Tea Party Heroes

I've written a few times about the illegal furlough days that Scott Walker foisted upon Milwaukee County employees during his last years as county executive.

In a nutshell, Walker put a $20 million hole in the middle of his budgets, and would claim that he would have it covered by concessions by the unions, even though he refused to sit down at the negotiations table to even ask for said concessions, much less get them. In order to maintain the guise that he had crafted a balanced budget, Walker decided to impose furlough days on the workers, even though he knew that was in violation of an arbitration ruling. Some workers, such as yours truly, had to take a full 26 furlough days in 2010. That's one every two weeks.

The unions, of course, filed a complaint about the illegal furlough days, and prevailed. And the unions prevailed at every occasion and at every level the county tried to fight it.

After long last, the county recognized that they were going to have to take their lumps and pay the workers for the money that was illegally taken from them.

On Thursday, the County Board voted, for the second time, to pay back the workers for the number of hours they were illegally docked in 2010. On top of the back pay, the county also has to pay a 12% interest, compounded daily. They had approved the payment in June, but thanks to some poison pill language inserted by Supervisor Pat Jursik, they had to redo it in July.

Technically speaking, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did report on the vote on Thursday.  However, as one who is paying attention might expect, they buried the story at the bottom of a column that was focused on another issue. And as the gentle reader might also expect, they were inaccurate in their reporting.

Here is what they wrote:

On other matters Thursday, the board:

Authorized payment of $4.1 million to reimburse 1,800 county employees for unpaid furlough days in 2010 found illegal by an arbitrator, a decision upheld in court. The figure includes $3.5 million in lost wages, plus $620,000 in interest costs. The furloughs were ordered by then-County Executive Scott Walker as an emergency budget measure. The workers, members of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, also are claiming about $1 million for 2011 furlough days, but county lawyers are reviewing the issue to determine whether the court ruling applies.

Now, the $4.1 million might be a smidgen below the actual cost. The county provided the breakdown of the payment to the unions, and there's already been a number of calculations that have been found to be faulty, mostly due to using inaccurate wage amounts. But for the sake of discussion, we will o with these numbers.

The bulk of the money, the $3.5 million is the responsibility of Scott Walker. What the paper doesn't tell its readers is that there was no fiscal emergency, as that that the county had a surplus that year, meaning that they could have foregone the furloughs and still came out ahead. And many workers, again, such as myself, were able to dodge the financial bite of the furloughs by getting overtime to make up on the work lost because of the furloughs.

Now thanks to Scott Walker, Milwaukee County employees will be getting paid the equivalent of four weeks of pay, even though they didn't have to put in the time. It's like getting four weeks of vacation pay, but with the pay deferred for a couple of years, and gaining interest much higher than offered by any bank.

That's a mighty costly way of saving taxpayers money, isn't it?

But lets not forget the more than $600,000 in interest that was added to the county's tab.

The blame for that extra payout charged to the Milwaukee County taxpayers falls on Supervisors Pat Jursik and Joe Sanfelippo.

Jursik can be credited for wasting $35,000, the amount of interest accrued each and every month the county did not pay its debt, because of her poison pill language she had inserted the first time the county tried to pay the workers. The Board had to wait another month to correct her attempt to sabotage the payment.

The rest of the interest accrued, nearly half a million dollars worth, can be directly attributed to Sanfelippo, a teahadist who thinks he should be sent to Madison this fall.

Ironically, one of the reasons Sanfelippo thinks he should be a state assemblyman is this:

Streamline governments at all levels and increase accountability to taxpayers by making sure programs and services are achieving good results not just good intentions.

What an interesting point for Sanfelippo to make.

Being the good teahadist that he is, he wants to save money for the taxpayers by not avoiding doing anything which might be construed as being good for the workers.

Joe Sanfelippo

But when Sanfelippo, who was Chairman of the Personnel Committee at the time, refused to accept repeated contract offers from the unions, each time claiming the union's concessions was enough. Keep in mind that the union's last ditch effort to reach a contract last year included all of the contributions towards health care and pension costs that the county was seeking. It also included giving up half of the furlough money, and taking part of what the payback in the form of vacation time spread out.

Sanfelippo refused to even look at the union's offer and dismissed it out of hand. By doing so, he set the county on a course in which it accrued more than a half a million dollars in interest, gave up more than $2 million in concessions on furloughs and gave up even more millions of dollars in lost savings.

In other words, as egregious as Walker's wasting taxpayer money, for no other reason than to gain a political talking point, was, Sanfelippo was able to single handedly squander three to four times as much taxpayer money for no other reason that a teahadist's "good intentions."

Sanfelippo then went to the press and cried that the county didn't have the money to pay the bill he racked up. This was just another hypocritical stunt by Sanfelippo. Even when it was shown that the county had more than enough cash, he still voted against paying their debt off and would rather accrue more cost for the taxpayers.

