Is Abele Preparing To Throw Transit Under The Bus

In a must read article which exemplifies all that is wrong with Act 14, Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express reports on the way Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele is looking at possibly allowing foreign profiteers run the county transit system.

Kaiser explains that Abele is taking RFPs (requests for proposals) on operating the transit system.  Abele is mad at the current operators because he fired the people that were to oversee contracts with the transit operators and this led to $9 million being squandered.

The problem is that not only does the County Board have no input whatsoever on how this multimillion dollar contract should look but they aren't allowed to even know what the other proposals might look like, that the one the Emperor's lackeys are offering is the best one or who are the people deciding which one is best:

Perhaps not surprisingly, Weishan said the supervisors didn’t have a representative on the review committee.

“I have no idea who’s on the review panel,” Weishan said.

Act 14 also changed the board’s oversight of contracts. Contracts over $300,000 such as this one now only require approval by the Finance, Personnel and Audit Committee and the full board. The relevant committees with knowledge of the issues are bypassed.

“This is likely to be heard by the [finance committee], as contracts are heard by this committee, but the goal is to have it ready also for [the transit committee] in September if it is referred to that committee as well,” Conway wrote in his email.

Weishan was concerned that the contract wouldn’t go to the transit committee and supervisors wouldn’t be allowed to amend any agreements.

“I would think that they will just come in and say ‘This is our pick and vote yes or no’ and they will fight tooth and nail so you don’t get to see things side by side and compare them,” Weishan said.

Given the repeated incidents of corruption we have seen in Abele's administration - from his Director of Administration, Pat Farley, falsely accusing former Supervisor Johnny Thomas of bribery to his Corp Counsel, Kimberly Walker, offering to become his secret router so he could avoid open record requests - and the utter lack of transparency, there is absolutely no reason for anyone not to be suspicious of the process.

Fortunately, even though their authority and their ability to provide a system of checks and balances have all but been all but eliminated, the County Board is not without any resources, including the institutional knowledge of just how the County is supposed to work when we don't have an executive with a Napoleon Complex.

That knowledge includes understanding that the government is supposed to work for the corporations or the profiteers:

Weishan said he wouldn’t approve a for-profit transit operator since he doesn’t believe that profits can be wrung out of the cash-strapped system without sacrificing service or hiking fares. He’s concerned that only highly used routes would be kept while less popular routes would be cut to save money and turn a profit.

Fewer MCTS routes would jeopardize paratransit service, especially on the far north and far south sides of the county, he said. Federal law requires paratransit service to be offered within three-quarters of a mile of all bus stops.

Don't expect any of this to change Abele's mind. After all, he doesn't ride the bus. Neither do any of his plutocratic pals in the Greater Milwaukee Committee. And if there is one thing Abele has shown with any consistency is that he doesn't care how it affects the little people.

What Is Abele Trying To Hide?

When Scott Walker was Milwaukee County Executive, he was not exactly known for having a transparency issue.  What I mean is he was about as transparent as a brick wall sandwiched between two five-inch thick lead plates:

I operate a Milwaukee-based research firm and such requests are a key part of our standard operation procedure. In 2009 I submitted a request to Walker’s administration seeking things like e-mail, calendar and reimbursement records. That request was made in June of 2009 and was not fully complied with until March of 2010. And that happened only after a reporter inquired about the long delay in processing my request. In addition to that unusual delay, it also cost hundreds of dollars. Contrast that treatment with the extensive request submitted by Walker’s allies at CRG. Their extensive request included sensitive data but it still was completed in less than a month and it was done for free.

There have certainly been other records requests that have been frustrated by Walker administration obstacles. Earlier this year his administration even obstructed the request of Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan. Supervisor Weishan requested computer records of the Walker administration after it was revealed that some may have been engaged in campaigning for Walker on county time and with county resources. The Walker administration tried to charge the supervisor thousands of dollars simply for performing his oversight duties as an elected official of the Milwaukee County Board. In fact this dispute has not been fully settled and Weishan has threatened filing a lawsuit to obtain the requested records.

