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Last week, the Friends of the Monarch Trail hosted a Summer Moon picnic at the county grounds. Unfortunately, I missed the event. However, a friend who had attended said that there were a ton of people and even more Monarchs.
Eddee Daniels, author of Urban Wilderness, and an accomplished photographer, also attended and snapped a few pictures. Sadly, the moon was not visible due to the cloud coverage, so he went back the next morning and got some great shots of the moonset over the grounds and the Eschweiler buildings.
Earlier in the week, Eddee reported that the grounds were aflutter with swarms (or flocks or whatever you call a group) of Monarchs.
Then today, my friend Luanne called and said I should come to make it to the county grounds to see the butterflies. She said that they were only the locals, but they were grouping so nicely. She also emphasized the fact that the approaching cold front could push them all southward, and they might be gone soon.
I was ready to beg off the opportunity. The excuses were ready to slip off my tongue, as I had other obligations to meet this evening. But I was fortunate enough to have a break in the action, and got to the county grounds around 7:30.
It was already getting dark, and you could see the storm clouds to the north and west approaching, sparking off lightning bolts to herald the oncoming storm.
Expecting that I was too late, that it was too dark, and I was going to get soaked, I almost backed out. I was tired and stressed and the thought of getting caught in the storm while so far from shelter did not appeal to me. But my friends had beckoned, as did the grounds, so I grabbed my camera and headed off towards the sycamore tree, cutting across the fields to save time and to savor the nature that surrounded me. Before I knew it, the fatigue was leaving my body and the stress dropped from me with each step.
As I neared the Eschweiler Buildings and the sycamore, I saw Barb heading toward me. She stopped and turned around and gave me a personal tour of the area around the tree.
Due to the lateness, it was almost too dark to see any butterflies, but if you looked with the sky in the background, you could see the silhouettes of the butterflies as they took roost. Despite working with my low level of talent and old camera, I did manage to get a shot of some of them. Then Barb told me that Luann had found another group of them at another grove, so off we went.
By the time we got there, it was pretty dark and the wind had picked up considerably. With the naked eye, you could only make out the blurred shapes as they delicately hung on to the branches which were bouncing in the wind. This made photography quite a challenge and I decided to just point, shoot and hope for something to come out. I surprised myself that they came out as good as they did:
What did put a damper on the fine evening was word that despite all of the information and the resistance of the citizenry and the wealth of better options, the Wauwatosa Common Council are bound and determined to sacrifice this unique treasure for the fool’s gold of vague and empty promises of the land developers, and plan on ramrodding the TIF plan through.
They really should be ashamed of themselves.
For other pictures of the Monarch Trail, including my friends Barb and LuAnne, WauwatosaNOW has a small photo gallery.
And stay tuned. Even though the Tosa elected leaders are drawn to destroying this land and raising the taxes like moths to a flame, the fight to preserve this land will go on. As soon as we get the dates of the upcoming meetings, we will notify you.
This is a press release we sent out this morning, highlighting yet another example of Walker putting his politics before people:
MCF: Scott Walker moves to exasperate, accelerate Milwaukee County’s problems
When crafting the 2010 Milwaukee County budget, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker was more concerned with his political aspirations to be governor than he was in being a responsible and effective steward of Milwaukee County’s assets and citizens. Because of his skewed priorities, he produced an illegal budget with a gaping hole of more than $20 million.
To fill the hole that he had illegally built into the budget, Walker, along with his usual cutting corners on safety, chose to lay off scores of county workers and force an excessive amount of furlough days on the rest. Walker’s alleged cost cutting measures had the predictable results.
Just this year alone, we had to suffer through the embarrassment of making national news due to clogged up toilets in the courthouse because Walker had laid off the workers before having the private agency, whose owner was a campaign donor, take over.
We also saw repeated news reports about our beautiful parks being turned into garbage dumps because there weren’t enough parks workers left to keep up them clean or well groomed.
More seriously, we have seen the results at the mental health complex, where the shortage of staff has allowed dozens of patients to be sexually assaulted, leading to at least one pregnancy. Walker’s cuts also allowed an untold number of physical assaults as well as allowing the facility to be run down and called “shoddy” by state inspectors.
