Milwaukee County 2012 budget hearings, Day 7 (10/24/2011)

The amount of activity on the county board appears to increase in direct proportion to the proximity of any meeting, and even more so as budget passage nears. Things are really picking up now, and we have about two weeks before our final budget-passing marathon meeting.

Here’s what the finance committee looked at today:

Milwaukee County Transit/Paratransit System
• Amendment approved 6-0 to conduct an audit of the Milwaukee County Paratransit program to focus on fraud prevention and quality of service issues as well as any other concerns identified in the courthouse of the audit.
[Over a dozen fraudsters were nabbed the last time this was performed!
• Amendment approved 5-1 (No: Schmitt) to increase Paratransit fares by $0.75 rather than the $1.25 recommended by the County Executive.
• Amendment approved 4-2 (No: Mayo, Schmitt) to have the Office of the Sheriff administer the current contract with G4S Wackenhut for security on transit buses and the $920,000 appropriation for these services is budgeted in the Office of the Sheriff. The Sheriff is requested to manage transit security services and recommend changes to improve effectiveness.
• Amendment approved 6-0 to include, beginning in June 2012, driver safety shield installation on all new Milwaukee County Transit System bus purchase specifications. Milwaukee County shall seek grant funding for the installation of safety shields for existing transit fleet vehicles. [Emphasis added.]
• Amendment approved 5-1 (No: Thomas) to continue a pilot program for designated stroller areas on transit buses. Additionally, MCTS will work with the Office of the Sheriff to enforce Chapter 63, in that no non-service animals or specified weapons are allowed on any transit fleet vehicles in order to maximize passenger/driver safety.

DAS – Facilities Management
• Amendment approved 6-0 to work with the Department of Audit to develop a method of collecting data on racial and gender breakdowns of all contractor employees working on Milwaukee County construction or maintenance projects.
• Amendment approved 3-2 (No: De Bruin, Schmitt) to employ County security employees at secure designated security facilities, with the cost partially offset with the elimination of the current security contract.
• Amendment approved 5-0 (Excused: Mayo) to eliminate the contribution to the debt service reserve, conduct a countywide comprehensive facilities plan, and increase the Appropriation for Contingencies.

Federated Library System
• Amendment approved 4-2 (No: Schmitt, Thomas) to restore the County’s 2012 tax levy contribution of $66,650 to the Federated Library System. [An increase of some $9,000 on the tax levy.]

Parks
• Amendment approved 6-0 to form a Workgroup to enter into discussions with the Hunger Task Force on the specifics of a lease arrangement that is beneficial to both parties. The proposed lease shall address all components of operating the farm and fish hatchery including, but not limited to, staffing, land utilization, commodity distribution and building maintenance and repair. [I co-sponsored this amendment.]
• Amendment approved 5-1 (No: Thomas) to increase seasonal parks staff hours from 366,683 to 411,446. [I'll check on the tax levy implications of this.]
• Amendment approved 4-2 (No: Schmitt, Thomas) to deny the abolishment of 15 FTE Park Maintenance Worker in Charge positions and create 15 FTE Parks/Highway Maintenance Workers.

• • •

Tomorrow’s budget hearing will be on the county sheriff’s office and the  Behavioral Health Division. Also, I have my budget town hall at the Wilson Park Senior Center that night at 6:00.

Wednesday’s meeting is on Employee Fringe Benefits (which are often now worse than those at a private employer), Land Sales, and the Dept. of Administrative Services.

Thursday’s hearing will be for discussion of Finance and Audit Committee’s amendments and recommended tax levy, State Exempt Computer Aid, if necessary, and the Property Taxes Budget, as Amended.

Monday October 31 is the county board public hearing on the County Executive’s 2012 Recommended Budget. At this meeting, the public does all the speaking, and we listen. This will be at the Washington Park Senior Center, 4420 West Vliet Street.

The final Committee on Finance and Audit Budget Hearing will be on Wednesday, November 2, 2011, at 9:30 a.m.

