Pro-Plutocrat Referendum Group Broke Election Laws

It was pretty obvious from the beginning that Chris Abele, the Mitt Romney of Milwaukee County, wanted to make  his usurpation of power a sure thing.  (Just because the boy prince did not like being told no for the first time in his spoiled life.)

He and his plutocratic pals at the misnamed Greater Milwaukee Committee retained the silk stocking law firm of Foley and Lardner to write the bill that would eventually become Act 14.

He and his pals paid off people like Teapublicans Joe Sanfelippo and Dale Kooyenga to get the bill passed.

Part of the bill was a red herring referendum that they scheduled for the spring election, knowing that the voter turnout would be extremely low and extremely conservative.

Then in the weeks leading up to the voting day, he and his friends at GMC - people like Michael Grebe, Walker's campaign chair and head of the Bradley Foundation - started a PAC front group they called "Forward Milwaukee County."  Said group spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on radio commercials.  They sent out propaganda email blasts almost daily.

They even got the Republicans to do robocalling for them.

But even that wasn't enough for Abele and company to feel assured of victory.  They also had to break the law.

In their zealousness to get their email blasts out to as many people as possible, they did an open records request of the email databases for the county supervisors. Apparently, they didn't bother to check the databases before using them and sent their blasts to people on their county emails:

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And it wasn't just them, but also elected officials, like the county board supervisors themselves:

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Needless to say, it's against the law to send these emails, which blatantly tell the recipient to vote yes on the referendum, via the government emails.  It is also illegal to solicit elected officials in their offices or using their official email.  Thirdly, given that Abele was involved to some extent in this whole debacle, there would be problems with soliciting employees at their workplace.

All in all, some people are in serious trouble.  Abele might be able to worm his way out of it, but Rice is definitely on the hook.

And this is far from the first time that Abele played fast and loose with the law.

Joe Rice, the treasurer for this group, is a former county supervisor and should know the rules.  But apparently he and Abele just don't care. It's more than a bit reminiscent of their mutual friend, Scott Walker, and his staff, who didn't care about the rules even though they knew better.

It's a good think that Abele and Walker are such tight friends.  At the pace they are going, they will be sharing the same prison cell.

Vote No On The Austerity Referendum

On Tuesday, Milwaukee County voters are being given one of the most undemocratic referendums to sully this nation.  It's not a true referendum as that the vote is almost meaningless.  The damage was already done last year when Emperor Chris Abele bought off some Teapublican state legislatures to ramrod through a bill that he had a silk stocking law firm draw up.  The bill takes away representative government in Milwaukee County by concentrating power into Abele's hands, much like the way that his mentor and good buddy, Scott Walker, amassed power shortly after becoming governor.

Part of the plutocratic power grab was this referendum, but only this one.  The state made it verboten that the county have any other referendums on the ballot this spring.  Obviously, the recognized just how unpopular Abele had become and did not want to weaken his totalitarian regime.

I've already discussed many of the maleficent stunts that Abele has pulled or tried to pull in just the months since Walker signed the usurpation law into effect.  I've also pointed out the article by Larry Hoffman in which he highlights many of the good things that the County Board has done despite the obstructionism of both Walker and Abele.

Now let's take a look at some other things.  Emperor Abele and his plutocratic pals at the Greater Milwaukee Committee have created yet another front group to push for the people to vote yes on the referendum.  Take a look at their logo and see if you can tell if they are on the side of the people or the corporate special interests that control the Tea Parties:

I can't help but laugh at the thought that they are actually trying to pass themselves off as smaller government advocates.  Especially when Abele has again followed in the footsteps of his hero, Scott Walker, in appointing cronies and giving them tens of thousands of dollar pay increases.

And let me tell you, as a county employee, the extra bureaucracy that Abele has put into place makes Walker look like he really was a reformer. And Abele's corruption and ineptitude actually makes Walker look like an Eagle Scout that had graduated from college.  It is also very hard to believe that with the high rate of turnover - among both Abele's inner circle and front line workers - that there is much efficiency in place.  Things are changing so much that know one knows what's going on.

It should be noted that the treasurer for Abele's front group is former county supervisor Joe Rice.  Rice is a disgruntled teahadist that is still ticked off because he pushed austerity so much that he pushed himself out of a job.  Apparently Rice is all for a smaller government as long as he's not the one getting downsized.

And as if we needed further proof that Abele's April Fool referendum is a bad idea, the corporate media jumps in with such flagrantly false reporting, it's a wonder that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel isn't sold in the check out line with the other tabloids.

One of the two things that stands out is the paper's claim that by cutting the board's salary, it would save taxpayers $475,000 a year.  But the board's staff got slashed this year and workers are getting gouged for millions of dollars, but there was no savings for the taxpayers.  On top of that, services have been cut for the county's most neediest citizens.  Abele has yet to give a reckoning on what he has done with all that money he was supposed to be saving.

The other big lie that the paper repeats is this:

Q. How does the current pay for Milwaukee supervisors compare with other county supervisors and elected officials?

A. It far surpasses other county board pay in Wisconsin. Milwaukee County supervisors, however, represent far more people (about 53,000) than other county supervisors in the state. Milwaukee aldermen make more (about $73,000) and state legislators earn slightly less than Milwaukee County supervisors. Aldermen in suburban or other smaller communities generally get paid far less. Pay for county supervisors or commissioners in other states varies greatly.

The truth of the matter is that every county supervisor in the state gets paid about $1.00 for every person they represent. The reason that Milwaukee County supervisors get paid so much more than the supervisors in other counties is because they are representing that many more people.

If Abele and his fellow plutocrats wanted to make the board part time and cut their salaries, but maintain the same level of representation, they would double the size of the board.  If the referendum passes, Milwaukee County supervisors would be representing many more people for half the pay than the other counties pay their supervisors.

All this doesn't mention that Milwaukee County is the only county in the state to have a Class A city, a internationally recognized zoo, an international airport, an international port and more amenities than could be listed.

The real reason Abele wants to pass this bill is to hamstring the County Board.

Abele has an agenda of privatizing what he can and selling off what he can't in order to maximize the profits that he and his fellow plutocrats can muster from the public.  He's made it abundantly clear to anyone paying attention that he is not concerned whatsoever for what is best for the community or the taxpayers.

The two biggest factors stopping him from his austerity agenda are the County Board and the unions.

He has tried twice in the past few months to bust the unions and will try again this summer after the Wisconsin Supreme Court rubber stamps Act 10.

Abele's April Fool referendum is designed to bust the county board.  He is planning on it passing and for one of two things to happen.

One, the current supervisors retire, quit or run for another office.  Abele then could help buy those seats for his hand-picked people to rubber stamp his bonehead ideas.

The other thing he is expecting that the supervisors would be forced to get other jobs to make up for the lost pay and benefits.  This, along with the cut in board staff, would give them precious little time to be able to go through Abele's proposals and budgets and catch the flaws, errors and misdeeds.  In other words, he is trying to break them so he can get his agenda passed without as much resistance.

