As soon as I get home tonight, I will be busy writing to the members of the County Board, urging them to resist the lies and misdirections of Scott Walker and his irresponsible plans to profiteer and launch his gubernatorial campaign off the back of the people of Milwaukee County. After all, look at what happens when the County Board does listen to the County Executive's office without a skeptical eye.
I urge you to do the same. You can find their contact information here.
After that is done, blogging will return to normal (or abnormal, if you'd rather).
Monday, November 17, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Hell Is For Children (At Least In Milwaukee)
I know, I know, I'm supposed to be out of here, but when the story of the little boy that died came on the news, my wife knew I wouldn't find peace until I got this out of my system. No wonder I love that woman.
For those that aren't aware, there is a continuing story of the tragic death of a little baby boy, Christopher L. Thomas, Jr. who was murdered by his own aunt. To make the matter even worse, his two year old sister was tortured for months at the hands of their aunt as well. Indeed, Pat Benatar had it nailed in her song, "Hell Is For Children."
As if the death of the baby and the abuse of the little girl wasn't enough to anger anyone, there is much, much more that outrages me about this story.
As I've mentioned before, in 1996, the Wisconsin State Legislature wrote a line in the budget that the State would take over the child welfare system in any county with a population of over 500,000. There was only one county that fit this description - Milwaukee. That is how the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare was created.
The reason for the takeover stemmed from a federal lawsuit against the state and the county in which it was purported that the rights of Milwaukee County children were being violated because they were languishing in foster care for too long. The state, the county, and the plaintiffs each had their own independent audit done. All three audits came up with the same findings. Namely, that the state was underfunding the county, which prevented the county from meeting federal guidelines and thereby violating the rights of the children.
The state disagreed with the findings of all three audits and claimed that the county was just mismanaging the funds they were being given. The state took over the system in 1998, and allowed Milwaukee County to apply for and subcontract for a greater part of the system. Within three years, the State pushed the County out of the business of taking care of their own children, and gave it to a group of various different private agencies. Many of these agencies have failed miserably, due to precious services dollars going towards all the different administrations. Meanwhile, the children continued to suffer and suffer.
And despite what conservatives might tell you about how privatization, or to be more accurate, profiteering is supposed to save tax payers money, the BMCW started out costing about $40 million more a year than when the county ran it solo. And that was before the state legislature had to pass a special law that the private agencies workers all be given raises to match those of the public sector workers. The reason for that law was because the turnover rate of private agency worker were as high as 67 %, and this was crippling the system. Now, taxpayers are on the hook for half again as much as if the state just funded Milwaukee County the way they should have in the first place.
Even with all that, complaints and issues about BMCW continued to rise to higher and higher levels.
Enough history, back to the case at hand.
Little Christopher and his sister, according to MJS were removed from their parents care about a year ago. The mother was mentally ill and the father was incarcerated. In that year, both children have been bounced from home to home (another thing that BMCW said that they wouldn't do). The boy was eventually placed in a pre-adoptive home, but then was placed with his sister in the home of his aunt and uncle.
Peter DiGuadio, poster boy for the conservative lunatic fringe, really got me angry when he wrote this piece of irresponsible, over the top, racist and ignorant rhetoric:
When the State created the BMCW, they weren't done. They then went on to create Kinship Care. Kinship Care was sold has a way to keep children with family members. All it really was was another way for the State to save money. Kinship Care would put the same abused and/or neglected children with aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, or adult siblings instead of foster care, but only pay the relatives half as much as they would a foster parent. Same needs, same issues, but only half the money.
Kinship Care also saved money in other ways. To have a child adopted, a home would have to be identified, gone through a very thorough and intrusive investigation and study. Then if the home passed muster, the courts would have to go through the lengthy and usually costly procedure of terminating parental rights and then months later the adoption process. After the adoption was completed, the foster parents would receive the higher level of payments of foster care, which was usually subsidized to an even higher level for special needs and to account for other issues. These payments would last until the child was the age of majority.
With Kinship Care, the relative would only receive the much smaller payments. The investigation was minimal and barely adequate in most cases. They also wouldn't end up adopting the children, but only being given guardianship, which could be reversed at any time.
