Abele Sandbags Public School Takeover Because Elections

In Milwaukee County, there is a classic battle going on for the seat of Milwaukee County Executive. On one side is the well-moneyed rich, spoiled brat who thinks he can just buy his reelection. On the other side is a wildly popular state senator who is actually progressive and has one helluva grassroots campaign going on.

The incumbent is Chris Abele, son of billionaire John Abele, who feels that because his daddy is rich, he's better than the rest of us. Abele's five years in office has led to the dismantling of civil service protections, repeated efforts to bust the unions (both public and private), the removal of checks and balances in county government by concentrating power in his hands and the takeover of Milwaukee Public Schools.

Abele was rather proud of his working with the Republicans in the state legislature to make sure that he would become the education privatization czar in Milwaukee. For years, Abele and fellow millionaire, Sheldon Lubar, openly said that they were targeting the Milwaukee Public School Board in an effort to privatize the school system. Now that the Republicans gave him what he wanted, he couldn't stop bragging about how great he would make things.

What Abele didn't count on was how unpopular his takeover plans would be. In the face of increasing criticism, Abele is trying to downplay his takeover agenda. Sadly for him, Abele and his allies keep committing gaffes that reveal that he has no intention of scaling back his plans.

His hand-picked Commissioner for Decommissioning Public Schools, Demond Means, scheduled his first "listening" session at a private charter school. After an immediate and large amount of blow back, Abele and his commissioner rescheduled the session for a Milwaukee Public Park. (In what I am sure is pure coincidence that about the same time, Abele's head of corporation counsel said it was OK to have political events at county parks.)

The real giveaway came from Abele's friend, Republican State Senator Alberta Darling, who coauthored the bill giving Abele the power to privatize the Milwaukee school system. In the video below, she came out and said that Abele is waiting until after the April election before fulfilling his role in the takeover of the Milwaukee Public Schools:



On the other side of this takeover his Abele's opponent, State Senator Chris Larson, who, as seen in the video at top) is not only standing with the Milwaukee teachers and parents, but is willing to lead the way to taking it to Abele, delivering petitions with over 800 signatures opposing Abele's takeover.

As the gentle reader can see, this race is much, much more than just an election about good government versus a corrupt plutocracy. It is also about the future of our children.

Cross posted from Crooks and Liars

Chris Abele's Monkey Business At The Zoo

Last year, Milwaukee County Emperor Chris "Boss" Abele devised a budget which was rife with privatization schemes and giveaways to his wealthy friends, including the privatization of the concessions at the Milwaukee County Zoo.  The County Board wisely rejected this proposal.

The board's decision was well-founded as that the concessions are very profitable for the county.  Privatization of these services would lead to a reduction of services and sending millions and millions of taxpayer dollars out of state.

Abele was so upset of having his privatization schemes foiled, he stamped his silk-slippered little feet and got rid of his head hatchet man.

However, at last week's Finance, Personnel and Audit Committee meeting, it was found that Abele again ignored the will of the people and went ahead and signed a Memo of Understanding with Service Systems Associates (SSA), a Colorado-based private company to run the concessions, even though he did not have the authority to do so.

The committee meeting (Item #12) revealed that not only did Abele promise this group a contract, but had given them keys to the place and office on the zoo grounds.

This underhanded, Machiavellian stunt is reminiscent of his stunt to sneak through an expansion of the privatization of security guards throughout the county or the way he tried to give away the transit system to a for-profit company.

Because of the shadiness of Abele's maneuvering, instead of getting the 5-3 up vote they were expecting, Abele and SSA walked away with a 3-5 rejection.

When this matter appeared before the entire county board this past Thursday, it was sent back to the respective committees in light of Abele's manipulations.

I certainly hope that the supervisors remember their vote last year and why they voted that way to prevent Abele from further diminishing Milwaukee County by wiping out one of its main attractions.

I also would not be surprised if Abele takes another page from the playbook of his BFF, Scott Walker, and creating an artificial budget crisis that would allow him to complete this manipulative, detrimental scheme of giving away more of the county's assets and taxpayer money.

The Corporate Wolf At The Door

Last week, I reported about how Scott Walker wants to throw the disabled and frail elderly to the corporate wolves.  In a nutshell, he wants to do away with programs like IRIS and Family Support Program, and make it mandatory that these vulnerable citizens are forced into a privatized version of Family Support:

Walker would also award all of these contracts in a no bid process.
And to show that the care of these vulnerable adults are not his priority, Walker wants to take oversight of these programs from the Department of Health Services and give it to the Commissioner of Insurance.

In other words, Walker wants to force the frail elderly and disabled adults into a single, expensive program. He then wants to give these contracts - worth more than $3 billion - in a no bid process to large for profit insurance companies, who will have little or no oversight.

Gee, do you think he is fishing for the Big Insurance campaign donations with this immoral giveaway?

The big question is what company could do what Walker wanted.

It would have to be a big insurance company to be able to set up a statewide system. But because Walker wants it done by the end of next year, it would have to also be a company that already has a pretty good understanding of how the system works so that they could be ready to go in such a relatively short time.

The only logical conclusion would be WPS Health Insurance.  They are a huge mulitbillion dollar company who already has contracts to be the third party payer for many of the state's Family Care systems.

To make WPS seem even more likely to be the corporate wolf that Walker wants to feed on our vulnerable citizens is the ties he has to the company.

Just a year ago, Brett Davis, who was Walker's Medicaid director, suddenly up and left his job.  Just a few weeks later, it was announced that Davis had been hired at WPS at vice-president of provider relations.

This is important for a couple, three of reasons.

One, the Family Care program is funded through Medicaid, thus giving Davis an upper leg on most people on being able to run this program in the private sector.

Secondly, the timing of Davis' departure from the state and hiring at the state would make him eligible to do lobbying with the state.  And don't forget that Davis used to be a state legislator himself before Walker gave him his cushy job.

Scott Walker and Brett Davis

Thirdly, Walker and Davis do have a long and tight relationship. The gentle reader might recall that Walker had wanted Davis to be his Lieutenant Governor.  This was evidenced by the fact that Walker had Kelly Rindfleisch doing Davis' fundraising instead of her supposed duties as Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff at Milwaukee County.  Other emails from the Walkergate investigation showed that Walker's team didn't think much of Rebecca Kleefisch, who eventually did become Walker's lieutenant governor.