But then again, we already know that Sanfelippo has no qualms of sticking it to the taxpayers, despite his teahadists chanting:

In the most recent issue of Milwaukee Magazine, there is an investigative report by Marie Rohde that shows that Sanfelippo’s taxi cab company, along with all sorts of unethical treatment of his drivers, made $1.2 million from a contract with the county. It should be noted that it was only in the 2012 budget adoption hearing that Sanfelippo abstained from voting on these contracts, and for a while was even the chair of the committee that made these policy decisions.

Sanfelippo's disregard for the working class in favor of the 1% is well documented.

The sad part is that the people that attend tea parties, listens to squawk radio or relies on Faux News for their information are so deluded that they think that people like Walker, Jursik and Sanfelippo are looking out for them. In reality, these teahadists are only looking for the next way to exploit them.

The Furlough Fiasco Follies Continue

Last month, I reported on how the Milwaukee County Board and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele finally figured out that they weren't going to win an ongoing series of court hearing and decided to pay out the illegal furloughs that Scott Walker had imposed on county employees.  It only took them a year too!

The total bill for just the furloughs for just 2010 came to be over $4 million.  The bulk of that bill lands at the feet of Scott Walker. He used the county budget as a political tool to be manipulated to give the voters the false impression that he was a fiscal conservative.

However, the current county government also have a certain responsibility.  First for going along with Walker's illegal activity and secondly for squandering a year's worth of interest, totally about a half a million dollars, while they tried to squirm out of their responsibility.

The County Board passed the resolution to pay the workers back for 2010, leaving 2011 to be resolved at a different time when they "had the money."  (That story is a little hard to believe since Abele was just bragging about an $11.5 million surplus and that's after he pays the workers for 2010.)  Abele then signed the bill.

However, there was a catch added to the resolution before it was passed.

Supervisor Patricia Jursik added a poison pill to the resolution before it was passed.  She amended the resolution thus (CB Amendment #1):

On the Be It Resolved Clause, revise as follows:

BE IT RESOLVED, that Milwaukee County approves the payment of the award by the WERC to affected employees for 2010 furlough days and approves the dismissal of the appeal in the Court of Appeals in this matter. shall pay the 2010 furlough days awarded by the WERC to the affected employees in the above litigation, with interest, in return for a dismissal of all appeals and cross-appeals by all parties in the litigation related to 2010; and

Add the following Be It Further Resolved Clause:

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that in the event the other parties to the litigation will not agree to dismissal of all appeals and cross-appeals in the litigation as set forth in the preceding paragraph, Milwaukee County shall seek permission from the court to pay the total amount of the WERC award, plus interest to the date of payment, into court until the resolution of all appeals and cross-appeals in the litigation related to 2010 and shall do so upon receipt of the court’s approval.

By adding this language, she was changing the resolution from a simple agreement to pay the workers their back pay plus interest from 2010 with 2011 to be determined later to paying them for the furloughs of 2010 only and then trying to extort the workers to give up on the 2011 furloughs, by threatening the interest they were penalized.

Needless to say, this was a deal killer and the unions got ready to take the county back to court. I'd imagine the court might be willing to add another penalty for the contempt that Jursik showed by trying to circumvent the court order.

The good news is that I have learned that some of the more honest supervisors have learned of this and are going to present  a resolution later this week to remove the poison pill language from the originally passed one so that good faith can be restored again.

I would humbly suggest to those supervisors that they also include language to pay the workers for 2011 to avoid further interest and penalties.

I would also strongly urge them to add the amendment for Supervisor Jursik to pay the last month's interest of about $35,000 out of her own pocket. I know that between her salary and her income from her private law practice that she's got enough to cover it. Then maybe, just maybe, she will start being more careful with the taxpayers money.

CRG: Citizens for Recall Gaffes

My good buddies at CRG (Citizens for Recall Gaffes) are at it again.

As the reader may recall (pardon the pun), CRG threatened to recall Milwaukee County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic, for having the audacity of standing up and fighting for her constituents and trying to protect Milwaukee County as a whole from more of Scott Walker's ineptitude. I had speculated at the time that it had more to do with the fact that Dimitrijevic was forming a strong run for the soon to be vacant county executive position.

Bruce Murphy of Milwaukee News Buzz did a follow up story on that recall effort. To put it succinctly, CRG is once again spinning their wheels. Orville Seymour admits that little (meaning none) progress has been made.

That is not surprising, or even all that interesting.

But Murphy's story does have two interesting tidbits in it. So interesting that I am surprised the usually astute Murphy allowed them to slide without more in depth questioning.