In other words, these kids were removed from their potential permanent placements and put in the home where they would suffer for months and one would eventually be murdered, just to save some money.
Another problem with privatization profiteering of the child welfare system is that it pushed out all the seasoned workers and relied on poorly trained and inexperienced workers fresh out of school. That could explain how the worker, who is supposed to have had monthly visits failed to notice the signs of abuse. They had to be fairly apparent, give the severity of the abuse and the length of time.
But then again, to save money, these inexperienced workers are given heavy caseloads and the expectations put on them are not physically realistic. There are only so many hours in a day, and the amount of work required (including replicative paperwork) times the number of cases often exceeds the time that a person could put into the job.
Compounding the tragedy is the total lack of responsibility and accountability. I'm sure the worker will be fired for whatever reason they concoct, whether it be a justified one or not. But that's where it will stop. The director of BMCW, Denise Revels Robinson, will, as she does every time something like this happens, will say, "We will look into it and make all the corrections needed." But the systematic flaws will remain.
To sum this all up, due to the people in power at the time (Tommy Thompson, Alberta Darling, Margaret Farrow, Scott Walker, and a cast of dozens) it was deemed better to save a couple of bucks by bilking just another social program (always a popular move among Republicans) than have to be responsible members of the community, even if it meant raising taxes a little. Now, ten years later, we still have children being abused and murdered, a child welfare system that is all but broken, and a general sense of apathy in the community, mostly because they don't really know what is going on in their own communities. It's much easier to listen to squawkers like Sykes and Belling rant and rave about imaginary problems like voter fraud or commies/terrorists/bogiemen hiding behing every tree.
And to make the story even sadder, the only person who can claim the body of little Christopher is his mentally ill mother. She has yet to do so. He's been abandoned and abused over and over, even in death.
And if you have made it all the way through this long, long treatise, I thank you for your time and applaud you for your stamina. And whether you read the whole thing, or just scrolled to the bottom, I encourage you to check out Other Side's eloquent (and much shorter) post on this tragedy.
For those that aren't aware, there is a continuing story of the tragic death of a little baby boy, Christopher L. Thomas, Jr. who was murdered by his own aunt. To make the matter even worse, his two year old sister was tortured for months at the hands of their aunt as well. Indeed, Pat Benatar had it nailed in her song, "Hell Is For Children."
As if the death of the baby and the abuse of the little girl wasn't enough to anger anyone, there is much, much more that outrages me about this story.
As I've mentioned before, in 1996, the Wisconsin State Legislature wrote a line in the budget that the State would take over the child welfare system in any county with a population of over 500,000. There was only one county that fit this description - Milwaukee. That is how the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare was created.
The reason for the takeover stemmed from a federal lawsuit against the state and the county in which it was purported that the rights of Milwaukee County children were being violated because they were languishing in foster care for too long. The state, the county, and the plaintiffs each had their own independent audit done. All three audits came up with the same findings. Namely, that the state was underfunding the county, which prevented the county from meeting federal guidelines and thereby violating the rights of the children.
The state disagreed with the findings of all three audits and claimed that the county was just mismanaging the funds they were being given. The state took over the system in 1998, and allowed Milwaukee County to apply for and subcontract for a greater part of the system. Within three years, the State pushed the County out of the business of taking care of their own children, and gave it to a group of various different private agencies. Many of these agencies have failed miserably, due to precious services dollars going towards all the different administrations. Meanwhile, the children continued to suffer and suffer.
And despite what conservatives might tell you about how privatization, or to be more accurate, profiteering is supposed to save tax payers money, the BMCW started out costing about $40 million more a year than when the county ran it solo. And that was before the state legislature had to pass a special law that the private agencies workers all be given raises to match those of the public sector workers. The reason for that law was because the turnover rate of private agency worker were as high as 67 %, and this was crippling the system. Now, taxpayers are on the hook for half again as much as if the state just funded Milwaukee County the way they should have in the first place.
Even with all that, complaints and issues about BMCW continued to rise to higher and higher levels.
Enough history, back to the case at hand.