The tax payers are also getting hit by Walker’s “tax saving” measures, with record amounts of overtime, fines and class action lawsuits, not to mention the cost of having to repair what could have been simply maintained at a much lower cost.
But instead of learning from his past mistakes, Walker has announced that he is actually going to make matters worse by adding another four furlough days for the majority of county workers.
“This is another prime example of Wrong Way Walker’s lack of leadership skills,” said Chris Liebenthal, Chair of Milwaukee County First. “Instead of fixing the problems he has created through his political grandstanding, he does the exact opposite and exasperates the problem.”
“Scott Walker has been driving Milwaukee County towards the cliff, but instead of slowing down and turning, Walker has locked in course and stepped on the gas,” continued Liebenthal. “Walker’s reckless abandon has done nothing but put everyone from our vulnerable citizens, the workers and the tax payers at an even higher risk. Someone needs to take the keys away from him before it’s too late.”
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that Scott Walker has appointed Geri Lyday, interim director of the Department of Health and Human Services, as the acting director of the Behavioral Health Division while the county hires a consulting firm to do a national search for a permanent director.
The one part of the article that really caught my eye was this paragraph:
Last week, Walker told Journal Sentinel editors and reporters he would “not likely” be assigning a current staff member to the post while a national search to fill the job is under way. Walker offered the interim job to a number of people but no one would take the job, said Fran McLaughlin, Walker’s director of communication.
If that’s not an indication of how bad Walker has screwed things up at BHD, I don’t know what does.
To make matters even worse, Walker has issued another edict today announcing four additional furlough days for member of the union. This means even more staff shortages will occur, more overtime will be racked up to help break the budget, and most seriously, patients will be facing a much greater chance of being put in harm’s way.
After Friday’s big news that a majority of the County Board and County Executive Scott Walker were agreed and in support of building a new facility for the Behavioral Health Division, Supervisor Patricia Jursik wanted to put her two cents in.
Basically, she is against it. What is troublesome is why she is against it. From her press release:
“In addition to the outside review, the Public Policy Forum is also studying these issues with hired experts reviewing our practices and expects to issue a report as early as September. It is a mistake to force decisions before we get this input. Milwaukee County may need to focus on emergency, crisis care and disengage from providing long-term care and running a hospital. In the past, the County found running a county hospital was not financially feasible or sustainable over the long term. County General was transferred to the Medical College and Froedtert. Unfortunately, the mental health hospital was peeled-off from this transfer. It is time we revisit this issue, and it is time for our Executive and Chairman to provide leadership. The larger medical community and ‘non-profit’ hospitals have a role to play. It is time
for all of these groups to come to the table and enter into the dialogue of how mental health care is to be provided in the County.
“Is it time to think of a regional facility? Once the private hospitals become providers, the borders may disappear. Finally, the current formula used by Milwaukee County in running the Mental Health Complex causes the County to lose reimbursement from Medicaid, putting more costs on the property tax levy. None of these issues get solved by just constructing a building. For all of these reasons, I decline to join my colleagues in this premature resolution to construct a new hospital building without knowing what the care model will be. We cannot continue as we have in the past.”
Unfortunately, Supervisor Jursik, like Scott Walker, doesn’t understand that privatization is always the answer.
If Supervisor Jursik was aware of the history of mental health care in the region, she would have realized that there had once been many psychiatric facilities in Milwaukee County that served people not just from the county or Southeastern Wisconsin, but from the entire Midwest.
There were places like Milwaukee Psychiatric Hospital (now Aurora Psychiatric Hospital), First Hospital-Milwaukee, Charter Hospital, Rogers Memorial Hospital, Greenbriar Hospital, Northbrooke Hospital, and St. Mary’s on the Hill, just to name a few.
In the mid-1990s, many of these facilities closed or changed their focus due to changes in the insurance laws. Now, besides BHD, there are only a handful of facilities and wards available. Most of the private hospitals won’t take the clients if they don’t have the right kind of insurance, or if their behaviors are too challenging.
To have a private agency take over the services being provided by BHD would require a contract that would be so expensive as to be cost-prohibitive. Furthermore, it is doubtful that it would take the County off of the liability hook for when something terrible happened.