Here’s the remaining 2012 budget schedule (PDF).

We meet on Monday, November 7 to hammer out the final version, and hopefully pass it before the day turns into night and the night into day. But even then, it’s not over! We meet again on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. for possible veto overrides. I guarantee you Abele is going to try to keep the budget as flat as Walker. We’ll see how it all turns out.

Milwaukee County 2012 budget hearings, Day 6 (10/17/2011)

I took really extensive notes and participated in today’s session. So you might think that i’d have more typed up right now… but I took the notes the old-fashioned way—pen and paper. I’ll go off memory for the more interesting stuff.

COUNTY BOARD 2012 BUDGET BLAST: OCTOBER 17, 2011

Milwaukee, WI – The Milwaukee County Board’s Finance & Audit Committee is holding a series of public meetings throughout October on the

County Executive’s 2012 Recommended Budget

Each day, the Committee reviews a number of specific departments and items in the budget. Today, the Committee reviewed the following budgets:

• Milwaukee County Transit/Paratransit System – Amendment approved 5-1 (No: Thomas) to increase the commuter value pass premiums by $6 per quarter

This would raise the cost to $201, if I am not mistaken.There was questioning of why the most dedicated riders would be stuck with the sole cost increase. Also, many paratransit riders and their advocates came to talk about how difficult a steep increase in the paratransit fare would be for them.

• Civil Air Patrol

• DOT – Airport

• DOT – Highway Division

• DOT – Transportation Services

• DOT – Fleet Management

• DOT – Director’s Office

• DAS – Facilities Management

I believe the county security guards fell under this segment. They are slated to be replaced by contracted security guars from Wackenhut Services. I made a request for information on the turnover rate of Wackenhut employees working in County facilities. There is a small chance that these jobs will not be privatized. But if we don’t do that, where would the projected $100,000 savings come from? As Supervisor Romo West noted, it seems that privatizations save money in the first year, but cost more in the second year and thereafter. I do want to see more than anecdotal evidence of this, and at the same time, I do not support the privatization of these or other jobs.

• DAS – Architectural, Engineering and Environmental Services

• DAS – Water Utility

The Committee will continue its review of budgets and consideration of amendments throughout October in Room 203-R of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

Click here to access the 2012 budget meeting schedule

Click here to listen to live audio from the meetings

(available while meetings are in progress)

Click here to access the Budget Overview presented by County Board Staff

The County Board of Supervisors, under the leadership of Chairman Lee Holloway, will adopt the 2012 Budget on Monday, November 7 at 8:30 a.m. in Room 200 of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

The County Board’s annual Public Hearing on the 2012 Budget is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Monday, October 31 at the Washington Park Senior Center, located at 4420 W. Vliet Street in Milwaukee.

###

 

South Side meeting to discuss changes to MCTS Route 15

Let me quote the presse release:

Milwaukee County
Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic, 4th District
Supervisor Patricia Jursik, 8th District
Supervisor Jason Haas, 14th District

For Immediate Release October 17, 2011
Contact: Harold Mester, Public Information Manager
414/278-4051 or harold.mester@milwcnty.com

SUPERVISORS TO HOST INFORMATIONAL MEETING
ON PROPOSED EXPRESS BUS SERVICE

Express Route 15 proposed for south side, south shore and airport area

Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee County Supervisors Marina Dimitrijevic, Patricia Jursik and Jason Haas will host an information session regarding the changes to Route 15 and the proposed express bus service included in the County Executive’s 2012 Recommended Budget.

The proposed Express Route 15 would impact Milwaukee’s south side, other south shore communities, and General Mitchell International Airport. The proposal also includes changes to the current Route 15.

In addition to the Supervisors, representatives from the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) will be on hand to present detailed information and answer questions from the public.

Supervisors Marina Dimitrijevic, Patricia Jursik and Jason Haas

Information session on Route 15/proposed express bus service
Monday, October 24, 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Bay View Library (accessible from MCTS Route 15)
2566 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue, Milwaukee

###

Route 15 is important to me. I ride the bus, along with tens of thousands of people. I want to make sure that they can continue to use it.