Little Christopher and his sister, according to MJS were removed from their parents care about a year ago. The mother was mentally ill and the father was incarcerated. In that year, both children have been bounced from home to home (another thing that BMCW said that they wouldn't do). The boy was eventually placed in a pre-adoptive home, but then was placed with his sister in the home of his aunt and uncle.
Peter DiGuadio, poster boy for the conservative lunatic fringe, really got me angry when he wrote this piece of irresponsible, over the top, racist and ignorant rhetoric:
The little girl had been in the care of a veteran foster parent in Germantown. The two children are black. The birth parents are black; the foster parents in whose home the children suffered are black. The foster parents in West Allis and Germantown are white. Do you see a pattern here?Race probably had very little, if anything, to do with it. When I worked in the system, I had white children adopted by black families and more commonly, black children adopted by white families. What it most likely had to deal with was that they were family.
Race, you see, trumps everything. Child welfare Nazis willing to take children out of loving, supportive foster homes and placed into the homes of blood relatives simply because the foster parents are white and the blood relatives are black, never mind the quality of the environment of the homes of those blood relatives. We’ve seen this type of story over and over again. Looking through the eyes of political correctness, those two children didn’t belong in the loving, caring, nurturing foster homes because the foster parents were white and the children were black. There’s a mentality in the child welfare bureaucracy based out of political correctness that black children must only be raised by black parents.
If that isn’t racist, then I am not sure what would qualify. This from the same people, many of whom push for homosexual couples being allowed to be foster parents and to adopt.
When the State created the BMCW, they weren't done. They then went on to create Kinship Care. Kinship Care was sold has a way to keep children with family members. All it really was was another way for the State to save money. Kinship Care would put the same abused and/or neglected children with aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, or adult siblings instead of foster care, but only pay the relatives half as much as they would a foster parent. Same needs, same issues, but only half the money.
Kinship Care also saved money in other ways. To have a child adopted, a home would have to be identified, gone through a very thorough and intrusive investigation and study. Then if the home passed muster, the courts would have to go through the lengthy and usually costly procedure of terminating parental rights and then months later the adoption process. After the adoption was completed, the foster parents would receive the higher level of payments of foster care, which was usually subsidized to an even higher level for special needs and to account for other issues. These payments would last until the child was the age of majority.
With Kinship Care, the relative would only receive the much smaller payments. The investigation was minimal and barely adequate in most cases. They also wouldn't end up adopting the children, but only being given guardianship, which could be reversed at any time.
In other words, these kids were removed from their potential permanent placements and put in the home where they would suffer for months and one would eventually be murdered, just to save some money.
Another problem with privatization profiteering of the child welfare system is that it pushed out all the seasoned workers and relied on poorly trained and inexperienced workers fresh out of school. That could explain how the worker, who is supposed to have had monthly visits failed to notice the signs of abuse. They had to be fairly apparent, give the severity of the abuse and the length of time.
But then again, to save money, these inexperienced workers are given heavy caseloads and the expectations put on them are not physically realistic. There are only so many hours in a day, and the amount of work required (including replicative paperwork) times the number of cases often exceeds the time that a person could put into the job.
Compounding the tragedy is the total lack of responsibility and accountability. I'm sure the worker will be fired for whatever reason they concoct, whether it be a justified one or not. But that's where it will stop. The director of BMCW, Denise Revels Robinson, will, as she does every time something like this happens, will say, "We will look into it and make all the corrections needed." But the systematic flaws will remain.
To sum this all up, due to the people in power at the time (Tommy Thompson, Alberta Darling, Margaret Farrow, Scott Walker, and a cast of dozens) it was deemed better to save a couple of bucks by bilking just another social program (always a popular move among Republicans) than have to be responsible members of the community, even if it meant raising taxes a little. Now, ten years later, we still have children being abused and murdered, a child welfare system that is all but broken, and a general sense of apathy in the community, mostly because they don't really know what is going on in their own communities. It's much easier to listen to squawkers like Sykes and Belling rant and rave about imaginary problems like voter fraud or commies/terrorists/bogiemen hiding behing every tree.
And to make the story even sadder, the only person who can claim the body of little Christopher is his mentally ill mother. She has yet to do so. He's been abandoned and abused over and over, even in death.
