, at the time of Abele's tantrum, there was a snafu happening in the subcontracting of paratransit services.  The result of not having anyone to respond to the managing company, Milwaukee Transit Services (MTS) was a $9 million bill that could have been avoided.

Instead of owning up to the responsibility of his actions, Abele used MTS as a scapegoat and vowed that they would lose their contract to run the county's transit system.

To fulfill that vow, Abele put out a request for bids and set up a Byzantine system that involved a secret panel of "experts" and a backwards bidding system in which Abele set the price and the proposed vendors came up with the specifics.

The results of this stunt was that a for-profit company based in Texas, MV Transportation*, was named the winner.  But Abele refused to explain what his decision was based on or allow anyone to see any of the documents to confirm that this was indeed the best deal.

Two of the companies that lost the bidding process - MTS and Veolia Transportation - filed complaints and ultimately a lawsuit to get the documents regarding the bidding process.  Once the papers were released because of a court order, it quickly became obvious why Abele didn't want them made public.

Thanks to the intrepid reporting by Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express, we learned that it turned out that MV Transportation actually lost in four of the five categories the bidding was based on.  The sections in which they failed were related to service.  The only section that MV Transportation won was on price.  But even then, transit experts pointed out that MV Transportation low-balled their bid.

To help ensure MV Transportation won the contract, Abele's people went back to ask them for "clarification."   Abele did not do this for any of the other companies that had bid on the contract.

Once Abele announced them the winner, MV Transportation has already shown that their bid was a bait and switch routine by asking to renegotiate their fee:

In response, MV more or less said that it wanted to renegotiate its expenses after it won the contract.

“If selected, the company respectfully requests to sit down with the county to decide on a final allocation between the three cost components, based on the county’s interpretation of the individual cost elements,” MV answered. “Then the final amounts written into the contract would be binding to MV for the contract term.”

As if this wasn't enough, it also turns out that Abele had designed the bidding process in such a way as to ensure that it was stacked against MTS by asking questions like naming three references for other systems the company ran, but then not following up on the reference. Furthermore, they didn't even do the basic step of interviewing the companies:

“We’ve never had any proposal for any project not have an interview,” Alexander told the Shepherd. “This was a first. And for something of this size, it was really surprising.”

MTS’s attorney Van Schyndle agreed that the absence of interviews was “crazy,” and added that many of the questions in the RFP penalized MTS in favor of a new operator. For example, one question asked for up to three references from cities in which the bidder has operations similar to Milwaukee County’s system. Since MTS only operates in Milwaukee County, it provided just one reference but more than 20 letters of recommendation from local leaders. MTS scored just 41 points for its answer, while MV earned 55 points.

MTS argues that if MV’s references had been checked, the Abele administration would have discovered that MV doesn’t operate any bus systems that are as large as Milwaukee County’s.

“At no point in the record that we received did it show any indication or a memo saying they called references or anything like that,” Van Schyndle said. “That’s crazy to me. I don’t like to throw out words like dereliction of duty, but that is crazy to me.”

As this information came out, MV started to do damage control by trying to persuade public opinion of their company. They sent out postcards announcing open houses across the county and advertising a website to promote their propaganda.

But their claims are about as trustworthy as Abele's bidding process.

They claim to "understand the importance of unions, have worked closely with unions and want to retain workers.  However, as I had pointed out months ago, their track record with the unions is really not good at all and had led to a number of strikes around the nation:

MV Transportation has acted as if they will be glad to take on the current drivers of ATU 998 and honor their contract, which was just entered last month. 

Their track record shows that this is anything but the reality of how they operate.

A quick Google search shows a history of labor struggles in almost every community they have been involved, including Reno, Santa Clarita, New York City and Chicago.  In Fairfield, California, MV Transportation refused to pay their drivers for hours worked, prompting a federal law suit.

MV also claims that they don't want to make a profit off this contract and that they would reinvest the money into the community. Likewise, they will tell anyone who would listen that they are all about service.

Again, this is just a corporate snow job.

In Fairfield, California, MV was fined nearly 300 times for failing to provide proper service or properly maintaining the buses.  MV's response to the fines was very telling on who they really are:

MV executives were furious about the fines. In meetings with the FAST staff, they complained they were “losing money” and the deal they signed was too punitive, according to meeting notes and internal memos.

As the friction between Fink and the company peaked in the summer of 2009, Monson, then MV’s board chairman, made $10,000 campaign donations to City Councilman John Mraz and City Councilwoman Catherine Moy. Those were hefty sums, even in a city with no campaign contribution limits. When contacted for comment, Mraz called Fink an expletive and hung up the phone. Moy did not return emails or phone calls.