In 2004 Walker’s challenger for Milwaukee County executive, David Riemer, submitted an open records request to the administration. The administration stalled that request and then didn’t even provide the exact records for which Riemer had originally asked. As a result, Riemer eventually filed an open records complaint with the Wisconsin Department of Justice. An assistant attorney general later sent a letter scolding Walker about the unfortunate incident. In it she described that the Walker administration’s actions represented “a case of how government officials ought not to do business.” She went on to declare that “nobody honored to serve in public office ought to manipulate public records in this fashion.”

And do I need to mention the secret router system he had Tim Russell set up in the executive's suite in order to avoid open record requests altogether?

Continuing to live up to his nickname of Little Walker, the current county executive, Chris Abele, is also playing games with open records requests. This is evidenced by the way he's been jerking around Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express and one of the few remaining investigative journalists in the state, much less Milwaukee:

Funny—when I’d file open records requests with Milwaukee County to look into the communications of the Walker administration, the county always provided them for no cost.

In fact, just a few weeks ago, the county mailed me a disc with more than 2,000 pages of documents sent to and from Walker’s campaign and county emails. Not a penny was charged. Not even for postage.

But suddenly the price of responding to open records requests has jumped.

Perhaps it’s because they concern Count Executive Chris Abele, his spokesman, Brendan Conway, and his favorite county supervisor, Deanna Alexander.

I’ve been informed that the Shepherd will be charged almost $1,000 just to locate the Abele-related records. The cost of copying them is extra.

My requests were pretty simple, too. I just wanted to see all of the

communications between Abele, Alexander and Conway and the folks who have been pushing for the state-imposed “reform” of Milwaukee County—Joe Sanfelippo, Joe Rice, Charlie Sykes, Aaron Rodriguez, Dan Bice, Mark Belling and Jim Bohl.

There should be quite a few of them. I’ve seen snippets of emails that Abele and Alexander have sent to Sanfelippo, Sykes and Co., and Conway, allegedly Abele’s spokesman, also wrote a press release for Alexander, allegedly a member of the board of supervisors, regarding “her” proposal for a county audit.

(See the always excellent Capper and Cory Liebmann for more about Abele's emails.)

In fact, Alexander even bcc’ed Sanfelippo, Sykes, Conway and Co. on an email she sent to me regarding her grandstanding statement on the county’s medical examiner’s testimony during the Derek Williams inquest. Who knows what other county matters she's sending on to the right-wing gasbag machine.

How insecure—or devious—can you get?

So while it may turn up a multitude of records, it sounds like an easy search to me. In fact, I could probably do it myself if I had access to their taxpayer-funded computers.

But apparently Abele wants to charge $1,000 to cough up records that should be available to anyone who asks.

He is, after all, a public servant.

He’s not the king.

And if he wanted to show that his administration doesn’t respond to reporters’ open records requests in a politically biased manner, he’d be consistent and release these documents for free.

It is blatantly obvious that there is something in those emails that Abele really, really doesn't want anyone to see. Why else would he suddenly put such a high charge to just locating the information. It's also scary if one thinks how much he might try to charge for actually releasing the requested information. If Abele's not careful, he'll be showing how concerned he is about the taxpayers by making them pay for defending him for violating open record request laws, just like his good friend Walker has repeatedly done.

The question is what is he trying to keep from being exposed to the light of day? Is it the doing county business through his private email? Is it the way he's been using Aaron Rodriguez as a ghost writer for his propaganda? Or is it something more sinister, more unethical and possibly illegal?

Methinks it might have something to do with Alexander. The way she's including people like Abele, Conway, Sykes, Belling, Rodriguez and others that shouldn't really be involved in official emails from a county supervisor.

All this makes it seem like we are starting to edge in illegal politicking and yet another caucus style scandal.