The first thing of note is that Chris Kleismet, the ringleader for this group of political thugs, is backing off of the recall of Dimitrijevic:

CRG leader Chris Kliesmet attempted to distance his group from the effort...

Could there be trouble in paradise among the upper echelon (are there any "officers" besides Kleismet and Seymour?) of this group? Or is Kleismet finally getting tired of having egg on his face?

What is also of note, but not as surprising, is that Kleismet is again lying. Consider the very next sentence following the above one:

Kliesmet says the CRG – which was heavily involved in the recall of county supervisors who voted for the infamous pension plan – hasn’t held a recall since 2002.

Tsk, tsk, liar, liar, pants on fire, nose is as long as a telephone wire.

Kleismet, king of recalls, can't seem to recall that his band of not-so-merry men tried to recall Governor Jim Doyle, not once, but twice. The first one was in 2005 and, of course, failed. The second flop came last year, when they tried it again.

They were also threatening to recall Supervisors Pat Jursik, Lynne De Bruin and Theo Lipscomb last year in an effort to bully them into supporting Walker's illegal budget. (I often wonder how they try to justify their desire for a "responsible government" with their support for an illegal, deficit-laden budget - then again, they are not exactly pillars of the community either.)

All I can say it I anxiously anticipate the day that they live up to their name and mount a recall effort against Goobernator-elect Walker, who has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars of tax payer money weeks before he is even sworn into office. However, I will not be holding my breath for that day to come.

Color Me Unimpressed

As is my wont, I have subscribed to the E-Notify system to get all the updates on happenings involving the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.

One of the things that recently arrived in my mailbox was the most recent enewsletter from County Supervisor Patricia Jursik. To put it mildly, it left me rather unimpressed.

The first entire page was dedicated to her mission of not only repairing the Hoan Bridge, but even expanding it. I've already addressed why the Hoan Bridge should not be a priority at Milwaukee County First.

Then Jursik has some stuff that might sound good on the surface, but in reality, is less what it seems:

Labor Contracts Achieved

Milwaukee County and two unions have approved labor contracts. TEAMCO (Technicians, Engineers, and Architects) and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers agreed to accept concessions in contracts effective through 2011. As chair of the Personnel Committee, I would like to thank the members for coming to an agreement with the County during times of financial stress.

Supervisor Jursik Sponsors 401k-style Pension Proposal

I introduced a resolution before the Personnel Committee to study a 401k-style pension for all elected county officials (supervisors, executive, sheriff, register of deeds, clerk of court, county clerk & treasurer).

By creating a 401k-style pension, elected officials would avoid a conflict of interest in dealing with employee benefits since they no longer would be covered under the pension plan. Staff must return to the Personnel Committee no later than July 31 with a report.

I am pleased that the County Executive has also spoken favorably of a 401k-style pension system.

I also supported the proposal to reduce the pension multiplier for elected officials to match the reduction given to our employees.

As for the union contracts, these two unions combined would barely add up to 50 workers. They are not very big and thus do not have a lot of resources they could devote to a long mediation or arbitration, and all the legal battles. Touting reaching a contract with them would be akin to boasting about taking candy from a baby.

What Jursik does not mention is how they gave the nurses union a big raise and then approved a collateral contract agreement in which the nurses would be allowed to skip the furlough days in exchange for four minor holidays. (Minor holidays are ones like Veterans Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, MLK's Birthday and President's Day. Workers can takes these days off on those holidays or they can choose to save the days and use them at a later time.)

The 401k plan is also not the best of ideas. Taking the county's pension system and merging it with the state's system would take the conflict out as well. But the merger would have the bonus of saving the county tax payers over $10 million dollars worth of administrative costs.

And the decrease in the pension multiplier is an empty gesture at best, since it is not likely to ever be passed. It is just feeding into Scott Walker's campaign talking points. And anyone who follows this blog would have already deduced that Walker's stance of cutting his own pension multiplier via waiver is a gimmick, since he knows darn well that if he does somehow make it through the primary, and then really beats the odds by winning the election, his pension goes back up to 2% as governor, which is where the state system is at. And I have not heard Walker make on mention of cutting that one.

As I said before, this might play well to her constituents, as long as they aren't paying too close attention to what is really going on. But that doesn't mean her choices are the best ones, or even good ones.

The Real Tax And Spenders

County Supervisor Pat Jursik has been reading too many books about conspiracy theories, and now sees them everywhere.

She is upset, because City of Milwaukee officials have also been meeting with the DOT about the Hoan Bridge, and their recommendation is to keep all viable options open as things progress. Jursik saw this as a delaying tactic and fired out an accusatory press release saying as much.