Anyway you look at it, voting yes on Abele's referendum would be self-defeating.

I urge my Milwaukee County voters to join me in standing up for ourselves by voting no on this power grab.

Milwaukee County Supervisors Earn Their Pay

Even as Chris Abele and his plutocratic pals at the Greater Milwaukee Committee spend hundreds of thousands of dollars urging people to give up their right to representative government, the truth is coming out in force.

Larry Hoffman recently had an op-ed piece appear in the local paper that spells out very clearly many of the great things that the Milwaukee County Board has done for the community, usually in the face of opposition from the county executive/emperor, whether it be Scott Walker or Chris Abele:

Being a county supervisor is a rigorous, multifaceted, full-time job. Serving nearly a million people, they oversee some 25 departments, including those that run our bus system, airports and zoo; care for our elders, our disabled and addicted; maintain roads and parks; and more. Each month, supervisors analyze dozens of issues and make difficult decisions involving millions of dollars. We the people can speak our minds to them and testify at committee meetings.

Supervisors reflect the values of the community — people affluent and poor, of color and otherwise. The board fights to protect workers and assist the weakest among us.

Residents and businesses ignored by the wealthy power structure are helped by supervisors to build alliances. Should supervisors have to juggle additional jobs at the same time they're fighting to give constituents the tools to make a decent living?

With diminished funding and staff, supervisors are already hard-pressed to carry out crucial tasks: communicating with constituents; analyzing the multitude of materials required for decision-making; overseeing the executive and departments; and developing ideas into complex proposals.

Representing 53,000 citizens and paid $51,000, a supervisor gets about $1 a year per constituent. Isn't an open, vibrant democracy worth $1 a year? Or should we vote "yes" for a 50-cent discount model?

From thousands of board actions since 2003, here are some of the board's excellent accomplishments, mostly over opposition from Abele or Scott Walker:

■Contributed $10 million to save the War Memorial and the Milwaukee Art Museum's collection.

■Prohibited parking meters along the lakefront.

■Prevented shutdown of Pulaski and Noyes indoor pools for seniors.

■Saved vital bus routes targeted by Walker.

■Provided training and competition for hundreds of kids through Youth Sports Authority.

■Removed the House of Correction from Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.; refocused on rehabilitation.

■Switched county employees' health insurance plan, saving $37 million.

■Instituted $11.32 an hour living wage for county workers.

■Rejected Walker's 25-year, $400 million lease of St. Michael Hospital.

■Trained and employed 500 workers, averaging $18 an hour, through WRTP/Big Step.

Members of the state Assembly receive $50,000 a year. Milwaukee aldermen make $78,000. County supervisors do comparable work.

After five years as a board aide, I made $24,000 a year. It's hard to imagine an elected official, responsible to the people 24/7, overseeing professionals making six figures, who gets no insurance or pension and the salary of an aide. If anyone in your family would ever feel called to run for office, would you be encouraged or discouraged?

Poorly paid elected positions won't attract good candidates, particularly minorities, who aren't wealthy. But they'll attract candidates who don't need the money — candidates oriented toward wealthier constituents.

They say this vote will let us take full-time salaries away from part-time workers. In reality, it would do the opposite, relegating full-time workers to part-time pay. If we pay them less, we'll be less able to hold the executive accountable. It would be an affront to democracy. Our vote Tuesday should be "no."

A lot of people think that by voting to cut the salaries, they'll finally be "sticking it to the man." The sad truth is that the only people they'll be sticking it to is themselves. They aren't really going to be voting to cut the supervisors' salary as much as voting to cut their own voice and authority.

Vote No To Abele's April Fool Referendum!

In just over two weeks, Milwaukee County residents will have the "opportunity" to vote on a referendum regarding whether the salaries of the Milwaukee County Board should be slashed by more than half, down to the poverty level.

Said referendum was a red herring for Act 14, the power grab by Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele.   Abele is a plutocrat who bought his way to being county executive.with the agenda of making Milwaukee County into a playground for him and his fellow plutocrat and wealthy elite in the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC).

But his plans hit a wall during the crafting of the 2013 county budget when the County Board stood up for the people and told him no.  Abele and his fellow plutocrats at the GMC had a massive temper tantrum and bought off a couple of Teapublican state legislators, Joe Sanfelippo and Dale Kooyenga, to ramrod through a bill which took away the checks and balances in county government by hamstringing the board and concentrating power in Abele's hands.

Abele and his minions tried to pass of the bill as giving a voice to the people, but if anyone believes that, well, the joke is on them.

The brunt of the damage has already been done when the board's staff had been slashed.  Hey, who needs staff to research things and make sure that they are fiscally responsible or even legal?

But according to an article by Steve Schultze of the corporate media giant, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, even the vote on the supervisors' salaries is an empty gesture due to the other parts of Act 14:

Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic called the referendum a sham, because the budget cuts previously ordered by the state law will effectively force the supervisor pay cuts.

The state law forced the board to reduce its budget for this year by $2.5 million, to $4.1 million. The law orders further cuts to the board's budget in 2016.

The referendum question also says supervisors would get no benefits beyond the part-time pay, which means they would lose health insurance, credit toward a county pension and other perks. That part of the referendum is also a sham because last year's Act 14 explicitly prohibited any such benefits to supervisors after the spring 2016 election, Dimitrijevic said.

"It is a sham and it's really continuing to do what it was always designed to do, which is consolidating power into the hands of the county executive," she said.

Dimitrijevic said she would take an active role in making that case but did not say whether she would work to persuade voters to vote no on the question.

Supervisor John Weishan Jr. said the intent of the referendum was to undercut Milwaukee by weakening representation on the County Board. When supervisors are paid a part-time salary, they won't be able to devote as much time and energy to the job, he said.

He called the referendum question "very convoluted and disingenuous. It's meant to be confusing because they don't want people to truly understand the effects of this," Weishan said.