And if you have made it all the way through this long, long treatise, I thank you for your time and applaud you for your stamina. And whether you read the whole thing, or just scrolled to the bottom, I encourage you to check out Other Side's eloquent (and much shorter) post on this tragedy.
Doing My Favorite Chess Maneuver
Yup, that's correct, I'm going to do some castling.
Don't worry, I'll be back, and I already have a list of stuff I need to write about, so enjoy my time away.
Don't worry, I'll be back, and I already have a list of stuff I need to write about, so enjoy my time away.
One County Official Gets It
Via WisPolitics:
Milwaukee County Supervisor Coggs: Preserving county resources at a reasonable cost |
The Lost Has Been Found
The Chief rejoins the world of the blogging.
And via David Casper, we find another lost voice is back home.
And via David Casper, we find another lost voice is back home.
A Hypocritical Conservative? I'm Shocked!
John Torinus, free market advocate and nationalized health care opponent, is sending his employees to India so that they can take advantage of their more inexpensive, nationalized health care system.
Jay Bullock has the breakdown of Torinus' hypocrisy.
Jay Bullock has the breakdown of Torinus' hypocrisy.
Sheriff Clarke's Decoy Maneuver: FAIL
Sheriff David Clarke has himself in a pickle.
It is no secret that Clarke has aspirations for a higher office than Milwaukee County Sheriff. Probably he is holding onto the hope that County Executive Scott Walker would beat the odds and become governor in 2010, and then he could run for the spot that Walker is currently neglecting.
But whatever his aspirations are, he has not been having a good week in positioning himself for them. First, there was the story that he tried to aid and abet a drunk driver, by trying to get him out of a snowbank last winter. When caught, he put the deputy who did her job under investigation, so that he didn't have to release all the incriminating documents. To make things even worse, even though the driver was drunk, he recognized that Clarke wasn't doing his job.
Taking a page out of Walker's playbook, Clarke decided to run a distraction play by accusing a dispatcher of inappropriately handling an emergency call from a woman who was getting beat up. The article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had something that raised a red flag for me:
Channel 12 news did a little more investigative work that MJS, and found that the incident happened way back in August. Furthermore, the deputy that Clarke is scapegoating points out that he did not hang up on the woman has Clarke claims, and the video does show that the recording ends with a dial tone, which only would have happened if the caller had hung up. If the deputy had hung up, there would have been only silence.
Another interesting thing is that Clarke is indicating that he is seeking to have the deputy fired, but the Personnel Review Board's agenda shows that the deputy is only up for a suspension hearing.
In Channel 12's story, Deputy Busche indicated that he though that Clarke's statement was because he has filed a federal lawsuit against he Sheriff. He may be right. But even if he is, I think that is only a part of the explanation.
I think Clarke is also trying to take the attention off of himself and all the negative press he has been getting, by pointing fingers at something that happened months ago, so that he can preserve the facade of being competent in his job. But by waiting for months to talk about it, and then only issuing a press release so that he does not have to face the media, and by exaggerating what he has done, he has failed to do what he intended.
If you watch the video from Channel 12's news, at the very end, you can see them talking about the timing of his press release.
Since law enforcement agents are supposed to be held to higher standards, and the Sheriff to even higher standards than that, Clarke should do the honorable thing and admit his mistakes, and step down from office. Otherwise, he is just another hypocritical politician.
It is no secret that Clarke has aspirations for a higher office than Milwaukee County Sheriff. Probably he is holding onto the hope that County Executive Scott Walker would beat the odds and become governor in 2010, and then he could run for the spot that Walker is currently neglecting.
But whatever his aspirations are, he has not been having a good week in positioning himself for them. First, there was the story that he tried to aid and abet a drunk driver, by trying to get him out of a snowbank last winter. When caught, he put the deputy who did her job under investigation, so that he didn't have to release all the incriminating documents. To make things even worse, even though the driver was drunk, he recognized that Clarke wasn't doing his job.
Taking a page out of Walker's playbook, Clarke decided to run a distraction play by accusing a dispatcher of inappropriately handling an emergency call from a woman who was getting beat up. The article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had something that raised a red flag for me:
The release did not include the date of the call or explain how the domestic violence incident was resolved.Clarke's release would make it seem like that the incident was recent, but realizing that Clarke was emulating Walker, who held a video of a sleeping county worker, and only released it when he thought it was most politically advantageous, I was suspicious, and for good cause.
