Last Friday, WISN-TV reported on the consequences of Scott Walker’s poorly thought out and wrong-minded plan to privatize all of the County’s housekeeping staff. It was embarrassing to see Milwaukee County Courthouse looking so dirty and disgusting with piles of trash and clogged toilets.
Earlier this week, they went back to the courthouse and found that things were just as bad, if not actually worse than they were last Friday.
Now, the disgrace that Walker has brought upon us has reached national attention.
For the past six months, I, along with a few hundred other people who want Milwaukee County to be the world leader that it once was, have been working hard to prevent the county’s further decline and maybe even reverse some of the damage done by politicians who, like Walker, put their own personal and political interests before the best interests of the County. While we are trying to fix our transit system, our parks system and restore vital services to our more vulnerable citizens, it only becomes harder when Walker does something like this.
While we are trying to make people want to come to Milwaukee County, whether it is to tour and see the wonderful things here, to move here and/or to bring their companies here, Walker is actively doing his very best to make Milwaukee County as unattractive as he possibly can. For the world of me, I don’t see how having it proven beyond any doubt that he is incapable of running the county effectively is going to help his political aspirations. But that is his problem, not ours. Our concern is that he stop doing damage to Milwaukee County and to its image as he runs for higher office.
Cory Liebmann thinks Walker is shameless. That might very well be true.
But Walker should be ashamed for shaming us in front of the nation and the world.
I spend a bit of time at the courthouse. It can only get better then it was when the overpaid housekeepers were there.
Ironically, I was there this morning to appear on a case. The private agency workers were there. Three of them pushing two carts up and down the hall. They didn’t clean anything, just kept walking up and down the hall, looking busy. Oh, and talking on their cell phones.
“While we are trying to make people want to come to Milwaukee County, whether it is to tour and see the wonderful things here, to move here and/or to bring their companies here, Walker is actively doing his very best to make Milwaukee County as unattractive as he possibly can.”
Hey Capper, who is “we”? Your union buddies didn’t show up for work and left the courthouse looking like garbage. Yes, we DO want people to come to Milwaukee County, so why didn’t you get on the phone and tell your union buddies that clean toilets to get over there and do what the taxpayer was paying them to do?
Don’t make this about Walker. He didn’t make the mess, the union did.
Hey, as a side note, what are they so pissed about. They were all offered premium status for applying with the new firm. Can you guess how many of them returned phone calls?
You try to make hay with one day. Let us talk about the seven years before that, when Walker kept paring it down until it was impossible for them to keep up. Just like he did with mental health, the income maintenance program, economic development, the sheriff’s office, HOC, the parks and just about everything but his own office.
But thanks for the idea on a new post.
That’s okay. Because my friend Patrick hit the nail on the head here. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/79545672.html
He’s on my list, don’t worry. But I save the light work for last.
Let see if I have the time line correct.
1. Scott Walker budgets that the cleaning of the court house is to be contracted out to a private organization.
2. County board does not remove this from the budget, thus can be seen as agreeing with Scott Walker.
3. Current cleaning crew learns about this and stops showing well before the private crew takes over.
4. On a Friday, WISN does a story about how things are at the court house before the private crew is suppose to start and while the current employees should still be doing the cleaning.
5. On the following Monday, WISN does a follow up story about how things are the same at the court house before the private crew is suppose to start and while the current employees should still be doing the cleaning.
6. County employees are still not showing up for work and the new private crew isn’t scheduled to start until next years some time.
What I get out of this is that; Walker is doing his job, County employees are not doing their job, New private crew isn’t in the picture until next year. Looks like the only ones getting crapped on are the county employees for being cry babies and the Democrats that are making a stink about something that is not being done by county employees.
You left something out. The seven years of Walker continuously downsizing the staff until it reached the point that they could no longer do the job adequately. That is why there were complaints starting years ago about how the Courthouse was falling apart.
Same workers (or what was left of them), only Walker was different.
Even if that is true, it is no excuse for not showing up to do a job.
“But thanks for the idea on a new post.”
Oh, I got another one on the way.
Btw, how do you feel knowing that you’ve been debunked on almost every issue relating to Walker? You can add the “violation of ethics” to that one as well.
Oh, I’ve already seen your work. Like I said, I leave the light work until the end.
You’ve seen my work? Then where is your retraction?
If by retraction, you mean my correction of your multiple errors, please read my comment above.