The only other option would be the state facilities, but they too are very expensive and it would be more fiscally responsible to keep as many clients in a county run facility as possible.
Furthermore, considering that one in four people will experience a mental illness at some point in their life, that is a lot of people to whom she is trying to deny appropriate and reliable services.
Perhaps the most egregious part of her release is that she is so unwilling to spend money on our most vulnerable citizens, but is more than willing to spend many times the cost of a new facility on a highway to benefit only a small part of Milwaukee County.
We need leaders who are more interested in all of the citizens of Milwaukee County and not just a relative few people or people who live in other counties.
Since the story about BHD first broke early in the year, I have been hearing rumors that the sexual assaults occurring at the complex included staff-on-patient assaults. These rumors never included any specific details, so I never bothered to repeat them. But those rumors came back to my memory when reading the articles that appeared in this morning’s issue of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Namely, it was the article written by Peter Hoeffel, executive director of NAMI Greater Milwaukee than triggered the memories, when he wrote this (emphasis mine):
Milwaukee County employees with a history of sexual misconduct need to be removed from the system of care. The State of Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services needs to increase its monitoring and oversight role, and the appropriate accreditation of the facility needs to be expedited, which will require technical assistance to implement safety and recovery-focused systems of care.
This raises a red flag and a number of questions, including:
- Has there been incidents of staff assaulting patients?
- Or is it that there are some staff members with a history of sexual misconduct outside of the facility?
- Was Mr. Hoeffel’s line just a common sense suggestion and not an implication of any wrong doing?
- Was Mr. Hoeffel referring to Dr. Strelnick?
- Was Mr. Hoeffel referring to Milwaukee County employees or to the private agency employees or both?
- County employees have to go through back ground checks to be hired. Do they do that periodically to make sure nothing new came up since being hired?
- Similarly, what safety measures are in place for the employees of the private agencies?
- If they do do background checks for the private agency employees, who pays for them? The agency or the county?
Hopefully, the answers to these questions will come out in the near future.
I’d hate to think that the County would have people with histories of sexual misconduct on the payroll and working with the patients, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility.
In the last couple of days, there have been a number or interesting articles written about the crisis at the mental health complex. Here are some of them:
- Geri Lyday, interim director of the Department of Health and Human Services talks about the improvements they are trying to implement. Basically, it’s the same talking points Scott Walker has been pushing.
- Ann Scott Blouin, the executive vice-president of Accreditation and Certification Operations for the Joint Commission, writes about the value of an institute being accredited. Walker allowed BHD’s accreditation to lapse because he thought it too expensive to do the necessary upkeep to keep the facility accredited.
- Peter Hoeffel, the executive director of NAMI – Greater Milwaukee, presents his take on what needs to be done, including a greater focus on community-based treatment.
- Paul Geenen, a member of the community and parent of a person with mental illness, contributes a letter to the editor which shows the disconnect Walker has with the community in general:
Two weeks ago, our telephone rang at 2 a.m. I leaped out of our bed, awakened from a dead sleep and grabbed the phone as it rang for the third time. My son needed my help at the emergency room of one our city’s mental health hospitals. Any parent with a child struggling with mental health issues knows the fear that I felt as our phone rang.
The Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex is the site of last resort when mental health services are needed. I read the articles about the Mental Health Complex with cold dread. My son has been, and might again, be treated there; is my son safe there? Powerful medications with severe side effects are used to treat conditions such as a bipolar condition. Is the staff competent to dispense and adjust those medications?
One must realize that the deplorable treatment outlined in Journal Sentinel articles this week affect whole families. Don’t talk to me about cost; talk to me about whether my son is getting proper treatment.
My message to the leadership of Milwaukee Count: Fix it!
In the editorial section of this morning’s issue of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is claiming that Scott Walker is finally taking ownership of the problems at the mental health complex:
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker told the Editorial Board Friday that the “buck stops with me,” when it comes to violence and other problems at the county’s Mental Health Complex.
