The contract for recently privatized cleaning operations within several Milwaukee County departments has been awarded to “Mid-American Cleaning Contractors” by County Executive Scott Walker.
“Mid-American Cleaning Contractors” is based in Columbus Ohio, not in Milwaukee County or Wisconsin for that matter. If this sounds familiar, it is. Last summer, Walker caught some heat from local businesses for outsourcing his campaign website to… you guessed it, Ohio!
Never mind all the talk about creating jobs in Wisconsin, which is one of his primary campaign talking points. Twice now Walker has chosen to give work to companies outside Wisconsin instead of awarding the privatized contracts to local companies in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. He may be creating jobs, but they’re in the wrong state.
It’s unfortunate that instead of keeping our tax dollars here in Wisconsin, the County Exec is using the opportunity to help the economy of Ohio instead of the State he’s running for Governor of.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and son Carter.
So this firm doesn’t employ Wisconsin residents? Must be one hell of a commute to come from Ohio to clean a building.
Apparently, even with that long commute, the company will be able to save taxpayers 2.6 million dollars!
I would expect that they will need to open a local office as well, filling one of the many vacant buildings in the Milwaukee area and providing new entry level job opportunities. Also, part of the cleaning services will be provided by Wauwatosa-based CleanPower.
@Name (funny) It is not simply about employing people here, but spending the money here. The profits will head off to Ohio instead of recirculating in Wisconsin.
Maybe Diamond Jim Doyle actually knew what he was doing. With the ‘Combined Reporting’ that he helped push through, the OH company will still have to pay taxes on the profits they made in WI.
So you’re saying Ohio doesn’t have any kind of combined reporting? Obviously, that’s the main reason the County Exec’s office chose a company from out of state!!
Oh wait, they have combined reporting in Ohio too.
What’s Walker’s connection to Ohio?
http://dancody.org/archives/gubernatorial-candidate-walker-defends-outsourcing-of-campaign-web-site-to-ohio.html
Hm, so let me understand what you are proposing then, Dan. Are you saying that any company we contract within Milwaukee County must be headquartered in the county? Should all units of government be required to accept locally headquartered bids first, regardless of cost to the taxpayer or quality of the service?
Does Mayor Barrett need to meet the same standards in your opinion? If I can find services contracted outside of the City of Milwaukee by Mayor Barrett, will you post that and be equally critical of him?
Will you shortly be posting a piece critical of Jim Doyle for going out of state (not to mention out of country) for his train system?
Please clarify your standard for me here, and then I’ll look forward to seeing you attack all candidates on this issue, because I am certain that you would not be playing one sided politics here…would you?
Required? No, of course not. Not every contract that needs to be serviced can be done so by a company in Milwaukee, or Wisconsin for that matter.
The train example someone brought up previously is a good example. There’s no company in Wisconsin that makes the high speed trains that we’re buying from a manufacturer in Spain, so we bought them there.
The neat thing is there is a company here in Milwaukee that ASSEMBLES the trains, so we can get that part of the contract, or sub-contract.
Finding a company that provides cleaning services is a different story though. There are many companies here in Milwaukee County and throughout Wisconsin that provide those services, and the snark aside about commutes, it’s good when our tax dollars are spent kept in Wisconsin, not shipped to Ohio.
The purpose of the bidding process is to supply a good or service at the lowest cost to taxpayers. To say that we will always give preference to a locally headquartered company is foolish. Are you telling me that when company A presents the lowest bid, say 10% lower than company B, we should pick company B because it’s CEO works in Milwaukee? Not only is that fiscally irresponsible (though when was fiscal responsibility ever a strong point for our county board and it’s supporters), it would open the door to fraud and cronyism.
The bid process needs to honest and competitive. I expect that you actually agree with that, Dan. You might rip on Walker for this, but you are just playing politics again. Mayor Tom runs a city that does the same thing all the time. If you can find some honest criticism of Walker, that might be different, but this is way off base. Either go after Mayor Barrett too, retract your position on this, or admit that you are simply playing partisan name calling games. That’s all there is to this story.
Well I honestly don’t know who the other bidders in the process were, or how this particular one was chose, nor does anyone else I assume.
I do think that “points” in the bidding process should be awarded to a company if it’s in the City/County/State/Whatever. I know that most people aren’t familiar with how the Gov. bidding process works, but most times there are conditions for consideration OTHER than price/cost.
If that weren’t the case, you’d have Joe’s Medical Services and Highway Construction underbidding reconstruction of the highways even though they have no experience, their financials are a mess, they hire illegals, etc.
My point is that determining who wins contracts in Gov. bidding is rarely just the company who is the cheapest.
And honestly, I know you guys look at everything I write and try to make the “Well what about Barrett/Doyle/whoever?” case, but it’s often just not there. I was just as critical of “my side” (which is overblown quite a bit) regarding the awarding of computer service contracts by the State over the past several years (including the GAB website) and of the Mayor’s blind acceptance when a company came to Milwaukee several years ago promissing free Wi-Fi for “everyone!”.
