Reworked Milwaukee County reform legislation addresses many concerns, gets bi-partisan support from Sen. Taylor
The legislation to reform the Milwaukee County Board was introduced today and has a number of substantial changes in it meant to address some of the legitimate concerns that people had brought up. It's also worth nothing that Democratic State Senator Lena Taylor has signed on as a co-sponsor in addition to Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), State Representative Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) & State Representative Joe Sanfelippo (R-West Allis).
Those changes include:
- Compensation cap has been bumped from $15,000 to $24,051, which is the county’s per capita income. The chair could receive up to 150% of that number
- The county board budget remains capped at 0.4 percent of the tax levy. However, it excludes board salary until April 2016 and the legacy benefits that each department must pay for.
- The compensation cap is still dependent on the voters approving it in a referendum; the referendum will be moved to April 2014.
- Supervisor terms will change from 4 to 2 years. This is in line with every other county in the state.
- The changes to board compensation would take place at the end of the current term, in 2016. Other budgetary changes would take place in 2014.
- The legislation now includes a section on clarifying board and county executive functions. These would take effect upon passage of the legislation.
Before the legislation was released, these were some major sticking points among some of my progressive friends. I also shared in some of those concerns. Now that they've been addressed, we'll see if these concessions are enough for people to get on board, or if the Board continues to fight against this so it can kick the can down the road again with their "OUR Milwaukee" plan.
Speaking of which, it's been a week since that plan was announced. Has there been any movement on that plan since it was announced?
Bravo. But why is the Chairwoman getting to keep her pay grade? I say get rid of the micromanaging board all together but this is better than nothing.
Dan,
What were those “sticking points” that you were concerned about, but never expressed? And speaking frankly, there is no progressive that could accept this bill. It is not only a power grab, it is fascism.
I love how you gloss over the “section on clarifying board and county executive functions”. So you are on board with banning county supervisors from contacting departments and removing the oversight on contracts, land sales, etc? Why not just remove the county board and put all the decision making in the hands of one person.
@capper The sticking points I referred to were the instituting the pay cut in mid-term as well as a LACK of clarification on who does what in County government. I did express them by the way even if you weren’t aware of it.
And I’m glad you get to decide what does and does not a progressive make. It’s obvious by the massive outcry from progressive elected leaders and citizens throughout Milwaukee County that you’ve once again correctly put people into the right boxes. I am sure statewide there are people reassessing what they thought were there progressive values as a result of your decry.
John, about oversight on contracts, it’s corporation counsel that provides the real oversight on any contracts the County enters into. The kind of Supervisor “oversight” you refer to is also a major reason that the County owned portion of the Park East remains vacant with nothing in sight in terms of development.
@Dan Cody
Thank you for the clarification. My confusion is understandable though.
I thought all that kvetching you were doing was that the supervisors were being paid too much, not that their pay would be prematurely cut to less than half (per constituent) of any other county in the state.
And silly me, when I saw that the Tea Party groups were in support of this malfeasance, well, I always thought they were conservative. Thanks to you, I now know Tea Parties are actually progressive!
And I didn’t know that 16% of the county was a representative measure. Gosh, what would we do without someone as perfect as you to show us the errors in our ways?!
Now, will you please explain how water is really not wet?
Weak sarcasm. I’ve noticed in you back and forthe you never actually answer any questions capper.
Do you think 73% or Shorewood residents are Tea Party types too?
Classic straw man thou which is equally as weak as the sarcasm.
One thing lots of people are missing is a lot of municipalities have a single “administrator” that handles the majority of what is being covered here.
Not that its taters I guess. This is all about who is trying to impress who and personal attacks. Like I said. Weak.
@James Oh, I do answer questions, you just don’t like the answers. And do you think that 73% of Shorewood is representative of the county? A lot of counties, which is what we are talking about here, have no executive or administrator. I still say that would be a much more logical and appropriate solution.
Unless you’re into corruption, which this will make so much easier.
BTW, your hypocrisy is showing by not calling out Dan for his personal attacks. That’s pretty much why I don’t really care what you say. I’ll still stand with the people, thanks all the same.