Now, this is all purely speculation.  But given Walker's modus operandi, it all fits together so very well.  It also follows the pattern that Walker tried to use when he wanted to set up a perpetual taxpayer-funded campaign donation scheme with Sportsman United.

And let's face it...is there anything that we wouldn't put past Walker trying to do, especially if it was meant to further his political aspirations?

AFSCME Sues County for Breaking Contract Promise to Correctional Employees

As previously reported, Boss Abele tried to go on a privatization binge in his 2015 budget.  When he didn't get his way, he had a tantrum and fired his head of the Department of Administration.

Unfortunately, Abele did get at least one thing through, which was defunding 91 positions that were meant to provide medical and psychiatric services to inmates at the Milwaukee County Jail and at the House of Correction.  This stems from a court order for Milwaukee County to temporarily hire a private firm to manage these services because Boss Abele and his buddy Sheriff David Clarke willfully failed to hire the necessary staff.

The court order also made it clear that the county workers would not be displaced and that their spots would be filled by the private company employees only when they became open when a county worker quit or retired.

By not funding these positions, Abele thought he would get around that order.

The union won't allow Abele to go back on his word.  Boyd McCamish, Executive Director of AFSCME District Council 48, issued the following press release on Wednesday:

Boyd McCamish, Executive Director of Milwaukee District Council 48, AFSCME, announced today that the Union is filing suit against Milwaukee County and Armor Correctional Health Services, Inc.

Armor, a Florida corporation, has provided medical and mental health services for inmates at the Jail and House of Correction using a mixture of its own employees and County employees since 2013. McCamish made the announcement after the County adopted a budget that deletes funding for approximately 91 County health care jobs at the Jail and House of Correction.

In 2013, a State judge ordered the County to sign a contract with Armor to provide health services for inmates at the Jail and House of Correction. The contract, signed by the County and Armor with the court’s approval, promised that County employees would continue to be employed at the Jail and House and Correction but would work under Armor’s supervision. As part of the contract, Armor would provide its own personnel, but no County employees would be displaced to make room for additional Armor employees. Only as County employees quit or retired would Armor be able replace them with its own employees.

“Chris Abele has left a trail of broken promises in his wake as County Executive. We are asking a Court to clarify that the County must keep its contractual promises to the health care workers employed by the County Jail and House of Correction and to let them continue to work until they retire or quit.

“That is what the County promised in 2013 and that is what should happen. The 2015 budget may have not funded these positions, but the contract between Armor and the County says that the workers can’t be fired to make room for Armor employees. If the County thinks its budget permits it to violate the rights of members of the Union who were promised under the contract that they would not be displaced, the Union is going to fight the County in the courts to protect its members,” McCamish said.

McCamish said that if any members of District Council 48 who work at the Jail or the House of Correction receive layoff or termination letters, they should immediately contact the Union or its attorney, Mark Sweet, who will represent the Union in its suit against Armor and the County.

It should be noted that Abele's and Clarke's refusal to do their job and having the private company manage these services have already dinged the taxpayers for an extra million dollars. Now, it's probably going to cost taxpayers even more money to first defend the indefensible actions taken by Abele and then to make those 91 workers whole again.

On top of all that, Armor doesn't have a very good record in providing proper care and has been sued multiple times.

Despite his claims to the contrary, it is increasingly obvious that Boss Abele is neither a fiscal conservative nor a good representative of the people.  Of the plutocracy, yes, of the people, no.

Boss Abele Replaces DOA Head After Failed Privatization Efforts

As I noted last week, the 2015 Milwaukee County Budget had been finalized.

Abele wanted to privatize a lot of services and cut out other services altogether. He sent his right hand man and director of the Department of Administration, Don Tyler, to make sure that these maleficent actions took place.

However, county workers and AFSCME members went to the budget hearings and pointed out that folly and maleficence of the Abele's budget and privatization schemes.  The county board agreed.  Some of the budgetary actions taken by the board included:

• Restored $300,000 to homeless shelters. (Keep in mind that this is only November and we have already had two nights with wind chills below zero. Abele's veto was so egregious that even his own personal supervisor, Deanna Alexander, voted against him on this.)
• Restored $300,000 for indigent burials.
• Restored $10 million to do repairs and maintenance to county parks.
• Restored free bus rides for the elderly and disabled.
• Restored several positions in the Sheriff's Office to increase public safety.
• Restored six clerical positions at the House of Correction instead of paying overtime to corrections officers to do that work instead of guarding inmates.
• Stopped the privatization of food services at the zoo.
• Stopped privatization of security guards and transferred them to the Sheriff's Department.  (Remember how well that idea worked out for Scott Walker when he tried it.)
• Stopped the $2,000 pay cuts to county workers and restored a flexible spending account program, which will hopefully slow down the high rate of turnover the county is experiencing.

When Abele's privatization and profiteering schemes had been beaten back, I predicted that he would have another one of his temper tantrums, acting like the spoiled, rich brat that he is.

This week, the predicted temper tantrum did indeed occur and Tyler felt Boss Abele's wrath for failing to get his dirty work done.  Abele threw Tyler under the bus for not being able to execute Abele's poorly thought out schemes.

Boss Abele also didn't waste any time replacing Tyler.  He has already named Teig Whaley-Smith, Economic Development Director as Tyler's successor.

The decision to promote Whaley-Smith does make some sense.  Who better than the Economic Development Director to help ram through secret sweetheart deals for county assets such as our parks and buildings?

Given Boss Abele's propensity for tantrums and rash decisions, I would strongly suggest that Whaley-Smith keep his resume updated.  One never can tell how long one will last when the Emperor has one of his snit fits.

Boss Abele Gets Caught In Security Scam

When Scott Walker was Milwaukee County Executive, he tried to privatize as much as he could, usually with disastrous results.  His usual modus operandi was to declare some sort of emergency which allegedly could only be resolved through privatization.

He privatized the housekeeping at the courthouse, giving the contract to a campaign donor, leaving the courthouse in an expensive, filthy mess.  He privatized the security at the mental health complex, leaving taxpayers on the hook for nearly a half million dollars more each year for a lesser quality of service.