We already have had a glimpse of what life will be like in Milwaukee County with power concentrated in Abele's hands and with a diminished board which will not be able to as effectively counter his malfeasance. Some of the things that have happened since Act 14 went into effect include, but in no way limited to:

• The 2014 county budget being more than $3.5 million out of balance.  Furthermore, the budget that Abele proposed would have severely endangered public safety, privatized more services without accountability or cost savings and rewarded his inner circle with salaries up to $170,000 while slashing thousands from the take home pay of front line workers, exceeding even Scott Walker's system of cronyism and attacks on workers..
• The abandonment of Milwaukee's mentally ill without even the most basic safety nets in place which the board had installed.
• The burning of the Milwaukee County Courthouse which was caused by Abele's willful neglect and refusal to make repairs.  To add to it, taxpayers will be on the hook for millions of dollars for the cost of the clean up and repairs, a fact only made known by the diligence of the board.
• Abele has actively fought every effort to allow workers in Milwaukee County to earn a living wage.  Abele's malevolence to this cause has gone so far as to endanger all workers in the state who benefit from living wage laws.
• Abele has fought to rewrite geographic history in order to allow a crony to build a 44 story Big lighter on the lakefront.  Similarly, he has also found money to help reroute whole freeway ramps.  But yet he can't find the money to repair county buildings, pay staff or provide sufficient services.
• Abele tried to bust the unions in the county.  Again, it was the board that stopped Abele from making Milwaukee a right to work county.
• Abele opposed restoring the Veterans War Memorial Center, calling a deal to fix up the building to be "bullshit."  Abele went on to say that the War Memorial Center shouldn't be on the lake front but dumped on the VA grounds, even though he doesn't have the authority to dictate what happens on federal owned property.
• Abele tried to rig the bidding process so that the contract for the transit system would go to an out of state, for profit company with a shady record and was actually up for sale itself.  When his bid rigging was exposed, Abele tried to extort the board into illegal activities to allow his bid rigging to go on.

Needless to say, it's not the County Board that's the problem.  Without them, the county would have been in even more dire straits than it is now.  

The article reported that Abele is still trying to claim that his power grab was neither personal or political.  I'm not sure, but I think Abele is the only one that still believes this.  But as I noted above, Abele hasn't been told no nearly enough in his life and so surrounds himself with yes men who wouldn't dare point out reality to him.

Finally, I would note that the reporter is calling the referendum all but a done deal and says that no group has come out in opposition to the power grab.  

That is an utterly false statement.

Both AFSCME and the Milwaukee Labor Council have come out in opposition to the referendum.  I believe that several other unions and grassroots groups have as well.  

But what can one expect.  The corporate media will protect its own, even if it means lying to the readers.

Regardless of the outcome of the referendum, which does look bleak due to the way the game has been rigged, one thing for sure.

April 1st - April's Fools Day - is the perfect day for Abele's phony referendum.  Maybe the board can pass a resolution declaring the day to be Emperor Abele Day.  At least the meaning of that day would be the same.

Statement From Emperor Abele On The Plutocracy Bill

The following is the statement from Emperor Chris Abele regarding the signing of the Plutocracy Bill, which gives Abele unprecedented power over Milwaukee County:

He actually kept saying that for the next six hours straight.

Lena Taylor Does Two-Faced Two-Step On Usurpation Law

After the signing of the Plutocracy Law, giving Milwaukee County Executive Emperor Chris Walker Romney Abele unprecedented power, State Senator Lena Taylor (DINO-Milwaukee) tried to put some distance between her and herself.  From her press release:

Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) issued the following statement following Governor Walker’s signature today on AB 85, the Milwaukee County Board Bill.

“Today marks the end of a long process by which AB 85 became law. This bill, as it is now signed, is better than the original bill proposed by the majority party. Milwaukee citizens should take note of serious changes that were made to better protect the balance of power in our county. Some of these changes include:

• The Supervisors salary will be set at the per capita income (approx. $24,000) rather than $15,000, IF the referendum in adopted.
• An independent research office created in the Comptroller’s office to protect independent analysis of issues.
• Restrictions on the ability of the county executive to compel a special meeting of the board.
• Added language protecting the ability of supervisors to interact and communicate with departments. 
• Statutory regulation requiring the purchase and sale of assets comply with county policy, as set by supervisors.
• An exemption of fixed costs, such as rent and legacy costs from the county board’s budget cap.
• Both the county executive and county board will have at least one lobbyist reporting to each.”

“This is not a perfect law and there are provisions that I believe need to be addressed in follow-up legislation. However, this bill is a better product, because in this time of great partisan divide, we negotiated and accomplished changes in law rather than just firing press releases back and forth at each other.”

Have you ever seen anyone work so hard to polish a turd?

No matter what she says, the facts are the same.  She has helped remove democracy and representative government from her own constituents as well as everyone else in Milwaukee County.  She helped put a plutocratic tyranny in place.    

What Taylor is doing is trying to have her cake and eat it too.

One one hand, she is claiming that she made the law better, but wouldn't show up for the photo ops and says it needs fixing.  But then again, she had no problem partying it up with her new fascist friends.

On the other hand, she says the laws is bad and needs fixing, but had sponsored it and voted for it.

She can't have it both ways. She made her bed and now she can lie in it. Besides, she'll need a place once the voters remove her from office, as she so richly deserves.

Chairwoman Dimitrijevic's Statement Regarding Usurpation Of Milwaukee County

The following is the statement from Milwaukee County Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic regarding the plutocratic usurpation of Milwaukee County:

The bill signing is taking place in Milwaukee County when the state legislative committees that heard this bill – which targets Milwaukee County – never held a single public hearing here. The County Board, on the other hand, held local listening sessions all over the county where a clear message was heard that residents preferred local reforms over state-mandated change. The County Executive chose to ignore the residents of our county who preferred local reforms. Instead, he worked closely with outside interests to give himself more power. There will be many challenges in the implementation of this poorly written bill as a result of the state micro-managing a local government with no local input. Many counties across the state opposed the bill.

We all know what happened here. This is an attack on the legislative branch of the most diverse county in the State of Wisconsin. The bill aims to destroy the legislative branch and attempts to reduce the power of the people. AB 85 consolidates power into one person’s hands, the County Executive. This consolidation of power is dangerous and undemocratic because it reduces the checks and balances in government.

This is not about the County Executive or me. It is about the people of Milwaukee County. Generations to come will be affected by this bill. The County Board will do its best with what has been forced onto us by the state to represent the people on important services like transit, parks and mental health. We will stand up and protect the interests of Milwaukee County.

This will be bad - far worse than anything Walker did during his eight years as county executive. And we will be here to make sure that the people are aware of it, since the corporate media won't report it.

On a side note, I wish we had seen this Marina during the fight leading up to the usurpation.

Supervisor Haas' Comments On Usurpation Bill

The press release from Milwaukee County Supervisor Jason Haas, Chair of the Intergovernmental Committee regarding the plutocrats' hostile takeover of Milwaukee County:

This law was created without substantial input from the citizens of Milwaukee County who most rely upon county services or use county amenities. Instead, this bill was designed to do the bidding of a very small number of people whose means are far beyond that of most people in Milwaukee County. This legislation removes the necessary oversight of democratically-elected representatives that are vital to a healthy democracy. The law’s authors and supporters have long dreamed of having monarchical rule over public assets. Much of that will be achieved with the signing today.

The list of things that can be done in secret and without any oversight may include putting cell phone towers on the lakefront, selling off county park lands, and privatizing the airport.

Yet the people of Milwaukee County will never be allowed to vote on arguably the most dangerous part of this law that gives the county executive unbridled fiscal powers. Anyone who claims it to be ‘local control’ or ‘reform’ is playing cynical, vindictive politics. This law was written for powerful, unaccountable corporate interests by lobbyists who worked behind closed doors in Madison. In no way should it be considered the will of the people, for the people will not be allowed to vote on 99 percent of what is in the bill.

