Air Walker

Apparently, Scott Walker's connection with Air Tran goes much deeper than giving them more gate room at Mitchell Field in exchange for illegal support of a campaign bike ride.

They both like to screw their employees over for the sake of the Almighty Dollar.

Just Who Has Been Cleaning Up At The Courthouse?

Last week, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on how the County Board Supervisors were upset because Scott Walker did an end run on them and manipulated the system in order to contract out the privatized custodial services for the county as a procurement instead of the proper method of professional services contracting.

The Board has very good reason to be upset, besides the simple fact that due to Walker's mismanagement, the courthouse is worse than a sty, with clogged up toilets and garbage amassing in the hallways. Or the fact that workers are forced to bludgeon rodents in the hallways or have cockroaches all over their workspace and getting into their personal property. (But not to fear, Walker in all of his arrogance, makes sure his bathroom is cleaned and well stocked by the staff he just laid off.)

This is just another example of Walker's style of mismanagement and corruption. He keeps cutting more and more staff in any given program or department, until said program or department is no longer able to function properly. He then uses this as an excuse to open the door for privatization and profiteering, or otherwise abdicate his responsibilities. He has done this repeatedly, including the Income Maintenance Program, the mental health system, the parks, the House of Correction and almost anything else you care to name.

And speaking of corruption, Dan Cody broke the big news yesterday when he found out that the owner of one of the companies winning a cleaning contract, Edward Aprahamian, had contributed $1,000 to Walker's campaign on June 30th.

JSOnline, without any accreditation to Dan Cody, has posted their story regarding this contract which will most likely be in the paper on Monday. The beginning of their story is misleading since it covers the fact that the bathrooms and most of the courthouse won't be cleaned for at least another month. It is not until such time that most readers have moved on to other stories that they get to an even bigger problem.

When they do get to the meat of the corruption, the story tries to downplay it by mentioning that Tom Barrett and Jim Doyle also received donations from Aprahamian. What they don't mention is that neither Barrett nor Doyle were in the process of taking bids for cleaning contracts.

The report goes on to say how Walker and his interim public works director deny any wrongdoing:

County officials said the company was picked based on an objective review that included quality of work, work history and price.

"I did not have anything to do with it," Walker said in an e-mail reply to questions about the contract.

Aprahamian made $3,000 in donations to Walker since 2005, including his recent $1,000 gift.

Takerian, the county's interim public works director, said there was no political influence involved in the selection of MidAmerican.

But again, MJS and reporter Steve Schultze is found lacking. A quick look at the Milwaukee County Ordinances, specifically the Code of Ethics, shows that there is a problem for Walker. Chapter 9.05 (2)(k) specifically spells it out:

(k) No campaign contributions to county officials with approval authority: No person(s) with a personal financial interest in the approval or denial of a contract or proposal being considered by a county department or with an agency funded and regulated by a county department, shall make a campaign contribution to any county elected official who has approval authority over that contract or proposal during its consideration. Contract or proposal consideration shall begin when a contract or proposal is submitted directly to a county department or to an agency funded or regulated by a county department until the contract or proposal has reached final disposition, including adoption, county executive action, proceedings on veto (if necessary) or departmental approval. This provision does not apply to those items covered by section 9.14 unless an acceptance by an elected official would conflict with this section. The language in subsection 9.05(2)(k) shall be included in all Requests for Proposals and bid documents.

Seeing as how Walker already had the Recommended Budget by June 1, which included the plan to privatize these services, and that this would be about the time that the RFPs would be going out, I believe that Aprahamiam's donation is in direct violation of this ordinance, and should be thoroughly investigated.

Walker's apparent corruption is already starting to have ramifications. Cindy Kilkenny, author of Fairly Conservative, is already calling Walker out on it:

Just for the record Scott Walker, you are as sleazy as any other candidate you’ve ever accused. Privatization my ass. You just played a campaign payoff by promising Aprahamian a guaranteed income at taxpayer expense.

And dude, I’ve always believed in Wisconsin. You can take that “again” and shove it down one of your dirty county toilets.

I would not be surprised if this is just the beginnings of Walker's problems, and that it just might be the opening that Mark Neumann has been waiting in the wings for.

It is also worth noting that Citizens for Responsible Government has not been living up to their name again and has not said anything about this whole thing. Their silence speaks volumes about who they really are.