He also tried to privatize the security at the courthouse and children's court center, giving that contract to another campaign donor, Wackenhut. But he botched that up and didn't follow the law.  Taxpayers ended up paying for private security guards, county security guards and sheriff's deputies to all do the same job at the same stations.

When Boss Abele took over, he picked up right where Walker left off, using the same underhanded techniques.

Going into this year, Orion Security was providing security services for the mental health complex and the Coggs Building.  Orion doesn't like to treat their employees with respect and doesn't like paying them a living wage, which made them a natural fit for Abele, a pro-poverty plutocrat.

When Milwaukee County passed the living wage ordinance, Orion decided that paying their employees a living wage went against their business plan and gave a thirty-day notice to the county that they would not provide services at the Coggs Building.

In response, Abele gave a bridge contract to a company called AlliedBarton Security Services.  Because the contract was on a month to month basis, its cost was less than $100,000 and Abele was able to enter into the contract without notifying the board, much less needing their approval.

On Wednesday, more than three months later, Abele put a yearlong contract before the County Board's Transportation, Public Works and Transit Committee.

However, instead of being straightforward and transparent, Abele tried pulling a fast one on the committee and on the taxpayers.

First off, he did not provide the committee with a copy of the contract.  As Supervisor John Weishan, Jr. pointed out, Abele merely proposed a resolution stating that the county would enter a contract with AlliedBarton for an indefinite amount of time, with an inexact cost and for some county facilities.  When questioned on this, Abele's staff told committee member that they didn't have time to present the contract, blaming Abele's new and cumbersome system, but they would get it to them later.

Needless to say, this was met with a healthy dose of skepticism.

But wait! There's more.

As part of his 2015 recommended budget, Abele again brings up the proposal to privatize the security officers at the courthouse and children's court center.  Supervisor Pat Jursik had to ask Abele's staff several times whether they were in contract negotiations with AlliedBarton to take over the courthouse services before they finally admitted it.

But wait! There's more.  With all things Abele, just like his mentor, Walker, there is always more.

Supervisor Theo Lipscomb revealed that AlliedBarton was in the courthouse on the very same day, doing what could be described as a recruiting drive.  The company was in the courthouse, meeting with county workers, telling them that they were going to be their new employer and explaining what their pay and benefits would be.

When asked about this, Abele's people again tried to lie about it.  When they finally admitted that the company was in the building and meeting with county employees, they tried to say that this was just in case the privatization plan was approved.  When Lipscomb asked if they were waiting until the budget was approved, why didn't they wait until - wait for it - the budget was actually approved, Abele's people again had no answer.

You can see the interchange for yourself in this video, starting at the 2 hours 27 minute mark.

This incident solidly verifies two points, besides the one that we already knew - that Abele is an underhanded character with no morals or ethics.

Firstly, it shows just how bad of an idea Act 14 really is.  In two years, the county supervisors will be basically cut down to a part time status.  One must wonder if part time supervisors would have caught this. If they come in and are tired and hurried from working another job, it is easy to believe that this would have slipped by.

And if it had slipped by, even if the county said no to the privatization of the courthouse security in the budget, it would still happen because they approved the contract without realizing it.  Then we are in the same mess we had when Walker did it.

Secondly, it shows the importance of voting yes on the county executive versus county administrator referendum question.  Without any accountability, we will see this same type of unethical and irresponsible behaviors, with it is by Abele or someone else.

The Perils Of Privatizing Milwaukee County Jail's Health Care System

Even though Boss Abele and Sheriff David Clarke love to spit in each other's face, there is one thing that they do agree on whole-heartedly - they both love to privatize everything they can.

Abele and Clarke have pushed for years to privatize the health care system in the Milwaukee County Jail and the House of Corrections.  They wanted this so much that they went to the court to get their way - even though the privatization cost a million dollars more than if health care services were provided by county workers.

So what could go wrong?

Well, just look at Florida, where Governor Rick Scott privatized the state's prison health care service:

In January 2014, three months after the privatization was fully implemented, the number of inmates who died "shot to a 10-year high," says the Post. In the past 10 years, there were only 10 months in which 30 or more inmates died. So far this year, the death count has "topped 30 a total of four times in just seven months." This is a dramatic increase from 12.5 percent to 57 percent. The investigation also found that the number of referrals for outside hospital care is down by 47 percent compared to 2012.

How did this happen? In his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, candidate Scott promised to cut prison funding by $1 billion. "Privatization isn't necessary for us to achieve that goal, but nothing is off the table," Scott's spokesperson Brian Burgess said. True enough, the Florida Corrections Department soon sent out a request for proposal for prison health care services. Underbidding the competitors, Corizon argued that it could provide the current quality of care, but for seven percent less.

As the privatization process moved forward, 1,890 state employees received a dismissal letter reading, in part, "Due to the outsourcing of this function, your position will be deleted." As far as Corizon was concerned, there were some snags along the way. But $415,000 spent on lobbying the state legislature between 2011 and 2013 might have gone some way toward ironing them out.

One would be correct in pointing out that Scott was being reckless by giving the five-year, $1.2 billion contract to a company that had been sued 660 times for malpractice in the past five years.

Surely, the fiscally conservative Abele and Clarke wouldn't do something like that!

Oh, wait.

The company that are getting the extra million dollars of taxpayer money doesn't have such a good record themselves.

While we have to wait another year and a half to get rid of Boss Abele, the good news is we can get rid of David Clarke in just a couple of weeks, by voting for Angela Walker.

Chris Abele Has Serious Security Issues

Security officers, union members and elected
officials stand up for a living wage

When he was Milwaukee County Executive, Scott Walker had privatized the security at the behavioral health complex.  Walker's rationale for this was that it allegedly saved taxpayers money.  This was shown to be false by 2008, when security costs went over budget by more than a half million dollars.

That extra money was not going to the security officers themselves, who were making more than five dollars less an hour than the county workers that had filled the duty.  So where was all that money going? I don't know.  But I do know that the owner of Orion Security, the company that has the security contract, is reported to have just built a very nice and very large house in the exurbs.

Despite efforts to have the situation improve for the security officers at the complex, nothing has changed over the years.