If the County Executive and the Greater Milwaukee Committee had spent as much money on paid lobbyists to help find a funding solution for transit, we might be in a better place right now. Instead they are more interested in destroying checks and balances and selling off public assets as quickly and cheaply as possible. With the passage of this legislation, there’s no one to put any water on their fire sale of Milwaukee County’s (previously) public assets.

This bill is irresponsible governance at its worst.

There's not one false or exaggerated word in there, either.

This Is What Plutocracy Looks Like

The Day of the Plutocrats has finally arrived.  On Friday, without much advance notice in a tightly controlled environment, Scott Walker signed over the rights of the voters and citizens of Milwaukee County and put them in the hands of his doppleganger, Chris Abele.

Little Walker, er, Abele, was so celebrant of the occasion he had to post the picture on his official Facebook page:

Egads! Just look at Abele.  He looks like he can't wait for Walker to sign the bill into law so he can get busy selling the county's assets to his cronies in the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC).

And just look who else is the picture:

• Joe Sanfelippo, the sponsor of the GMC bill. You'd think he'd look happier, but he's probably worried about losing his taxi cab monopoly.
• Chris Kliesmet and Orville Seymour of Citizens of Responsible Government.  Y'know, the depraved henchmen that would do anything for Walker and now for his protege, Abele.
• Deanna Alexander, who is so far over her head that she doesn't even know it yet.
• Alberta Darling, who surprised me by not having a drink in her hand.
• Julia Taylor, who thought that Tim Russell did nothing wrong and should still have his job.
• Perhaps the most surprising appearance was that of Don Pridemore, failed candidate for Superintendent of DPI and hater of puppies and women who don't get abused enough.  Pridemore neither lives in or represents any part of Milwaukee County.  Why was he at the signing, unless he was looking for a piece of graft.

But there is someone noticeable by their absence.  Lena Taylor, the Democratic sellout, isn't in that picture.  In fact, there are no African Americans in that picture at all.  

Likewise, there are no progressives or liberals in that picture either.

Just plutocrats and Teapublicans.  Now tell me again how this is a "bipartisan" law or how it's supposed to improve anything.  When was the last time that the Teapublican state legislature made anything better?  

It should also be noted that Walker and his groupie were having a BS contest too.

Walker was holding up one of his old campaign cards from 11 years ago, trying to claim he kept a campaign promise he made back then:

The governor held up a pledge card he used when he was a candidate for Milwaukee County executive in 2002, noting that he had promised to work to cut the board to part time. He introduced a resolution to do that, but the board promptly voted it down, Walker said.

If the reporter had bothered to do any fact checking, he would have learned that no, Walker did not do that.  That's because Walker was politically savvy enough to know that he would need a scapegoat when all his idiocy proved to be just that.

Now that he doesn't have anyone else to blame for his failures, Walker is reliant on the corporate media to keep the lie alive or making some really inane excuses, such as jobs are down because it rained.

In an effort to keep up with his hero and BFF in the BS department, Abele came up with this:

Abele said the public likely won't immediately notice any difference in the way county government operates. He said the new law merely clarified the roles of the County Board and executive as they were intended when the Legislature in 1959 created the elective office of county executive. 

He and other backers of the measure have said it's needed to help supervisors focus on major policy and remove them from day-to-day county operations.

What a load of poppycock!

Abele has been working for months behind the scenes, doing things behind the Board's back, such as getting bids for privatizing many services, pushing people out of the mental health complex against medical advice and against the guardian's wishes and cleaning up county buildings and other assets in preparation for sale.

And if the public hasn't noticed that Abele has cost taxpayers more than $10 million already with his illegal actions and extraordinary ineptness, well, then they can't really be too worried about high taxes.

I'm sure that now Abele is going to be without anyone to monitor and check is spendthrift ways, it will be no time before people start feeling the pinch in their taxes and in services.

Furthermore, this is the time of year that Abele starts to get his requested budget in order.  As this gets released, just how badly they screwed up by giving Abele so much power will quickly be evident.

The County Board is having lawyers look at the law to see if it's even constitutional, much less doable.  And there are flaws with the law, despite the protestations of Walker, Abele and Sanfelippo to the otherwise.

As the adage goes, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it."

I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of buyer's remorse coming up for a lot of people.

IOOKIAPDI (It's Only OK If A Plutocrat Does It)

Yesterday, my esteemed colleague Jeff Simpson pointed out one of the greater overreaches of power by Scott Walker, in which Walker wants to have a free reign in selling off state assets without even the act of getting approval by the legislature or anyone else.

In the article that Jeff cited, this caught my eye and I had to read it numerous times:

"I think it's foolish, mindless and will have a very chilling effect on fundraising," said Milwaukee businessman Sheldon Lubar, who donated millions of dollars to help build academic buildings at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, and served on the UW System Board of Regents from 1991 to 1998.

Lubar said it never occurred to him that campus buildings he supported financially could ever be sold to a third party.

"I really don't think (Walker) thought this through and understands the negative impact this would have on the university," Lubar said.

Take a moment and enjoy the schadenfreude.

You see, Lubar is a member of the misnamed Greater Milwaukee Committee and a driving force behind the usurpation of power by his fellow GMC member, Chris Abele.

And in that usurpation, look at what he helped buy for his friend Abele:

Provisions that kick in immediately include shrinking the board's role in land sales, labor negotiations and contracts. The county executive can hire as many people as he wants for his office without interference.

The executive also gets sole authority over the county fish hatchery, child support department, operation of the Milwaukee Public Museum, harbor facilities and any work relief program. Abele will have the sole power to create any new county department. He'll have primary oversight of minority contracting, which has been under the County Board.

I have a news flash for Old Man Lubar.

 From where the people are sitting, these two power grabs look a lot alike:

• Both give too much power to the executive branch.  
• Both allow the executive/governor to sell public assets at their whim, regardless of the will of the people or the common good.  
• Both were driven by well-moneyed special interests.
• Both throw the doors wide open for corruption.

There are, however, two major differences.

Just as the Kochs have an undue influence on the decisions and actions of Scott Walker, Lubar has the same control over Abele.  However, Lubar doesn't have that same level of control over Walker.

The other difference is that Lubar has money invested in the public assets that Walker wants to sell.  On the other hand, Lubar is looking at profiteering off the assets he wants Abele to sell, such as he is doing with the destruction of the county grounds.

The thing that Lubar doesn't realize is that both Walker's proposal and the usurpation of power for his plutocratic pal Abele are wrong and should never be or have been.  He doesn't realize that it's still not OK even if it's a plutocrat doing it.

Which goes to prove that all the money in the world still can't buy a person the intelligence of a rock or the ethics of an alley cat.

But judging by the likes of Walker, Abele and Lubar, money can buy one more than their fair share of hypocrisy.