Abele might not be a big one for transparency, but he's making it abundantly clear he's not fit to hold someone's lunch money, much less be given even more power as county executive.

Abele vs. The County Board: Openness and Transparency

As Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele continues with his quest to usurp all the power in Milwaukee County, the main argument has been whether Milwaukee County citizens would be able to maintain a representative government.

In other words, would taking away the balance between the county executive's office and the county board leave people with more or less say in what happens in the county government.

To better assess this, let's look at a few facts.

The County Board, through the leadership of Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, established Legistar, an online service that made county government much more transparent.  With a few clicks of the mouse, one is able to see what the committees or the Board as a whole will be voting on and when they are voting on it.

In respect to the call for reform of the county government, the supervisors have set up at least four hearing sessions already with more to come.  Likewise, they've also called for a state audit of the entire county to see where the most efficient and inefficient areas lie so that any decisions on where to cut will be informed and intelligent.

Furthermore, the supervisors have been active in their communities and readily accessible to their constituents.  For example, Supervisor Jason Haas has been very active setting up Friends of the Parks groups for the parks in his district.  Supervisor Peggy Romo West has likewise been very involved with Kosciusko Park and Community Center, as well as activities all about the county.  Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic made it one of her first priorities to have a listening session in each of the districts to hear the constituents' concerns.

If one looks at Chris Abele, you get the exact opposite.

Abele's administration has been just as opaque as Scott Walker's was before him, maybe even more so.

Abele has left a lot of things unexplained, such as why he fired the very popular parks director, Sue Black.  Or why he fired his public works director, Frank Busalacchi.  Or why he shifted his director of administration, Patrick Farley, to his private charity group, after working so hard to coerce the County Board in approving of his reinstatement to that position.

Heck, he doesn't even send out press releases.  The last press release he issued using the official system was six months ago.

And now it is being reported that Abele has made two very telling vetoes.

One veto is for the above-mentioned resolution for an audit of the entire county.  What is he trying to hide?  Is it that he's given such extravagant raises to his staff that he's made Walker's cronyism look like chump change?  Is it that his departments are all top heavy, including those with made up positions?  Is it that they are wasting money on silly little trinkets instead of services?

The other veto Abele issues was for a resolution requiring a plan for changes in the mental health system and a summit between state and county leaders on the way mental health is provided.  Abele called this resolution "a distraction."

What he is doing is avoiding having it revealed what a colossal failure this is.  In the past nine months that they've been working on moving all the patients in the two long term care centers at the mental health complex, they've successfully moved exactly one person out.  The fact is that there is not sufficient resources to keep some of these patients safe in the community.

His choices are either:

• To leave the patients in the mental health complex where they will receive the care and the security they need (if he would properly staff it, that is), or 
• Have the patients moved to the state centers (which they've been trying to close for decades) and pay more than twice the cost to keep them at the complex, or
• Put them in the community without the proper levels of care and security.

The third option presents many perils.  One is that we will soon see the same type of stories we saw seven years ago, with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel series of stories they called "Abandoning Our Mentally Ill."  

Another possibility is that we'll soon hear of stories like this one out of Florida late last year:

An inexperienced health care caseworker who visited a client at his home knew there was something that made her "very uncomfortable" about the 53-year-old man, even writing in his file that two people should visit him in the future. 

Yet 25-year-old Stephanie Ross went alone to Lucious Smith's apartment Monday morning, and police said the ex-con with a history of violence inexplicably chased her down the street, stabbing her to death with a butcher knife. 

Ross' death underscored the dangers of in-home visits by social workers and health care professionals. Some states have added safeguards to prevent attacks, such as pairing them up with another worker for home visits or assigning a police escort, but the additional measures are sometimes too costly for states and private companies. 

"It may be if the risk is too high you don't send two people out, you ask the client to come in or meet in a different place or postpone the visit," said Tracy Whitaker, of the National Association of Social Workers. "Unfortunately, the money gets found after there's a tragedy."