What Kind of Green Is The County Board?

I guess we'll find out this week. They will chose either money green or ecofriendly green.

I think I already know the sad answer.

But The Banker Was OK

I saw this tragic story earlier today. A five year old boy was killed when he tried to stop a cabinet from falling over while his family was moving out of their foreclosed home. The only bright side to the story was the local mortuary who will pick up the tab for the funeral.

But if you don't like to be sad, you can get ticked off with the thought that the banker who foreclosed on the home will be probably getting a nice little bonus in his Christmas stocking this year. We wouldn't want the bankers or any of the other fat cats to suffer, just because a little boy might die.

Happy Chanukah (Beltated)

Excuse my tardiness, the roads up north were much worse than I had anticipated. But regardless, I hope that all of my Jewish friends and readers have a Blessed Festival of Lights.

Happy Human Rights Day

Today is the 60th anniversary of the creation of Human Rights Day, founded by the United Nations:

Human Rights Day 2009 on 10 December will focus on non-discrimination. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. These first few famous words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights established 60 years ago the basic premise of international human rights law. Yet today, the fight against discrimination remains a daily struggle for millions around the globe.

“Our main objective is to help promote discrimination-free societies and a world of equal treatment for all,” says the High Commissioner who this year will mark Human Rights Day in South Africa.

She encourages people everywhere - including the UN family, governments, civil society, national human rights institutions, the media, educators, and individuals - to seize the opportunity of Human Rights Day 2009 to join hands to embrace diversity and end discrimination.

The realisation of all human rights - social, economic and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights – is hampered by discrimination. All too often, when faced with prejudice and discrimination, political leaders, governments and ordinary citizens are silent or complacent.

Yet everyone of us can make a difference. You are encouraged to celebrate Human Rights Day by advocating non-discrimination, organizing activities, raising awareness and reaching out to your local communities on 10 December and throughout 2010.

And a good video explaining the history of human rights, one that even right wingers can understand and appreciate.

Is Lee Holloway A Genius, Crazy, Or A Crazy Genius?

Word is starting to filter out that Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway, in an apparent act of doing a power play, has done some changes to some of the standing committees. While all the changes haven't been made known to the public yet, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting about the changes to the Personnel Committee, which appears to have received the most serious shake up:

Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway shook up the membership of the board's Personnel Committee Wednesday, just ahead of crucial contract talks on employee concessions.

In a letter to fellow supervisors, Holloway mentioned a need for a "new direction" on union bargaining. Most of the county's unions are working under terms of contracts that expired a year ago.

Gone from the committee are its chairman, Supervisor Paul Cesarz, as well as Supervisors John Weishan Jr., Marina Dimitrijevic and Johnny Thomas.

The newly appointed members are Supervisor Joseph Rice, Jim "Luigi" Schmitt and Joe Sanfelippo.

Holloway named Supervisor Patricia Jursik the new committee chairwoman.

The shakeup follows some deep fissures on the board over the committee's contract negotiation strategy over the past year. A tentative pact was struck calling for a wage freeze coupled with a no-layoff guarantee.

Part of Holloway's moves were no doubt the result of pressure from Supervisor John Weishan, who had written a letter to him calling for him to call on Supervisors Paul Cesarz and Elizabeth Coggs to resign from their respective chairs. When there was no response from Holloway, Weishan sent a second letter.

I will admit that I was pleased to see the ineffective Cesarz removed from his chair, but then was even more saddened to see Weishan and Dimitrijevic removed from the committee as well. Thomas' removal is not surprising since he had done bad faith bargaining and is the subject of one of the lawsuits the union as filed regarding the bad faith bargaining.

But when I saw the make up of the new committee, I was rather surprised and dismayed.

Jursik had publicly stated that she wants to retain the right to lay off county employees, even while she does everything in her power to protect the lawyers union. Standing member Mark Borkowski, with the addition of Jursik, Sanfelippo, Rice and Schmitt makes this the most anti-union committee that I have seen. The only way it could be more anti-union is if Holloway had let Cesarz remain and had removed De Bruin.

But what are the ramifications of these moves by Holloway?

As the article points out, the County and the union are in some very contentious contract negotiations. The current contract had expired a year ago, and now the hope of seeing a new contract in 2010 has been reduced to slim and none. The new committee will be expecting the union to accept the contract that they negotiated in the budget, which is extremely unlikely, given all the bad faith bargaining.