On Monday, a number of the security officers made a direct action to protest the unfair labor practices of Orion Security and to demand a living wage and the right to unionize, much like the protests that have been seen nationwide and globally, from fast food restaurants to Walmart workers.

Sadly, because these security officers dared to stand up for themselves and their coworkers, at least four officers had been illegally fired already. One of the people that had been fired was also a leading voice in the fight for a living wage which was waged last year and earlier this year.

Ironically, there has been reported that Orion has agreed to pay their officers $10.10 per hour, nearly a two dollar an hour raise.  Don't believe for one hot second that this happened because they are a benign and generous company.

What makes these events even more significant is that the word in the smoky courthouse halls is that Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele wants to privatize the security in the courthouse, the last place that is still staffed by county employed security officers.

Walker had tried to privatize these jobs as well while he was county executive. As one might have expected, Walker was more worried about appeasing a campaign contributor than doing things correctly.  As a result, the county had to hire the laid off security officers back while maintaining the contract with the privatization company, Wackenhut.  To make things even more interesting, Sheriff David Clarke felt it necessary to post his deputies at the same spots that the county employed and Wackenhut employed security officers were.

This meant that taxpayers were paying for three agencies to guard the same entrances.

Given that Abele has the same value system as his good friend Walker, but with even less understanding of how government works, I expect that Abele's fiasco will be at least as glorious as Walker's debacle.

The gentle reader shouldn't kid themselves either.  Abele, like Walker, is not motivated by any sense of being fiscally conservative. Abele's motivation is to keep the money where it belongs, with plutocrats and oligarchs like himself and his friends.  Abele is a pro-poverty plutocrat if there ever was one.  It's not coincidental that people call him the Mitt Romney of Milwaukee County.

But how much do you want to bet that despite Abele's false claims of being fiscally conservative or watching out for the taxpayer, he wouldn't spend a second entertaining the thought that the guards in his own personal security force - which he wanted taxpayers to shell out nearly another half a million dollars - should get paid poverty-level wages?

It does take a lot of gall on Abele's part to think that he is worth the best protection that the taxpayers can buy, but that the rest of us, including our most vulnerable citizens, aren't worth even the bare minimum.

Exploiting Our Society

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." Mahatma Gandhi.

An article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discusses the shortage of agencies that do meals on wheels for the housebound in Milwaukee County.  The article points out that this will become an even greater problem as more baby boomers hit their golden years.

It is not happy news, but what makes me angry is the reason why there is this shortage - greed:

But providing those meals isn't profitable, and the number of places with such programs is shrinking.

Milwaukee-based Horizon Home Care & Hospice is one of the few places still delivering affordable meals to older adults in the county as a community service, said Jason Whittington, manager of volunteer services at Horizon. In recent years, several programs have closed or been absorbed by other organizations.

"The biggest reason is you lose money on it, frankly. Our client base is on a very strict budget, so what we charge customers is at cost," Whittington said.

What a lovely message they are sending - "Yes, we'll feed you, but only if we can exploit doing so to line our pockets."

This is one of my biggest peeves about the push to privatize so many services that should remain in the public sector.  It's absolutely abhorrent that our society seems to think it's OK to exploit our most vulnerable citizens of all ages and walks of life.

Whether it is taking care of abused and/or neglected children, giving a safe place of treatment for the mentally ill or feeding our elderly and disabled, these service are necessities - not luxuries or niceties.  In that sense, while it is important to do things effectively and efficiently in order to minimize waste and maximize the benefits, it does not do to cut corners and put people in harm's way for love of the Almighty Dollar.

To make matters worse, those that are so dead set on privatizing everything and anything they can - people like Scott Walker, Chris Abele and Robin Vos - are fully aware that privatizing services doesn't save any money and diminishes services.  But their greed doesn't allow them to do the proper thing either for the people that need help or the people paying for the needed services.

Some things should and need to be done simply because they are the right thing to do. Profit margins shouldn't even be a factor in these needed services.

If our greatness is measured by how we treat our most vulnerable and neediest citizens, we don't come out looking very good.

Call To Action - Defend Public Education

From WEAC:

Defend Public Education - Email Your State Legislators  It is no secret that the powers that be in the state legislature and the governor's office seek to radically alter public education as we have known it in Wisconsin. The first volley in the new legislative session comes in the form of Assembly Bill 549 - a bill to expand privately run charter schools across Wisconsin with resources meant for public schools. AB549 is scheduled for a public hearing before the Committee on Urban Education on Thursday, Jan. 9. Even if you can't be there, you can register your opposition and disgust to your legislators and the committee by visiting WEAC's Action Alert Website. The clear intent of AB549 is to rapidly expand privately run charter schools at the expense of public schools. These schools are not accountable to communities and their locally elected school boards. They are not staffed by school district employees. Ample research on privately run charter schools shows that they do not perform as well as public schools that serve the same students. The basic facts about privately run charter schools are: 1) They can set the number of slots for students. Unlike our public schools, they are not required to serve all children. They have no obligation to take students on in the middle of a school year. 2) They can set behavioral and academic standards that promote the exclusion of certain students. Gaming the system by "cherry picking" and "shedding" students is how many "high performing" charter operators boost their test scores and claim success. 3) They deprive families and communities of important rights like due process for expulsions, services for special needs students, local election of school governance and open records/meetings requirements. Please take a minute to email your state legislators urging them to oppose AB 549 and further expansion of unaccountable, privately run charter schools. More Background from the Institute for Wisconsin's Future Wisconsin's public schools are the heart of every community in our state and the best way possible to give all children a shot at a world-class education. AB549 chokes off the flow of blood to that heart by taking power out of the hands of locally elected school boards, spreading for-profit schools across the state, and doing it with resources meant for our public school children. AB549 is bad for our children, bad for our public schools, and bad for the way of life we call Wisconsin. Tell the members of the Committee that public education works, we need to reinvest in our world-class public schools, and they should protect the local control that has worked in our communities for well over a century. AB549 expands charter schools not controlled by local school districts. The expansion of independent charters and other so-called education reforms have been made a priority by Assembly speaker Robin Vos, who said bills will be included in the session that begins soon .... a session Vos said he wants to end by March. That could explain why the bill was referred to the Assembly Committee on Urban Education instead of the "regular" education committee where it would probably receive more consideration and thoughtful discussion. It is also, oddly, the only bill assigned to the committee (a group that has only came into existence recently). The main sponsors, a pair of legislators who have authored more than their share of anti-public education bills, are Senator Alberta Darling and Representative Dale Kooyenga. According to the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB), AB549 makes possible a statewide expansion of independent charter schools and makes it possible for students in any district to attend an independent charter school located anywhere in the state. If adopted, this legislation would allow the University of Wisconsin System schools (two-year and four-year campuses) and technical colleges to authorize independent charter schools in the county in which they are located or an adjacent county. It allows cooperative educational service agencies (CESA's) to authorize independent charters within their boundaries. Perhaps most importantly in the short-run, AB549 has profound and negative school-funding implications. Under the bill, per-pupil payments for all of these new "schools" would come from a reduction in general aid paid to every public school district in the state. Currently, that would be about $64 million statewide that will only grow if this bill is passed. Our public schools are part of every community in the state. Their job is to make sure every child has the opportunity for a world-class education. Our job, through our elected officials, is to make sure that those communities have the resources to deliver those opportunities. Instead, with bills like AB549 state government is trying to defund and destroy what has worked so well for all of us. You need to tell your legislators you expect their vote to uphold public education as a value we all hold dear ...  and that you will hold them accountable for doing just that.