Milwaukee County 2012 budget hearings, Day 5

We made it through the first week of budget hearings, and we’re all standing. That’s a good sign.

This post has a lot of juicy tidbits if you’re interested in how an elected governing body carries out its duty to determine its own future course. In particular, check out the stuff about the corporation counsel and VISIT Milwaukee/DAS.

The first week of the budget haerings been an exhausting process, but nothing  shows you how a government works like sitting through and participating in the crafting of its budget. It tells you a lot about who does what, and how things work—or the opposites of those.

Here’s all the matters that were covered today. I was only present for part of the meeting. My notes are in [brackets.] Otherwise the list is as prepared by board spokesman Harold Mester. Minutes are available through the Milwaukee County Legistar system as well.

• • •

• DAS – Risk Management
• DAS – Administration and Fiscal Affairs
• DAS – Procurement Division
• DAS – Information Management Services Division
• Land Sales

[Several supervisors had questions on this topic. I asked about if a revolving loan fund had ever existed, and if a similar fund was set up for the Men of Color Task Force. As I understood it, nothing had been set up for that task force.]

• Corporation Counsel

[A very interesting discussion emerged from this when Finance Committee Chairman Johnny Thomas stated that a new policy detailing how supervisors could make requests of corporation counsel, who is the County's primary lawyer. As described, a request for an opinion would need to come through either the chair (of the wholy board? or of a committee?), of a committee, or from the Body of the Whole, which is a meeting of the full Board of Supervisors. Thus under this provision, individual supervisors  would either be not allowed to, or at very least strongly discouraged, from asking for a written legal opinion from the corporate counsel.

[There was confusion among the committee as to the existence of a policy on this. Assistant corporation counsel Jeff Grady said that a policy had been in place for several decades indicating something to this effect. I had not heard of it, and two of the longest-serving members of the board who were also present at that meeting had no recollection øf such policy either.

[Supervisor Jursik, who is the only lawyer serving as a county supervisor, made very strong points about the possible effects of barring individual supervisors from soliciting an opinion from the body's own legal counsel. I also asked a few questions about the origin of this statement as well. Several other supervisors asked questions about the nature of the policy. The general consensus was that if a policy on making requests of corporate counsel was to be made, it would need to come out in the light of day and very carefully thought through.]

• Litigation Reserve Account
• DAS – Office for Persons with Disabilities
• Civil Service Commission
• Human Resources Division/Labor Relations/Personnel Review Board/Ethics Board – Amendment approved 6-0 to deny the proposed consolidation of Labor Relations, the Personnel Review Board and the Ethics Board within the Department of Human Resources

[I was not present for this, but I do support the measure.]

• DAS – Employee Benefits Division
• DAS – Economic Development (New Department)
• VISIT Milwaukee

[This department would be absorbed into a larger and more powerful DAS (Department of Administrative Services) under the Abele's proposed budget. Questions were asked about the veiled nature of its funding, which was not listed as a line item under the new DAS.]

• Milwaukee County Automated Land Information System
• County Clerk
• Register of Deeds

• Committee voted 6-0 to approve the 2012 Special Charge for Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC)

[Supervisor De Bruin was once livid at SEWRPC for presenting the County Board' vote against endorsing the expansion of I-94 as a vote in support of the expansion. The description of this process caused several people in the room to become slack-jawed. That said, Supervisor De Bruin moved to approve the issuance of the slightly reduced county funding for SEWRPC.]

The Committee will continue its review of budgets and consideration of amendments throughout October in Room 203-R of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

The Committee will continue its review of budgets and consideration of amendments throughout October in Room 203-R of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

Click here to access the 2012 budget meeting schedule
Click here to listen to live audio from the meetings  (available while meetings are in progress)
Click here to access the Budget Overview presented by County Board Staff.