@capper So you infer that because only Tea Party supported this I must be a conservative. Both of which, true to form for you, are stupid comments despite the pat on the back I’m sure you gave yourself for making such an awesomely clever and snarky comment. James points out that very liberal Shorewood supported it and you say that doesn’t represent the County.
You’re right that it doesn’t. It represents an area of this County that is solidly Democratic and yet still supported pay cut and reducing them to part time. The thing you can’t seem to wrap your head around is that a similar referendum would pass in the City of Milwaukee as well as every suburb. It’s why the Board didn’t allow a County wide referendum on this last year and made the municipalities do their own. They know the results would have been similar to Shorewood. But you stand “with the people”?
You don’t speak for “the people” in this City or County by a long shot, nor do you get to call out what a progressive is and what a progressive isn’t.
@Dan Cody Well, now I didn’t say you were Tea Party, did I? You got nothing else so you are resorting to lies now? How trite.
And even Abele’s people are admitting it isn’t going over very well. Enjoy your evening and the upcoming week. I know I will.
I can’t help but laugh capper. You’re like a SNL parody of a basement blogger who is convinced he trips up people with his super power rhetorical tricks!
Like this: I assume by not acknowledging the point about Milwaukee probably voting in favor of this, you must agree! Otherwise your keen debating skills would have sliced us up by now!
Which people do you speak for exactly? You don’t by the way because I already do.
I’ve noticed whenever you have nothing else to say, you go with the vague “you lie” line, and when people call you out on it, you change subject or ignore. I’m sure there’s a clinical term for that, but I don’t work in the mental health field.. I’m glad that’s working out and that your well placed sources are keeping you well fed. Thanks for stopping by!
@Dan Cody
Please provide examples of when I did this. Also, cite where you expressed your concern for the supervisors’ salaries and where I called you a teabagger. I’ll wait patiently since you won’t be able to. Cheers!
Who are the people you’re standing up for?
You won’t answer because you’re a plutocrat!!!! Abele!)$$”!?-! Walker!&@!%#
@capper
Capper, you need to chill the hell out. You’re not a Progressive and claiming such with your crazy-ass positions are giving the term Progressive a black eye. We’re in a time of tumult and there isn’t shit we can do about it except be reasonable and work for making the teabaggers’ bill less bad. You aren’t doing any favors by blasting Lena for trying to make things better.
Think about it! The writing’s on the wall. You’re not going to spearhead some sort of revolution. All kind of shit is about to go down in Madison and nobody realistically can do to do shit. There isn’t going to be a replay of the 2011 uprising. Fact- Walker’s there for another two years- sucks, but that’s the way it is. As the fight is readied for two years from now, don’t be that guy serving up craziness that can be used against us in that fight.
If you can’t control yourself maybe start posting with folks more like-minded here:
http://www.wsws.org/
@ryan empey You are correct, Ryan. There is a world of hurt coming out of Madison. Which is why I absolutely don’t understand why Abele, GMC and people like Dan want to heap on the bad things with even worse things.
By the way, if I’m bad for the movement, you better get your wagging finger ready. I’m far from being alone on this issue.
I read about you on Cappers weblog and all I gotta say is fuck off you fucking traitor. You smug little shits like you are the reason this place is going to fucking hell. You can keep suckin the dicks of the dicks in charge around here. So fuck you and you’re little family too! If I ever see you on the street I’d beat your traitor ass into the ground!
@ChL Thanks for the eloquent response. In order for you to see me on the street though you’d have to get out from behind your keyboard, which is something I doubt you do very often, especially to beat any ass other than on your World of Warcraft account. Thanks!
First of all, I want thank You Dan for running for County Board. Regardless of political affiliation or ideology, it takes a lot of will to get up every morning and do what is necessary to run for office on any level. However, I don’t understand why exactly we need to make these proposed changes to the board. While it is not perfect and the county as a whole could run more efficiency, cutting the salary/number of supervisors/etc is not going to increase efficiency, nor decrease the amount of fighting between the board and executive. If we are talking about saving money should we then consider reducing the size and budget of the County Executive. Furthermore, a decrease in salary and end of benefits for supervisors could lead to individuals who are A) wealthy B) working multiple jobs and are unable to give the necessary attention. Food for thought.