Walker is right. It is his responsibility. The mess at the complex, which never should have happened, occurred on his watch And now, it’s up to Walker – and the County Board – to fix problems at the facility as quickly as possible. Aggressive steps are underway, and an interim director from outside the complex will be named sometime next week, Walker said.
It is questionable at best if Walker is really taking ownership of the problems and taking responsibility. I have not seen an apology come from him for his bad judgment or his poor decisions, like not providing sufficient staffing or for rejecting secure units for the more behaviorally challenging patients.
Earlier, I outlined four things that would be necessary to show Walker taking responsibility for this mess he has created:
- To actually be here to deal with the mess,
- Admitting he made several mistakes in the way he handled BHD over the years,
- An apology, and
- Showing he sincerely wants to fix BHD.
He has failed to do all four of those things. Even while the crisis was going on, his Twitter feed shows he was on the road campaigning more than not. He has yet to admit that he had made errors or to apologize for them. And he has not shown any indication that he wants to hire enough staff, train them properly or allow secure units to be re-established.
All he has done is shown us a lot of pageantry, given us a lot of talk, but has taken little action in actually owning up or fixing anything.
But for the sake of argument, even though all the evidence shows to the  contrary, let us say Walker is sincere in taking ownership. As I was discussing this issue with a friend, he kept asking, “So. What changed?”
Walker didn’t change his approach four years ago, after a patient was allowed to starve to death.
Walker didn’t feel the need to change three years ago, when overtime was through the roof and the number of assaults on staff was unacceptable.
Walker didn’t feel the need to change anything at the beginning of the year, when the sexual assaults were first reported. He didn’t change anything after John Chianelli called the sexual assaults a “trade off.” He didn’t feel the need to do anything when it was reported that the building was in “shoddy condition” due to years of deferred maintenance.
So what changed now that Walker is allegedly so interested in fixing things?
Simple. Walker has realized that the problems at the mental health complex are having a negative effect on his polling numbers in the gubernatorial race.
The question then should be: “Can we trust Walker will keep his newly found commitment to these vulnerable citizens once the elections are over or is this just an act of political convenience?
Today, as we had announced, a coalition of County Board Supervisors held a press conference to announce their resolve to build a new mental health facility and to resolve the myriad of other issues that have occurred under Scott Walker’s mismanagement.
A new building will not resolve all of the problems, but it is good to see the Board renew its commitment to the vulnerable citizens of Milwaukee County, as well as to the tax payers. They have a broad agenda towards fixing the problems wrought by Walker, as is evidence by their press release:
A majority of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, including Board Chairman LeeHolloway, have announced that a new state-of-the-art mental health facility will be constructed on the Milwaukee CountGrounds in Wauwatosa. “It’s time we move forward with plans to modernize our facility. With our coalition, we arenow setting a clear policy for the future of mental health care in Milwaukee County,” said Supervisor MarinaDimitrijevic, Vice-Chair of the County Board’s Health and Human Needs Committee.
“The care of individuals with mental illness is near and dear to my heart,” Chairman Holloway said. “The County Grounds is the most logical location to provide this specialized care, and I am pleased that the Board has come together for the sake of our residents who need the help most.”
The current mental health complex was built in three phases from 1968-1979. Approximately $10.8 million remains in the 2010 budget for the planning, design and construction of a new Behavioral Health Division (BHD) facility. The resolution calls for the formation of a Special Committee, to be appointed by Chairman Holloway, to accomplish the following by June 1, 2011:
1. Examine current and potential operating revenues and evaluate the merits of locating some functions of BHD, such as the nursing home and outpatient services, at sites other than the County Grounds in a manner that is more integrated with the community and perhaps more cost effective.
2. Utilize, reassess and update previously gathered information regarding BHD space needs to provide a preliminary cost analysis of the cost to build a new facility on the County Grounds.
3. Provide possible locations on the County Grounds for a new facility.
4. Recommend other funding sources and a timeline for this project.
5. Obtain and analyze other information as requested by members of the Special Committee.
“Mental health care should not be isolated. It makes sense to build a new facility on the County Grounds, which already contains a significant concentration of health care institutions,” said Supervisor Jim “Luigi” Schmitt, whose district includes the County Grounds and current Mental Health Complex. “Building a new facility from scratch is better than retrofitting an older structure such as the former St. Michael Hospital site,” Supervisor Lynne De Bruin added. “We are committed to providing both a state-of-the-art facility and state-of-the-art quality of care.”