Personally, I don't see what is wrong with always keeping an eye open for better ways of doing things. This is especially true with the Hoan Bridge, since the cost of redecking it is rather high, and the one only benefit that I have seen people say is that it allows south siders the luxury of not having to face the traffic jams that every other commuter in Milwaukee County has to deal with on a day in and day out basis. There are plenty of choices to choose from, like these.

What else is interesting is what Scott Walker's own sycophants had to say about the matter. They try to take this and use it to jab at Tom Barrett, and end up their post with this:

Scott Walker has supported the coalition to save the Hoan Bridge. Sources from the Southshore area also tell me that Walker supports the extension of the arterial to the County line.

So, just like when it came to a Parks Regional Authority, a Transit Regional Authority, or the stimulus funding that the County Board forced him to use, he has no problems with being a tax and spender, as long as he has a almost plausible out that keeps him from being directly tied to it.

Can you imagine how much our taxes would go up if he were elected governor, and would always dump his responsibilities on the local governments, expecting them to pick up his slack?

Citizens For A Responsible(?) Government

Yesterday, Citizens for a Responsible(?) Government proudly announced that they are going to donate time, energy and money to a start up recall exploratory group with Supervisor Patricia Jursik as their target:

CRG Network PAC, the political action unit of CRG Network, has agreed to provide assistance and financial support to a Cudahy and South Milwaukee citizens group interesting in holding county officials accountable for tax increases. The group will file the necessary documents to form a resident Political Action Committee (PAC) named “No Tax Increase for Cudahy/South Milwaukee” tomorrow morning with the Milwaukee County Election Commission.

The impetus for forming the PAC was the tax increase positions of local county supervisor Patricia Jursik. The PAC was established to campaign in support of lower-tax candidates and against higher-tax candidates at the next election but has reserved the right to amend the PAC to a Recall PAC pending the outcome of future votes and actions by Jursik.

CRG Network spokesperson Chris Kliesmet commented, “It is no secret that Supervisor Jursik continues to support a tripling of the Milwaukee County sales tax despite the fact that her district voted against it. Such actions are an outrageous breach of the implicit contract between politicians and constituents to represent them honestly. Ms. Jursik should not be surprised that her constituents are taking steps to hold her accountable or that her future actions may well inspire the cry for recall. CRG is already in contact with several other local citizens groups interested in taking similar action should they decide their representatives on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors are no longer honestly representing them.”

I see one flaw with their plan already. Jursik voted against the budget and its increased tax levy (emphasis mine):

Supervisors who voted in favor of adopting the 2010 County Tax Levy (10-9):
Gerry Broderick, Toni M. Clark, Elizabeth Coggs, Marina Dimitrijevic, Willie Johnson, Jr., Theodore Lipscomb, Michael Mayo, Sr., Johnny L. Thomas, Peggy West, Chairman Lee Holloway

Supervisors who voted against:
Mark Borkowski, Paul Cesarz, Lynne De Bruin, Patricia Jursik, Chris Larson, Joseph Rice, Joe Sanfelippo, Jim “Luigi” Schmitt, John F. Weishan, Jr.

Supervisors who voted in favor of adopting the 2010 County Budget (10-9):
Gerry Broderick, Toni M. Clark, Elizabeth Coggs, Marina Dimitrijevic, Willie Johnson, Jr., Theodore Lipscomb, Michael Mayo, Sr., Johnny L. Thomas, Peggy West, Chairman Lee Holloway

Supervisors who voted against:
Mark Borkowski, Paul Cesarz, Lynne De Bruin, Patricia Jursik, Chris Larson, Joseph Rice, Joe Sanfelippo, Jim “Luigi” Schmitt, John F. Weishan, Jr.

So now they're recalling people for doing what they wanted them to do? No wonder they've lost almost all credibility.

Initial Thoughts Regarding Walker's Proposed 2010 Budgets

These are just my initial reactions to a preliminary look through Scott Walker's proposed budget for 2010. As is my wont, I will be examining them more closely in the days to come, covering them by sections.

When I first read Walker's campaign speech budget address, I will admit that I was impressed. There were some good news in there indeed, such as the restoration of some key services. Needless to say, I was dismayed about Walker's hopes to try to balance his budget on the backs of the poor, the elderly and, yes, the workers, such as myself. More on the workers part in a little bit.

Dan Cody shows that Walker is proposing his fancy water parks in the suburbs at the cost of several pools, including the two indoor pools, and the community centers. This will not gain him any favors with the elderly or the poor.

Cory Liebmann and Harris Kane discuss how Walker seems to have suddenly become a tax and spender, like those he just criticized at last weekend's Teabaggerfest.

Walker also cuts several bus routes, including at least one serving the poorest neighborhoods, in favor of a rapid transit bus that will serve a school that will probably never be built.

Speaking of which, I am hearing from more and more sources that the UW-Tosa deal for the county grounds is going to fall through. I hope that the County Board shows enough sense not to count on that money anymore.