A Sobering Look At Chris Abele

As I've been sifting through the tens of thousands of pages of emails and other documents regarding Chris Abele and his usurpation and corruption of power, which have been recently released I have found many alarming things.

For example, look at this single email from Abele to his Chief of Staff, Amber Moreen, who came from his private charity group, the Argosy, at a highly elevated pay rate:

Click to embiggen

The email exchange is in regards to what to do with Frank Bau and another labor relations staffer while they were waiting for authorization to fill those slots.

Kimberly Walker, Abele's top lawyer in Corp Counsel, again oversteps her position and starts offering ways around the law.  Abele, as evidenced in the email, is all for it.

There is an obvious cause of concern in that this is the second time we've see Walker again overstepping her position as serving the public in order to serve the CEO, as if she was still in the private sector.

What's even more alarming though is what Abele reveals about himself.

First he admits that he has "a hard time not responsding and wanting to know what's going on all the time."

In other words, he feels and obsessive/compulsive urge to micromanage everyone and everything.  In layman's terms, he's a control freak.  He has no faith in his underlings, even though he is paying them outrageously exorbitant amounts of money to do their jobs.

And if something would not go the way he wants it to, he flies off the handle.  I could point to any of the people that Abele has suddenly fired without reason or warning.  but obviously the most glaring example is the very fact that he launched this whole power grab against the County Board when they dared to stand up for the taxpayers and for those receiving services from the County.

A good comparison would be the way Mitt Romney responded when he realized

they were losing the presidential election to Barack Obama.  Romney went into piques of rage, even going to the point of putting a gag at times on his running mate, Paul Ryan.

Given the fact that he cannot control the unions, he will be attacking them soon enough.  I would expect Abele to start privatizing everything he can, even though the cost to the taxpayers and to those depending on the services are going to go through the roof.

The other alarming thing about Abele's email is his quaint quip about the "even slightly drunk me."

It's disturbing to thing that such a control freak would not be in complete control of even himself.

Has he made decisions related to the county while intoxicated?  He apparently must have, given the context of this email.  Then being such an egomaniac, even if and when he realizes he screwed up, he won't admit it but pursues his folly to the end.

And now they have given him an unhealthy and inappropriate amount of power, effectively destroying representative government and a balance of powers:

Provisions that kick in immediately include shrinking the board's role in land sales, labor negotiations and contracts. The county executive can hire as many people as he wants for his office without interference. 

The executive also gets sole authority over the county fish hatchery, child support department, operation of the Milwaukee Public Museum, harbor facilities and any work relief program. Abele will have the sole power to create any new county department. He'll have primary oversight of minority contracting, which has been under the County Board. 

A provision in the bill assigning one county lobbyist to the county executive and one to the board is already spawning differences. Abele said he gets to hire and supervise both lobbyists, though one would work with the board. Dimitrijevic said she understood that the two-person lobbying unit would be independent, with one lobbyist working with the board and the other with Abele. 

The board's budget will drop from this year's $6.6 million to a maximum of $1.1 million starting next year, likely forcing a significant reduction in the 38-person board staff. However, several staff jobs now assigned to the board would be transferred to the county clerk and county comptroller. Four policy analyst jobs would go to the comptroller to create an independent service department that could be tapped by both the board and the county executive. The board currently has seven research analyst positions, though three are vacant.

The gentle reader should take a moment and think of all the things that terrified them about a Romney presidency, about what would happen letting a uber-rich, out of touch, corporate puppet having that much power, where only Congress would stand in his way.  Now realize that Milwaukee County is about to face a similar situation, albeit on a smaller scale, but also without a legislative body to keep his greed and corruption in check.

First They Came For Milwaukee County, Then They Came For The Technical Colleges

As the eyes of most Wisconsinites were on either the second state budget hearing or the public hearing on the Usurpation Bill, there were nefarious doings afoot.

The gentle reader will surely remember that last month, I warned that all

Wisconsinites should be wary of the Usurpation Bill, which, if passed, would consolidate almost all the power in Milwaukee County into the hands of plutocrat Chris Abele.  I advised those living outside of Milwaukee county to be alert, because if they could try that here, they could easily try it anywhere else.

I reminded the reader of this again this week by having them ask themselves a question:

If they will do this to Milwaukee, what makes you think they won't do it to your county or town?  Here's a hint - nothing would stop them.

Sadly, my fears were not groundless and are already becoming a horrible reality.

A second usurpation bill is now in the process of being prepared.  But instead of taking over another county or town, the proposed target is all of the technical colleges in the state.

The bill was authored by State Representative Garey Bies, who apparently doesn't have all his oars in the water, judging by the opening statement of his press release announcing the bill:

Wisconsin’s economy is headed in the right direction, but we continue to hear from Wisconsin businesses that they struggle to find qualified workers to fill vacant positions. Our technical colleges can play an important role in our state’s economic growth and train individuals for these open positions, but they don’t have the funds necessary to accommodate the growing demand. And property owners who are already over-burdened can’t continue to fund the bill for the system. The issue has become the perfect storm and it needs to finally be addressed.

Going from 11th to 44th in job creation and ranking 48th in economic activity is not the right direction, any which way you look at it.

There is also no shortage of trained individuals looking for work. And sadly, that number keeps growing. The issue is a shortage of jobs that pay a decent salary, especially for trained workers.

And it is the Republicans like Bies who are the ones raising taxes even as they are sucking the money out of the economy and depositing it in the bank accounts of their wealthy campaign donors.

But to get back to the issue, Bies is following the only strategy that Republicans know - fear and smear.

He paints a horrible picture in which the poor innocent taxpayer is at the mercy of the school district boards which want to tax everyone out of house and home.  But he wants to save the day by asking the voters to help him by voting to allow the state to take over all the districts and funding it with a one cent sales tax.  Bies claims that this will raise $870 million, which would be enough to cover the entire technical college system.

All the voters have to do is vote to hand over all the assets of the districts over to the state and Big Brother will take care of the rest.

But there are a few things that Bies forgets to mention.

Such as the fact that it was Bies and his fellow Republicans who voted to slash funding to the technical schools in the first place.

And where he claims that there is no local control, he fails to mention that the voters did have control on whether the districts could borrow money to pay for their operations, well the truth is they did:

Western went to referendum for in November, getting voters’ permission to borrow $80 million for upgrades and additions to school buildings.

That wouldn’t be possible under the changes recommended by Bies, Rasch said.

“If we don’t control the budget, we don’t have a choice in doing these things,” Rasch said.

And given the way that the Republicans have been catering to the well-moneyed corporate special interests, do you think that the state will actually run these schools? They will simply hand them over to groups like the for profit colleges. That and/or they will just divert the money due to some "fiscal crisis," like the some poor executive who didn't quite make their usual eight figure salary that year.

He also never mentioned a property tax break because of it making it a pure, unadulterated tax hike.  Further more, despite Bies' claim that his scheme would help low-income families and senior citizens.  A sales tax is a regressive one and would actually be hitting the poor and the seniors the hardest.