And later in the same article:

In 2004, Teri Zenner was fatally attacked with a knife and chain saw while visiting a client in Overland Park, Kan., to make sure he was taking his medication. The attacker was later convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 2010, the state's governor signed a law requiring social workers to take six hours of safety awareness the first time they apply to have their license renewed.

But what is the life of social worker here or there if he can pretend to save  taxpayers a whole buck two eighty?!

It would seem that Abele wants to do away with the county board because they present the risk of too many eyes that could see the corruption happening and might raise the red flag on his self-serving plans.

The fact is that while the supervisors are open, transparent and interactive with their constituents, Abele apparently feels the people don't need to know what's going on and that if he wants their opinion, he'll give it to them.  

Opaque Transparency

Two years ago, as Scott Walker was poised to take office and proceed with his agenda of malfeasance, Mark Pitsch of the Wisconsin State Journal, wrote a gushing piece about how much better Walker was going to be in regards to openness and transparency:

My first question was a softball: “Will you pledge right now to run the most open, transparent gubernatorial administration in the history of the universe?”

Gov.-elect Scott Walker’s one-word reply: “Absolutely.”

In fact, it’s hard to imagine that Walker will not oversee a more forthcoming executive branch than his predecessor once he’s sworn into office Jan. 3. During his eight years in office, Gov. Jim Doyle and members of his administration increasingly operated out of a bunker, shunning media inquiries, defying the state open records law and keeping his whereabouts under wraps.

One example: The governor’s office waited to respond to a request from The Capital Times for letters regarding nominees to fill a judicial vacancy until just minutes before announcing its pick, a delay for which it is now being sued.

So there is reason for optimism among open government advocates, based in part on Walker’s record as Milwaukee’s longtime county executive.

After Citizens for Responsive Government asked for records of all county government expenditures, Walker’s administration turned them over and the group put them on its website. Walker followed suit, posting spending records on the county’s website as soon as they were entered in the county’s own record-keeping system. Walker, in an interview, says that as governor he’d like to do the same thing for state agencies.

Those of us who had already lived under Walker reign of terror for eight years laughed in derision at these statement for we knew better. Walker's transparency was as opaque as a brick wall.

Sure enough, only two months into office, and news organizations were being forced to sue Walker to get him to release information through open record requests.

Again, this was nothing new.

Walker's opaque transparency has continued to this day. Ranging from his discussions to "divide and conquer" to his whereabouts (which usually weren't even in the state) to the way he had lobbyists contact his Chief of Staff through non-official channels to gain an audience with Walker.

Now we apparently don't have a right to know what polluters are putting in the water, in the air or in the soil:

The DNR says it's shutting out the public and the media from the agency's enforcement conferences with alleged polluters.

After the DNR issues a notice of violation in a pollution case, the department schedules a meeting with the alleged violator. At the enforcement conference, the company is allowed to present any evidence that it obeyed the law or is fixing the problem. The news media rarely cover enforcement conferences, but earlier this year, a newspaper reported the DNR was holding an enforcement session with WE Energies about the 2011 bluff collapse at the utility's Oak Creek power plant. Several electronic media outlets covered the conference. The media and public are now banned from the conferences, according to DNR enforcement official Steve Sisbach. He says open conferences put a chill on candor, "It's not the best place to conduct a candid conversation.''

Sisbach says the state Justice Department has received declared enforcement conferences are not open meetings. But Sisbach says the public can get a written summary of the conference, and discuss the results with the DNR.

That's not open enough for Scot Ross of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, "People in Wisconsin deserve to know what is going on."

DNR deputy Secretary Matt Moroney says he's partly behind booting the public out of DNR enforcement conferences. Moroney is a former leader of a builders group, and is part of a team of Scott Walker appointees running the DNR.