The County Board of Supervisors, under the leadership of Chairman Lee Holloway, will adopt the 2012 Budget on Monday, November 7 at 8:30 a.m. in Room 200 of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

The County Board’s annual Public Hearing on the 2012 Budget is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Monday, October 31 at the Washington Park Senior Center, located at 4420 W. Vliet Street in Milwaukee.

###

Milwaukee County 2012 budget hearings, Day 4

Here is the customary summary from Board spokesman Harold Mester. My comments are in [brackets]. I’ll add my notes in detail later. (Done.)

COUNTY BOARD 2012 BUDGET BLAST: OCTOBER 13, 2011

Milwaukee, WI – The Milwaukee County Board’s Finance & Audit Committee is holding a series of public meetings throughout October on the County Executive’s 2012 Recommended Budget. Each day, the Committee reviews a number of specific departments and items in the budget.

Today, the Committee reviewed the following budgets:

• DHHS – Behavioral Health Division – Amendment approved 6-0 to keep any BHD savings within the BHD budget, rather than reprogramming for other community initiatives. Amendments on paramedics funding were laid over until a future meeting.

[This summary betrays the length of the discussion on this item, which was a lengthy discussion and debate. I noted that Supervisor de Bruin spoke in favor of moving mental health services from the sheriff's control to BHD (Behavioral Health Division), which actually treats mental illnesses. As the supervisor noted, mental health is not the jail's purvey.]

[I noted that budget item 6300 - Department of Health and Human Services - Behavioral Health Division contains "Realign Detox Funding," which proposes to move detox from a "medial" operation to a "social model," and would "utilize a nationally recognized patient placement model for care." Supervisors de Bruin and Romo West both spoke very highly of this approach.]

• Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) – Amendment approved 6-0 to increase Potawatomi revenue to match the City of Milwaukee and allocate $100,000 in Potawatomi Revenue (rather than tax levy) to the Safe Alternatives for Youth program and restore budget narrative for the Safe Alternatives for Youth program to the Department of Health & Human Services-Delinquency and Court Services Division budget.

[Supervisor Romo West had an amendment on this item, but withdrew it.]

• Department on Aging – Amendment approved 6-0 to abolish one Accountant 1 instead of one Accountant 3.

• Department on Family Care

The Committee will continue its review of budgets and consideration of amendments throughout October in Room 203-R of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

The County Board of Supervisors, under the leadership of Chairman Lee Holloway, will adopt the 2012 Budget on Monday, November 7 at 8:30 a.m. in Room 200 of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

Click here to access the 2012 budget meeting schedule
Click here to listen to live audio from the meetings(available while meetings are in progress)
Click here to access the Budget Overview presented by County Board Staff 

The County Board’s annual Public Hearing on the 2012 Budget is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Monday, October 31 at the Washington Park Senior Center, located at 4420 W. Vliet Street in Milwaukee.

###

Milwaukee County 2012 budget hearings, Day 3

Today, the Committee reviewed the following budgets:

• County Board
• County Board – Department of Audit
• County Board – Office of Community Business Development Partners
• County Executive – General Office
• County Executive – Veterans Service Office
• District Attorney
• Department of Child Support Services
• Medical Examiner – Amendment approved 5-0 (Excused: Thomas) to increase professional Services contracting for forensic lab oversight by $15,000 to $90,000, offset by a revenue increase of $15,000 in medical service fees
• Combined Court Related Operations – Amendment approved 4-2 (No: De Bruin, Thomas) to deny the transfer of the Courts’ Human Resources Manager to the Department of Human Resources
• Courts-Pre-Trial Services
• Sheriff

I may add my notes on today’s meeting later. I’ve got a lot of other work to do yet tonight.

Milwaukee County 2012 budget hearings Day 2

The second day of the budget hearings came and went today. In addition to the six members of the Finance Committee — please note that there are exactly six members — I was joined by Supervisor Pat Jursik, herself a Finance Committee member until Chairman Lee Holloway kicked her off the committee for some reason. No one has been appointed to take her place. Jursik has acted as a shadow cabinet, advising the committee on matters, often providing a valuable insight into the probable legality of the item currently being debated. The importance of this will reveal itself in my notes on the day’s action.