As the gentle reader can see, although the methodology is a little different between the two take over bids, the end result is the same.

Abele and the other plutocrats at GMC are claiming things are dysfunctional and they need to take away local control and remove any real representative government to fix things.  In order to do this, they pretend that they are giving voters a choice with a red herring referendum, while the actual power grab would happen long before a referendum hit the polls.

In Bies' gambit, he is claiming that things are out of local control already and he wants the voters to turn things over to the corporate-controlled state government, thereby removing all resemblance of local control.

These stunts are what Kelsey Richards was talking about in her post over the weekend.  They are the Wisconsin equivalent of Michigan's fiscal martial law, in which the voters don't have any real representation and are at the mercy of the austerity-crazed special interests.

Either way, the well-moneyed special interests will have control of the money and the assets to do with what they want.  And then, like locusts, they'll keep gobbling up things until there's nothing left.

And the taxpayers and voters will be left with only the bills and the regrets.

A Preview Of Life In Abele's Plutocracy

As the gentle reader is surely aware, Milwaukee County Emperor Executive Chris Abele wants to turn Milwaukee County into a plutocrat's playground.

What the gentle reader might not be aware of is that we have already can discern

Emperor wannabe
Chris Abele

what life would be like if his usurpation bill is passed.

The first clue comes from a press release from Supervisor David Bowen:

Supervisor David Bowen issued the following statement regarding the sudden retirement of Paula Lucey Administrator of the Behavioral Health Division, the departure of Jim Burton, Director of Facilities, and the pattern of high turnover in the County Executive’s administration:

"I and numerous others who are concerned about the future direction of mental health services in Milwaukee County question the sudden retirement of the Administrator of BHD, Paula Lucey. It was only about six months ago that Lucey was brought to the Health and Human Needs Committee for approval, with her confirmation passing the County Board shortly afterward. I look forward to hearing directly from the County Executive's administration on how this resignation came about at the next Health and Human Needs Committee Meeting on April 17th.

“Unfortunately, this resignation highlights a bigger problem and pattern in the Abele administration. Why can't the County Executive retain members of his Administration? Many experienced public servants including Sue Black, Frank Busalacchi, Lucey and just as of three days ago Jim Burton, Director of Facilities, are gone with little to no details as to why.

"Since Abele started partnering with outside wealthy corporate interests like the Greater Milwaukee Committee on an effort to tip the scales of power in his favor, he has been unable to retain the very people he hired to run his administration. Meanwhile, he is actively lobbying for passage of Assembly Bill 85. This bill will allow the state to overreach into Milwaukee County and cut jobs in a single department, the County Board.
Facilities and BHD were two key points of his State of the County address, yet he is running his own administration through interim positions and vacancies while attacking the Board.

“Abele should spend his time running his administration rather than trying to cut into the Board’s ability to govern effectively. The Board has dedicated staff members who work tirelessly for the 53,000 constituents in each supervisory district. We on the Board represent nearly one million people in the county as a whole. Staff helps us research, create legislation, pass an annual budget and oversee the County Executive administration. AB 85 has affected Board staff morale. It is my hope that the committed public servants working for the Board stay with us as long as possible to help the people of Milwaukee County get the level of service they deserve. I'll never give up fighting for the Board to maintain its prominence as servants of the people, not special interest business groups. In the meantime, Abele should be worried about running his own administration, not the Board’s staff.

As noted in the release, the firing of Burton is just the most recent of many sudden and mysterious departures of Abele's staff including Sue Black, Frank Busalacchi, Paula Lucey, Patrick Farley and numerous others.

Not only has Abele had a revolving door on his staff, but he is extremely hush-mouthed about why he keeps firing these people.

This is significant because he expects that the Milwaukee County Board to approve his various proposals even though there is no one to explain the rationale behind the proposal, the costs of it or how it will be implemented.

Then again, it's not really clear if it would make a difference if the staff member was there, because Abele has gotten his people trained to reveal as little as possible when offering their proposals.

Case in point, in March, Abele wanted to submit a proposal to seek RFPs (asking for bids) on a contract related to the mental health complex.  When the committee members asked for a copy of the RFP they were denied, saying they would get a copy of the RFP proposal after they approved it.  Just how are they to vote on something that they aren't allowed to see?*

On another occasion, Abele wanted them to vote on an RFP that had not even been written yet!

When challenged on this preposterous request, Abele's staffed simply replied, "You'll just have to trust us."

Friends, this is the way corruption starts.

If Abele's bill were to be passed, I certainly would expect by supervisor to vote no on each and every proposal unless all the facts are up front and clear and verified.  And if that slows things down, well, Abele has no one to blame but himself.  This is what the fool wanted.

*On a side note which is equally humorous and frightening, the board voted to lay the matter over until the next month, in the hopes that more information would be forthcoming.  Abele's staff immediately went into a panic trying to figure out what "laying a matter over" meant.

How is Abele going to be emperor if he can't handle the job he's got now?

Shocking! Walker Supports Abele's Usupration Plan

In the least surprising news* of the day, Scott Walker has come out in favor of Milwaukee County Emperor Executive Chris Abele's overreaching usurpation bill:

Gov. Scott Walker Tuesday voiced his support for a Wisconsin
proposal to downsize the Milwaukee County Board on the eve of a state hearing on the bill.

Meanwhile, members of the Milwaukee County Board are planning their own counter-attack against the bill with a press conference in the State Capitol building a half-hour before the 10 a.m. legislative hearing. Walker, former Milwaukee County executive, said he supports the state proposal to call a referendum on the downsizing.

That should come as no surprise.

As Kelsey Richards pointed out over the weekend, Walker has been pandering to the fat cats at the Greater Milwaukee Committee for years, touting their plan to put fiscal martial law into effect in Milwaukee:

How else could Scott Walker fulfill the Greater MilwaukeeCommittee’s (GMC) prophecy right under our noses? In 2009, County Executive Walker touts 4 “criteria” that, if met, would quantify their agenda to “eliminate county government and transfer the assets to the state”.

• Think about that. What would it take to render the people so oppressed that they would actually help him further the agenda?
• Forcing a wage and benefit structure change on state employees (divide and conquer)
• Reforming service delivery: education, transit, fire department, etc (eliminate services)
• County assets transfer to privatization (remove revenue capability and local control)
• Reform budget process (eliminate accountability to the people)

Scott Walker admits he has been working on this agenda for years with the GMC prior to running for governor. The people were sleeping in 2010 and I remember a lot of people in Milwaukee demanding to know why the people in the rest of the state would elect someone who decimated the largest county in WI under his watch. I also remember the people in surrounding counties wondering where the people of Milwaukee County were in 2010 when Scott Walker “pulled the wool over their eyes”. How could they not be screaming about what he did?