Channel 12 news did a little more investigative work that MJS, and found that the incident happened way back in August. Furthermore, the deputy that Clarke is scapegoating points out that he did not hang up on the woman has Clarke claims, and the video does show that the recording ends with a dial tone, which only would have happened if the caller had hung up. If the deputy had hung up, there would have been only silence.
Another interesting thing is that Clarke is indicating that he is seeking to have the deputy fired, but the Personnel Review Board's agenda shows that the deputy is only up for a suspension hearing.
In Channel 12's story, Deputy Busche indicated that he though that Clarke's statement was because he has filed a federal lawsuit against he Sheriff. He may be right. But even if he is, I think that is only a part of the explanation.
I think Clarke is also trying to take the attention off of himself and all the negative press he has been getting, by pointing fingers at something that happened months ago, so that he can preserve the facade of being competent in his job. But by waiting for months to talk about it, and then only issuing a press release so that he does not have to face the media, and by exaggerating what he has done, he has failed to do what he intended.
If you watch the video from Channel 12's news, at the very end, you can see them talking about the timing of his press release.
Since law enforcement agents are supposed to be held to higher standards, and the Sheriff to even higher standards than that, Clarke should do the honorable thing and admit his mistakes, and step down from office. Otherwise, he is just another hypocritical politician.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
There Goes The Neighborhood
I do love it up north. The castle is not too far, about 150 miles, but it is far enough to be able to get away from the city strife and to relax. Even if I am working the entire day doing yard work, repairs, or other jobs that come along with being a home owner, I still feel recharged after being there. That is one of the reasons my wife and I talk about moving there sooner or later.
Unfortunately, the neighbors aren't all that great. I'm not talking the immediate neighbors. I am not talking about the people next door or down the street. They are all wonderful people and we like them all.
No, the neighbors I'm talking about are a little farther out. For the longest time, we had the screwy Posse Comitatus in Tigerton, which is only about 20 miles away. When some of them got busted by the Feds, and the rest fled the area, I thought we could relax.
I thought wrong.
In Shawano, which is not too far from Tigerton at all, we got the the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology, a nutty religious cult who are allegedly tied to threats to some 60 people in the area, including local government officials.
And in Wausau, about 45 miles to the northwest, there is iron-livered hooch swiller. I cannot imagine having a BAC of 0.56% and still be alive, much less concious and moving around.
Unfortunately, the neighbors aren't all that great. I'm not talking the immediate neighbors. I am not talking about the people next door or down the street. They are all wonderful people and we like them all.
No, the neighbors I'm talking about are a little farther out. For the longest time, we had the screwy Posse Comitatus in Tigerton, which is only about 20 miles away. When some of them got busted by the Feds, and the rest fled the area, I thought we could relax.
I thought wrong.
In Shawano, which is not too far from Tigerton at all, we got the the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology, a nutty religious cult who are allegedly tied to threats to some 60 people in the area, including local government officials.
And in Wausau, about 45 miles to the northwest, there is iron-livered hooch swiller. I cannot imagine having a BAC of 0.56% and still be alive, much less concious and moving around.
How Bad Is The Economy?
Like the rest of the country, and the rest of the world for that matter, Wisconsinites are worried about the economy.
Business are failing. Government bodies are facing deficits. People are afraid of losing their jobs, if they haven't already. Mayfair Mall is in financial straits. Retailers are afraid of a bad Christmas season.
How bad?
Even the Christmas trees are broke.
Trickle down economics at its best. They just never told us what would be trickling down on us.
Business are failing. Government bodies are facing deficits. People are afraid of losing their jobs, if they haven't already. Mayfair Mall is in financial straits. Retailers are afraid of a bad Christmas season.
How bad?
Even the Christmas trees are broke.
Trickle down economics at its best. They just never told us what would be trickling down on us.
Good Advice, Gone Unheeded
I'm sure this fellow's pa or grandpa once told him, "Never piss off, or piss on, a police officer."
