Mayor Barrett Charges Full Steam Ahead - as a Hypocrite

Mayor Tom Barrett is one politician who cannot let federal money go unspent, and is intent on spending it for his Street Car – rail project. Insisting that Milwaukee cannot remain competitive without streetcars (or rail), Barrett has plowed forward to get his downtown rail project going before opposition can stop it. One potential stumbling block in Barrett’s plan is the Public Service Commission, which will make a final decision on who should pay for tens of millions of dollars in utility infrastructure and relocation costs. The City of Milwaukee has argued that as a public works project, it would benefit the “public’s health, safety and welfare”, and thus state utility customers should pony up. Two of the three PSC commissioners have tentatively sided with Mayor Barrett, meaning the utility’s customers would be on the hook for Milwaukee’s infrastructure costs.

The Mayor has blasted the third commissioner, Ellen Nowak, for not recusing herself from the decision. Barrett argues that Nowak was once a business associate of one of the rail project’s opponents, and therefore should not participate in the decision. What Barrett is hiding is his close affiliation with one of the other PSC commissioners, Eric Callisto. Callisto has offered support for Barrett’s trolley line, and the argument to have state rate-payers cover the costs of the utility relocation. According to a Media Trackers expose this week, Callisto is a strong advocate and donor to Mayor Barrett, and even spoke at a fundraiser during Barrett’s run for Governor in 2010 urging people to donate to Barrett. Campaign records show he gave political donations exclusively to Democrats, with the vast majority going directly to Tom Barrett.

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Milwaukee County DA Drops the Ball

Once again, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm is in the news, and justice is not being served.

A long simmering story broke wide open Monday, when Milwaukee County Chief Judge Jeffrey Kremers refused a petition from Sheriff David Clarke to have a criminal complaint issued against Timothy Demeuse. The Sheriff was invoking statute 968.02, which is used to ask a judge to intervene when a prosecutor won’t do his/her job.

Back in February, Timothy Demeuse had posted a death threat against Vicki McKenna, a popular radio talk show host. Demeuse’s threat went well beyond subtlety, as the following excerpt details:

“I’m going to kill Vicki McKenna; come and get me coppers, because there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. Here’s the real f***ing death threat bitch. Come get me.  I don’t even own a gun. I can make as many death threats as I want, and I hope someone kills you. I’m going to shoot you in the face and rape your dead corpse. I love this country and hate its citizens…” This was accompanied by even more profanity and ranting that got much worse.

When McKenna saw the posting, she obviously became alarmed.   Immediately, she made the comparison to Gerald Laughner in Arizona, whose internet ranting was followed by the shooting of 13 people – including US Representative Gabrielle Giffords. She contacted Sheriff Clarke to ask what to do, since Demeuse was from the Milwaukee area. Sheriff Clarke had detectives pursue the matter and referred the case to the DA’s office for prosecution.

Assistant DA Jeff Altenburg refused to prosecute Demeuse under criminal statutes, recommending only a municipal citation for disorderly conduct. He told McKenna that he had no intention of prosecuting Demeuse for this offense. According to McKenna, Altenburg acted as a defacto defense attorney, saying Demeuse was real sorry and that his friends didn’t feel he was a threat. He also offered for McKenna to sit down with Demeuse so that he could apologize.

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Supervisor Dimitrijevic violating campaign finance laws

Milwaukee - March 6 2012    A Milwaukee County resident has filed three verified affidavits of complaint with the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, alleging Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic and her committees; Citizen’s for Marina Dimitrijevic and Next Generation Milwaukee PAC have violated over six separate campaign finance laws.  Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic, through her committees failed to file at least three required reports, has filed a report containing false and misleading information, and has been illegally coordinating campaign activities between Citizen’s for Marina Dimitrijevic and Next Generation Milwaukee PAC since December 2010.



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Abele Follows Walker's Lead

By: Brian Sikma

The realities of governing do at times override the rhetoric of the campaign trail. Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele must be reflecting on that fact as this week he made further preparations to confront the massive deficit looming over his county’s budget. Having pledged to not raise taxes – and signaling his unwillingness to increase fees – the tools now left at Abele’s disposal involve some of the very things he railed against during the campaign.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on July 21 that Abele will be looking to greater employee pension and health care contributions as part of the solution to a $4.4 million budget deficit. Also targeted as ways to close the fiscal gap are sick time and accumulated vacation payouts. Previously, unused sick and vacation time could be accumulated by an employee and then “cashed in” at a future date or upon retirement from county employment. A County Board committee moved to slash pension contributions from the county by 20% for members of the largest union representing county workers. Airport firefighters and county sheriff’s deputies are also going to be required to up personal contributions to their health insurance plans.
All these reforms make sense because for some time now county government employees have had compensation packages that were quite superior to what many equally qualified non-government employees had in the private sector.

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