I’ll gladly wait for these corrections from a blogger who never fact-checks his stuff. And don’t feel bad about that because you are not alone. Cory and Cindy are there with you.
And one more thing (I love when people say that), only a union mentality would think that Politico published an article critical of Walker. Perhaps you need to re-read the article. It states,
“As part of Walker’s decision to outsource some government services, 25 members of the courthouse’s janitorial staff were laid off. In protest, only four of the 20 scheduled to work show up on December 11 — their last day of work and the day news cameras recorded video of the restrooms.”
Essentially, union workers screwed the county courthouse. And WISN came in on the day where nearly nobody was there? What are the odds that a union guy flooded a toilet for a publicity stunt? Quite likely since the democrat party of Wisconsin likes to show those filthy images on its homepage like some trophy. Hmm . . . you screw up the toilet, and we’ll take the pictures . . . Brilliant!!!!
Only liberals would believe that union workers not doing their job is somehow the County Executive’s fault.
Again, like the other Walker apologists, you fail to realize or admit that this problem has been growing for years, not just one day, and in more areas than a bathroom stall.
But that picture taken by a news crew is rather symbolic of Walker’s track record as county executive.
A picture taken of a dirty toilet because union workers didn’t come to work due to a protest is reflective of Walker? Hmmm . . . I suppose if I were to think like a union man, backward as it is, I might blame Walker for me not getting up in the morning. Yeah, I think I like that.
That gives me a good idea. Instead of going to work tomorrow, I’ll call my boss and tell him that my county executive is the reason why I didn’t show up in the morning, and perhaps he will see the brilliance of my logic and say, “Ah, no worries. This day is on us”.
I certainly hope you are being intentionally obtuse. Again, why are you refusing to look at his track record of downsizing and how much that has cost us?
I spend a bit of time at the courthouse. It can only get better then it was when the overpaid housekeepers were there.
Chris,
You need to step outside your union box. Most Milwaukee County taxpayers don’t see things the same way as an ordinary card-carrying member of a union.
The purpose of a union is to represent and serve the the better interests of its members. It doesn’t matter what our local economy looks like, the union, by definition, will fight against anyone who intends to take things away from its members. They are not to blame because they are merely doing the job that union dews pay them to do.
But, and there is a but, strong involvement in the union had a tendency to make people myopic. They can’t see outside their box. But most taxpayers don’t see things the same way as union members. Downsizing to taxpayers is a good thing, so tagging Walker with this label will only strengthen his campaign for governor.
The only way you can hurt him is by focusing on the performance of various county systems. And I’ve seen you do this. In particular, you hammered the parks for months. But you got egg on your face when our county parks won a national gold medal for excellent management.
It’s not looking good for Barrett. He has to battle the tide going against democrats right now. And Doyle’s bad name will deepen the pain.
Aaron,
The union is fully aware of the public’s opinion of them. They are also fully aware of their legal rights under both state and federal law, which Walker has repeatedly violated.
What you are saying about job cuts was real, but seeing the damage that is being done now that the cuts are being done so poorly and w/out forethought and to excessive levels is not playing so well for him.
Your complaints are limited to the transitional custodial team that is currently at the courthouse until MidAmerican resumes control in January. The problem is not privatization. The problem is that union workers didn’t come to work the last few days they had left, and the garbage and bathrooms went neglected.
This was on Friday. The WISN comes in on Friday and takes pictures that the Democrat Party of Wisconsin uses on their website. They are so stupid and deceptive, that they are using the byproduct of labor protest as a criticism of privatization. That’s like blaming the husband because the wife commits adultery.
Also, Custodial companies limit their staffing on the weekends because businesses slow down. So naturally, not much progress was made over the weekend, so when WISN came back on Monday, the courthouse still looked bad (or so we are told). Again, this can be tied to your union brothers, not privatization.
And in terms of it not playing well for them, nobody really knows about the Courthouse janitorial problems. But most people know about what happened in Fondulac earlier this year. The more the union is tied to the courthouse mess, the better Walker will look for privatizing it.
What you say is true, but only if, and that is such a big if that it shouldn’t be relied on, people keep the myopic and tunnel vision that you rely on.
The simple fact is that Walker has a long, long history of continuously cutting services until these sorts of things happen.
The parks with their failing grades and closed bathrooms. The Income Maintenance program getting sued and taken over, raising our taxes. The HOC getting a damning audit. Mental health services becoming a crisis until Walker is embarrassed into fixing it, and even then he needs Barrett’s help.