I did notice that it appears Walker has reversed himself on closing one of the units serving disabled adults at the mental health complex. Since I am the only one to have written about it, to the best of my knowledge, I take at least some of the credit for putting that pressure on.

It is good to see that Walker, after months and months of decrying the stimulus money, is now embracing it to rectify some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance and the disrepair that comes with it. Furthering his hypocrisy, he is also using the stimulus dollars to put the burden on taxpayers for years to come, despite saying how he thought that was a bad idea. And to put the cherry on this hypocrisy sundae, he is taking credit for the hard work the County Board did just to shut him up and get the stimulus dollars he didn't want in the first place.

Walker is also taking credit for Family Care, which was actually ordered by Governor Doyle to happen statewide. And by the way, it will take three years, not two. He really should have been paying more attention to his county instead of the state.

The fact that Walker is trying to balance his budget on the workers' backs during contract negotiations shows his lack of understanding and/or lack of respect for the laws governing such issues. All the union has to do, if push comes to shove is go to arbitration, which will end up costing jobs and cuts in services, but will also cost the County a pretty penny.

Also, as with the Income Maintenance programs, if Walker cuts services too much, the state will come in and take over these programs as well. There is already a class action lawsuit against DHHS for failing to provide services in a timely fashion to disabled adults.

On a similar note, I heard from a birdie today that Walker has sent a letter to the Board, asking for a special meeting to immediately implement the reduced work hours plan he had tried a few months ago. This time he learned his lesson, and is only asking for the four weeks as allowed under the old contract. The new one that he has threatened to veto would have given him six weeks to play with.

Walker also wants five days of furlough for non-represented employees, the birdie told me. I wonder if that would include his own staff.

And to top it off, Walker already has identified the 300-400 workers he wants laid off at year's end. Any guesses if I am on the list?

The County Board dropped a bomb on themselves today as well, when they voted to lay over the contract for AFSCME, after they approved two others that included raises, where AFSCME didn't. One of the bigger hypocrites was Supervisor Pat Jursik. She gave her fellow lawyers a raise, and is pushing to spend a wad of money on the underutilized Hoan Bridge, but thinks it's outrageous that a housekeeper or parks worker making $12 or $14 an hour gets to keep their job.

The other big hypocrite is Supervisor Johnny Thomas, who is a member of the Personnel Committee and voted for the contract in committee, but turned around and voted for the layover. But then again, it appears that he is pushing for some higher position himself, as evidenced by his "Road Map for Milwaukee County's Future." And like Paul Ryan's road map, it is a bunch of words that don't say anything.

In a Time of Crisis

I am sure that everyone has heard about the horrible fire at the Patrick Cudahy plant that has been burning for more than 24 hours now.

The fire crews from several surrounding communities should be commended for the valiant efforts to fight the blaze, as should Cudahy Mayor Ryan McCue, who showed good leadership in a time of crisis. He was willing to make the hard decisions in the effort to protect the public safety as much as he was able to.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.

It should be also noted that County Board Chairman Lee Holloway and County Supervisor Pat Jursik were quick to pledge County resources to aid in the emergency. The Department of Aging did a lot to help area seniors safely evacuate and made sure that they will be safe until they can return home.

But I have one question: Where was Scott Walker? One would think that a man who claims to be the best person to run the state would be at least doing something during a crisis in his own county, and so close to the airport.

Quotable

From County Board Supervisor Patricia Jursik, in a press release announcing her resolution to adopt a sustainable budget:

Supervisor Jursik is also requesting that the County Executive stop playing politics with the financial condition of the County. Last week, the County Executive’s budget director and support staff appeared before the County Board’s Finance & Audit Committee for extensive discussions regarding the projected 2009 deficit. Yet, at this meeting, no one from the County Executive’s office or his administrative staff mentioned any proposals to reduce the County workweek to 35 hours. The Committee was bypassed so the County Executive could save the announcement for a news release later that same day. “It’s unfortunate that the County Executive’s desire to generate headlines and support his campaign for Governor ignore the importance of strategic planning,” said Supervisor Jursik, a member of the Finance & Audit Committee. “Inaction on developing long-term solutions alienates these two branches of County government. Issuing press releases is not the same as providing leadership."

Another supervisor that gets it.

Walker Sticks It To Taxpayers With Campaign Maneuvers

In the last two budgets, the Milwaukee County Board has authorized and fully funded 30 positions for the Income Maintenance Program's call center. Despite having these positions fully funded, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker willfully broke the law, and his oath of office, by refusing to fill even a third of them, in an effort to sabotage the program and force the Board to privatize it. Walker did this to further promote himself as he geared up for the next phase in his perpetual gubernatorial campaign.

