More than three years ago, Milwaukee County First introduced an idea of creating “The Milwaukee County Pass.” The Milwaukee County Pass, as we suggested at the time, would act as a one-stop coupon book for Milwaukee County’s great attractions such as the Milwaukee County Zoo, the Milwaukee Public Museum and the Milwaukee Art Museum, to name just a few.
Due to Supervisor Haas’ diligence and hard work, the pass, which he has dubbed “Super Pass,” has cleared its first hurdle.
A resolution “authorizing and directing the formation of a workgroup to develop a pilot program for a “Super Pass” to allow Milwaukee County residents to access, for a limited time, various park, recreation and culture facilities as well potentially some non-County activities and events with the purchase of one card” was introduced by Supervisor Haas and cosponsored by Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic to the Parks, Energy and Environment Committee where it passed unanimously on a 7-0 vote!
We thank Supervisor Haas for his efforts to make Milwaukee County a place where all can be proud to work, to play and to live.
Despite his promises to preserve the land and turn it into a state park, then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker manipulated events in order to sell this priceless land for a song to wealthy land developers in a no-bid contract.
It was only after the sale had been ramrodded through the Milwaukee County Board and the Wauwatosa Common Council did the true peril for these wonderful sites became known:
Oh, the powers that be, from Walker to the Board to the Common Council to the developers themselves, promised that the Monarch Trail would be preserved and that the Eschweiler Buildings would be restored and converted into apartments.
But those also proved to be lies.
The developers have already encroached upon the Monarch Trail, invading space that is supposed to be protected areas. There have been reports of large swatches of milkweed plants being mowed down.
Adding to these atrocities is the design of the “Innovation Park,” as they call it, is that the design of the layout of buildings and parking lots will drive all the natural wildlife out of the area into the neighborhoods and roads surrounding the area. There will be literally hundreds of animals killed by the loss of their habitat.
And even if the Monarch Trail remains untouched, which seems unlikely, the stopping point of the butterflies might be lost due to the disturbances and the change of the landscape which is what draws the butterflies there in the first place.
It has also recently been reported that, due to the years of neglect, the promise of preserving the Eschweiler Buildings probably will not be kept. The land developers turned around and immediately tried to sell the buildings to another private firm which would convert the buildings. This firm is now claiming that it’s too expensive to save all the buildings…
It turns out that their plan for the Eschweiler Buildings and the Monarch Trail is much worse than previously disclosed.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinelrecently reported that Mandel Group, Inc., the second developer which is looking at buying the buildings and the eight acres they rest on, said that they don’t want to forsake a building or two. They want to tear down all but one of the buildings and build 192 higher-end (read higher profit) apartments. Their rationale is that it would be too expensive to rehab the buildings and cheaper to build new ones.
Will history become history?
To add insult to injury, the Mandel Group wants the City of Wauwatosa taxpayers to pony up another $2 million to $2.5 million to fund their razing of the buildings. This is on top of a $12 million TIF that the city approved two years ago to put in sewers and other infrastructure to support the engineering school they are purportedly building.
As a side note, the developers said that the school had to be built on the county grounds so that it could be close to the Medical College and other facilities. Ironically, there was enough acreage immediately next to the Medical College that they could have used which was already set with infrastructure and would have not cost anything extra to the taxpayers. This causes wonder if the school was ever the original intent of this scheme.
It won’t be just the buildings that are lost either. The buildings sit just a few yards to the west of the great sycamore tree which is the heart of the Monarch Trail. There is no way that they will be able to raze these buildings and build 192 apartments without doing irreparable harm to this rare roosting spot of the the migrating Monarch butterflies.
The damage to the Monarch Trail will only be compounded by the fact that the profiteering developers want to build a road running immediately to the east of this habitat. The wildlife that lives on this previously pristine land will literally be caught between this construction and will surely perish. Likewise, the particular landscape and environment which has attracted the Monarchs for all these years will be forever lost.