The gentle reader might recognize Mornoney's name as one of the culprits involved in the attempted cover up of Herr Environemental's dumping of illegal amounts of effluence, which ended up making its way into people's water wells.

So, we are supposed to blindly trust one of the people involved with a serious cover up of a willful breaking of several laws which endangered the health and lives of a whole community. What could go wrong?

Did Abele Withhold News To Influence County Board Budgetary Actions?

During the recent budget battle between Chris Abele and the County Board, one of the most contentious issues was whether to abdicate the county's duties regarding patrolling the parks within the City of Milwaukee.  Abele wanted to foist this responsibility onto the Milwaukee Police Department and the cost onto the taxpayers of the city, even though residents from throughout the county enjoy the parks.  The Board felt that this was the wrong way to go and amended this part of Abele's budget.

Histrionic about the move, Abele vetoed it and fought for support of it, even though most citizens were against it.

The Board listened to the people and overrode Abele's veto.

Now that the budget process is over for another year, Abele released the news that the Assistant Medical Examiner who originally incorrectly ruled that Derek Williams' death was due to natural causes had resigned.  It was only a year later, when the case was reviewed, that the cause of death was corrected to homicide.

However, as Supervisor David Bowen points out in a press release, Abele had withheld that information for two weeks:

"The delay in making public the resignation two weeks ago of the Assistant Medical Examiner shows no respect to this community, which continues to be concerned about the death of Derek Williams in City of Milwaukee Police custody!"

“When the County Executive fires well-respected public servants like Sue Black and Frank Busalacchi, who he had appointed, he makes it a priority to inform the public the same day. But when a community is frustrated by the lack of humanity of officers who refuse to call for medical attention as a resident dies in the back of a police car, the Executive is silent, misleading the public into thinking nothing has happened.

“The resignation of the Assistant Medical Examiner strongly suggests that there has been wrongdoing in this situation, to the degree that he could not continue in his job in good conscience.

“Residents of Milwaukee County should question the Executive’s priorities: Is he more interested in protecting the interests of the residents he represents, or of leaders who protect the status quo of wrongdoing, while relations between the Milwaukee Police Department and community residents deteriorate.

“I call for the County Executive not to succumb to the same old politics that have gotten us into this mess but to enforce accountability and be the honest leader we need him to be."

Given that Abele was so desperate to push through the spinning off of county duties to the city, it seems likely that he might have withheld this information in order not to stir up the strong feelings regarding the mistakes made in that case and the fact that it was the Milwaukee Police Department who neglected to get medical attention for Williams as he was dying in the back of a squad.

Not only is it a horrible politicization of a young man's death, but it serves as a glaring reminder of the utter lack of transparency that has become a trademark for Abele's administration.  Abele still needs to explain the sudden and unexpected firings of former Parks Director Sue Black and former DPW and Transit Director Frank Busalacchi.

Cross posted at Milwaukee County First.

Mitt's Hypocrisy is Astonishing!

When Paul Ryan (R- Ayn Rand) was vetted for the Vice presidential pick, Mitt demanded many years of tax returns.... Yet Mitt refuses to release his own tax returns to the American People! Besides we know it does not matter because if (God Forbid) the Mitt/Twit ticket wins and they enact the Ryan plan, Mitt will pay less than 1% in taxes. Not a bad gig!

Tax Return Hypocrisy

There is no limits to republican hypocrisy and no issue they will NOT politicize.  The latest issue is tax returns:

Let's look at some things we know about tax returns and politicians:

We know that George Romney(Mitts dad) was the first politician to release multiple years tax returns because  “One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show".

We know that when Mitt was desperate to be John McCain's running mate he gave the Senator over 23 years of tax returns!  

We know that Mitt will NOT release his tax returns to the general public:

We know that Ann Romney says they have given us all of the info "that you people need to know".  

We also know that Washington DC resident,  Eric Hovde has no interest in releasing his tax returns! 

We know that the republicans think that releasing tax returns is a non issue and has nothing to do with the upcoming election.  