The complaint said the man failed field sobriety tests and when he was being taken to the police station, urinated in the back of the squad car and sprayed the officer, hitting him in the back of the head.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
An Observation
I knew that Wisconsin Republicans were taking last week's elections pretty hard, but I didn't realize how hard until I've seen a number of them looking to Scott Walker and Paul Ryan to be the saviors of their party.
That's like betting on George W. Bush and Dan Quayle to win a spelling bee.
That's like betting on George W. Bush and Dan Quayle to win a spelling bee.
Well, I, For One, Did Not See That Coming!
Scott Walker is listed as a "potential gubernatorial candidate" at the Republican Governors Association in Miami, Florida.
I mean , did anyone expect that one? I was sure caught off guard.
And it's not like he has a job to do here or anything, right? Anyone?
Tip of the Crown to the Blue Knight.
I mean , did anyone expect that one? I was sure caught off guard.
And it's not like he has a job to do here or anything, right? Anyone?
Tip of the Crown to the Blue Knight.
Walker's Chickens Coming Home To Roost
A few weeks ago, I lamented Walker's poor planning and his willful, malicious neglect of the public assistance call center. Just a few hours ago, I shared my thoughts on the County Budget so far, again echoing my concerns.
This morning, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows us what his brand of fiscal conservatism is going to cost the County. Due to his refusal to adequately staff the call center, people were being denied timely service. This prompted a lawsuit which will probably become a class action in short order. This will probably cost tax payers a pretty penny.
The MJS tells us now that the State of Wisconsin is not going to reward the County a jobs training grant that would have brought in $2.3 million dollars a year. The reason the State gave was that the County was doing such a poor job with the food stamp program.
And why was the County doing such a poor job with the food stamp program? You guess it. Because Walker refused to fill the positions that would have allowed the job to have been done properly in the first place. From the article (emphasis mine):
How is that good fiscal management? It also raises two more questions: Was this an act of deliberate sabotage, in an effort to privatize the call center and gain political favor (and financial favors) from the private sector, or was it mere malicious negligence? And why hasn't he been recalled yet?
This morning, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows us what his brand of fiscal conservatism is going to cost the County. Due to his refusal to adequately staff the call center, people were being denied timely service. This prompted a lawsuit which will probably become a class action in short order. This will probably cost tax payers a pretty penny.
The MJS tells us now that the State of Wisconsin is not going to reward the County a jobs training grant that would have brought in $2.3 million dollars a year. The reason the State gave was that the County was doing such a poor job with the food stamp program.
And why was the County doing such a poor job with the food stamp program? You guess it. Because Walker refused to fill the positions that would have allowed the job to have been done properly in the first place. From the article (emphasis mine):
Walker's refusal to fill those positions did not save the taxpayer one cent. The positions were already funded. Lord only knows what Walker really did with the money that should have been spent there, since he has claimed that there is a deficit in the 2008 budget. But not only did Walker fail to save the taxpayers any money, but he has just cost the $2.3 million dollars a year by failing to meet the basic requirements of the food stamp program, thereby losing the job training program. And this is not counting the money that will have to be spent defending the lawsuit (and that will go up if it becomes a class action), but any money that will be lost stemming from the lawsuit if the plaintiffs were to win.The state decided to deny the county the job training contract so the county could focus on improving the food stamp program, Timberlake said in her letter.
Corey Hoze, the county's human services director, said Timberlake overstated the county's food stamp error rate. He said the county was attempting to persuade the state to relent on shutting the county out of running the training program.
Similar complaints about delays and unfair denials of services to the poor also are at the heart of a federal lawsuit against the county filed over the summer. Thirteen Milwaukee County residents are suing the county and the state over allegations of excessive delays in processing benefit applications, reviews and other parts of the bureaucratic maze. The plaintiffs are asking that the case be certified as a class-action suit on behalf of all eligible aid recipients in the county.
As a result of the county's missteps, deserving clients have been denied food stamps or health care through the state Medicaid or BadgerCare programs - or got benefits only after excessive delays, the lawsuit states. The county has inadequate staff to handle applications and verifications for the benefits, the lawsuit states.