And frankly, I don’t agree with you that this isn’t honest criticism of the CE. Despite what labels get tossed at me on a daily basis, I’m not some rabid lefty liberal socialist pinko commie marxist who’s sole purpose is to make the other party look bad. Re-read the post above, and I think it’s more fair than you’d find on any other “lefty!” blog and dare I say what may show up in the paper from time to time.
The other thing is my main focus of politics is no doubt the County. For as long as I’ve been blogging about politics, we’ve had a County Exec. who’s been Walker, so there really hasn’t been a lot of chances for me to deride anyone else. If a “Democratic” CE had done this, I would have said the same thing, because it’s not about R vs. D – it’s about sending jobs out of Milwaukee, a place that I live in and love and want to see grow in a positive way. It’s easier for that to happen when we’re pumping money into local businesses, hence, my original post.
Must be a long commute! The people doing the job will live here. How stupid to say he is employing people from elsewhere. Perhaps if ou r state legislatue and governor would make WI more competitive business wise, he could find a company headquartered in WI that could offer a competitive bid!
So you saw the other bids then? You also sound like your familiar with Ohio’s business tax regulations.
For all of you who just jump into the “well it’s because Wisconsin has high business taxes!!” talking point, I wish you’d do a bit of research before parroting about.
The Tax Foundation 2010 business climate indexed ranked Ohio #47. Wisconsin was #42.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22658.html
So, whats the next straw man you can bring up?
You’d think someone in the media would pick up on this, expcept for the fact that they’re terrified of getting on Walker’s bad side and not having access to him throughout the campaign.
It’s kind of a big story, especially considering how he’s building his entire campaign on creating jobs in Wisconsin.
Nice catch Cody.
Once again, this is nothing more than another left wing ideologist putting aside facts just because it doesn’t conform to their way of thinking (this time). Let’s take a look at the facts of this situation and compare it to a hypothetical, yet similar, situation.
FACTUAL – Scott Walker hires an OH firm (let’s call it XYZ Co.) to do the county cleaning.
XYZ Co. leases commercial space in the Milwaukee area to run their new division.
XYZ Co. hires 4 local people to be managers/supervisors. These 4 people will pay taxes on their income to WI and spend their other earnings in the area.
XYZ Co. hires 30 local people to do the actual cleaning. These 30 people will pay taxes on their income to WI and spend their other earnings in the area.
XYZ Co. buys some of its day-to-day operational supplies from local vendors.
XYZ Co. pays taxes to WI on its profits earned from its Milwaukee division.
RESULT – Scott Walker is demonized for hiring an out-of-state firm.
HYPOTHETICAL – Jim Doyle entices an OH firm (let’s call it ABC Co.) to open a new Milwaukee division of its cleaning service.
ABC Co. leases commercial space in the Milwaukee area to run their new division.
ABC Co. hires 4 local people to be managers/supervisors. These 4 people will pay taxes on their income to WI and spend their other earnings in the area.
ABC Co. hires 30 local people to do the actual cleaning. These 30 people will pay taxes on their income to WI and spend their other earnings in the area.
ABC Co. buys some of its day-to-day operational supplies from local vendors.
ABC Co. pays taxes to WI on its profits earned from its Milwaukee division.
RESULT – Jim Doyle is lauded for bringing jobs to WI.
On Jan 28, 2009 you posted an article on Left on the Lake reporting that: The state Department of Administration and local governments to try to buy at least 20% of materials, supplies and services from Wisconsin vendors.
Your response, in part was: “This is encouraging because it can make sure that when our tax dollars are being spent, they’re helping to create jobs and keeping our local economy strong.”
Since you were supportive of this in January 2009, my questions to you Dan are, if it was OK for the Democratic controlled State Assembly to go out of state up to 80% of the time to buy materials, supplies and services from other states, wouldn’t it also be OK for a Republican County Executive to do the same? Or, has your opinion on this matter changed since then, and if so, why?
You can say “put facts aside” all you want, that doesn’t make it happen. You’re drawing up some complicated bunch of circumstances to create a scenario where this isn’t Walker’s fault, it’s mine!
I could blow so many holes in your scenario there it’d look like swiss cheese, like the fact that the cleaning jobs were already in the County, but then you’ve acomplished your objective to confuse the situation and get away from what the real issue is.
The County Executive had the opportunity to hire a local firm to provide cleaning services for Milwaukee County. He chose to hire a firm from Ohio instead.
But that’s just liberal left wing ideology or something and people like me who point it our are the REAL villains here!
Please Dan, blow the holes in my scenarios. What additional economic benefits would Milwaukee and WI had received if Scott Walker would have hired a local company?
I ask again, why did you think it was OK in Jan. 2009 for the State to hire/buy up to 80% from out-of-state firms and it’s not OK for Scott Walker to do the same?
You should check your sources (this would be a good time to realize you should never use Journal Sentinel hack Steve Schultze as a source) and get your facts straight.
The company chosen for the contract is based in West Allis. They are MidAmerican Building Services – A Wisconsin and a Milwaukee County company.