 NOW, thanks to some very good reporting from Jason Rae, we know that when it comes to their opponents, tax returns are a very significant issue.  

From June 27 to July 16, 2012, the Republican Party of Wisconsin, through its political director Jonathan Wetzel, filed an open records request with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue for the tax returns of 26 Democratic candidates for the Assembly. The requests varied from ten years worth of filings to just one year’s return. 

 

You see, unlike federal tax returns, state tax returns are subject to open records.  It’s just one more aspect of the Wisconsin tradition of transparency in government that has been under assault by Governor Walker and the GOP led legislature in the last year and a half.  But don’t get me wrong, even if they don’t like the transparency, they will use it when it benefits them.

....

 

I just don’t understand how they can deny releasing their own returns saying it shouldn’t matter and that it’s an attempt to, as a Hovde spokesman said, “incite class warfare,” and yet go and seek tax returns from other candidates.

 

Here again we have Republicans talking out of both sides of their mouth. It is actually making me wonder what Tommy, Mark, Eric and Jeff are all hiding if they refuse to release theirs? Its classic do as we say, not as we do.  

 

Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican.

 

 

 

Falk's Plan To 'Reopen Wisconsin to the People'

From the Falk campaign:

Kathleen Falk, Democratic candidate for governor and former Dane County Executive, today unveiled her ethics and transparency plan to “Reopen Wisconsin for the People,” designed to return citizens’ faith in the governor’s office by restoring the honesty, openness, transparency and accountability that has been lost due to Gov. Scott Walker’s actions over the last year.

“Through his actions, Gov. Walker has lost the trust of the people of Wisconsin and this is why more than one million citizens signed recall petitions against him,” said Falk. “As governor, I will work hard to earn your trust and work even harder to keep it.”

Bring Wisconsin Together Through Openness and Transparency in the Governor’s Office: Falk will make her schedule public, unlike Walker, who does not. The day after she is elected governor, Kathleen will go to Waukesha where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than two to one as an immediate start to bringing Wisconsin back together, to heal the divide Walker created, and to be a leader for all of the people – not just those in one political party.

Give Wisconsinites Access to How Their Tax Dollars Are Being Spent: Falk will order that state budget information be posted on the Internet in easily searchable formats, including the salaries and reimbursements of government officials, state contracts awarded and other pertinent information.

Redistricting Reform: Falk’s plan, based in part on the successful Iowa model, would have non-partisan, independent staff draw the boundaries, endthe use of taxpayer funds for hiring of private legal counsel associated with redistricting, place priority on constitutional redistricting principles, require explicitly the state adhere to the federal Voting Rights Act, and direct that communications related to drawing of maps are available for public inspection upon request.

Citizen Commission on Integrity and Transparency: Falk will create a Citizen Commission of Wisconsin citizens to develop a plan for increasing transparency for every area of government. This includes removing the more than three-dozen political patronage jobs created by Gov. Walker, as well as posting the hiring of top managers and officials in her administration.

Revive the Democracy Trust Fund and Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund: Falk will restore the Democracy Trust Fund and the Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund that Walker ended.

Honor the Open Meetings Law: Falk has been a longtime champion for open and accountable government and as Dane County Executive, Falk filed the first lawsuit against the open meetings violation in the passage of Gov. Walker’s infamous budget bill that took away workers’ rights. Falk will ensure the Department of Administration does not infringe on the rights of the people with regards to the legal rights of assembly and speech in the Capitol.

Protect Our Right to Vote: Falk opposes Walker’s Voter Suppression Bill, which is costing taxpayers over $17 million to implement, is an unfunded mandate on local government, makes it harder for hundreds of thousands of eligible citizens to vote, and purports to “solve” a problem that doesn’t exist.

A copy of Kathleen's Transparency Plan to 'Reopen Wisconsin for the People' can be found here:

http://action.kathleenfalk.com/page/-/Ethics%20and%20Transparency%20Plan.pdf

For more information, visit: www.KathleenFalk.com.