The list is endless. Walker is simply incompetent. He’s just trying to keep sweeping it under the rug, hoping no one notices the large lumps under there already.
“The parks with their failing grades and closed bathrooms.”
You’re revising history. The Milwaukee County parks have received a national gold medal for management. So your failing grades are incorrect.
Actually, Aaron, this may surprise you (although it won’t surprise anyone else), but you are wrong again:
The park potty appraisal included five other restrooms with flunking grades that won’t be fixed right away because they’re confined to park service areas and one golf course, said Cynthia Archer, director of administrative services.
The “F” bathroom near the 15th tee at Greenfield Golf Course will be repaired or replaced later, she said. That restroom was so bad it was closed.
[...]
Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs lobbied for the bathroom study, saying she had received numerous complaints from the public about the shabby condition of many park restrooms.
There was plenty of room for improvement at dozens of other county park bathrooms in the county review.
The Parks Department rated 32 bathrooms a D grade, 25 got a C, 53 got B grades and 23 got an A.
The bathrooms given an F were deemed to be unfit for public use.
The D bathrooms were judged to be substandard and mostly “unserviceable.”
Chris,
When was this?
September 20, 2008.
BTW, I spoke to one of the parks workers a couple of weeks ago. The bathroom in Greenfield was never fixed.
Chris,
You didn’t answer my question. When did the failing grades take place?
Um, yes I did. I also provided the link to the article. It was in 2008. Last year. Just before the budget process started.
Are you purposely being obtuse or just desperate?
First, I didn’t see the link because your entire text is green.
Second, I would need to know how many employees work on the parks system, how many hours they put in per day, and what their assignments are in order to determine if this is a staffing issue, or based up poor employment practices. As you already know, the janitors over at the courthouse have already proven to have poor employment practices.
Third, let’s assume that the grading system in 2008 is based upon poor staffing (which I’m not willing to grant until it is proven), it is apparent that improvements have been made from 2008 to 2009 on the basis of a national gold medal for park management. That’s not a sign of incompetence, but rather a solid improvement.
And fourth, I would also need to see how other county parks fared next to Milwaukee County in order to understand the reality of parks management.
And finally, I don’t really care what some park person told you about a Greenfield Park. I can tell you that my in-laws like to go to the parks all the time for family gatherings in the summer. And I think that the parks are well maintained. Sure public bathrooms can get a little sloppy. I don’t expect them to look like my bathroom at home. I clean much better than a county worker because I take pride in my work.
A) No excuse, since I had answered your question anyway.
B)No, the fact is that Walker has been cutting the budget and the staff year after year, and now it is getting so bad that he can’t disguise it anymore, just like with the clogged toilet. What you are seeing is Walker’s failure, but you are too myopic or deluded to admit it.
C) No, the video was only selective cuts, mostly from suburban parks where he is willing to spend more money that on the inner city parks. It doesn’t really matter what you accept. To think that this was any sign of improvement show how disingenuous and/or gullible your are.
D) You didn’t need that for the video, why would you need it for anything else. Now you are merely duplicitous.
Having a bathroom closed due to it being a public safety hazard is a lot more than “a little sloppy.”
How would you do with cleaning something that you could not clean by yourself?
Chris,
You skirted two important questions. First, in order to know that Walker has seriously undercut the county parks to dangerously low staffing levels, I would need to know the exact staffing levels and their individual assignments in order to determine if their workload is overbearing. Without these numbers, you and I have no way of knowing where the problem lays.
And second, I would need to know how Milwaukee County fares against other county parks to see if those grades are normative for county parks.
You appear to assume the worst without providing evidence for your conclusions. And furthermore, it is disingenuous to treat the national gold medal that the Milwaukee County Parks System acquired as meaningless. And unless you personally viewed the video, your points are not credible.
And finally, don’t get cocky with me as witnessed at your other blog “Whallah!”. The day you ever beat me in a serious debate on anything (including county issues) will be the day I stop blogging at the Hispanic Conservative.
Post Script, the article on my blog that mentions you, Liebmann and Kilkenny was published in El Conquistador. I thought you might appreciate the plug.
It might take me a few days for the exact number of workers laid off during the Walker regime, but I do believe it is a fairly significant number.
