The false comparison between Milwaukee County and “check and balance” principle of government
Milwaukee County Board Chair Dimitrijevic had a long interview with the Journal Sentinel regarding the plan to cut Supervisor pay in today's paper. The whole thing is here, and to be honest it's a wonderfully crafted defense from a political standpoint.
At a time when people are generally cautious about giving any political entity too much power, she makes the convincing case that the Board has an important role to play as the legislative branch of government and plays a role in the "check and balance system" we're all familiar with. Politically it's smart and she's on message repeating different variations of the theme several times:
"That is essentially an elimination of the Milwaukee County legislative branch because how would we function? We'd almost be voluntary," Dimitrijevic said.
Even if the board had $1.1 million, that wouldn't be enough for supervisors to "do our legislative oversight," Dimitrijevic said.
"What's really going in here is a reduction of checks and balances and a consolidation of power," Dimitrijevic said.
So while it's a very well crafted defense and smart on a political level, it's also completely misleading and off base.
The fact is despite Dimitrijevic's saying so, County government in Wisconsin doesn't adhere to a "check and balance principle" like we're used to at the Federal and State levels of government. As we all remember from civics class, in that style of government, the Executive appoints judges, judges rule on law from the legislative branch and the legislative branch confirms judges.
In Wisconsin, our County Boards don't "legislate". They set and administrate policy through ordinances like "Parks close at 10pm" that manage County departments. They aren't "legislators" like we elect to Madison or Washington DC.
Neither do our County Boards provide a "check" on the power of the Executive or on the judges of Milwaukee County. The County Exec. doesn't appoint judges nor does the Board confirm them. In fact, they're elected to office just like Supervisors and the Executive.
The County court system in Milwaukee (and other counties) handles things like criminal, children's court, civic and probate court responsibilities. It doesn't rule on County ordinances that the Board passes.
I get why the Board Chair is using this argument. Most people don't understand what form of government we have here in Milwaukee – and every other Wisconsin – County. They hear "check and balance" and share the concern for too much power in one "branch" and they perk up because those are terms they can understand.
The simple fact is that because of the changes made to County governance in the 60's and 70's (not all of which I agree with by the way, but that's well before my day), the County Supervisors in Wisconsin don't legislate or "run" the County.
They supervise County departments, debate a budget and pass ordinances.
It's not founding fathers stuff despite what you might read in the paper, but it was never meant to be. We have a system of "checks and balances" that works well where it needs to: at the Federal and State level.
Trying to use that false comparison as an excuse to not allow voters to weigh in on Supervisor pay is off base. And while I give it an "E" for effort, it's completely misleading and she knows it.
To be honest, the highest member of an elected body misleading residents about it's role is what makes it even more disappointing.
Trackbacks and Pingbacks
- Whither MKE Cnty: There Ain’t No Checks and Balances in County Government? | The Penn Ave Post
- Blogging Blue | Whither MKE Cnty: There Ain’t No Checks and Balances in County Government?
- How the Milwaukee County reform bill will really effect the Board, clarification on current and proposed practices
Dan, if not the County Supervisors, who is the “check and balance,” on monopolies and oligopolies destroying even more of Milwaukee County?
Steve Smith can’t even sell the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. His stock’s trading just north of $5/share.
Reducing the number of elected officials at any level simply makes it less expensive for SPECIAL INTERESTS to buy government. Most County Supervisors represent a lot more people than reps in the State Assembly. Should we eliminate the Assembly too?
Especially after our last County Executive, your faith in humanity is completely unfounded. Centralizing the authority in LOCAL government is exactly against the intent of the founders and profoundly anti-democratic. Among other concerns, eliminating the County Supervisors, paves the way to eliminate County Sheriffs. That further centralizes control of law enforcement. Unless you’re a drug lord or otherwise in organized crime, it’s a BAD idea. They like it, because their “bribe budget,” is smaller.
Did you miss Jared Kellner’s death, or the deaths Meg Kissinger and Steve Schultze have reported at the Mental Health Complex? The argument you’re really making is that County Supervisors are underpaid. We need to double or triple their respective salaries to attract more qualified representatives.