Hmmm, working on the agenda for years. There's another hole in Representative Joe Sanfelippo's claim that he wrote the bill all by himself.

And those items Richards points out are the same things Abele is touting when he is trying to drum up support for this piece of offal.

Think about it.  Abele is going around trying to pretend that the voters actually have a say in this with their red herring referendum.  The damage will be done long before any referendum is held.  He's been attacking the county workers, especially the unionized ones.  Abele wants to cut the Sheriff's Office to the core, he's trying to close the mental health complex and has openly stated his desire to privatize everything he can.

And to carry out his agenda, Abele has to remove the county board, or at least hamstring them enough so that they can't protect the taxpayers and vulnerable citizens.

Given that Abele's power grab is akin to Michigan's fiscal martial law, I sure as hell hope people are asking themselves some serious questions.

*What is surprising is that a professional publication would allow that report to be published in that form.  It's very poorly written and has at least two glaring inaccuracies.

Questions All Wisconsinites Need to Ask Themselves Regarding AB 85/ SB 95

On Wednesday, the state will be holding the only public hearing on AB 85/SB 95, the bills that would allow Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele do an overreaching power grab.

In light of that, there are some questions that I would ask people to consider.

For my fellow Milwaukee County citizens:

We know that this bill will diminish the democracy and representative government Abele is actively deconstructing the mental health safety net and public safety in our parks to boot.  For a hint, I would point to the fact that that we currently enjoy in our county.

My question for you is this: What do you suppose he will take next?

For the people in the other 71 counties of Wisconsin:

If they will do this to Milwaukee, what makes you think they won't do it to your county or town?  Here's a hint - nothing would stop them.

For those who support Abele's power grab:

Take a few minutes to think about how Abele has treated other people who also supported him and was much closer to him than you are.  Think about the way he suddenly stabbed the backs of Sue Black, Frank Busalacchi, Paula Lucey and most recently, Jim Burton.  And let's not forget that County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and Supervisor John Weishan both endorsed and supported Abele when he first ran for county executive.

Yet Abele has thrown all of these people under the proverbial bus.

So if he will stab his closes supporters in the back without hesitation, what makes you think he won't do the same to you?

For the legislators who might vote for this bill:

If one listens to Charlie Sykes, one would think that Abele is a progressive liberal.  Yet the only thing progressive about him is his support of marriage equality and gay rights.

Outside of those issues, Abele presents with the same dysfunctional embrace of austerity as any Teapublican.  He also is rather anti-worker as evidenced by his attitude towards his own workers and by siding against the Palermo workers.  He has also come down on the side of the corporations in the Citizens United debate.

Given his duplicitous nature, can you trust Abele?

Furthermore, it's already pretty obvious that Abele won't be serving another term, if he even finishes this one.

Most people acknowledge that the next county executive will be a real progressive.  Do you want to give that much power and that much control to, say County Executive Marina Dimitrijevic or John Weishan?

These are just some of the things that I hope people give serious consideration to and then join in the growing movement to oppose this maleficent and overreaching bill.

Greater Milwaukee Committee's Epic Flail

A few years ago, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, the group that wrote and is pushing the Usurpation Bill, teamed up with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to form a front group called "MY Milwaukee."

Taking a page from their friends at the Bradley Foundation, they have used this
front group in a thus far vain effort to justify their overreaching power grab in Milwaukee County.  In their fact-free endeavors, they end up citing their propagandists, who in turn cite MY Milwaukee, making it nothing more than an example of "We're right because we said we are."

Their latest endeavor to stop the tide from turning on them even further is a series of email blasts which they call "Myths & Facts."  Let me tell you, gentle reader, they are heavy on the myth and very light on the facts.

Their most recent blast included a number of myths.  Unfortunately for them, their "facts" are just as mythical.

Their first myth is "The Milwaukee County Board has always been full time."  They go on to correct this.  It is true that the Board had been part time at one time.  But it is also true that no one is using this as an argument to defend the Board, thus making it a straw man argument and a waste of time.

Their second myth is "County Supervisors do way too much work to be part time."   Even more silly is their justification for this argument:

Fact: County supervisors should be primarily focused on developing policy for the county. Unlike Common Council members, who provide wide-range of constituent services covering a wide range of everyday issues (e.g., garbage, snow plowing, roads, police services, etc.), supervisors generally take few constituent calls. This is particularly true in Milwaukee County, which is the only fully incorporated county in the state. As a result, every Milwaukee County resident also has a city or village government they can reach out to regarding these services.

A 2011 Journal Sentinel article also showed that six Supervisors missed at least a dozen board or committee meetings over the past three years. That amounts to an absentee rate of about 10% or more, depending on a supervisor's particular committee assignments. "We get trashed enough," said Supervisor Borkowski in the same article. "Committee assignments and the board meetings are the extreme least that we can do. The job is not really that complicated."

Additionally, on his blog, Supervisor Jason Haas described a "busy week" of three committee meetings and two community meetings as "Not too shabby."

Gee, that would be so damning if it were even slightly true. The real fact is that a supervisors job is not just in the office. A good supervisor is out in the community they represent, listening to and working with their constituents. Also, a good supervisor does not work from 9-5, but are out there attending meetings and events in the evenings and on the weekends.

For example, since they use Supervisor Jason Haas as a an example of having only five meetings in just one week, what they don't tell you is that he has been setting up "Friends of the Park" groups for almost every park in his district. He also holds regular listening sessions in community businesses and centers.

Perhaps the folks at GMC are perplexed because they only know Chris Abele, who rarely leaves his ivory tower to mingle among the commoners. Or perhaps they are using Joe Sanfelippo as an example, because he spent most of his time at this family's taxi company, counting all the money he voted to pay their company with taxpayer dollars. Sanfelippo's interaction with the community usually was nothing more than insulting women with mental health issues.

MY Milwaukee's third myth was "A part-time board will make it even tougher for constituents to reach someone to help get their problems solved." As in the previous example, their rationale is laughable:

By restoring a part-time board, supervisors will be more responsive to their community by:

• Holding meetings during the evening, when constituents can actually participate without having to take time off of work;
• Ensuring that supervisors are not isolated all day, every day, at the courthouse, surrounded by employees. Instead as citizen-legislators, they are members of the community, accessible and sensitive to the needs and interests of neighbors and colleagues; and
• With a county board and staff no longer focused on micromanaging and otherwise trying to assume the administrative functions of the executive, they will be able to focus that time on constituent services.

I cannot believe that they had typed that with a straight face.

First off, the bill calls for a salary of $24,000 which is not a livable wage.  This means that the supervisors will have to find other work.  How can they be responsive when they are working their other jobs?  The quick answer, which we already knew due to former Supervisor Paul Cesarz, is they cannot.  In fact, things got so bad that Cesarz' successor had to do an open records request on his own office to get access to Cesarz' computer files.

As for their second bullet point, I just discussed how a supervisor's job is not a 9-5 office job, as the GMC is trying to argue that it is.  But considering the role models that they have to work with, it's not surprising.