Abele Desperate To Abandon Mentally Ill In Privatization Move

For the past decade, the mentally ill in Milwaukee County has been getting neglected and maltreated.

Every year, at budget time, Scott Walker, while Milwaukee County Executive, would make cuts at the mental health complex, closing beds and forcing people into the community whether they were ready or not.  At the same time, Walker would also eliminate the community support program in an effort to privatize those services as well.

The County Board, listening to the patients, their guardians, their families and their advocates, would restore the services that Walker had cut, or at least as much as they could.

Even with the funding restored, Walker would misadminister these services.  This culminated in the last few years of Walker's reign, when Walker's hand-picked director, John Chianelli, drove the system into the ground so much that it was found that the facility was in "shoddy condition" and that he was allowing female patients to be sexually assaulted in a "trade off" for less fights.  And despite all these cuts in service, Chianelli still managed to end up with a huge deficit.

When Chris Abele came into office, there was some hope that these nightmarish conditions would be alleviated.  Those hopes would be shattered as Abele continued with the goal of closing the hospital and privatizing the entire system.  Not only that, he said he would do so in just a couple of years.

And don't kid yourself - Abele's motive has nothing to do with reforming the system.  It is pure and blantant privatization.  While he is claiming to be pumping $5 million more into the system, he is also eliminating targeted case management and community support programming.

In other words, the money is not going to increase services.  It's going to pay for the CEOs and other administrative staff of the agencies to which Abele wants to farm these people out.

Abele's move to open them county's mental health system to profiteering comes over the protests of the patients' families, guardians and advocates.  It also comes over the medical advise of the treating physicians and other health care experts who know these patients better than anyone else.

Fearing that the County Board might again do the right thing, Abele is again running to Madison - as he does every time he has a very bad and very unpopular idea - spending political and monetary capital in order to get the state legislature to pass a bill further concentrating power into his hands.  This time he wants to take away the County Board's ability to set policy about the mental health complex, even though it's the Board's job to set policies such as those.

So why is Abele so anxious to privatize Milwaukee County's mental health system that he is willing to go to such extremes?

Because it's not working.

I pointed out months ago that there was simply not enough resources to successfully take these people in and keep them and the community safe.  As a result, these vulnerable citizens are not getting bounced around like ping pong balls:

Furthermore, there are not facilities that have sufficient resources to keep the patients of the complex or others safe. And if there is a facility that would be able to keep everyone safe, the cost of such services is much more than Family Care is willing to pay.

This all came to light during the meeting. The following is a prepared report which was presented to the committee by Dave Eisner of AFSCME District Council 48, which represents many of the staff at the mental health complex:

The proposed 2014 Departmental Budget of BHD has now been released. Plans are to place 24 clients from Rehab Center-Central into community-based settings by July 1, 2014. The Center for Independence and Development (formerly Hilltop) is expected to close in 2014 by placing all of its 48 residents in community based settings by November 1, 2014.

As of June 12, 2013, the Center for Independence and Development (formerly Hilltop) has placed 8 clients into community based settings. 2 of these clients have returned to BHD, 1 back to CIDS and 1 to Acute Care. The 2013 Adopted Budget called for 12 clients to be placed into the community by April 1, 2013 and an additional 12 clients to be placed by July 1, 2013 from the Center for Independence and Development. So out of the goal of 24 client placements by July 1, 2013, six (6) have been placed.

It has been observed and reported that Rehab Central patients who have been placed into the community are returning to BHD through the Psych Emergency (PCS) and are ending up in Acute Care. That raises the question as to how those placements are then counted?

The apparent lack of success in placements into community settings and the limited amount of placements does not bode well for BHD's optimistic plans in their 2014 Budget request.

It has been reported to us that there is a severe shortage of proper group homes and appropriate facilities to send residents to, in the community, contrary to what Administration has been reporting. Many of the residents are scared. The majority of them have no family support.

We are hearing that Long-Term placements where clients have been inpatients at BHD for decades are having problems. There are supposed to be visits and transition done over a period of time to be able to acclimate the clients to a community setting and to community staff. This is not occurring and clients are just being placed. This uncertainty has heightened some of the clients behaviors and is causing them much anxiety.

We are hearing that Guardians are upset also. Because this is being approached as a closure and not a downsizing, the Guardians have no choice in the placement of their wards.

All of this information has been reported to us by staff who work at BHD.

While it is recognized that reforms are needed at BHD, we strongly urge you as policymakers for Milwaukee County to thoughtfully review all aspects of this plan, and to proceed with an approach that provides high quality care, treatment, and safety for all patients, includes Guardians and front-line staff at BHD in the discussion, and that whatever is ultimately decided should be done in a cautious manner with achievable results.

It should be noted that the only issue that Abele's people argued out of all of these statements was the number of patients returning to BHD or being shuffled around. Supervisor Peggy Romo West, Chairwoman of the Committee, quickly shut that down, stating that she had received independent emails from different people saying similar things. She said that it's not clear what it was yet, but something negative was happening at the complex.