How many private sector companies with an annual budget of over a billion are run by people making $50,000/year?
I left more specific concerns in my response to George Mitchell in his JS op-ed.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/parttime-board-is-necessary-first-step-p68dotf-187806111.html?page=1
The archangels of the oligarchs Mike Grebe and Charlie Sykes are leading this.
@John Casper
Mr. Grebe’s backing the climate-change deniers at the “Heartland Institute,” who feature nutcases such as John Dunn:
“John Dunn, a Heartland policy adviser, sees his role as fighting “enviro-fascist madness”. In his speech, he sought to ridicule recorded evidence of growing drought and heatwaves due to climate change. “Warm is good for people, and it’s particularly good for people as they get older,” said Dunn. “The people that warm spells kill are already moribund.” He went on to say that only extreme cold caused extra deaths.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/22/heartland-beating-climate-conference?CMP=twt_gu
If either Sykes and Grebe were remotely conservative, they’d be bashing the Chinese and others for currency manipulation. That would boost the competitiveness of Wisconsin exports.
Instead, they’re supporting Wall Street, in helping our trade DEFICIT.
Why’s a guy who runs a 1/2 a billion dollar foundation from two Wisconsin manufacturers, Lynde and Harry Bradley, using their money to bludgeon Wisconsin and U.S. manufacturing?
@John Casper
“Reducing the number of elected officials at any level simply makes it less expensive for SPECIAL INTERESTS to buy government”
This doesn’t reduce the size of the County Board. I mentioned somewhere yesterday that I’m missing the reason people keep saying this when it’s not true.
I agree with your statement about billion dollar organizations, but the Board doesn’t “run” Milwaukee County. It administrates departments, has input on budgets, etc… People who do “run” org’s like that are required to document their time and come to work at least 40 hours a day also. That is absolutely not the case for all the Supervisors and it’s not unique to the current Board.
So after reading that article, the only reason Marina D. does her job it the pay and benefts? Elected officials: public service is just that. Service. It’s not a career.
For what it’s worth, I’m a reliable Democratic voter and I have no idea why this is a huge issue. The one time I called my Supervisor a few years back, it took them three weeks to get back to me!
@James James, if the Dems have “reliable” voters, why do monopolies and oligopolies control our economy? If the Dems have “reliable” voters why do we still have “job-killing-government-regulations,” against marijuana. I would never encourage anyone who did not already have a serious illness to use it, but the prohibition of alcohol did not work.
Who was the Supervisor you called ” a few years back,” and what was the issue?
If President Obama and the Senate were “reliable” Democrats the would be cracking down on foreign currency manipulation which crushes the competitiveness of exports from the Port of Milwaukee.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/11/28/treasury-declines-to-label-china-a-currency-manipulator/
You don’t see Mike Grebe, Charlie Sykes, and the GMC complaining about currency manipulation, because that would hurt WALL STREET.
Among other things, County government is “supply chain management,” and it’s incredibly complex. The idea that the County Executive, alone, can provide sound quality control and vision is unsupported by any facts I’ve seen.
It was de Bruin and about when a committee she was on next met. Not sure what that matters.
One “LOL” moment in that article was about a “task force”. Classic red tape do nothing government response!
@Dan Cody
Dan, I think this is what Abele is up to in the short run, it starts with his CSA Commercial. I’ve already written the County Exec about it. Reasonable people can debate whether he fully understands.
“CSA Commercial hires Taffora: ‘CSA Commercial, a commercial real estate brokerage, investment, and development firm with offices in Milwaukee and Sheboygan, announced today it has named Brian Taffora, former director of economic development of Milwaukee County, as vice president……’”
http://www.biztimes.com/article/20130109/ENEWSLETTERS02/130109843/-1/daily_enews/CSA-Commercial-hires-Taffora
Please note, it’s a “brokerage,” firm. Below David Dayen explains “hedge fund slum landlords.”
