Jul 30 2007
Milwaukee County Supervisors Express Shock at Practice They’ve Known Was Going on For Years
The Journal Sentinel had an interesting article on Sunday about the practice of allowing some County workers to “buyback” pension benefits at a substantial discount, and sometimes without proper documentation of previous service. The questionable practice is expected to cost the County millions and millions of dollars.
The response today from some County Supervisors is predictable and troubling: What? Huh? Who? How?
The reaction from the Board of Supervisors is disturbing. It’s impossible to imagine that they didn’t know about this questionable practice before the story hit on Sunday, and that alone is cause for major concern. The reaction we’re now hearing is equally if not more disturbing because it’s the kind of cover-your-behind behavior that citizens have come to expect, especially with regards to the County Board and anything to do with pensions.
How can anyone trust some of the people who let this happen right under their noses to now correct the problem and deal with it’s fallout?
Ah .. government is so good what it does. Let’s put them in charge of health care!!
This is just another example of the “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” mentality that’s so pervasive on the County Board and the County Executive. They’re all too willing to turn a blind eye to practices like this, so long as turning a blind eye doesn’t come back to bite them in the ass.
As for Yeah Boy’s comments, I’d just note that you’re comparing apples to oranges. We’re talking about the County Board of Supervisors - and those certainly aren’t the folks that’d be in charge of health care.
What makes you think that they had any more of an idea that this was going on than did say, County Executive Scott Walker?
After all, the head of Human Resources is his appointee. Would this not seem like something that Walker knew about? The HR Director doesn’t answer to the County Board — he may be confirmed by the board ever four years, but in the end, he doesn’t really answer to them.