If a contract isn't reached in short order, that will mean that there is a high chance of several hundred workers being laid off. As I have pointed out before, many of the department heads have said that their departments will not be able to function with more reductions in staff. This will severely damage service that the county can provide, endangering our most vulnerable citizens, causing even bigger budgetary problems and opening the door to even more state take overs and the higher costs associated with them.

If Holloway thinks that putting these people on the committee is effective, much less good for the County, he must be crazy.

Then again, it could be a sign of genius. Rice and Sanfelippo are strongly in Scott Walker's corner, and follow his marching orders. Sanfelippo has even attended the CRG-sponsored campaign events. As mentioned above, this new committee will follow the contract that they tried to illegally negotiate through the budgetary process.

When they fail to reach a contract with the unions, and services are drastically cut, it will only serve to show how incompetent they really are and that Walker is a pretender when it comes to leadership.

This will also hurt Walker in his gubernatorial campaign as not even Journal Communications and the Bradley Foundation will be able to keep the County's self-destruction a secret from the rest of the state. It will also help to neutralize the criticism that the right wingers could dump on the "union-loving Board," since the right wingers and CRG puppets will be in charge. (No doubt that they will try to put it as being the unions' fault, but only the Sykesians will be that gullible.)

Some of the other changes that I've learned of, but has not been reported is that Jursik and Supervisor Chris Larson have been removed from the transit committee, apparently because they were too willing to work with the state to get the sales tax passed via a compromise and did not feed into Holloway's tantrums. This move doesn't make much sense, especially considering how active Larson what a strong supporter that Larson is for transit and the betterment of the County.

One has to wonder if Holloway's attempt at showing Walker and his backers as being so wrong-headed as they are and maybe dampering some of his own critics is really worth the harm that will happen to the County and to the most vulnerable citizens, many of whom live in his district?

Bad Is The New Good

The Business Journal is reporting that Gannett Co. Inc., the company that owns many of the papers and other media in up state Wisconsin and other places, "sees signs of a rebound" in the economy.

However, the article goes on with this:

Gannett, which has cut jobs, reduced some pay and furloughed many employees to counter falling advertising revenue this year, sees modest payroll reductions next year.

Gannett’s operating assumptions for 2010 say its broadcast division head count “will be down slightly” in 2010. Its digital division will see a head count down in “low-single digits,” a reference to percentage decline. At its publishing division, Gannett sees a work force reduction in the high-single digits, though it says much of that will be carryover from actions taken this year.

Gannett has already announced that most employees at its community newspaper division will be required to take one week furloughs in the first quarter. The latest round of furloughs also include corporate and some digital employees.

“Many of the changes we made throughout the year were necessary in this economic environment, but they also represent necessary permanent changes,” CEO Craig Dubow said at Wednesday’s UBS conference. “Today, we stand as a stronger and better positioned company.”

I hardly think that those being laid off, furloughed or otherwise negatively impacted would really call this much of a rebound. Unless, of course, one compares Gannett to Journal Communications which is actively hemorrhaging employees, much to the detriment of their product.

Not Heeding Good Advice Can Be Costly

A little over a year ago, I told you about a chump who decided it was a good idea to urinate on the cop that had arrested him for DUI.

WSAW-TV is reporting that the chump just got sentenced to a year, fined $3,600, and had his licensed suspended for three years.

I wonder if he thinks it was worth it now.

Walker: A Candidate At A Crossroads?

Charlie Sykes, Scott Walker's unofficial campaign spokesperson, proudly announced that James Klauser has now endorsed Walker for the Republican candidate for governor.

At first, I thought it no big deal.

But as I was going through the comment thread on Syke's post, something caught my eye. There was a comment by a Calvin, who is the rabid right winger Calvin Freiburger, who wrote:

James Klauser, aka Tommy's brain, is no conservative! He has always been a RINO since his days with Tommy. They never met a project too big to cut. Scott will have a decision to make in the coming months; whether he is on the side of the Tea-baggers or the Republican establishment. These are mutually exclusive positions and if you believe they aren't then you are not a Real Conservative!

That is when I realized that Walker is quickly approaching a crossroads in his perpetual campaign for governor.