As a result of this severe self-imposed staffing shortage, Walker opened the County and the State of Wisconsin to a federal lawsuit that could have potentially cost tax payers millions of dollars. In response to Walker's malicious neglect, and an arrogant challenge to the State, the State came in and took over the administration of the program from the County. But the State double crossed Walker and did the take over in an unprecedented way, in which the state would put its own supervisors in place, but leave the front line workers as county employees.

In a last ditch effort, Walker finally capitulated, partially, and filled 20 of the 30 positions, but he did so by taking them out of other areas and creating a lot of overtime for the workers. I haven't heard on how much the county has paid out to cover this maneuver of Walker's. Whatever the cost was, it was not enough to keep the State from taking over the program.

This morning, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Walker's campaign maneuvering is going to have a bigger cost to the tax payers than originally thought. The state legislature, in the process of cobbling together the legislation needed to implement the takeover, will be charging Milwaukee County tax payers at least another half a million dollars than they originally told the board.

The County Board is understandably upset, because they are the ones that will catch hell from the tax payers for Walker's folly. But they are also partially to blame. They failed to take the initiative and force Walker to follow County policy in filling those positions, like they were ready to do regarding the stimulus funds.

Also worth noting is that when Walker finally filled two thirds of the positions, there was a marked improvement in services:

The county's poor performance in fielding calls to its public assistance call center was one of the key reasons given for the state takeover. For example, fewer than 10% of the calls to the center were answered during 2008 - a problem officials blamed on too few staff.

The center now responds to 60% of calls, and the wait time for a call to be answered has dropped from more than 90 minutes to 36 minutes, a county report said.

That underscores the county's ability to fix the programs on its own, said Supervisor Peggy West, chairwoman of the county health panel.

They should also have been aware that Karen Timberlake couldn't really make any guarantees as to what the state legislature would do.

But obviously the bulk of the blame falls on Walker as he followed his tunnel vision in his ill-fated pursuit of the governor's mansion.

As bad as the news is with the extra cost to the tax payers, it could have been much, much worse. The State accomplished its goal of reaching a settlement in the class action lawsuit, which would have made that half a million dollars look like chump change. The actual settlement is available, via the paper, in this pdf.

I would expect that the State will have all of the positions filled, and that along with their own resources and guidelines should hopefully be enough to get both the state and the county from out of the lawsuit, and eventually put everything back under the county's purview.

One thing that is painfully obvious in its absence in both of these articles is Walker's response to these latest developments. In fact, there is no mention of him at all. One would think that in a story of this impact, Walker, being the publicity hound that he is, would have been chomping at the bit to try to spin this into an attack on Governor Jim Doyle.

But, as noted above, there is no mention of him whatsoever. Not even a line that he was unavailable for comment or that he had not comment, much less the apology he owes to the citizens of Milwaukee County.

So, where is Walker? Is he out campaigning? Was he too busy attending tea parties? (Wouldn't that be just too ironic?)

Dan Bice, in a column that I will admit made my jaw drop to my keyboard, might have given us a clue. In his column, Bice informs us that Walker has been cobbling together a fund raising letter trying to spin his ever-morphing position on stimulus dollars. He was probably tied up for days on end, making sure that the letter had the right "sediment."

Most of the column is a rehash of Walker's lies and hypocrisies regarding the stimulus fund, but one of the things I found very interesting was this (emphasis mine):

So has he sought stimulus funds or not?

Walker spokeswoman Fran McLaughlin declined to discuss a campaign-related issue, referring questions to Walker's election headquarters. The phone there was disconnected.

I find this very curious indeed, considering Walker has raised several hundred thousands of dollars in the past few months and that he is expected to announce his campaign in the next two weeks, leading up to the state GOP convention. Is his campaign in deeper trouble than we are aware of?

Or could it have something to do with his conspiring with CRG/WIN to make a foolish attempt at usurping the governor's seat, a plan so painfully obvious and ill-advised that even James Wigderson has called them out on it?

Either way, two of the County Board Supervisors, John Weishan and Patricia Jursik, as well as Mr. Bice, seem to have Walker's game plan down pat, as evidenced by the ending of Bice's column:

Supervisor John Weishan Jr., a frequent Walker critic, said the campaign piece exposes why Walker has been so opposed to the stimulus funding. The county executive, Weishan said, wanted to use the issue to raise campaign cash.

"It highlights his hypocrisy," Weishan said.

Jursik, the other County Board member, was even less forgiving.

While saying he opposed government handouts, she said, Walker sought federal dollars for bus rapid transit. He is also sending out this letter critical of stimulus dollars even while his department heads are seeking them, something Jursik said they should be doing.

"He's played politics on this throughout," she said. "He's a non-issue. He's abdicated his leadership position on this."