There was no denial that patients were being placed recklessly or that there was a severe shortage of available facilities and resources to meet the needs of these vulnerable adults.

One does not have to be a mental health professional to understand that this instability is not therapeutic for the patients.

As noted in the cited piece above, placing these patients into the community, if it were done correctly, would take a considerable amount of time.  It requires finding a suitable placement, getting support systems into place and giving the patient sufficient time to transition.

Even then, there are some people who are just not ready to be in the community and cannot be kept safe from harming themselves or others.

And in the time that Abele's been actively pushing for the privatization of the mental health system, there have been serious problems with the people being forced out of the complex, such as this story:

A 47-year-old male has been released from Froedtert Hospital after having his ear bitten off by a 24-year-old man Friday afternoon in Waukesha.

The suspect was taken into custody, but the victim, who has served as the suspect's caregiver for about a month, did not want to file a complaint or have any charges filed.

Capt. Ron Oremus of the Waukesha Police Department said the suspect has a benign brain tumor that results in a cognitive disability impacting his ability to make decisions and affects his ability to control his impulses.

"That's not a good combination," Oremus said.

The caregiver and the suspect were at the Medical College of Wisconsin (Westbrook Health Center), 2315 E. Moreland Blvd., in Waukesha for blood tests after the suspect bit the caregivers' arm two days earlier.

But no blood tests were given as Oremus said the suspect was too agitated at the hospital.

While they were in the caregivers' vehicle heading out of the health center, the suspect became agitated once again and bit off a portion of the right ear lobe and the part going up the side.

Oremus said after the suspect bit the ear off, he handed it to the caregiver.

Sgt. David Wanner said immediate medical attention was provided to the victim from the Medical College staff before he was transported to Froedtert Hospital.

"They tried to reattach it but it was not a viable option," Oremus said.

Staff at the mental health complex. appearing before the County Board and state legislators, have identified the attacker as a patient of the mental health complex who was discharged under Abele's plan. Now the poor man is going through the court system and could end up in prison instead of getting the treatment he needs.

Ironically, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been advocating for Abele's privatization scheme, both in "news" stories and on their editorial page.

I say it's ironic because thirteen years ago, they were reporting on how such maneuvers, like Abele's current one, don't work:

A six-month Journal Sentinel investigation of the plight of the mentally ill in Milwaukee found many people like John, wandering homeless, living in squalor, imprisoned in vast numbers, and warehoused in nursing homes or other institutions where they get little, if any, care.

Many of the mentally ill once hospitalized, however, have fared better and, due to the reforms, are now able to live inconspicuously and to contribute to the community. No one pines for the old days when the mentally ill were locked away in wholesale fashion. Still, the mentally ill and those who care for them say there must be a better way.

When the new laws governing the care of the mentally ill were passed, they promised a full range of treatment in the least restrictive environment. But a quarter of a century later, even the framers say those reforms have failed to deliver. There is a pervasive frustration with the new system expressed in dozens of interviews with the mentally ill, their families, their caregivers, legal authorities, politicians and civil rights advocates on both sides of the issue of whether the mentally ill should be committed.

The paper ran another series of articles called "Abandoning Our Mentally Ill" just four years ago showing the same sort of problems occurring, despite promises of extra money being put into the system and that things were going to be different this time.

Another bit of irony stemming from the paper is that when Walker's hand-picked John Chianelli was trashing the mental health system through his incompetence, the paper called for him to be fired and rightfully so.

But one of the agencies Abele is relying heavily on to take in these patients is Transitional Living Services (TLS).  And who is the Regional Director for TLS?  John Chianelli!

The guy they thought was unfit to direct the care for these people in a controlled setting like the mental health complex is suddenly fit in a less supervised, less safe setting?  I don't think so!

In sum, Abele's plan to privatize Milwaukee County's mental health system is ill-advised and irresponsible.  As has been recently reported by The Center for Media and Democracy, privatization of public services like this opens the door for victimization of the most vulnerable while increasing the wealth of the profiteering agencies and corporations.  Furthermore, privatization of human services is almost always much more expensive and much less efficient.

Abele's plan is a lose-lose-lose situation where the mentally ill, public safety and the taxpayers all lose.  The privatization should be stopped or at least slowed enough that it could be done in a safe and responsible way.  Furthermore, there should be plans made to build a new, but smaller, facility built so that the most vulnerable of these vulnerable citizens can be safely taken care off.

Another Privatization "Success" Story

For two years, all the non-emergency medical transports had to be channeled through one company - LogistiCare.  Previous to the contract with LogistiCare, each county was responsible for coordinating their own transports.

It soon became apparent that LogistiCare wasn't up to snuff and the complaints started pouring in, not just from customers but from vendors as well.   Eventually, LogistiCare had to give up their contract and this service was again put out for bids.  Another company has taken over the contract, at a cost higher than if the coordination had been left as it had been originally.

LogistiCare again made the news and again it is for failing to do their job properly:

But the state can get out of this arrangement at any time. And it should, clearing the way for the return of a system that doesn't leave patients on the curb when they should be getting the services they need to become and stay healthy.

Previously, local nonprofits both arranged and provided non-emergency rides to MaineCare patients. It was a setup that patients liked but that prompted questions from federal regulators, who said the same agency shouldn't be both setting up and giving rides.

The DHHS was given options to comply with federal regulations. According to a national Medicaid expert, the federal government would not have forced Maine to have regional coordinators arrange the rides. In fact, a local contractor won the ride contract for the Bangor area -- and riders there have had fewer problems.
MaineCare recipients in the rest of the state haven't been as lucky:

• A mother in Old Orchard Beach said her 3-year-old son was dropped off at the wrong house after his day at a preschool for developmentally challenged children. (He eventually was brought home safely.)
• A Winslow woman has found it difficult to secure transportation to the eye doctor, where she undergoes treatment to help preserve what's left of her vision.
• Because of logistical issues, a woman from Kennebunkport has missed out on therapy intended to improve her brain's functioning.
• A Skowhegan man with a degenerative disc disease has missed two medical appointments and been put on hold for hours trying to arrange rides.