Great catch Tom! Here’s the link to the story in the 12/9 Journal: http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/78930212.html
Take a look at the 3rd paragraph from the end. Not only does it state that the contract has been tentatively awarded to MidAmerican Building Services, it also states that another firm has been tentatively awarded the contract for cleaning the Mental Health Complex and juvenile detention center. Another local company, Wauwatosa based CleanPower!! This should make Dan very happy. How much more local could Scott Walker have gone!
Thanks dmrsilva…but that’s the article that Steve Schultze reported the wrong company. (He said it was Mid-American Cleaning Contractors. That is incorrect) I happen to know the owner of the company and he is not affiliated with the company in Ohio.
The correct company is:
Mid American Building Services
6682 West Greenfield Ave, West Allis
But these lefty circle-jerk blogs all pounced on the incorrect information. We’ll see if they correct it once Steve Schultze corrects his error.
This was also an RFP process. Walker would have had no role in the selection process.
Hey, I’m happy as anyone if the contract is going out to a company based in Milwaukee. That’s what I’ve been arguing on behalf of about this particular issue for days now.
If that’s the case, great. I’ll wait to hear about it from someone who doesn’t post anonymously to blogs and use crude references.
So you know the owner of Midamerican Building Services, Ed Aprahamian? Interesting that the same person who donated $1,000 back in June to Walker’s campaign for Governor is now on the receiving end of a contract awarded by the CE’s office.
I’d be interested to see the RFP for this contract, now that you mention it. I would wonder if Aprahamian was the only political donor who bid on the RFP.
Ah, so if he goes out of state Walker is bad. If he stays in state, it’s cronyism. Got it now.
Did it ever bother you that Mr. Doyle often gave major contracts to donors? Perhaps it did, and I just missed mention of it on this blog.
It’s not an either/or proposition. There doesn’t have to be cronyism at all. If “Tom” is right and the contract did go to someone who contributed $1,000 to Walker’s campaign on the final day of the reporting period, then that’s something that needs to be looked into.
Of course it bothered me when Doyle did it, and now we’re getting into that “Well Doyle Barrett did it too!” stuff.
It’s condemnable when anyone does it!
“”it’s condemnable when anyone does it!”"
But it’s only reportable when a Republican does it
… or at least that seems to be the standard here. I could be wrong though. Perhaps you could direct me to the place in the archives where I could find you being similarly critical of Doyle.
Gee, Dan, You really suck about making apologies for passing out wrong information. You bring the wrong facts and then still have the gall to blame Walker. Wow, you are just another unethical liberal blogger. Gee, and once I really respected you, now you are just like Jay over at Folkbum or Capper at the Whallah or CD.
You screwed up big time.
Why are you bringing up Doyle, he is over? I want to know the facts for now! Now for Walker who wants to run my state and not keep jobs here or money! How is he going to be good for my state?
Hey Dan:
This is a great blog you’ve got going. Are you aware of just what MidAmerican Building Serivces is paying the folks who now clean the courthourse?
It’s a whopping $8 an hour! That’s about what McDonald’s pays folks over age 18. Heck I think even Walmart pays a little better. Now I can only image what benfits if any MidAmerican offers. Oh sure they may “offer” health insurance, but can the the $8 an hour cleaners afford it? Sounds like the Walmart syndrome all over again. You know, those with children will end up on BadgerCare while the single cleaners will have to use the emergency room at Frodert Hospital and let the taxpayers foot the bill.
The former county janitors were making between $10.50 and $14 an hour with excellent county benefits like great health insursance, sick pay, holiday pay, and gasp, a pension. The county pay plan actually valued and resepected longevity and even had an incentive in the sick-pay plan allowing one to accumlate sick pay for a long-term illness. That accumlation clause also reduced abuse of sick leave.
And contract cleaning companies — I’ve worked for my share of them over the years — are known for having high turnover. Its not uncommon for some employess to not show up for work some nights. Now that’s going to keep the background check folks at the courthouse busy considering the nature of some of the offices there — judicial chambers, Clerk of Courts, County Clerk, Register of Deeds, etc. Clean companies sometimes scramble at the 11th hour to get a major building cleaned. Other problems with contract cleaners typically not found with in-house staffs include theft from offices and cleaners reading confidential papers/reports on desks.
Low pay and poor benefits are not the only reasons for the high turnover. The contractors often underbid buildings just to get the contract. In order to make a profit, these firms then have to hold the cleaners to the bid times. Thus an area that in all reality will take four hours to clean will be bid at three hours. Rushing a job does not make for high quality cleaning. And rushed employees tend to either quit, get fired for not staying on time, or they just cut a lot of corners to keep their jobs.
Oh and by the way. I have not heard of MidAmerican being an active player in the Milwaukee market until the story first broke in the newspaper and its website. There are many other Milwaukee- or Madison-based firms which could easily have taken this job. I can think of at least six off hand. And I’m not talking mom/pop franchises of CoverAll or JaniKing, either.