As the gentle reader can plainly see, their only interest was their profits and that they were willing to buy off the local politicians to make their problems go away.

Another example comes from Lake County, Florida, where they did an audit of MV's operation there. Overall, it was a pretty damning report, finding a lot of major flaws and inefficiencies.  But the most disconcerting one was that MV was caught cooking the books to increase their profit margin:

Management routinely manipulates completed trip data to maximize revenues from funding sources.
When trips are scheduled, the system assigns the funding source for the trip based on the code
assigned by staff. However, after the close of the month, Division staff orders the Contractor to
change some of the funding sources. For example, for the month of May 2012, the funding sources
for 4,308 out of 11,416 trips, nearly 38% were altered. For this month, the total funding billed was
$210,510.

Perhaps the best summary of MV's style of operation comes from the article regarding Fairfield:

Fink now works at the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission in Stockton. Reflecting back on his time in Fairfield, he said it taught him a lesson about outsourcing public transit.

“If you had a contractor that wanted to run the business and not maximize their profit at every turn, then it would be fine,” Fink said. “As it tends to work out, you’re spending 85 percent of the time making sure that they’re doing everything in the contract instead of doing the things you need to be doing, like getting grant money doing transit planning.”

To recap, Abele gets caught screwing up again. Instead of taking responsibility for his mistake, he scapegoats MTS and vows to punish them. He does so through the use of apparent bid rigging to give the contract to a for profit company with a very bad reputation.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

The County Board's Administrative Review Committee is set to hear the complaints of MTS And Veolia regarding the bidding process on Tuesday, to determine if the bidding process was conducted appropriately.
The committee could find that the bidding was done fairly or that it wasn't and order that the bids be rescored or that the whole bidding process be done over with.

The committee should find that the bidding process was in error due to the obvious favoritism and manipulation of the process.

If the bidding process should be upheld for some inexplicable reason, the contract should still be rejected due to MV's poor record and dishonest business practices.

Furthermore, this whole thing should be referred to the district attorney's office for investigation into the apparent bid rigging involved with the contract.

ADDENDUM: It appears that Abele is only now asking for feedback regarding what people would like to see in the transit system.  Wouldn't it have behooved him to have done that before doing the bidding process.

*MV stands for Money Vultures.

Abele's Transit Scheme Needs To Be Rejected

In March of this year, Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele had another one of his temper tantrums and fired his Director of Transportation, Frank Busalacchi. Unfortunately, during the time of Abele's tantrum, the Milwaukee Transit System was in the process of negotiations with the paratransit providers.  And because of Abele's tantrum, things got bungled and the taxpayers were put on the hook for nearly $9 million.

To cover up the results of his blundering ways, Abele decided he wanted to get a new agency to manage the transit system, even though the current manager, Milwaukee Transport Services (MTS). To do so, he put the contract for bid, but kept the process of evaluating the bids under wraps with absolutely no transparency or accountability. Abele eventually chose a company named MV Transportation, a national for profit company with a horrible track record.

As I predicted, the secrecy and underhanded nature of Abele's Byzantine bidding process had led to a lawsuit forcing the county to release the information, although that has not been made public yet.

Now we are learning more about this scheme.  In an editorial in Sunday's paper, two former managing directors of the Milwaukee County Transit System are calling out the bad decision making by Abele:

The county's own audit shows that the paratransit contract situation could have been handled more effectively. It also clearly shows that MTS did not act alone and that the transportation department and the county's troubled minority business office share responsibility for the outcome. That's an important point that often gets ignored. Changing management firms will not resolve this situation and is likely to result in expensive lawsuits from the current paratransit providers. It could also jeopardize the long-term integrity of the transit system.

MTS is a local, non-profit corporation that was formed to manage MCTS in 1975 when the county purchased the transit system from its private owners. It has managed MCTS in an exemplary way for 38 years having been at or under budget in all but two of those years and never taking a dollar of profit from Milwaukee County. Seven times, the state of Wisconsin has performed an independent audit of MTS's management services and each time found the company to be a leader in delivering effective service and a high level of cost efficiency. Specifically, MTS managed the system to provide the highest rides per capita, the lowest cost per ride and the lowest percentage of administrative expenses of systems comparable in size.

Despite the emergency paratransit contract situation, MTS has delivered consistently good results in that area too. While Abele is focused on the loss of $8 million in future savings, he's ignoring the bigger picture. MTS, on its own initiative, brought the county cost saving measures that have easily saved nearly $17 million in the last three years. In fact, nearly $5 million was returned to the county last year, most of it in paratransit savings.

So who has been selected to inherit MTS's legacy of excellence? It appears to be MV Transportation of Dallas, Texas, a for-profit organization that has a reputation for over promising and under delivering in a number of communities from California to Virginia.