Despite the fact that privatizing these services have made them much poorer and much more costly, the acolytes of austerity like Scott Walker and Chris Abele continue to promote privatization of these vital services.  That shouldn't surprise anyone since they are neither too bright or too honest.

What amazes me is that we keep electing these dopes.

Hell Is Still For Children, Especially In Milwaukee

As the long time readers might recall, I had worked for Milwaukee County Child Welfare for almost seven years.  During that time, the work was hard, but very rewarding.

However, the system was struggling greatly due to the state underfunding the program.  Even though independent audits showed this to be true, the state claimed that it was due to mismanagement and took it over by tucking two lines into the state budget.

It did not take long for the state to start privatizing services, with Milwaukee County being completely kicked to the curb by 2001.  Since then, Milwaukee County citizens had no say whatsoever in what happened with its children or their protection.   Yeah, the Republicans were too keen on local control 20 years ago either.

The system that the state implemented was designed to fail.  It had private agencies competing with each other instead of cooperating to serve the children.  Furthermore, the focus on the bottom line instead of the well-being of the children led the agencies to hire people just coming out of college while eschewing older, more experienced workers.  The results were predictable:

What Sykes and the editorial board are either unable or unwilling to understand is that all of this means very little, if anything at all. La Causa pulling out of their contract won't fix the entire system. All that will happen is that yet another agency, probably that Children's Hospital group, will be plugged into that spot, and the same problems will continue.

It's a bit like watching a football game. If the coach has drawn up a bad game plan, it doesn't matter who is on the field, and pulling one player for the other isn't going to change the fact that it is the game plan that is faulty.

It doesn't matter who the case managing agency is, if the whole paradigm of the system is faulty. The same problems will arise, and children will continue to be murdered. This is evidenced by the fact that the BMCW has already gone through a number of private agencies over the past decade, and yet the problems, and the deaths, remain constant.

It also does not hold the ones that are truly responsible for this ongoing calamity accountable for the role that they played in adapting such a idiotic paradigm that has failed in every other state that it's been tried in. It is well beyond time for the state legislature and the governor to get off their collective duffs and actually do something substantial to fix the system.

What good are twice a month visits if the worker still doesn't know what he or she should be looking for? There is a need to streamline the system so that workers can actually do what they are supposed to do, provide services to the child and to the family, as opposed to endless, redundant paperwork. There is a need for the BMCW to actually provide comprehensive training BEFORE the worker is assigned a caseload. And if there weren't so many administrations sucking money up, there would be more money for actual caseworkers and for services. Then maybe some of these tragedies could be prevented.

An internal audit by the state showed that they were continuing to have problems, including an extraordinarily high rate of turnover among staff.  Even though the pay was fairly high - higher than what the county paid - the state could not keep staff due to the hostile and burdensome work conditions.

When I've talked to friends who are still involved in the child welfare system, they tell me that the same problems are continuing and that nothing seemed to be improving.  I have heard people not employed by the system complain that they feel like they have to train the workers themselves to keep the system working and to keep the children safe.

And we get all of this lack of improvement at a price tag of tens of millions of dollars more each year than if they had simply appropriately funded the county's program.

Sadly, it appears that things are about to get much worse.

I have received an email pointing out that the state, in an effort to recruit more employees, have lowered the standards required for the job.  Where it once required the employee to have at least a Bachelor's Degree in social work or other related fields, the bar has been substantially dropped.

The application to work for the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare (BMCW) is more concerned if the applicant has a driver's license than the appropriate education and experience.  In fact, you don't even need to be a college graduate anymore to be hired, which should scare the heck out of anyone who cares about children.

I have also been informed that the BMCW has about 50 openings at this time.  The lowering of requirements and credentials is no doubt a move to fill these positions with warm bodies, whether they are qualified or not, and to do so on the cheap.

Funny thing is, I bet we won't be hearing Charlie Sykes or any of the other GOP mouthpiece complaining about the decrease in services or any further avoidable deaths in the future.  That might hurt Scott Walker's chances in his run for the presidency.

Jason Fields' Conversion To Republican - 99% Complete

Almost a year ago, I wrote an endorsement for Mandela Barnes to be the next state representative for the 11th District.  At the time, I pointed out that the then representative, Jason Fields, was the Republican's Democrat.

Since then, Fields has just sunken lower and lower.

Among his most shameful moments, Fields sold his soul to Chris Abele and the Greater Milwaukee Committee, becoming a face for them as they pursued the plutocratic power grab of Milwaukee County.

But now Fields has really taken it to all time lows, teaming up with the Bradley Foundation's hack lawyer and Mr. School Privatization himself, Scott Jensen, in order to attack the state constitution:

Today, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (“WILL”), on behalf of former Speaker of the Assembly Scott Jensen and state Representative Jason Fields, filed an amicus curiae brief in support of 2011 Act 21 that allows the governor to veto proposed rules from government agencies. The brief, accompanied by a motion asking the court to accept the brief, was filed in the state Court of Appeals District IV.

Last October, the Dane County Circuit Court held that Act 21, as applied to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, violated the Wisconsin Constitution, Article X, Section 1, which grants the Superintendent the duty of supervision of public instruction. “In its holding, the Dane County Circuit Court made the unfounded claim that the Superintendent has a constitutional right to make public policy. But we know from history that this cannot be. Like other non-supervisory powers, the legislature gave the Superintendent the ability to make rules, so they are well within their right to put restrictions on rulemaking – or even take it away completely,” said CJ Szafir, education policy director at WILL.

WILL filed on behalf of Reps. Jensen, a Republican, and Fields, a Democrat, because they wanted to protect the integrity of the legislature to be able to pass constitutional reform of the rulemaking process, such as Act 21. “Whether – and to what extent – the agencies have the ability to make regulations is a public policy decision made by the state legislature. It is not for the courts to second-guess such a decision,” said former Speaker Scott Jensen.

Act 21 changed the law relating to state agency rulemaking in various ways that limit the power of state agencies to regulate Wisconsin citizens. Explained Jason Fields, “In recent years, the legislature has enacted historic education reforms, such as allowing more charter school authorizers and expanding school choice. We can’t afford to see these gains jeopardized by agencies imposing more rules and regulations on Wisconsin schools and families.”