“I commend my colleagues for understanding the importance of modernizing the delivery of mental health services in our community,” Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb added. “Our current mental health facility is unacceptable; today we move forward together.”
“While a new building won’t address the ongoing leadership issues that exist at the current facility, this will go a long way in making sure we are up to code and won’t risk losing outside funding due to inadequate facilities,” Supervisor John F. Weishan, Jr. said.
The resolution, sponsored by Chairman Holloway along with Supervisors Dimitrijevic, Schmitt, Lipscomb, Weishan, De Bruin, Gerry Broderick, Johnny L. Thomas, Chris Larson, Nikiya Harris, Willie Johnson, Jr., and Mark Borkowski, will be considered during the September Committee cycle and could be approved by the full County Board as early as September 30, 2010.
The Board’s decision to build a new facility is the latest in a series of efforts to modernize the delivery of care to individuals with mental illness in Milwaukee County. In May, the County Board created a Mental Health Community Advisory Board, along with three related Work Groups, to recommend policies and procedures to ensure the safety of patients within the Behavioral Health Complex. The Board also approved $1.8 million in funds to address capital needs at the current facility. Milwaukee County has also led the way in providing affordable inclusive housing for individuals with mental illness. Since 2007, more than 260 units of quality affordable housing have been developed for individuals with nowhere else to turn.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also reports that a thirteenth supervisor is close to coming out and publicly supporting this move by the Board, which would give it a veto-proof majority. This, in turn, would prevent Walker from playing political games and further endangering these vulnerable people.
I can’t help but notice that Supervisors Peggy West and Elizabeth Coggs are missing from the above list of supporters. I hope they come to see the wisdom and agree with this.
Also big kudos to Supervisors Borkowski and Schmidt for going across the aisle and standing up for this important project.
But there is one word of caution for the supervisors.
According to The Business Journal, Supervisor Schmidt was talking about possible locations:
Other locations to consider include a roughly 15-acre site on the north side of West Wisconsin Avenue between North 92nd Street and U.S. Highway 45. Planners could consider undeveloped county-owned land north of the Ronald McDonald House at 8948 W. Watertown Plank Road, Schmitt said. There are at least 15 acres available there.
I do believe there will be a great resistance to developing the area near the Ronald McDonald area. First of all, the environmentalists will fight it. Secondly, I don’t see the Ronald McDonald House wanting a mental health facility that close to them.
Of course, we at Milwaukee County First continue to argue for our plan, which will resolve many more issues at the same time.
UPDATE: WTMJ-AM is reporting that Scott Walker has said that he would support this resolution by the Supervisors. Will wonders never cease?!
Yesterday was Alexander Orlowski’s birthday. He would have been 23 years  old. Unfortunately, he was not here to celebrate his birthday with his family and his friends. Alexander passed away three years ago, while in the care of Milwaukee County at the House of Correction.
Even though I never met Alexander, he has been on my mind lately. With the series of negligence and poor policy decisions coming to light at the mental health complex, it keeps reminding me of Alex, who passed away due to the same failed policies of Scott Walker.
Shortly before the first anniversary of Alexander’s passing, I had the opportunity to meet with Alexander’s parents, who allowed me to interview them and share their story. I wrote it down in a series of three posts, which I published at folkbum’s rambles and rants. Here are the links for your reading pleasure. As you read them, remember, there are somethings more important than politics or money.
The Life of Alexander Orlowski
The Death of Alexander Orlowski
Alexander Orlowski: The Aftermath
I have received notice that some members of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors will be making a major announcement regarding BHD today.
The press conference will be at noon, by the main doors of the mental health complex at noon.
I have further been informed that the announcement will have to do with a majority of the Board reaching consensus regarding the facility’s future and the desire to build a new facility.
Hopefully, they have seen the wisdom of the plan we offered last week, which would allow for the new facility, preservation of the Monarch Trail, and save tax payers a lot of money.
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