Look forward to your response
-Cheers
@SquareDeal2024 Thanks for the comment..
First off, I don’t think anyone (other than the Board themselves) is talking about cutting the number of Supervisors. Doing so would certainly be subject to a lawsuit over minority representation.
When we’re talking consolidation, I agree that you can look at the whole picture, but at this time there’s no proposal to do that by anyone in Madison (even Dem legislators). So should we all wait for that to happen before looking at the Board? If we do, it will never happen and nothing will change and in 10 years, we’ll still be talking about consolidation. It’s why I’m in favor of doing *something* now versus nothing.
About improving efficiency, this proposal would do exactly that. I can share a number of stories about the red tape involved in getting something done at the County level. Look at the County owned portions of the Park East. It’s a wasteland because every time a developer comes and wants to do something, they have to negotiate with 19 people who all want different things. A number of developments have been abandoned over the past 10 years because of that. I could also point to the proposed development at the transit center site downtown. The Board got upset because they weren’t involved in picking a developer and gummed up the process. Or a sizable park donation was pulled because Board members held it up for over a year because they didn’t like which kind of tree was being planted. It’s the absolute definition of red tape and inefficiency and nothing has been done in the 10 years I’ve been involved to change that.
I don’t agree about the “wealthy” being the only ones who would run for a lower pay Supervisor position. If that were the case, it would have already happened in Brown, Dane, etc Counties or here on the Milwaukee Public School Board. There are a lot of professionals who make more than $50k a year and couldn’t work two “full time” jobs (meet during the day, etc) that might be more willing to get involved in the job if the scope of the Board was changed as well.
It’s OT, but I’d like to comment on your run for Supervisor as well, Dan.
Had you run more prominently on your Board reform stances I think you would’ve done much better, possibly even changing the outcome. The 15th district isn’t just Washington Heights, East Tosa, and Enderis Park- liberal strongholds. Yes, the district is a democratic district, no doubt, but there is a sizable number of GOP, Libertarian, and other non-dem voters of which I am one.
With no Conservative and only a choice between two dems in the general election, I along with many others had to employ the lesser of two evils strategy. Cullen, a democrat lifer hack that did little(and I mean little) to deserve the seat, or you that actually made an effort.
I voted Cullen as I’m sure many in my position did. Here’s why:
Everyone knows Cullen is a reliable dem vote. A mindless marching soldier that shows up and follows party orders. But, he does it in an under the radar fashion. He doesn’t make waves. No fiery rants during Act 10 debate. Actually, aside from him pressing the wrong yea/nay button every time, he comes across pretty much harmless- he’s just there occupying space.
You, on the other hand, ran a hard-left campaign that I’m sure turned many moderate/conservatives off. Knocking doors with Larson, Marina, Haas- poster children of the hard-left. Boasting of endorsements of big labor during an especially contentious time period.
Clearly, considering your stance on the current County Board issue, not you’re not as hard-left as you portrayed yourself during the campaign. If I could take an election mulligan I would seeing how bad Cullen has been on the Board.
One only needs to look at the 15th’s predecessor. I think everyone would agree DeBruin fits the definition of a moderate dem, and she was elected to what, 4 terms? Jim Bohl- somewhat moderate.
The 15th isn’t Shorewood. Moderate your positions and campaign and you’ll do better next time around. Recent history proves it.
Dan, in response to your second paragraph I question the logic behind that. Isn’t that was a representative government looks like? People from different communities with different goals and ideologies. Its not perfect, but its better than the County Exec holding all the cards. While the bureaucratic slowness of the board exists, don’t you think that exists in all other counties or on the state level? When people want to do business on the state level, they have to report to more than just 19 people. Instead I think we should put the pay of the County Exec/supervisors/overall board/county exec budget up to the voters and work to vote out of office these individuals who you believe have slowed the process of county affairs. To conclude, where does this end? I doubt these “reformers” will ever be satisfied until the board is a shadow of itself and the county exec has all the power.
@Bill Lattimore Bill, thanks for the feedback and constructive criticism. I agree on your take of Cullen being an empty seat, it’s proving itself out every day unfortunately. However, I wont’ be running for office again here.. drop me an email sometime. Thanks again!