But now there is a most peculiar Walkeresque twist to the story. It turns out that the original sale of the grounds, including the Eschweiler Buildings and the Monarch Trail, might have been illegally done. However, not for it being a no-bid sale.
When Walker rammed through the sale, Walker had already abolished the economic development division. Because there was no one, much less anyone qualified, to oversee the sale of the land, and things were done improperly, including notifying the Historical Society or imposing a conservation easement to protect the property. Because of this, the deal should be immediately stopped and could possibly be negated altogether:
“I don’t think it has any bearing on what we do,” City Attorney Alan Kesner said. “There is nothing formal in front of us right now. (Mandel) has made an informational presentation so far. There is no action that we are prepared to take at this time.”
Mandel did, however, announce in Thursday’s session that he would need to raze the four of buildings if he were to proceed with his plans for residential redevelopment of the tract as apartments, including 192 new-built units surrounding the remaining Eschweiler building.
He did not just suggest but asserted that he would have to withdraw from the project if he were forced to retain all the buildings and restore them to historic preservation standards, at a cost he estimated at $11 million.
That would throw the buildings and the land immediately surrounding them back to the Real Estate Foundation and force it to put out another request for proposals to redevelop the historic district.
And, if the state Historical Society should insist and prevail, it could mean that RFP would have to go out with a strict proviso that all the buildings must be preserved.
The Administration Building, the only one that developers would save.
Unsurprisingly, the profiteering developers that Walker sold the county grounds too would not respond to the reporter’s attempts at contacting them.
If the sale of the land is negated, it could mean that the county would have to reimburse the developers for $15 million, something which they could not afford, considering the massive debt that Walker left the county in, not to mention how he has slashed shared revenue and limited the county’s ability to raise revenue.
In summary, we see what is a continued pattern wherever Walker is in charge of something. He arbitrarily decides that he wants something done, usually to the benefit of wealthy friends and campaign contributors, regardless of public opinion or whether it is in the public’s best interest. He then manipulates the situation – even if it means either ignoring the law or changing it – to meet his desired outcome. Then, as it inevitably must because of the questionable legality of his moves, the deal blows up. And it is the taxpayers and the citizens that are left holding the bag and having to clean up the mess, usually at great expense.
From the Office of the Sheriff, requesting that the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors provide outside legal counsel, at County expense, to represent the Office of the Sheriff in all future legal matters.
According to the fiscal note, this move, if approved, would cost taxpayers an additional $150,000 this year and $300,000 next year.
This amount is probably low, considering that the news just broke that one of his deputies and former spokesman, Phil Wentzel, has been arrested for child pornography.
Given Clarke’s propensity for getting his office named as the defendant in class action lawsuits and now having two top staff members involved in high profile criminal cases (the other being his current spokesperson Fran McLaughlin, who’s been tied into the Walkergate scandal), the County Board needs to keep a tight rein on Clarke’s burgeoning legal costs.
This request should be denied with prejudice. He should not be allowed to run amok with the county budget just because he cannot keep his office in order.
Then the County Board should have Clarke explain why Wentzel is getting paid while on administrative leave.
In the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, there is an area that is commonly referred to as the “county grounds.”
It is a vast area of land, parts of which is leased to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital (which was once the county-owned Doyne’s Hospital until sold off decades ago). The county grounds also is home to the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division, the delapidated county greenhouses, and a business park.
The county grounds also contains two rare treasures – the Monarch Trail and the Eschweiler Buildings.
The Monarch Trail is part of the last undeveloped and ungroomed natural space in Milwaukee County. It contains one of the rare places in the country which acts as an oasis for the Monarch Butterflies. Due to the unique form of the county grounds – including a large sequoia tree – and an abundance of milkweed, the Monarch butterflies’ food, the area is a spot where the Monarchs gather every year in their annual migration from the north to their wintering homes in Mexico and Central America.