Now, aren't you glad you listened to me by electing Representative Mandela Barnes?

One would think that Fields, being a former legislator, would understand the system of checks and balances. Perhaps he does, but being a sellout, he just doesn't give a damn as long as he gets paid.

Disgusting!

Anti-Privatization Quote of the Day

People are increasingly fighting back against privatization and all the problems that come with it:

“The fact is, when taxpayers see what they lose by handing over control of their roads, prisons and other services, they don’t want anything to do with outsourcing," says Donald Cohen, chair of In The Public Interest, a resource center on privatization. "We hope that what we’re seeing in places like New Jersey, Texas, Kentucky and Fresno is part of a trend to restore control of services to American taxpayers.”

Would someone print this out and point it out to Scott Walker and his protege, Chris Abele, please.

Call To Action! Save Madison Area Technical College

They are in the process of selecting a new president for the Madison Area Technical College.  They have the list narrowed down to a few finalists:

Following an intensive national search, three candidates have been named finalists to serve as Madison College's eighth president. They will participate in a series of forums for campus employees, students and community members.

They are Stephen Curtis, president of Community College of Philadelphia; Jack Daniels, president of Los Angeles Southwest College; and Ann Valentine, chancellor of the Wabash Valley Region of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana. Forums are scheduled at each of Madison College’s regional campuses and at the Truax campus in Madison. Public/community forums will be held at the Truax campus from 1:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. on June 25-27 in room 142.

Related to this, I found this taped to my cyber backdoor:

This is from the MATC Recall Walker list, and fitting, because we have a small time Scott Walker very close to being president of MATC. His name is Stephen M. Curtis and he is one of three finalists for the job. We have a good chance of stopping him, but only by acting quickly, because the decision is going to be made later this week.
Curtis is known by teachers and staff at the Community College of Philadelphia as an arrogant, autocratic, obstinate person who never listens and hates workers and unions, indeed anyone who dares to have a say at their own workplace. The faculty at CCP voted no confidence in him in 2007 and he has refused to finalize their collective bargaining agreement for over two years. He was fired in early June, just after being named a finalist at MATC. He is a national spokesman for privatizing public community colleges and is working night and day to outsource vital functions at his school, including custodial.

We need to attend his public forum in force and challenge him; a half hour is devoted to Q&A:
What: Stephen M Curtis MATC President's Forum
Where: Room 142 Truax
When: Thursday June 27, 2013 (day after tomorrow!)
Time: 12:45 - 1:45 pm

Madison, you know what to do.

Abele Is Paying New Parks Director $140,000 To Spin Off, Privatize Parks

On Thursday, Milwaukee County Executive Emperor Chris Walker Romney Abele  announced that he was hiring John Dargle to be the new Parks Director.

At the time, I noted something that was conspicuous by its absence - no one was talking about how much Dargle was getting paid.  I felt it important to know, since Abele is getting the county sued for paying women less for doing the same job as their male predecessors.

So I sent a Open Records Request to Abele's office asking for Dargle's salary.

Abele's passive aggressive spokesman, failed TV reporter Brendan Conway, sent back the following email on Friday:

In case the gentle reader has difficulty making it out, here it is again:

Charles,*

In response to your request, Mr. Dargle will be paid $140,000.

Brendan Conway
Communications Director
Office of County Executive Chris Abele
Phone:  414.278.5281
Cell: 414.394.7710

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Data on Demand, Sue Black, Dargle's predecessor, made $126,990 in 2011:

Click to embiggen

Dargle is getting paid more than $13,000 more than Black did doing the same job and having the same credentials.  The only difference is that Dargle is a man and Black is a woman.

Update: Per this MJS article, Abele gave Black another raise just before he fired her, putting her salary after many years of service at about the same level as Dargle's starting pay.

I don't know about you, gentle reader, but I am starting to see a real pattern here.

Then again, it might not be just gender involved with the fact that Abele is paying Dargle so much money.  It could be that Dargle comes from a Parks Authority, meaning that they had spun the parks off into a quasi-privatized agency already.  And spinning off the parks into such an entity has long been one of Abele's and GMC's many goals.

If your thinking that this might be no big deal, look at how well it worked out for New York City:

When New York began relying on public-private parks partnerships following the fiscal crisis of the seventies, the idea was that private philanthropic groups would pick up the slack. And they did. Groups like the Central Park Conservancy, the Prospect Park Alliance, and the Bryant Park Corporation rose to respond to that crisis. But the city’s newest parks, paid for and operated largely by nonpublic dollars, are girded tightly by their private patrons.

The High Line was invented as a park by Friends of the High Line, which raised $44 million in donations and helped select the design. Celebrity endorsements (Edward Norton, Diane Von Furstenberg), caps on visitor attendance, adjacent real-estate development, and a dense police presence compared to other parks have all contributed to the appearance of something less than fully public. Elsewhere, the Parks Department has met with a local interest group called Coalition for a Better Washington Square Park, which offered to hire its own security and maintenance forces for the newly renovated green. Parks turned them down but did “discuss the designs of the next phase of renovation.” And in order to build the $350 million Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, a public agency, is using the private developers of luxury condos like One Brooklyn Bridge Park to pay for the maintenance of its public front yard (never mind what’ll happen if the condos don’t sell).

Expect more of the same. “What’s happening on a basic level is that the city does not feel that parks are its responsibility anymore,” says Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates. “But every community deserves to have healthy parks, not just ones that have wealthy benefactors.”

[...]

But more and more private control — you can purchase time in a “public” basketball court for a fashion show, as happened in May with designer Joseph Abboud in Greenwich Village, or pay to park a branded exhibition in Central Park, as Chanel did last fall — has become the norm. The question is how much more that means. “While privatization has brought some very good management techniques, like at Bryant Park, the nice thing about it so far is that we don’t have ‘Exxon Bryant Park,’ ” says Christian DiPalermo, the executive director of New Yorkers for Parks. Well, not yet.

So yes, it's very conceivable that we will be paying for the parks twice - once through our taxes and again as a user's fee.

That's how Abele defines efficiency.

*Do you suppose he calls Abele Charles or just Chuck? Oh, and this immaturity is what is passing for leadership in Abele's administration. Explains a lot, doesn't it?