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/07/21/securitization-take-ii-investment-firms-seek-to-securitize-rental-payments/
A County Executive has enormous influence commercial real estate. Once it’s known he’s associated with a firm, just for starters, they and their properties will get extra special favors from electrical, plumbing, and all the other construction contractors in the building trades. Those “favors” become virtually untraceable. Here’s just one of many different ways example. County upgrades a facility for $150,000, plumbing, electrical, ….. drywall. Once the drywall is up, who knows how much work was actually done at that “County” site? Now CSR Commercial has $75,000 of free plumbing, electrical, and drywall they can allocate to their properties. They have a huge advantage over all the other property management companies in S.E. Wisconsin. Or it can be donated, anywhere. Put it one person’s 501(c)3, you get a tax deduction and they turn around and donate to Abele, or someone else that Abele supports.
Mike Grebe, the head the Bradley Foundation just asked me to donate to Friends of Scott Walker, aka his legal defense fund. Mike doesn’t have to “draw pictures.” Anyone who wants a grant from that 1/2 a billion dollar foundation understands, pony-up to the FofSW.
@John Casper Milwaukee County should be following the City of Milwaukee in selling CNG (compressed natural gas). Unlike the City of Milwaukee, we should be buying it from WISCONSIN dairy farms. After the 41-second mark of the Hilarides Dairy youtube, a metered CNG pump appears. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIkEm8JUOfY The pump’s probably very close to what the City of Milwaukee uses. “Milwaukee to start selling compressed natural gas.” http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/milwaukee-to-start-selling-compressed-natural-gas-q15gvr7-152730035.html?page=1#!page=1&pageSize=10&sort=newestfirst
Methane, CH4, is the main component in natural gas. It doesn’t matter if you frack it out of the ground or get it from biomass, you have to refine it. Once source is sustainable, one is not. One you can get in Wisconsin, one you cannot.
Even if you leave out evidence that fracking causes earthquakes “Unusual Dallas earthquake linked to tracking….” http://news.yahoo.com/unusual-dallas-earthquakes-linked-fracking-expert-says-181055288.html and pollutes ground water “EPA Changed Course On Texas Fracking Danger After Oil Company Protest” http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/01/16/epa-changed-course-on-texas-fracking-danger-after-oil-company-protest/
I would be shocked if the dairy farm ROI is not significantly higher.
If Southeastern Wisconsin wants to stay viable in manufacturing, it has to create green supply chains. That starts with electricity and thermal energy (heat) from increasingly green sources.
Methane makes sense, as a bridge to a hydrogen economy. Fuel cells can run on methane or hydrogen. They don’t burn the fuel, they generate energy through a chemical reaction.
Republicans would be pushing for this kind of stuff, except the Koch brothers, Bradley Foundation, GMC have their hooks in too deep.
@James
If it weren’t for DeBruin, we never would have known about John Chianelli/Walker sacrificing women to pacify violent men at the Mental Health Complex. That led to revelations about women getting pregnant from sexual assault at the MHC, and that Karl Strelnick, M.D., among other crimes, was billing Medicaid to sexually assault women at the MHC.
@Dan Cody
If you want to put a time sheet on someone, let’s start with the County Executive. “Neumann accuses Walker of working part time so he can campaign”
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/93965284.html
For eight years, Walker used the CE’s job to campaign for Governor at the taxpayer’s expense.
My fear is that really dedicated and experienced County Workers (Jerome Heer) are holding the County together with metaphorical bailing wire and chewing gum. My guess is that Walker looted the place, for example did not invest in the kind of supply management software that the County needs to do 21st Century procurement. Mr. Heer and Mr. Abele already know of my concerns on this matter.
Chicago’s looking at building a vertical farm in Lake Michigan.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/40th-anniversary/The-Rise-of-Urban-Farming.html
Milwaukee needs to move forward with vertical farms. Starting with working prototypes on land makes sense. Getting Walker’s WEDC to plot the cost per kilowatt of LED (light emitting diode)
to gram of biomass is a pressing need. LED’s can replace the Sun, help Milwaukee vertical farms enjoy a 12-month growing season. Marijuana would be a terrific cash crop with which to start, but Gov. Walker likes those job-killing-government-regulations, when Big Pharma pays him to.
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) is behind Solar Roadways and Milwaukee County should be too.
http://www.solarroadways.com/main.html
Working prototypes need to be developed. No reason Milwaukee County can’t be out front on that.