The Eschweiler Buildings are a cluster of buildings which were built in the early 1900s, originally the home of an agricultural school:
In 1910, Milwaukee County’s rural population was the second largest in the state. For this reason, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors established a high school of agriculture and domestic economy, one of the state’s first ventures into technical education. Graduates would meet University of Wisconsin entrance requirements and would also gain education in improved methods of farming and in homemaking skills.
Alexander C. Eschweiler designed the school’s buildings including a residence hall and buildings for dairy, poultry and horticulture studies. When the school opened in 1912, Milwaukee County residents were admitted free, and non-residents paid tuition of $27 per month. The Milwaukee Taxpayer League reported in 1916, however, that the cost of the school was not justified by its small enrollment. World War I veterans increased the student body for a time, but by 1928, the county’s rural population had decreased and the school was closed. A total of 215 students had graduated from the school in two, three and four year programs.
Since the time that the school was closed, the buildings have been used for a variety of purposes, with perhaps the most notorious was serving as a Tuberculosis Sanitarium for the county.
Most recently, the buildings housed various businesses, educational groups and government services.
In 1978, the buildings were designated as a historical landmark.
A couple of decades ago, there had been talk about handing the county grounds over to land developers, but this was met with a strong resistance from the people of Milwaukee County and the idea was stopped dead in its tracks. In the face of the groundswell of support for the county grounds, Milwaukee County and the City of Wauwatosa both pledged to preserve the land and its historic buildings and unique environmental treasure.
When Scott Walker was swept into the office of Milwaukee County Executive, ironically as a result of a recall election, he had also promised to preserve these treasures, saying that if he were to do anything, it would be to work at having the area designated as a state park.
But as is all too often the case with Walker, what he says and what he does are two vastly different things.
Instead of filling positions in the important Economic Development Division with competent people that would be able to attract businesses to Milwaukee County, he instead filled it with campaign staffers like Robert Dennik and Tim Russell. (Yes, that is the same Tim Russell that has been arrested and charged as a result of the ongoing Walkergate investigations.)
One of the many bad things that happened from Walker’s poor decision making is that as businesses and agencies moved out of the county grounds, none moved in to take their place.
By 2006, the buildings stood empty.
The empty buildings quickly started succumbing to the weather, aided by the fact that Walker’s austerity measures prevented from the county from taking any preservation or preventative measures, or even allowing the utilities to stay on. He refused even in the face of a letter written my then Wauwatosa Mayor Theresa Estness, which reminded him of his promise to split the cost of sealing the buildings in an effort to preserve them.
You can see pictures of the damage from the weather, the neglect and vandalism that has occurred over the years here and here.
Then, not satisfied with intentional neglect, and with a new conservative mayor in Wauwatosa, Jill Didier, Walker decided to break his promise completely and started courting the necessary authorities to allow the grounds to be sold to land developers.
The pretense was that they would build a new school there, as an extension of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, even though the land is all the way across the county from the UWM campus. Furthermore, to build a school that would take up only a few acres, he wanted to sell 89 acres of pristine land, including the Monarch Trail and the Eschweiler Buildings.
There was a large and vocal protest against this move. The students and the faculty didn’t want a building so far from campus. The environmentalists were outraged at the damage it would cause not only to the Monarch Trail but to the waterways and natural area surrounding this. Urban advocates argued that there were many more appropriate places to build the school.
But Walker, as he did throughout his time as county executive and as he is doing as governor, ignored the will of the people and focused on the will of the wealthy land developers who also were supporting his campaign.
The people turned to the Milwaukee County Board, but they only saw the money that could be used to partially fill the holes that Walker intentionally left in his county budget (which he is continuing to do as governor).
Likewise the Mayor of Wauwatosa, aided by the land developers, sold a false bill of goods to the Common Council.
The end result was that the land was indeed sold to the land developers, who have had problems coming up with the cash for the purchase price of the land, even though it was very much below the actual worth of the land. The taxpayers are stuck with a $12 million TIF that was completely avoidable and ill-advised.