On one hand, he could follow the path of his mentors, George W. Bush and TOMMY! Thompson. He could follow through with a path that he already has been following, as I pointed out here and here. The similarities include:

• Feeding the public a repeated line that had not even a kernel of truth to it, in order to cover up their inadequacies,
• Cronyism,
• Gross hypocrisy,
• Ignoring the needs of the people in favor of hanging out with fellow elitists,
• Gross mismanagement.
• Hiring incompetents (see Cronyism), and
• Failure to follow through with almost all promises.

On the other hand, he could follow the path of those that call themselves the "True Conservatives." These are the teabaggers, the birthers, racists and other general assorted nuts that aren't as much into conservatism as they are into feeding into reckless and paranoid rumors. He has already tied himself into this crowd as well, having attended a local tea party this past summer.

Walker might think he's going to unite the two sides, but that isn't a very savvy thing to believe. One only has to look back to the last few months and the race for Congress in New York. Doug Hoffman, the ultraconservative candidate forced out the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, who in turn endorsed the Democratic candidate. The Democrat, Bill Owens, went on to win while the right were busy attacking each other.

If Walker wants to have a chance at winning, he will have to pick one side or the other, because the two just don't play, much less work, well together. Combine the need to be a referee for the two sides, as well as the damage control he will need to due when his 2010 budget actually kicks in and people are being hurt by the lack of services, like snow plowing or mental health services, as well as his own bumblings that he has a propensity for, and you have the perfect storm for Walker.

On second thought, I hope Walker does carry on as he is. That will make it all the easier for a responsible candidate, like Tom Barrett, gets into office in 2010.

Two Bright Rays of Hope for the Monarchs

The story is at MCF.

Summary: The County Board's Committee on Economic and Community Development tabled the vote, for now. The UWM faculty senate voted down the master plan, finding it lacking.

But the fight goes on.

Sounds Familiar

Infamy

Sheriff Reverend Or Reverend Sheriff?

One would think that a sheriff would know something about the law, and at the very least, would know about the Constitution.

But not here in Milwaukee County:

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. erred in 2006 when he forced his deputies to listen to a Christian-themed presentation, according to a unanimous ruling from a federal appeals court panel.

In doing so, Clarke violated the constitutional separation of church and state, said the appeals panel Thursday in upholding a lower court decision.

This shouldn't really surprise many people. Clarke has a long history of ignoring the law.

Zach does a good job in pointing out the obvious constitutional conflicts, and how Clarke should have handled it.

Illy-T also touches on this topic, with even more disturbing implications.

What is almost as bad as the fact that the County's top law enforcement agent not only held the Constitution is such blatant disregard, but when he lost in court, he was not satisfied and actually appealed the ruling.

In other words, he violated the constitution, then fought it in court at taxpayers' expense, and then appealed and lost again in appellate court, again at the taxpayers' expense.

Where is the supposed Citizens for Responsible Government when their is such a flagrant abuse of the Constitution, the court system, and our tax dollars? I guess they are just a bunch of hypocrites after all.

Snow Plowing Could Be Scaled Back Due To Budget Cuts

Just before we are about to face the first one-two punch from Old Man Winter, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that there could be massive cut backs in snow plowing and road maintenance next year:

The money will cover plowing for this winter, but could come up short after that, Takerian said. Unless extra cash is found, the county could be forced to lay off as many as 24 of 56 full-time and 28 seasonal workers who work on state highways in mid- or late 2010, he said.

"This is a domino that's going to fall next year," Takerian said.

Fewer workers would mean longer routes for each plow operator and increase the time it takes to clear state roads in Milwaukee County, Takerian said. State roads in the county include I-43, I-94 and many major thoroughfares such as W. Brown Deer Road, Loomis Road, Forest Home Ave., Appleton Ave. and parts of Green Bay Road and Capitol Drive.

This will come into play during the next year, since this is exactly the same type of approach Scott Walker has taken in his county budgets, cutting the County's costs only to make the municipalities raise theirs to cover the slack.

And you know Walker would do the same thing if he somehow managed to stay in the race long enough to win the governor's seat. After all, he voted to do the same thing time after time as a state legislator.

He's even proposed the same thing when he talks about dismantling county government.

It's kind of ironic how he doesn't like to be on the receiving end of his own management style.