Results from 29 Sept 2011 Milwaukee County Board meeting

As published by the County. The numbers (e.g. 4-15) are the votes on each item. There are currently 19 supervisors, so you need 10 votes to pass an item.

Also, we received the proposed 2012 budget from County Executive Abele today. We have begun digesting it to find where the cuts and changes will be.

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RESULTS FROM TODAY’S MILWAUKEE COUNTY BOARD MEETING 

• 4-15 to approve (Yes: Borkowski, Cesarz, Rice, Sanfelippo) (motion fails) to reform the role of the County Board of Supervisors and legislative operations beginning in the 2012 term of office.

• 17-1-1 (No: Mayo, Abstain: Sanfelippo) to execute a contract extension with United Healthcare for Third Party Administrative services for Milwaukee County’s medical plan effective January 1, 2012.

• 18-1 (No: Mayo) to express official intent regarding certain capital expenditures to be reimbursed from the proceeds of an obligation.

• 18-1 (No: Biddle) to pay $125,000 to claimants and their attorney in return for mutual releases of all potential claims related to the care given to Ms. Anczak.

• 17-2 (No: Borkowski, Cesarz) to negotiate an agreement to fund an artistic bus shelter with the Bay View Business Improvement District.

• 18-1 (No: Rice) to amend the Development Agreement for Block 26 in the Park East Corridor.

• 18-1 (No: Weishan) to approve an amendment to the Development Agreement for UWM Innovation Park.

• 13-6 (No: Borkowski, Cesarz, Lipscomb, Rice, Sanfelippo, Schmitt) to support a change in State law to increase the age in which a person is eligible to have his/her record of conviction expunged and ensuring expunged criminal records are not released to the general public.

• 10-9 (No: Borkowski, Cesarz, Harris, Johnson, Jursik, Rice, Romo West, Sanfelippo, Schmitt) to approve a resolution providing for an advisory referendum on the plan by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to pay approximately $41.1 million to the City of Franklin for the costs related to building the Ryan Creek Interceptor project.

• 9-10 (No: Borkowski, Cesarz, De Bruin, Harris, Johnson, Jursik, Rice, Romo West, Sanfelippo, Schmitt) to withdraw from Committee (motion fails) a resolution opposing the plan by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to pay approximately $41.1 million to the City of Franklin for the costs related to building the Ryan Creek Interceptor project.

All other items on today’s agenda were approved with no objection.  The complete digest agenda from today’s meeting can be found on the County Legislative Information Center:

http://milwaukeecounty.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

The next meeting of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisor is the public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, October 31, 2011, at the Washington Park Senior Center, 4420 W. Vliet Street in Milwaukee.

The next regular meeting will be Thursday, November 3, 2011, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 200 of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

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Budget season awaits

I took a moment to see how the upcoming county budget season would shape out. I’d known for a while that the new budget will come from County Executive Chris Abele’s office on September 29. And the budget process would end in early November. That was correct, November 7th will be our truly, epically long budget adoption meeting. So, from 9/29 to 11/7, I’ll be a troll—the sort that is rarely seen by the light of day. While I don’t think the budget will turn my skin green nor my teeth into jagged spikes, I don’t anticipate it will be terribly pleasant. But we’ll see.

All I know right now is that we stand to make a 10% reduction the County Transit System, which will put a lot of people out of work, and badly inconvenience many, many more. It will definitely be life-changing for the thousands of people who depend on it.

Our cultural institutions stand to take a hit, too. We the taxpayers own the Milwaukee Public Museum, among others. The county also provides funding for the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Charles Allis Art Museum, and the Milwaukee County War Memorial, all on the lakefront. We own and operate several horticultural institutions as well, most famously the Mitchell Park Domes. And there are the dozens of county-owned (read: public) parks. We’ll find out in short order what’s going to befall them.

So basically the next county budget should make it harder to live a productive, engaging, and quality life here. That’s what you get when you shrink the government. Happy with it? Feel accomplished? Just wait till its effects hit home. Then ask yourself those questions again.

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I will be hosting, co-hosting, or attending a total of five budget listening sessions and town hall meetings. The first two are the transit listening sessions that I am co-hosting with Supervisor Jursik of Cudahy and Kerry Thomas of Transit NOW. They are tomorrow, September 13.

Tuesday, September 13, 4:30 – 5:30 & 6:30 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.
Cudahy Library, Winter Garden Room
3500 Library Drive (accessible from MCTS Route 15)

Next month, I will be co-hosting a third meeting in Bay View with Supervisor Dimitrijevic, and hosting one of my own after that.

Monday October 10: South Shore Park Pavilion, 2900 S. Shore Drive, 6-7PM

Tuesday October 25: Wilson Park Senior Center, 2601 W. Howard Avenue, 6-7PM

Then after that is the big public hearing on the budget. That’s usually at the Washington Park Senior Center.

Monday, October 31, 7:00 P.M.

Got all that?

Then on November 3 is a county board meeting, followed the next week by the ultra-marathon budget adoption meeting on November 7. We will have a meeting on Wednesday, November 16 to consider any budget vetoes that the county executive has made. They will be voted up or down, or really, supported or overridden.

With that, the budget will be done. It takes effect January 1, 2012. And then we’ll see how it looks form there.