Oh, the powers that be, from Walker to the Board to the Common Council to the developers themselves, promised that the Monarch Trail would be preserved and that the Eschweiler Buildings would be restored and converted into apartments.
But those also proved to be lies.
The developers have already encroached upon the Monarch Trail, invading space that is supposed to be protected areas. There have been reports of large swatches of milkweed plants being mowed down.
Adding to these atrocities is the design of the “Innovation Park,” as they call it, is that the design of the layout of buildings and parking lots will drive all the natural wildlife out of the area into the neighborhoods and roads surrounding the area. There will be literally hundreds of animals killed by the loss of their habitat.
And even if the Monarch Trail remains untouched, which seems unlikely, the stopping point of the butterflies might be lost due to the disturbances and the change of the landscape which is what draws the butterflies there in the first place.
It has also recently been reported that, due to the years of neglect, the promise of preserving the Eschweiler Buildings probably will not be kept. The land developers turned around and immediately tried to sell the buildings to another private firm which would convert the buildings. This firm is now claiming that it’s too expensive to save all the buildings:
UWM officials have been negotiating a sale of the Eschweiler buildings to Mandel Group Inc., which wants to convert them into apartments. But after receiving cost estimates from four different firms, Mandel executives believe restoring all the buildings may not be financially feasible, said Robert Monnat, the firm’s chief operating officer.
“Our goal, our passion, is to do everything we can to save those buildings,” Monnat said.
But, he said, the structures have deterio rated significantly after several years of being empty.
“We’re not in a position to commit financial hara-kiri to save buildings that, if they had been caught earlier, something could have been done with them,” Monnat said.
Mandel executives have been in talks with city officials and others in Wauwatosa about the buildings. The firm hasn’t yet reached a purchase agreement with the UWM foundation, nor has it submitted a development proposal to the city.
“The possibility of taking down some of those buildings is in the air,” said Common Council President Dennis McBride. “It’s an unhappy discussion.”
It should be noted that the news report is inaccurate in the sense that no one is negotiations with UWM officials. The UWM Foundation, which is the name taken by the consortium of wealthy land developers, has absolutely nothing to do with the University of Wisconsin system.
But these failures to keep their promises, which Milwaukee County First has been warning of for years, is deserving of being the symbol of Scott Walker’s reign, both as Milwaukee County Executive or as governor. This sad tale has all the trademarks that Walker is known for:
Lying about his real intent regarding something,
His willful ignoring of the will of the people,
His behavior of favoring the wealthy over the common good,
His cynical manipulation of people to reach his own ends,
His complete and utter disregard for the history of Wisconsin (which is not his home state),
His complete and utter disregard for the environment, and
The high price of his austerity ideology, which are hidden until it’s too late.
May this sad tale also reflect the need of the people to get involved with the actions of their government, on all levels, and stay alert to the goings on so that future tragedies like this may be averted.
On Wednesday night, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele spoke at the 53rd Milwaukee County EMS Commencement. His press release, announcing this engagement, highlights the value this program provides to the County and all of its municipalities:
The graduates represent six fire departments (Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Franklin, South Milwaukee, North Shore & Greendale) that are all part of the Milwaukee County EMS system.
“It’s an honor to welcome these men and women into such an important public safety role,” Abele said. “These paramedics are on the front lines of saving lives across Milwaukee County.”
These graduates all received 1,300 hours of training and passed a national certification and state licensing exam. They become part of 390 paramedics serving in the nationally recognized Milwaukee County EMS system.
The Emergency Medical System(EMS) is a county program that has helped save countless lives over the years. By keeping it as a county program, it also makes it the cost effective and the most efficient to making sure that the entire county is covered by the system, instead of just the more prosperous communities.