For example, Shira Raymond, one of the plaintiffs in the case, was due an increase in food stamps when her husband lost his job in January, the lawsuit says. The increase should have gone into effect in March but didn't until April, which resulted in the family not having enough food, the complaint said.
The county has denied the charges, but acknowledged employee vacancies - which the lawsuit says is a key reason for the problems.
How is that good fiscal management? It also raises two more questions: Was this an act of deliberate sabotage, in an effort to privatize the call center and gain political favor (and financial favors) from the private sector, or was it mere malicious negligence? And why hasn't he been recalled yet?
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Some Thoughts On The County Budget
Last night, I reported on the events as the Milwaukee County Board amended and adopted the 2009 Budget. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had their version of in this morning's paper. The County Board has issued their press release, and Walker, predictably, has announced that he wants to put everything back up for sale.
Now that I've had a day to reflect, and review by notes, here are a few thoughts on the budget thus far, in no particular order.
Last night I stated that I thought the budget wasn't bad, but wasn't great. As I reread the budget and all that had happened, and what failed to happen, the budget actually does stink worse than the corpse flower at the museum. But in fairness to the board, they were given a pile of garbage to work with, and tried to do what they could (for the most part). It had to be difficult to work around all those "For Sale" signs Walker put on everything.
Supervisor DeBruin raised the question of why Walker's Chief of Staff Tom Nardelli and the other top members of Walker's team should get raises while they are laying off hundreds of workers. She also offered an amendment that would have frozen the wages of the top managers and political appointees of Walker, but he Board inexplicably failed to pass it. Heck, the amendment was such a no brainer that even Jeff Wagner agreed it was a good idea.
Supervisor Weishan was quite outspoken about his outrage at Walker's failure to fulfill his duties. When they were discussing putting the House of Correction under the control of the Sheriff's Office, Weishan opposed the plan saying that Walker was "running away from his responsibility" for the failure the HOC had become last year. When they were talking about whether to sell off, I mean privatize, the public assistance call center, Weishan correctly stated that the "County Executive was abdicating responsibility and saying he cannot manage."
Like Debruin, Weishan also had a wonderful proposal that never made it off the floor. Weishan had offered an amendment that would have required department heads to return the money for funded positions that they never filled. This stems from the 717 positions that went unfilled this year, but had been fully funded in the budget.
As I mentioned before, the call center was a hot topic in yesterday's hearing. The board debated about this more than any of the other amendments. Almost every single member of the board complained that they were receiving too many phone calls complaining about the call center. Many of the Supervisors also pointed out that Walker and his team were mismanaging the center by filling half of the empty positions. It was also pointed out that Walker's plan would actually cut the number of case workers that could resolve the problem by two thirds and would end up prolonging the wait time people would have to endure before getting help.
Unfortunately, too many Supervisors didn't care who's fault it was. Supervisor Schmitt went so far as to say that "who's responsible is not a priority." All they cared about was what was the fastest way to stop getting those pesky phone calls asking them to do their job by making sure that the department heads were doing their jobs.
Also alarming was the winking and nodding that was going on between Supervisor Jursik and representative of the private agencies that wanted to gobble up County assets and jobs as the debate went on. After the amendment passed, albeit just barely, the private agency folks got up and huffed out of the room.
Would someone please explain to me why year after year after year, Walker makes the same budget recommendations like privatizing the parks. closing the farm and fish hatchery at the HOC, and such, when he knows it's not going anywhere. Does he think that if he tries enough times, it will actually happen? Or is it that he forgets? Or is it that he is just phoning his part in to look good for his Quixotic gubernatorial race?
Will Walker and his allies on the board (Cesarz, Rice and Sanfellipo) go out and deliver Christmas fruit baskets to all the people they laid off for no good reason?
Supervisor Broderick brought up an interesting point. He stated that it was obvious that Walker was not invested in Milwaukee County. He pointed out that while everyone in the room spent Election night last week here in the county, Walker was way over the county line, trying to get closer to Madison.
Weishan, when discussing whether to adopt the overall budget pointed out that "Walker is not a privatizer, he's a profiteer. He's trying to take advantage of selling things for campaign donations." Other Supervisors, including Chairman Holloway have made similar statements. Walker, in today's article in MSJ tried to shift the blame:
But then again, honesty has never been one of Walker's long suits. It would get in the way of his one trick pony that he is trying to ride to Madison.