Mass transit meeting tomorrow 9/13 in Cudahy

My colleague Supervisor Pat Jursik and I will be hosting a pair of major South Side Community Meetings on the future of the MCTS transit system. We are facing major cuts to MCTS, so we need to hear from folks who depend on it, or know people that do.

Here are the details via our press release.
SOUTH SIDE/SOUTH SUBURBAN SUPERVISORS TO HOST COMMUNITY MEETINGS ON MASS TRANSIT

State cuts mean difficult decisions are ahead for policymakers in Milwaukee County

Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee County Supervisors Patricia Jursik and Jason Haas will participate in two community meetings regarding the Milwaukee County Transit System.

“We are mobilizing to educate the public about the State’s draconian cuts to mass transit in Milwaukee County,” Supervisor Jursik said. “Transit means jobs. The economy is struggling to recover and people are out of work. A severe cut to the largest transit system in Wisconsin is the last thing the State should have done.”

“Because of these State cuts, the Milwaukee County Transit System has been forced to include major cuts in its budget request to County Executive Chris Abele,” Supervisor Haas said. “This community meeting aims to describe how these potential cuts could impact access to jobs and businesses on the South Side.”

Both Supervisors will be joined by representatives from the Milwaukee County Transit System and Transit Now.

Tuesday, September 13, 4:30 – 5:30 & 6:30 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.
Cudahy Library, Winter Garden Room
3500 Library Drive (accessible from MCTS Route 15)

The sessions are sponsored by the Gateway to Milwaukee, the South Suburban Chamber of Commerce, and Transit Now and co-sponsored by the Milwaukee Aging Consortium

The busy life of a full-time sup

Working in and about on this beautiful September day showed me a few times why I love living here in Milwaukee. Something about the air in this month, perhaps the angle that the sun is at as its light passes through the sky. It’s autumn, and i love it.

Working with community groups has been one of the most pleasurable parts of my job. Airport Gardens Neighborhood Association (AGNA) has been a great group to work with. This group has been very interested in working with me to improve the neighborhood, which is our shared interest.

I now have two neighborhoods interested in starting “Friends of [so and so] Park,” and found some great improvements we can make at the Easter Seals building in Holler Park, among other great ideas we had for that park. (Know any Eagle Scouts interested in a cool project involving a solar water heater?)

Tonight was the Airport Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting, at which I had the pleasure of having my one-year-old son with me. People like having a cute baby around, so long as the babe doesn’t make too much noise. And when they do, that’s when we leave.

Revival

So, it’s been a while. How ya been?

I’ve been madly busy with my job as a county supervisor. Generally speaking, it’s been some of the most fulfilling work I’ve had the pleasure of doing. A large part of my job is helping people get things done. Naturally most of that falls on the county level, but I’ve found my influence can carry well beyond that simple confine. And when it does reach beyond is when things tend to get the most interesting.

But even things within the county level often keep my calendar full. It’s not uncommon for me to have four or five work-related events within the day, each one at a different location somewhere around Milwaukee County. That’s not counting the time that I take to return phone calls or research an issue that I’m working on.

While most of what I do will never make headlines, it’s these little things that yield the greatest satisfaction for me. I have helped pass some significant legislation in my four months on the board. And I’ve also gotten graffiti removed and a broken slide replaced at a county park playground, and helped create a new community garden on county-owned land. To me, the latter two are examples of things that will directly and very quickly improve the quality of life for a lot of people.

You might have heard me on Radio Milwaukee’s Neighborhood Project, in which I said that being a county supervisor is what you want it to be. And to me, it is. I’ve been devoting a great many hours per day to my job, attending neighborhood meetings, touring county facilities, and exploring the county’s services. They are very deeply woven into our society. I want to help improve them, which is why I ran for office in the first place.

What? Improve society? Whatever. Hippie crap. 

The reason I’m doing this is to make sure that we can continue to have great events like Chill on the Hill, which brings a couple thousand people to Humboldt Park each Tuesday night in the summer.

Some things are new and unexpected, or at least had been unknown to me. Take, for example, that on Parks Committee, I voted for the Zablocki Park Pavilion (3717 W. Howard Avenue) to be leased to the Philippine Cultural and Civic Center Foundation. That group will use the pavilion as its new cultural center, and will take up the remodeling and upkeep of the pavilion. That means a good space will be maintained and remain open to the public at no cost to the taxpayer.

Sometimes I have to respond to things that make headlines.  I was at home the night that a U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber took off from Mitchell International Airport on August 11, 2011. As it took off with its afterburners engaged, it made a noise greater than a banshee being torn in half as it tried to slip loose from the underworld! Everything in the neighborhoods around the airport was shaking and quaking. My young son, who had been laying on his back and playing, sat straight up with a mild look of terror on his face. What on earth was that noise?

People called and emailed my office to ask what it was, and they called the airport noise complaint line in droves.

In those sorts of instances, folks appreciate hearing from someone who can tell them what was going on. And they really appreciate knowing when something will end, or if it will happen again. We’ve had a lot of issues with airport noise due to the reconstruction of the runways. Again, I can tell people what’s going on, what to expect, and how long it will go on. They really appreciate that, and I am grateful to have helped make it happen.

So, yeah. That’s my job. At least part of it. And most of the time, it’s a lot of what I want it to be.