It should be noted that that Abele had chosen to completely cut out the funding from this valuable program in his 2012 proposed budget. However, Abele did not have much of a choice but to make some very painful cuts due to the fact that his predecessor, Scott Walker, had not only left him to contend with a deficit of tens of millions of dollars, but then matters worse by slashing shared revenue to the county.
Fortunately, the County Board found a way to restore half of the $3 million that is normally budgeted for this program.
Understandably, the leaders of the municipalities that rely on this funding to help with defraying their own expenses for their paramedic units were quite upset.
The ironic part is that they did not take their anger out on Abele who had originally abolished all funding. Nor did they direct their anger at the person responsible for the necessity of these cuts – Scott Walker.
Instead, they curiously chose to take their frustrations out on the County Board, which, of all the parties, they should be the most grateful towards for restoring as much as the funding as they could.
Hopefully, things will get better in the near future and there will be sufficient resources to fully restore the funding to this valuable and necessary service.
For more than a decade, Milwaukee County has been falling in a downward spiral.
It started with Tom Ament’s pension scandal, an ill-advised and ill-conceived scheme to enhance the pension payouts for long term employees such as Ament and his inner circle.
The scandal spurred what was, at the time, a record number of recalls against Ament and the County Board.
Unfortunately, these recalls opened the door for Scott Walker to come in and bring further ruination to the county with his mismanagement and corruption. After eight years of Walker’s regime, Milwaukee County is facing a myriad of woes, including: overwhelming costs in trying to attend hundreds of millions in deferred maintenance and neglected repairs throughout the parks system; a pension fund that is a shambles; a transit system that is in a death spiral; a mental health complex that is in “shoddy condition” and failed to meet the needs of its patients; two illegal budgets and an overall mistrust of government.
While the County Board had considerable success in trying to hold things together in the early going, things have gone downhill with alarming speed in recent years.
But all hope is not lost. Change is in the air.
The recent elections will bring great changes to the Board. There will be five new supervisors. Sadly, out of the five, only three are progressive, and on of the conservative supervisors-elected already has gained the reputation of someone who is not to be trusted.
But perhaps of more significance is the fact that Chairman Lee Holloway, with his bullying and his lashing out, will be stepping down at long last. While some might miss Holloway’s quirkiness, we see it as a chance for Milwaukee County to move forward.
On Monday, after the supervisors are sworn in and the five new supervisors are made welcome, the Board will get down to the business of picking a new Chairman. There are currently five supervisors that are openly running for that seat: Patricia Jursik, Theo Lipscomb, Willie Johnson, Marina Dimitrijevic and John Weishan.
Unbelievably, the corruptpart-time supervisor, Joe Sanfelippo had considered a run at the Chairmanship as well, but it is now being said that he is planning on running to be a part-time state representative now.
What the Board, and Milwaukee County in general, needs right now is a strong, progressive leader with a vision on how to move the County out of the miasma it has been driven into. We need a leader that will put the people and the taxpayers first instead of campaign donors or fellow plutocrats. There are many challenges that need to be overcome, which have already become close to being insurmountable.
The new Chair will also have to be someone who has skin thick enough to deal with the insults thrown at them by the likes of squawk radio and conservative pseudo-journalists, as well as the chutzpah to stand up to the bully boys of Citizens of Responsible Government.
These requirements should quickly eliminate Jursik from consideration. She, like Sanfelippo, treats her role as supervisor as a part-time job. Furthermore, like Sanfelippo, she has been more on the side of being the problem rather than the cure. She has had a direct hand in many of the financial problems that the county is currently facing.
Lipscomb and Johnson are both progressive, but not consistently so. And while they have done some great work and have expressed great ideas, they also have had their share of bad ideas and sided incorrectly on many issues.
That leaves Dimitrijevic and Weishan. Both are strong-willed and visionary. Both are undeniably progressive and both have strong grasps on the seriousness of the issues facing the county, due to both the bad decisions made in the past and by the current administration.
They have both shown the willingness to fight for moving Milwaukee County forward.
That said, there are differences between these two supervisors.