As for the rankings, I don’t understand why I always have to do your research for you, but it is rather easy for someone who does pay attention:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29462939.html
Milwaukee County’s parks system for decades was considered a jewel residents quickly pointed to with pride, but its status has taken a blow with a new national study that ranks it near the bottom of comparable metropolitan systems.
The parks department spends $49 per resident a year on the parks system, compared with the national average of $91. That amount puts Milwaukee in 63rd place out of the 75 largest cities, according to the study by The Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit land conservation organization.
“We do a lot with a little,” said Milwaukee County Parks Director Sue Black.
The study puts Milwaukee County near the cellar in many park statistics, including the number of playgrounds, swimming pools and recreation centers. Milwaukee County ranked in the bottom 10 out of 75 cities in those categories.
It also ranked in the bottom 10 for total number of parks per 10,000 residents, with 1.6, less than half the national average.
As far as you quitting Hispanic Conservative, that is most likely an idle promise and not one anyone would really notice. But since I did it again, I guess I will have to find some copies of El Conquistador to see your work from now on.
Oh, and by the way, of course I saw the video. I’ve also been posting about the terrible conditions of the parks for years, including photos taken by myself and by Gretchen Schuldt.
Chris,
The link and source you copied doesn’t prove much. In sum, it says that Milwaukee County, when compared to other metropolitan areas, offer less parks, pools, and recreation centers. Not surprisingly then, they pay less per resident.
So? This is probably the reason why Milwaukee County ran surpluses year after year while other metropolitan areas of comparable size ran deficits.
The basic difference between our two philosophies is that you like to spend so government can grow and I like to save so the private sector can grow. It just so happens that you are on the wrong side of macro economics with your spending and protectionist philosophies.
Post Script, you don’t have to obtain copies of El Conquistador because they run most of the stuff on my blog. If you haven’t noticed, my preference for topics have changed to suit that paper. In other words, it’s inappropriate just to talk about Walker or go after bloggers such as yourself. I also cover my ass and make sure my stuff isn’t factually incorrect so my editor doesn’t get a headache with compelled retractions.
You see Chris, if you can write well and argue with sound logic, papers will send an inquiry through your blog asking you to write for them as well. El Conquistador wasn’t the only paper asking for my work either. Perhaps you should contact the Shepard Express and see if they will pay you to write for them? There is nothing better than getting paid to do something you already love doing. It will bring a hell of a lot more readers to your stuff as well. I don’t know what sort of volume you get on your CD site, but El Conquistador reaches 13,000 readers a week. Yes, it’s a fairly small audience when compared to papers like MJS or CT, but it’s more than what I get on my blog.
I sure hope that Santa brings you some reading glasses, since the article stated that the number of workers and dollars spent per capita is a lot less. The rest of the article goes on about the growing infrastructure problems the parks, as well as the county in the whole, is facing.
As for spending, I am a humanitarian. I want to make sure needs are met and that no one is suffering needlessly. As for your philosophy, well, let’s just say it is much more self-centered.
Gee, thanks for the tip. I wonder how I ever got published in the BizTimes without you. And after they asked for a post from me and everything.
First, of course the spending will be a lot less per capita because there is less to spend on. To me, it’s more important to see what these comparable metropolitan areas have in terms of budget deficits at the end of their fiscal year.
Second, yes, liberals like to say they’re humanitarian when it comes to spending other people’s money, but when it comes to their own, they are surprisingly “self-centered”. In fact, research has shown that self-described conservatives give more to charity than self-described liberals – even when churches are removed from the charitable giving destinations.
Bottom line is that spending seems good on a micro-level, but is harmful on a macro-level, which shows that conservative ideology is less self-centered than liberal ideology. By keeping government small and efficient, conservatives allow for a greater private sector growth, which energizes the economy, which is beneficial for the nation as a whole.
I’m sorry you think that spending is the answer to every social problem, and in this way, democrats are a one-solution party – tax and spend.
Oh, and I’m glad that the Biz Times has published some of your stuff. But are they paying you for it?
Aaron, what you just participated in was called “rationalization.” You can slice and dice statistics to get them prove almost anything you want them to, but that does not make your argument valid.
When there is the greatest need is not the time to start starving people, literally or figuratively.
And Walker’s “tax savings” are anything but. Stay tuned for that post later on this week, hopefully.
If I don’t have a chance before then, have yourself a Merry Christmas, sir.
Merry Christmas to you too.