A little of digging also raises other concerns about MV Transportation.

Their CEO, R. Carter Pate, appears to be only skilled at schmoozing up to politicians and getting fat contracts. His failure to do that also cost him his last job in 2009:

No mention of Mr. Pate, so I reached out to my highly placed contacts. I was told Mr. Pate remains on the Advisory Leadership Team doing “special projects.” He continues, therefore, to receive his huge payout without having to work with clients. The PwC I know does not admit failures and they made a big mistake when they gave the US Advisory Leadership job to Carter Pate last October.

As I mentioned in a blog post at the time, Mr. Pate is a big booster for the Republican Party and worked very hard campaigning for John McCain. Who lost. To Barack Obama. The Democrat.

It may have seemed “logical” at the time to put Mr. Pate in charge of not only reviving PwC’s Advisory (Consulting) practice but to expect him to also turbocharge it with lots of government contracts once Mr. McCain, the Republican, was elected President. When Mr. McCain lost, Mr. Pate lost his ability to dial for Federal government engagement dollars.

Once Mr. Obama was inaugurated, Mr. Pate came up with another brilliant plan to grow business in the Advisory practice. That’s when the rumors of PwC buying BearingPoint, the whole enchilada, started. I reported that strong rumor in early February. By the end of March, PwC had changed course and agreed to buy only BearingPoint’s commercial consulting practice. They left, or rather Mr. Carter left, perhaps via some ineptitude, arrogant boorishness, or lousy negotiation skills, the BearingPoint government consulting business on the table for Deloitte to snatch and grab for a bargain price.

That must have sealed Mr. Pate’s fate. He was out of the ivory tower in time for the new fiscal year that started July 1. When PwC announced on June 16, 2009 that they had completed the purchase of BearingPoint’s North American assets, Mr. Pate’s name was not listed. Joe Duffy is shown as the US Consulting leadership contact. By July 1, Mr. McIlwain was in place.

Pate was also involved with George W. Bush's campaign in 2004.

In a way, this make sense.

 Abele's never been shy about giving money to Teapublicans, no matter how sleazy they are.  And now, just like his hero and mentor, Scott Walker, he's trying to use taxpayer dollars to support his Teapublican friends at the expense of the working class and the poor.

Yet another problem is that Abele has not once spoken to the unions about this.  It's impossible for him to know what's working and what isn't without talking to the people actually doing the work.  But then again, that is his typical management style.  His lack of caring about the reality of things is leading to all the problems at the mental health complex.

In fact, Abele, again imitating his hero and good buddy Scott Walker,  is trying to turn this against the unions already.  One of his supporters/employees had this to say about the possible MV contract:

A lot of people expressing doubts about MV are doing so because MTS has been extremely cozy with the unions for the past 38 years, and they are worried that MV won’t play ball. But, people like you and I who’s primary concern is the best possible transit service should be asking a different set of questions. First and foremost, is this contract being managed by government employees who understand how a privately held for profit company behaves? And, if so, have those people been empowered to do their jobs correctly?

Brandon is correct that MV has the capacity to bring innovation and efficiency to MCTS operations. But it is still up to Milwaukee County employees to make sure that capacity is utilized here.

I don't know about the gentle reader, but it sure seems like Abele and his supporters are getting ready to trash the unions and blame them for MV Transporation's inevitable failure, either with the contract not being approved or later when the company doesn't live up to its fake promises.

Yet another problem is that MV Transportation is touting about how they will save money by buying all our equipment in bulk.  Keep in mind the county just spent hundreds of millions of dollars on new buses, fare boxes and whatnot.  I don't see it being fiscally astute to just hand over self-sufficiency to a third party and then having to rebuild from square one when they fail.  

Along that same line, MV Transportation is looking at our paratransit system like a starving jackal looks at some meat tossed to it.  They would kick hundreds of drivers out of work in order to install their own substandard system.  This could and would lead to at least one class action lawsuit as has happened in other places foolish enough to contract with this company.

This matter is to come before the Milwaukee County Board soon and they need to reject it.

They have not been given sufficient information to make an informed decision on whether this is a good deal, much less the best deal for the county and its taxpayers.  Likewise, the community has not been given sufficient information to give feedback to the supervisors (yes, that is representative governing).

Furthermore, what information that is known about MV Transportation is rather negative and would cause a rational person to be rather leery.  And Abele has yet to even give a valid reason for not giving the contract to MTS, which has been the standard for other transit systems for decades and has returned tens of millions of dollars to the county because of their efficiency.

The Board has had to squash the results of Abele's ineptitude and intemperance before and they should do so again.