Walker Impersonates Courthouse Toilet

There is more spillover from Walker Toiletgate.

JSOnline has finally heard from Aprahamian, and it was revealed that the donation and the RFP came only a month apart. This only confirms the violation of the ethics code.

Cory Liebmann posted that this is not the first time Walker has crossed this line, but regularly dances beyond it with total disregard for ethics. Cory forgot to add Walker's problem with accurately reporting Lear jet rides and his dealings with Air Tran.

But the most damning to Walker is that Channel 12, who first broke the story last Friday, did a follow up today. The toilet is still unusable.

Walker tries to again blame the workers. Again, the fact is, like so many other programs, what we are seeing is the results of his continuous cutting of staff to the point where the work can't be done anymore.

Walker then tells Channel 12 some bad advice:

Walker had previously suggested critics check out the county's Health and Human Services Center, where a private company has cleaned for years.

Two problems. I work in that building, and we are on are third or fourth company in so many years. We still can't get things like toilet paper or soap stocked on a consistent basis.

Secondly, the Coggs Building was already discussed by Supervisor Peggy West in yesterday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article:

Supervisor Peggy West said it was unfair that the board was shut out of details about the custodial services outsourcing. She said poor quality cleaning of the county's Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center, 1220 W. Vliet St., by another private service demonstrated the folly of outsourcing the task.

She called the Coggs Center "disgusting. It's gross, it's not sanitary," she said.

It seems like Walker is very much like the courthouse toilet. They are both full of **it, and it does not appear that this status will change any time soon.

Supervisors Behaving Badly

Earlier this week, County Supervisor John Weishan wrote a letter to Board Chairman Lee Holloway complaining about the performances of Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs, Chairwoman of the Finance and Audit Committee, and Supervisor Paul Cesarz, Chairman of the Personnel Committee.

Weishan called for Holloway to ask each of his fellow supervisors to step down from their respective chairs. His complaints about their performances are not without merit, especially in regards to Cesarz. I don't like the thought of someone with his own personal and ethical issues deciding the fates of workers or trying to support his buddy, Scott Walker, and Walker's cronies, on the backs of the workers.

But then Weishan, for some inexplicable reason, felt that this letter should be published publicly.

This caused a firestorm, with Coggs issuing her own public statement bashing Weishan. Coggs claimed that her committee was inclusive (it was) and pointed a finger back at Weishan for not participating (even though he did).

Supervisor Peggy West chimed in on her facebook page, coming to the defense of Coggs.

All of this is disheartening, to say the least. At a time when the Board should be trying to work together as a whole to address the important issues, like trying to salvage something close to workable out of the budget or trying to resolve the contracts before they are handed their butts in arbitration, they should not be having these spitting contests, much less having them in public.

They Should Write For Cog Dis

From County Supervisors Elizabeth Coggs and Peggy West:

Milwaukee County Supervisors Peggy A. West and Elizabeth M. Coggs are responding to the County Executive’s series of media announcements regarding his 2010 Budget proposal.

“Even though County Executive Scott Walker is tentatively scheduled to present his 2010 Budget proposal to the County Board on September 24th, he appears to be directing his department heads to manufacture crisis situations so that he can come in and ‘save the day.’ Earlier this year, County Executive Walker ordered all of his department heads to submit budget requests with steep cuts, to cover what the County Executive believes is a $90 million budget hole for 2010,” said Supervisor West. “Fair enough, but for the County Executive to hold a series of public events announcing that he is reversing all of the cuts proposed by his own department heads (to make himself look better) is ridiculous and unacceptable to me and many of the constituents we represent on the County Board. We are facing extremely difficult financial decisions, and it is inappropriate for the County Executive to give a false sense of security to some groups over others. No one is safe in the 2010 Budget. The County Board will allocate dollars where the needs are the greatest. The County Executive’s decision to make promises to some groups over others only impedes our ability to do that.”

Supervisor Coggs, Chair of the Finance & Audit Committee, expressed disappointment that the County Executive barred his cabinet heads from attending any of the Committee’s budget listening sessions, forbidding them from hearing the concerns of Milwaukee County residents and taxpayers. “Let’s not forget that it was the County Executive who demanded that his department heads turn in budgets with extremely painful cuts. This is a playbook manufactured by Scott Walker’s campaign to portray him as a knight in shining armor saving the day in Milwaukee County. In fact, this plan is so clever that his own department heads and the news media don’t even realize they are playing right into it. Well, we’re not buying it,” Supervisor Coggs added. “We have true needs in Milwaukee County, and we will not turn our backs on the residents of Milwaukee County. We must be creative and work together in developing long-term solutions that allow us to preserve vital programs, save tax dollars and limit the impact on the roughly 5,500 employees and their families in Milwaukee County. We ask for help from the County Executive, his department heads and all Milwaukee County residents throughout this budget process.”

Of course, I would have to teach them to stop pulling their punches.