But it doesn't mean Walker can't use the issue to stimulate his own fund-raising efforts.

POST SCRIPT: Rob Henken, head of the Public Policy Forum, responds to the morning's news about the call center takeover and calls for the various levels of government to stop acting contrarily and to start acting cooperatively.

I think that the Board and the State would be able to work together. Unfortunately, any efforts to do so would be sabotaged by Walker and Doyle as they use the poor as pawns in their chess game for control of the state.

If Walker wants to run for governor, that's fine. But he really needs to step down or be removed from his current office while he does so. We, the citizens and tax payers of Milwaukee County, can't afford to keep paying for his campaign, his arrogance and his hypocrisies.

Walker World: Where The Hypocrisy And Incompetence Never Ends

We already have seen how Walker has changed his mind repeatedly, and continuously contradicted himself on whether he would take stimulus dollars and whether he would put stipulations on whether he would accept the stimulus dollars.

It was already mentioned that the County Board, realizing that time was a-wasting, passed a resolution, on a 17-1 vote (any bets that the one no was Paul Cesarz?) to establish a stimulus task force to spearhead the attainment and utilization of said stimulus dollars to rebuild and repair some of the damage that has been caused by the last seven years of neglect by Walker.

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the first meeting of this task force. I know that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a reporter there and covered the story. But as is so often the case when it comes to Walker, they did not fully report the story.

As Walker had threatened to do, he kept any of his department heads from participating in said task force. In fact, all but one, Cynthia Archer, skipped the meeting altogether. Archer was there, but not as a participant.

To make a long story short, Archer told the task force that Walker was supposedly looking to protect the county taxpayers. She never did explain how making them pay for something and then not using it was exactly protecting them, but Walker hasn't figured that part out yet either. Archer also reported that Walker was unaware of this task force until the last minute, even though the resolution has been on his desk, waiting for his signature, for several weeks. Was he lying or just unaware because he was too busy campaigning?

Archer reported to the task force that Walker had three criteria before he would accept any stimulus money:

1. That there was no local match required by Milwaukee County,
2. That there would be no long term financial obligations, and
3. That there would be no ongoing operating or maintenance costs.

Archer did not mention that Walker had already requested some rapid transit buses, which do require maintenance and which do have an operating cost. She did say that Walker has supposedly had his staff working on developing their wish list of projects they wish funded by the stimulus dollars, even though he has been publicly grandstanding on how eeeeeeeeeeeevil Governor Doyle is for doing the same thing. Some of these projects include road rebuilding. And, of course, anyone that has lived, and driven, in Milwaukee County for the last few months know that roads require a lot of maintenance to keep them plowed and to repair potholes.

In other words, Walker, who has repeatedly stated that he was against even asking for stimulus money, then changes it to that he would still not ask for the money, but would accept it under certain conditions. He then goes out and asks for the money, disregarding the conditions he said that he would only take it under.

Supervisor Broderick questioned why the department heads weren't present, and accurately blamed Walker for being an obstructionist. Supervisor Jursik was rather angry about Walker's secretive behaviors and questioned what Walker may be hiding from the task force, and what projects he is arbitrarily denying. The task force then asked Corp Counsel for a legal opinion on whether all of the decisions on what stimulus money to ask for and how to use it is policy, which means Walker was stepping out his jurisdiction and did not have the authority to make these decisions.

James Rowen also agrees that the Board should take over the process, given Walker's placement of his political aspirations ahead of the good of the County.

Another thing that the MJS failed to report was that Sheriff's Inspector Kevin Carr, representing Sheriff David Clarke, a conservative, stated that the Sheriff's office wanted to have pursue several millions of dollars of money to replace the antiquated medical records for the jail and the House of Correction, replacing it with an updated electronic system of record keeping. He also pointed out that the Sheriff's Office needed 50 new squad cars. Inspector Carr pointed out that it would be irresponsible to ask the Board for this money in the fall if they did not avail themselves of the stimulus dollars first.

Also present was Dan Finley, CEO of the Milwaukee Public Museum and a conservative, who said that the MPM would also like to pursue $1 million dollars for building maintenance.

And if that wasn't enough hypocrisy for you, well, there's more. Walker is the human eternal fount of hypocrisy.

MJS reported earlier this week that Milwaukee is going to get a nice hunk of stimulus dollars to aid the public transit system. The reason is not Walker, who refused to ask for any of it. The credit goes to Governor Jim Doyle, who, unlike Walker, puts the best interest of his constituents first, and had asked for stimulus dollars for the transit systems here and in Madison and the Fox Valley.