Dimitrijevic has been jockeying for the chairmanship for a long time, working on making allies of other supervisors, especially the new ones. Helping her in this cause is her ability to reach across the aisle to the conservative supervisors and get them to make concessions from their desire to tear the county down.
Unfortunately, as happens to everyone, she has also made some poor choices in her ambition. She has backed questionable supervisory candidates and has been caught in a kerfuffle between her political campaign and her PAC, with accusations of conflict of interests. She also pushed for the reprehensible and draconian “wellness program,” which was both invasive and punitive to the workers.
Weishan has some sweeping ideas that would put the county on much better footing. He also has shown the willingness to take on the bad ideas head on and fight tirelessly for what he believes is the best idea. Unfortunately, Weishan is not always the most tactful person and can be abrasive at times, which is not always a bad thing.
In sum, we believe that Supervisor Weishan would make the better choice for Chairman and be a greater champion for Milwaukee County, its citizens and the tax payers. His ideas would help lead the state in the recovery that it’s trying to make in the face of Walker’s malfeasance. It was Weishan, after all, that was calling foul on the corruption in Walker’s administration before the John Doe investigation was initiated and who has been consistent in supporting both the tax payers and the county employees.
However, Dimitrijevic, who would also make a fine Chairwoman, probably has the edge in the race, given her alliance-building and statesmanship. If she does win the vote of the Board and is appointed Chairwoman, it would behoove her to pay heed to Weishan’s council on many subjects, and possibly appointment as First Vice-Chairman.
She would also be well-served to make sure she tightens up the operations of the political side of her life, since she would be open to even greater scrutiny by those that do not wish her well and frankly, we’ve had more than our fair share of scandals in the past decade.
Regardless of who does win the Chair, we will be ready to assist in finding new ways to make Milwaukee County a place that is for the people and not just the special interests.
We recently reported that Milwaukee County had lost yet another court battle in trying to get out of paying for the illegally excessive furlough days imposed on county workers, some getting as many as 26 days in one year.
The delay in resolving this issue is becoming expensive. The total amount due to the workers is over $6 million and growing at a rate of around $30,000 per month. It is not unreasonable to believe that if further appeals are tried, the number owed could increase by one or two million dollars.
Furthermore, if the County would pay the money out, it could bolster the local economy, which is something the county has lagged at for the past decade. The affected workers could use this money to make the home repairs, the major purchases or simply going out to eat – things that they have not been able to do after having the illegal pay cuts imposed upon them.
On Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee voted not to appeal the ruling any more. They felt that it was a bad decision to throw good money after bad. After all, the County has lost in arbitration, lost before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, in Circuit Court and in Appellate Court.
Sadly, that wisdom was lost on too many of the other supervisors. On a 9-9 vote, the Board approved referring the matter to Corporation Counsel to once again beat their heads against the proverbial wall, wasting our tax dollars in the process.
The supervisors who felt that the taxpayers won’t be gouged enough to pay for Scott Walker’s illegal actions are:
Mark Borkowski
Paul Cesarz
Lynne De Bruin
Patricia Jursik
Theo Lipscomb
Joe Rice
Joe Sanfelippo
Luigi Schmitt
Chairman Lee Holloway
Fortunately, Holloway, Cesarz, and De Bruin are all stepping down and Rice’s seat is being eliminated as a result of the downsizing and redistricting.
One might hope that the departing supervisors are replaced with more forward-thinking and fiscally responsible people and this might be brought up again before more money is squandered in this ideological nonsense or due to their inability to own up to their own hand in causing these problems.
In 2009, then County Executive Scott Walker illegally ordered county employees to take furlough days, with some being forced to take as many as 26 days of furlough. Along with the fact that there was no deficit as Walker claimed, his orders exceeded his authority and were in violation of a previous arbitration ruling.
The County appealed this ruling many times and each time they lost. The most notable of these appeals is the one that appeared before the Honorable Ralph Adam Fine whose ruling pretty much cinched that the county would not win this fight.
