Over the holiday weekend, as the public was preoccupied with the Fourth of July festivities and an all-out Republican attack on the state’s open records law, few realized that Milwaukee County was turned into County Executive Chris Abele’s private playground, with him as emperor of all he surveys from his $2.1 million condo at the Moderne.
Abele’s new powers were conferred by 12 Republican members of the Joint Finance Committee (JFC), who approved the final item last Thursday in a catch-all budget amendment loaded with goodies for GOP-friendly special interests.
But as the Shepherd went to press on Tuesday, wispolitics.com reported that a technical amendment to the budget was offered that deleted much of Abele’s temporary new powers, an apparent admission that the Republican JFC went too far in its attempt to boost Abele. The original JFC amendment or the technical amendment dialing back Abele’s powers must pass both houses of the Legislature and be signed by Gov. Scott Walker to be enacted.
[UPDATE: On Tuesday, state senators voted to strip down much of Abele's original request. According to wispolitics.com, the senators voted to give back to the county board the ability to pass policy that conflicts with the authority of the county executive; basic oversight of contracts, procurement, administrative review of appeals, and oversight of the O'Donnell Park site, but not the site of the proposed Couture. A few things: I didn't think the board could pass a policy undercutting the executive's authority anyway, so that point may be moot. And the O'Donnell Park site is a victory for the board, since Abele and the board are at odds on who should be a potential bidder on the site. Abele had no problem offering the site in a no-bid, lowball contract to Northwestern Mutual last year, which the board shot down. The board has moved to give the nonprofit Milwaukee Art Museum a chance to come up with a plan for the site. That's currently underway. The Assembly is scheduled to take up the full state budget on Wednesday afternoon.]
Last week’s JFC-approved budget motion took away from the county board and gave to the county executive power over land sales, leases and transfers, as well as constructing, maintaining and financing county-owned buildings and public works projects; all procurement, contracts, bids and negotiations; and apparently all policy, because the item states that “the county executive’s action shall prevail over the county board’s action to the extent that the county executive’s action and the county board’s action conflict.”
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In essence, the JFC’s budget item was written so broadly that the county board would lose almost all of its oversight of the county’s financial affairs and Abele could sell off county-owned assets without a public hearing or a board vote.
“This was voted on right before the Fourth of July holiday weekend,” Supervisor Theo Lipscomb told the Shepherd. “But it’s exactly what we were celebrating independence from.”
Board Chair Marina Dimitrijevic slammed the JFC’s proposal for dropping “a cloak of secrecy over the sale of county-owned land and contracts worth millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded resources.”
GOP Legislators to Abele’s Rescue
Abele’s office released a statement on Monday afternoon applauding the JFC’s enhancement of his powers, saying it would “positively impact Milwaukee County government.”
The two branches of county government have clashed in recent years, with Abele usually losing when he faces off against the county board but winning in the Republican-controlled Legislature, which has at his urging approved radical changes to county government during Abele’s tenure that has enhanced his power.
At the county, the board has opened up an option, over Abele’s objections, for the Milwaukee Art Museum to take over the O’Donnell Park parking lot. The board rejected Abele’s plans to sell O’Donnell Park to Northwestern Mutual via a no-bid contract, privatize lucrative Milwaukee County Zoo services and offer a contract to a for-profit company to run the Milwaukee County transit system.
While the county may provide opposition to Abele, suburban Republican legislators have given him unprecedented power via state legislation and budget items.
The pending Bucks arena proposal, originally part of the budget but now a stand-alone piece of legislation, allows Abele to sign off on $80 million of bad debt to be used for financing the Bucks arena and our property tax revenue if the bad debt alone is insufficient, as most observers believe it will be, as well as give the county-owned Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, valued for insurance purposes at $77 million, to the state-run Wisconsin Center District. The Milwaukee County board has no say in either one of these matters, according to the legislation.
In addition, Republican state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and state Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield), two JFC leaders, added their plan to allow Abele to take over Milwaukee public schools and privatize them in a New Orleans-style takeover scheme. Abele would be the only county executive in the state to have the power to seize and privatize schools for his own, taxpayer-funded school district run by a hand-picked commissioner.
In earlier sessions, the Republican-controlled Legislature stripped the board of supervisors of much of its power. Act 14, enacted in 2013, slashed most of the board’s power but allowed it to give an up-or-down vote on big contracts. The board’s oversight of contracts is stripped in last week’s budget item. Act 203, passed in 2014, set up an appointed Mental Health Board to oversee the county’s behavioral health services.
Although local media have portrayed last week’s JFC budget amendment as an extension of Act 14, Lipscomb told the Shepherd it’s far more extreme.
“The item repeals Act 14 provisions to grant new powers to the county executive,” Lipscomb said. “I don’t believe anybody should have this power. The legislative branch is not a check on power at all.”