The GMC's fourth and final myth is "We need a full-time board to monitor county services, like the already challenged mental health facility."  They go on to blame the Board for not making the changes recommended by the Public Policy Forum, which GMC paid to make the recommendation of throwing the people out of the mental health complex.

They ignore the fact that this opposed by the doctors and clinicians, many of whom Abele has fired for standing up for their patients.  They also ignore the fact that it was former County Supervisor Lynne De Bruin who was the one that blew the whistle on the horrid conditions, including frequent sexual assaults, that was happening at the complex.  And they most definitely don't want to go into the fact that the deplorable conditions stem directly from Scott Walker's agenda of austerity and his hand-picked director.

As an added bonus to their lunacy, the folks at GMC's MY Milwaukee added a little blurb at the bottom in which they cite cherry picked data in a failing effort to portray the County Supervisors as being overstaffed and overpaid.  One of the things they cite is a six year old study by the misnamed Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG).

This is telling for two reasons.

One, their numbers, like all of their other arguments, are patently false.  The real numbers show that the Board is actually underpaid:

"I'm not changing anything," state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-West Allis) told the Milwaukee Rotary Club. By imposing part-time status on supervisors, he's trying to restore a balance that state legislators intended when they created the office of county executive in 1959, Sanfelippo said.

However, a review of past supervisor pay shows supervisor salaries from decades ago exceeded today's $50,679, when inflation is factored in.

Supervisors were paid $11,500 in 1970, which translates to $68,812 in today's dollars when accounting for inflation. The pay was up to $21,537 in 1980, the equivalent of $60,682 in today's dollars. The calculations were based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology.

While the County Board's pay has been considered full-time compensation, the post hasn't been formally designated a part-time or full-time job.

Milwaukee County supervisor compensation greatly exceeds that of any other county in Wisconsin. Milwaukee County supervisors' pay in 2007 - the same as now - ranked 14th of 18 similar-sized counties elsewhere in the United States in a report by the county auditor.

The gentle reader should also remember that the Milwaukee County Board is actually the same as every other county in the state: One dollar per person represented. If they wanted to keep it equitable to other counties, but only pay the supervisors $24,000, they would have to double the number of supervisors.

Secondly, it is very telling that GMC is stooping to the level that they are referencing CRG. CRG is a group of particularly unpleasant anti-government thugs that are used by groups like the Bradley Foundation. CRG's claims to fame including attacking public sector workers who are whistle blowers and illegally dispersing private information about Janesville teachers.

The fact that GMC is stretching the truth so much, scraping the bottom of the barrel in an effort to find allies and flailing like mad men in general is showing the depth of their desperation.  If their overreaching power grab had any merit, they wouldn't need to go to such extremes.

Downsizing The Board Is Not The Answer

On Thursday, the Milwaukee County Board passed a resolution to ask the state legislature for the authority to downsize their number from 18 to 13.  The vote was 9-7 in favor of the resolution.

Supervisor Steve Taylor, the crackpot from Franklin that proposed this bit of folly was overjoyed with its passage, as he shows in his press release:

I have been a proponent of reforming the Milwaukee County Board since I was a candidate for the Board. I am glad to see that the majority of my colleagues are on the same page with respect to this resolution and its intent. It is important to note that in addition to creating a more efficient county government, this resolution aims to ensure appropriate minority representation on the County Board, reflective of the diversity we see throughout Milwaukee County. Its approval is a step in the right direction and should the State Legislature provide us with the tools to downsize, I hope that other members of the County Board who share my vision will not hesitate to proceed with appropriate steps towards meaningful reform.”

A more mature, more intelligent man, Supervisor Michael Mayo, felt otherwise. From his press release (emphasis mine):

Supv. Michael Mayo Sr. today criticized a resolution that passed the County Board by a 9-7 vote asking the state Legislature for permission to downsize, saying it is the wrong approach to County reform and that it would potentially hurt minority representation on the Board.

“I will fight hard for minority representation and make sure there is a balance in representation between the City of Milwaukee and the suburbs,” he said. “Downsizing is the wrong approach to reform. The resolution passed today was called a ‘tool’ for downsizing and reforming County governance. But this resolution is not a tool, it’s a mallet.”

Mayo, Chairman of the Transportation, Public Works and Transit Committee, said that downsizing the Board would actually mean that supervisors represented more people than members of the Legislature.
He said that even with 18 Board members, each Supervisor represented roughly 52,000. With a reduction of three Supervisors, that number would jump to about 67,000.

“How can you represent your constituents with a lack of resources and no staff?” he asked, referring to a bill before the state Legislature that would cut the salaries and the staff of the County Board. “The Legislature isn’t interested in reform, it’s interested in stripping power from the Board and giving it to the County Executive. That’s not reform, it’s a tremendous shift in power away from the Legislative branch.”

Mayo said that although he strongly opposes downsizing, he will work hard with his colleagues and his constituents to see that any reform such as downsizing will benefit the entire County.

“We might get lemons, but I’ll work to make sweet lemonade,” he said.

It's fairly obvious that the supervisors who voted for this resolution are hoping that it will be enough to stop AB 85, the Usurpation Bill.

If this is indeed their thinking, I think they just made a major blunder.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and his cohorts at the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC), who are the ones that had written the Usurpation Bill aren't interested in democracy. They aren't interested in a balanced government. They aren't interested in a representative government. They aren't interested in integrity. They aren't interested in efficiency.  They aren't interested in the public good.

The only thing that they are interested in concentrating as much power in Abele's hands, just like Scott Walker did when he became governor.

They want this so that Abele can turn Milwaukee County into their own plutocratic playground.  He will sell off what they think they can profit on.  The rest he will privatize or simply abdicated his duties thereof.  He's shown this much in his two budgets and other policy decisions.

If and when AB 85 is passed and if the Board stays at its current 18 seats, Abele would only need to hold sway over five of the ten supervisors on the Finance and Personnel Committee to get whatever he wants passed.  It wouldn't even have to go in front of the whole board.

And with the money that Abele and GMC has at their disposal, it would be nothing for them to buy that many seats, much like the Bradley Foundation and Koch Brothers bought the governor's office for Walker.

If the Board gets downsized, it only becomes that much easier for him since he will only need to hold sway over three or four of the seats to get what he wants.

The really ironic part of all this is that if usurpers really wanted to make Milwaukee County Board "just like the other counties in Wisconsin" by cutting their pay to $24,000 and making them part time, they would actually have to almost double the size of the board.  The other counties pay their supervisors about a dollar per year for every person they represent.  At the present numbers, each supervisor represents 52,000 people, much like a state representative.

Funny thing is, I don't see Joe Sanfelippo, the state representative acting as the sock puppet for the GMC offering to cut his pay to a similar amount. I wonder why that is.

But they aren't about to increase the size of the board to make it just like the other counties, because that's not really their intent.