Walker, with the support of the Tea Party faction of the County Board, continued headlong with his illegal activities. Eventually, the case landed in front of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) who ordered the county to cease and desist with bad faith bargaining and to make the wronged county workers whole, with the very high interest rate of 12% compounded daily.
The unions tried to negotiate a contract with the county which would have helped alleviate the burden on the taxpayers, but Supervisors Lee Holloway and Joe Sanfelippo conspired to prevent this from happening.
This led to a whole new series of appeals by the county, again losing each and every one of them. The most recent loss came in a circuit court hearing last month.
Now the cost is nearly doubled that of the original finding from almost a year ago, due to the high interest being accumulated.
Yet despite this ballooning cost and the long history of losses, Sanfelippo, the part-time supervisor who thinks his business is more important that the business of the people, wants to appeal this decision yet again.
Unbelievably, his hypocritical rationale for this is because the county can’t afford it. Perhaps Sanfelippo should have thought of that a year or more ago when he refused to negotiate a cost saving agreement with the unions. But even while he claims the county can’t afford to pay the workers the money the court ordered due to them, he is able to collect his full salary and benefits even though he is rarely in his office. Furthermore, he is able to willfully vote for rate increases that the county pays his taxi cab company.
If one wants to know why the county is in such dire fiscal straits, they need to go no further than the likes of Walker and Sanfelippo and their corrupt ways.
And to answer the question of how to pay for this, we repeat our suggestion from a year and a half ago. The county needs to look into pursuing a lawsuit against Scott Walker’s campaign, for the furloughs were nothing more than a campaign stunt to help get him elected. This fact has been further bolstered by recently surfaced emails from Cindy Archer, Walker’s top aide, to his campaign in which she discusses how to handle the court’s ruling.
It is beyond time that the county starts to seek to recoup the losses that Walker had caused over the years of his unethical administration.
WTMJ-TV has a report indicating that the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office is undergoing a special audit which was ordered by the Milwaukee County Board. The audit, per the report, is apparently aimed at the use of forfeiture funds – money which comes from drug seizures.
Supervisor Jursik expressed concern that Sheriff David Clarke might by used to fill budget holes inappropriately.
However, it has been reported to Milwaukee County First that Clarke recently had a premium exercise equipment installed into his office.
We also hope that the audit will take a look at the overtime costs in the Sheriff’s Office. It is believed by many that this cost is extraordinarily high.
The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors recently passed a resolutionauthored by Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb, Sr., that would enroll Milwaukee County in a new modified version of the National Association of Counties (NACo) prescription drug discount card program.
The program offers discounts on prescription drugs to anyone who is currently paying out-of-pocket for uninsured medications. Milwaukee County is enrolled in the NACo prescription drug discount card program, which has provided $1.3 million in discounts for County residents. The new modified program proposed by Supervisor Lipscomb would still provide an average savings of 25% per prescription but would also generate additional income for the County.
“The discount card enables residents to save money on prescription drugs for themselves, their families, and even their pets. The only change under the new modified program is that a small percentage of the discount from each prescription filled will come back to Milwaukee County. It’s simple, yet fiscally positive,” said Supervisor Lipscomb.
The County will receive $1 each time a prescription is filled using the drug card, which may total $15,600 based on 2011 usage levels.
“Given our current economic situation, I am glad to offer a creative way to generate additional income for Milwaukee County services, without raising taxes,” said Supervisor Lipscomb.
Milwaukee County residents are able to obtain a prescription drug discount card regardless of age or income. There is no paperwork to fill out, and 9 out of 10 pharmacies participate in the program. For more information, or to sign up for a free prescription drug discount card, please visit http://www.caremark.com/naco, or contact your Milwaukee County Supervisor at 414-278-4222.
suggestion, has run with the idea. He has put in a lot of thought and a lot of legwork into making this a reality.