Now that I've had a day to reflect, and review by notes, here are a few thoughts on the budget thus far, in no particular order.
Last night I stated that I thought the budget wasn't bad, but wasn't great. As I reread the budget and all that had happened, and what failed to happen, the budget actually does stink worse than the corpse flower at the museum. But in fairness to the board, they were given a pile of garbage to work with, and tried to do what they could (for the most part). It had to be difficult to work around all those "For Sale" signs Walker put on everything.
Supervisor DeBruin raised the question of why Walker's Chief of Staff Tom Nardelli and the other top members of Walker's team should get raises while they are laying off hundreds of workers. She also offered an amendment that would have frozen the wages of the top managers and political appointees of Walker, but he Board inexplicably failed to pass it. Heck, the amendment was such a no brainer that even Jeff Wagner agreed it was a good idea.
Supervisor Weishan was quite outspoken about his outrage at Walker's failure to fulfill his duties. When they were discussing putting the House of Correction under the control of the Sheriff's Office, Weishan opposed the plan saying that Walker was "running away from his responsibility" for the failure the HOC had become last year. When they were talking about whether to sell off, I mean privatize, the public assistance call center, Weishan correctly stated that the "County Executive was abdicating responsibility and saying he cannot manage."
Like Debruin, Weishan also had a wonderful proposal that never made it off the floor. Weishan had offered an amendment that would have required department heads to return the money for funded positions that they never filled. This stems from the 717 positions that went unfilled this year, but had been fully funded in the budget.
As I mentioned before, the call center was a hot topic in yesterday's hearing. The board debated about this more than any of the other amendments. Almost every single member of the board complained that they were receiving too many phone calls complaining about the call center. Many of the Supervisors also pointed out that Walker and his team were mismanaging the center by filling half of the empty positions. It was also pointed out that Walker's plan would actually cut the number of case workers that could resolve the problem by two thirds and would end up prolonging the wait time people would have to endure before getting help.
Unfortunately, too many Supervisors didn't care who's fault it was. Supervisor Schmitt went so far as to say that "who's responsible is not a priority." All they cared about was what was the fastest way to stop getting those pesky phone calls asking them to do their job by making sure that the department heads were doing their jobs.
Also alarming was the winking and nodding that was going on between Supervisor Jursik and representative of the private agencies that wanted to gobble up County assets and jobs as the debate went on. After the amendment passed, albeit just barely, the private agency folks got up and huffed out of the room.
Would someone please explain to me why year after year after year, Walker makes the same budget recommendations like privatizing the parks. closing the farm and fish hatchery at the HOC, and such, when he knows it's not going anywhere. Does he think that if he tries enough times, it will actually happen? Or is it that he forgets? Or is it that he is just phoning his part in to look good for his Quixotic gubernatorial race?
Will Walker and his allies on the board (Cesarz, Rice and Sanfellipo) go out and deliver Christmas fruit baskets to all the people they laid off for no good reason?
Supervisor Broderick brought up an interesting point. He stated that it was obvious that Walker was not invested in Milwaukee County. He pointed out that while everyone in the room spent Election night last week here in the county, Walker was way over the county line, trying to get closer to Madison.
Weishan, when discussing whether to adopt the overall budget pointed out that "Walker is not a privatizer, he's a profiteer. He's trying to take advantage of selling things for campaign donations." Other Supervisors, including Chairman Holloway have made similar statements. Walker, in today's article in MSJ tried to shift the blame:
Holloway said Walker pushed for privatization as a way to leverage campaign contributions. Walker dismissed the charge as ridiculous and said supervisors blocking his privatization efforts were beholden to their union support. Walker has pushed for outsourcing since he first won the county executive post in 2002 and emphasized it in his re-election campaign earlier this year.Walker's assertions are demonstratively false. The County Board threw a couple hundred workers to the wolves in this budget. I have yet to see Walker throw one potential campaign donor out.
But then again, honesty has never been one of Walker's long suits. It would get in the way of his one trick pony that he is trying to ride to Madison.
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