Oh noes! Integrity and transparency in government?! No wonder Walker's people are running scared. The last thing trolls like them want is exposure to the light of day.

Holperin Introduces Anti-Dumpster Bill

State Senator Jim Holperin (D-Conover) has introduced a bill that would make state government more transparent:

State Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover) urged an Assembly committee Thursday to favorably move forward his bill to end the Legislature's exemption from the public records retention law.

Holperin testified at a public hearing on the bill before the Assembly's Committee on Judiciary and Ethics. The senator has authored companion legislation in the Senate, and is the principal author and driving force of the measures.

Holperin thanked the committee and its chairman, Rep. Jim Ott (R-Mequon), for holding the session. The Conover Democrat had requested a Senate hearing last Dec. 19 in a letter to Sen. Rich Zipperer (R-Pewaukee), the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, but Holperin said Thursday the committee had yet to afford the bill a hearing.

Technically, the open records law does apply to lawmakers. Right now, though, according to an analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the state Public Records Board supervises the state's public records management and preservation program and sets retention schedules for records, but none of those management and preservation procedures apply to the records or correspondence of members of the Legislature.

Hence, a lawmaker could dispose of any records at any time. Holperin's bill deletes the exemption.

This is a good bill and the State Senate judiciary committee should hold a hearing on that as soon as possible. Transparency in government, which this bill would strengthen, is always a good thing.

The Republicans probably would hate to see this bill pass though. It could be a real embarrassment given the Walkergate Dumpster and the revealing of the Super-Secret Money-Loving Voter-Hating Club they've got going on.

Walker Sneaks in Holiday Visit to National Sociopath

Scott Walker must not have been proud of it, but he did it any how.

According to the Sheboygan Press and others, Walker snuck into a party hosted by Grover Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform. The name, as in the case of most conservative groups, is a misnomer as the recent payroll tax debacle proved.

Apparently this is something Scooter has to do, because he has the bulk of the population breathing down his neck through the recall process, and he needs to raise money -- lot's of it -- to run disingenuous commercials. These include the latest in which he and his family are serving at a soup kitchen (with the recipients of his charity hidden out of the camera shot), and his wife telling us later in the spirit of the holiday season to forget all the chicanery and just move on.

But yet he must not be comfortable about it and Walker failed to tell any of us that he was doing his duty by making this stop to pay homage to the person who has done more damage to this country and certainly the middle class than the Germans or Japanese threatened to do in World War II.

Walker, who likes to pride himself as being the soul of virtue doesn't feel that his comings and goings should be brought to our collective attention, especially when it comes to seeing someone as reviled as Grover Norquist. Yet, according to the Sheboygan Press article, the detested (among right wingers) Jim Doyle was very transparent about his trips.

Walker, on the other hand, seems to feel that our employers -- us -- don't deserve the right to find out. Maybe Scott never learned this in the private sector since he hasn't spent meaningful time in it, but leave work without letting your boss know is usually grounds for a write-up. Leave work to spend time with someone who threatens the well-being of the organization and that's grounds for dismissal.

Mr. Cellophane Strikes Again: Walker Again Plays Games With Transparency

A couple of weeks ago, I noted that Scott Walker was still having a major problem with transparency.  Even though he was able to dupe some of the media into thinking he was going to be open and honest with the public. Walker had Mark Pitsch thinking that he was going to be a regular Mr. Cellophane with his transparency, but in the end ended up being sued by the AP and the Isthmus for violating the Freedom of Information Act.

They ended up filing the lawsuit because he wouldn't release all of those overwhelming emails he supposedly received regarding his Budget Disrepair Bill.

The news came out today, ironically during Sunshine Week, that Walker's administration has reached a settlement with the news agencies, but with terms that raise some red flags for me:

The settlement calls for the defendants, Gov. Scott Walker and his office, to produce a disc containing these emails next Tuesday, March 22, at or after 4 p.m. It is agreed that the governor will produce emails "in the folders in which they are stored at the time of production." 