Walker graciously states that he would accept the money, because that wouldn't add any costs that wasn't already being planned for. Of course, this is utter crap that he is trying to serve to us. If it was already being planned for, then the system wouldn't be in the critical condition that it is in, and wouldn't be facing an implosion due to Walker's neglect:

In addition to new buses, stimulus money could cover part of the $7 million cost of replacing fareboxes, said Milwaukee County bus system spokeswoman Jacqueline Janz. Walker, Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas and Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson have discussed joint purchasing of fareboxes for their transit systems.

The Milwaukee County bus system also needs $2.2 million in equipment to announce stops for riders who are deaf or blind, to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, Janz said. Until recently, that function was handled by the much-maligned Transit TV system. But the Florida company that owns the video system has filed for bankruptcy and its screens have gone dark, Janz said.

The paper reported that most officials think that this would avert the transit crisis for maybe a year. I think that they are being overly optimistic. First of all, there is no guarantee that Walker would use the money for its intended purpose, but might just shift it over to one of his campaign contributors for some bogus, made up reason. Secondly, even if Walker did use it correctly, that we would get the new equipment in time:

Realizing that nearly all of its counterparts would use stimulus money to buy buses, the transit system issued a request for proposals Feb. 18 in the hope of getting to the front of the line for bus orders. It will take at least a year from the time of the order to delivery of the buses, and delivery time could grow if demand strains bus manufacturers' capacity, said Brian Dranzik, the county's transportation budget and policy chief.

But then again, it does take a long time to get a bus down here from Canada. After all, they Canadians are busy picking up all the money that Walker and Sarah Palin are throwing at them.

It should also be noted that while the rest of the country is still enjoying a boom in their public transit systems, our continues to lag, due to Walker's mismanagement. He still hasn't figured out that cutting routes and raising fares is a good strategy.

All of this only proves that if it weren't for hypocrisy and incompetence, Walker wouldn't have any skills at all.

The Outrage Continues...

The reaction from Walker's campaign speech, er, I mean State of the County address, continues to pour in.

First out of the box is Jacob Pickard, who notes that Walker's motives seem to be less than altruitstic:

I hope Milwaukeeans finally realized the mistake they made in re-electing Scott Walker. His utter mismanagement of Milwaukee County, it's disgraceful.

He is no Tommy Thompson, Thompson was at least pragmatic, and he tried to build consensus among the State.

Walker cares only for himself and his ambition to become governor, he only cares about his rightwing base. Scott Walker is an opportunist, and has used Milwaukee as his platform for 30 second ads in the campaign. "No Taxes, No Taxes"

Just imagine the Damage he could do as governor.

My good friend, Gretchen Schuldt, hopes Walker is kidding:

Tax cuts also don’t fix the county roads that are falling apart, or the huge deferred maintenance backlog that has only grown worse since Walker took the helm.

It’s a shame that when the country, county and their citizens are bleeding, Walker is out there pandering to his ever-narrower base instead of working for the broadest common good.

Another good chum, Ken Mobile, recently rejoined to the blogosphere and is already in mid-election season form.

Supervisor Jursik, who is far from being one of my favorite County Board Supervisors, does make a strong valid point, when she calls a spade a spade, and wants her shovel back:

“County Executive Scott Walker, may I please have my shovel back? Your February 16th press conference noted that “we” (the County) are doing the heavy lifting while “you” posed in front of 20 clean shovels criticizing Governor Jim Doyle. The 20 shovels represented 19 Supervisors and 1 County Executive. “You” touted a balanced budget and proclaimed that “you” have kept County budgets to a reasonable 2% increase over the years.

“I will need my shovel for some heavy lifting: The County now has over $300 million in deferred park maintenance and millions more in deferred road maintenance costs accumulated during your tenure. The County Board recognizes that our transit system is in a major crisis, and we have consistently overridden your vetoes of dedicated funding. In fact, “we” at the County Board had to override about 2/3 of your vetoes for this year’s budget. Compare this to Republican Governor Tommy Thompson’s zero overrides.

“Due in part to your recent public comments on the issue, I truly fear that Milwaukee County will not get a fair share of stimulus money. I will need this shovel to repair our crumbling County roads and buildings. I have begged you to fix College Avenue in my district, a project that has been on the capital repair budget for the terms of three prior 8th District Supervisors. It is now in jeopardy again as the new postal facility has been delayed. The Mayor of one of my district cities described this road as a “third-world road” because of its condition.

“The County budget has shown reasonable increases only because of the actions of the County Board of Supervisors, so I’m not really sure if your shovel has gotten any use. I wish that our news media would do more than cover groundbreaking ceremonies like the one at Bucyrus, which is a great company in my district. I know it is not as sexy to show footage of crumbling roads and park pavilions, but it is this reality that brings me to my plea: May I please have my shovel back, I’m going to need it badly as we work on the 2010 County budget!”

Meanwhile, Walker remains clueless and a laughing stock for the rest of the state.