In exchange for this access, the media requesters have agreed not to use the names of individuals who have sent emails to the governor in cases where there is reason for withholding them, as when they contain personal medical or financial information or raise a concern about retribution. The requesters also agreed not to use, publish or disclose any home addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers or Social Security numbers that may be contained in these emails. 

Attorney Christa Westerberg represented Isthmus;and the AP in this action; the governor and his office were represented by Assistant Attorney Generals Clayton Kawski and Mary Burke. The governor's chief legal counsel, Brian Hagedorn, also took part in the case. 

As part of the settlement, the governor's office agreed to pay just over $7,000 in plantiffs' attorney fees and costs. But the settlement says this payment "is not nor is it to be construed as any admission of liability or of a violation of the public records law by Defendants, their agents, their officers or their employees."

The first one involves the fact that Walker needs until the end of the day on Tuesday to comply with this request, which was filed weeks ago.

It reminds me more than just a little of when Walker ran for his first re-election bid as Milwaukee County Executive against David Riermer.  Riemer wanted to know if Walker had kept his promise of having his top people sign a waiver for the pension enhancers.  It turns out that Walker had not done so, and used a delay so that he could have enough time to scramble to get them signed.  Then he gave Riemer a list of only who had signed, but not when they had signed the waivers.

The full truth of this debacle was not found out until June of that year, a full three months after the election.

Bill Christofferson, who was involved in the matter from Riemer's side, reports that the Department of Justice looked into this.  Here is what Christofferson reported and what the DOJ had to say:

The State Dept. of Justice, in a letter to Walker and Riemer, doesn't reach a conclusion over whether Walker broke the law or not. It says that's arguable, but it says this is such a unique case there is no point in taking the matter to court to try to establish a precedent. 

DOJ has some harsh words for Walker and his minions, however:

"In sum, this episode evinces a case of how government officials ought not to do business... 

"Whether they violated the public records law is a question largely mooted by the later production of the waivers and the nearly inconceivable notion that a repeat of this inglorious set of circumstances might be forestalled by a judicial pronouncement on the matter. 

"Nobody honored to serve in public office ought to manipulate public records in this fashion -- that is the opinion of this office."

What DOJ concluded is that it was uncertain whether a court would find that Walker violated the law, even though the investigation found "a troubling course of conduct by county employees." 

It also concluded that the likelihood of a similar case ever arising again was "nearly inconceivable," so a court decision wouldn't set any valuable precedent.

Oh, how little did they know back then!

I would dare say the same thing happened again just last year when Milwaukee County Supervisor John Weishan filed an Open Records Request against the Walker administration and their use of county computers.  Weishan's request stemmed from the relevations that one of Walker's aides, Darlene Wink, had been using county resources to do some politicking, namely leaving pro-Walker comments on JSOnline during the gubernatorial campaign.

I would not be surprised to find out that at this very minute, either as I write this or that you, gentle reader, are reading this, that Walker's staff is scrambling around writing bogus emails with made up people to sing the praises of Walker. Why else would it take them a week to burn the emails to a couple of CDs?

My suspicion is only confirmed with the odd concern about Social Security numbers and email addresses.  on the surface, it is, of course, a reasonable expectation and should go without saying, but how often would someone put their Social Security number in an email?  And wouldn't the email addresses be necessary to confirm that these were indeed genuine notes of support and not just made up statements from his staffers?

I certainly hope that when the news agencies finally do get the long awaited emails, that they do a very thorough vetting of them to make sure that they are indeed genuine.

Likewise, I would certainly hope that someone would investigate the appropriateness of charging $7000 for what should cost only a few hundred dollars, if that much.  Making this information so difficult for the average citizen to get is also contrary to the meaning of transparency and an affront tot he people of Wisconsin.