The following notes came from the County Board’s spokesman Harold Mester. My additions are in [brackets.]

Today, the Committee reviewed the following budgets:

• Federated Library System
• County Historical Society
• War Memorial Center

[This item generated a lot of discussion. The War Memorial Corporation provides a large amount of funding to the Milwaukee Art Museum, and their relationship is not totally clear to me at this time. We'll hear more about this. Also: Supervisor John Weishan, Jr., introduced a motion to reduce direct funding of the Milwaukee Art Museum from $212,500 to $100,000, with the difference of $112,500 to be retained by the War Memorial Center for general operations. The amendment was laid over.]

• Charles Allis/Villa Terrace Museums
• Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

[All of the above entities are slated to get a 15% budget cut.]

• Milwaukee County Funds for the Arts (CAMPAC) – Amendment approved 6-0 to restore 85% of the funds that had been cut by the County Executive

[In a very surprising move, the County Executive had zeroed out funding for CAMPAC, which provides funding for almost 40 arts groups in the County. The amendment was by Supervisor Broderick. Supervisor Jurisk and I co-sponsored it. It would draw $321,035 from the tax levy, which is a 15% decrease from the 2011 funding of $321,035.]
• University Extension Service

[Their budget allotment is unchanged from 2011.]

• Milwaukee Public Museum

[Their budget allotment is unchanged from 2011.]

• Zoological Department

[We'll hear more about the Zoo later in the budget process.]

• Parks Department – Amendment approved 6-0 to provide $50,000 for parks cultural events programming which had previously been budgeted in the CAMPAC budget

[This amendment was by Supervisor De Bruin. It passed unanimously.]

I find it curious that this is the only amendment that is listed. There was another amendment, which I’ll get to in a moment, for this is a perfect time to talk about funding for the Milwaukee County Park System.

Most of the attention on this budget has gone to the proposed cuts to the office of the sheriff. What is getting little to no attention at all is the proposed $3,472,462 cut to the County Parks System. Look at that again: three million, four-hundred and seventy-two thousand, four-hundred and sixty-two dollars. That’s a big number, and it translates to job cuts for seasonal park workers. As someone testified during the meeting, these “seasonal” workers actually work for ten months of the year with the understanding that they will be laid off and then rehired a month later. These are the people that do much of the basic maintenance services for the parks, such as lawn cutting and litter pickup. As it’s proposed, their hours would be significantly reduced. Think your neighborhood park is in bad shape now? Well, if this budget passed as is, it would get a lot worse.

Now, remember that other amendment? Amendment 1A 003, for Org Unit No. 9000, Parks, Recreation and Culture, by Supervisor Broderick. The amendement would have increased staff hours from 366,683 to 456,123. This was in direct response to this passage within the proposed budget, on page 9000 – 5, wherein is stated, “The 2011 Adopted Budget included a request for 456,123 seasonal work hours. The 2012 Budget reduces the seasonal staff by 43.0 FTE [full time employees; emphasis added] reducing the number of seasonal hours available to 366,683 or near average. This results in a total savings of $999,010.”

Supervisor Mayo attempted to lay this amendment over, citing the need to see how the whole budget would look the Parks staff levels. A motion to layover takes precedent, so after a short debate, the vote was taken: three ayes, three noes. In the county board, a tied vote equals a failed vote, so the motion failed.

Immediately following that was a move to approve. Care to guess how that went?  Three ayes, three noes. The motion failed.

This dysfunction is a result of there only being six supervisors on the finance committee instead of the required seven.

• • •

Supervisor Romo West introduced a budget amendment that would grant “complete oversight the farm and fish hatchery” down in Franklin to the Hunger Task Force.

Here are some relevant passages from the proposed budget about the county farm and fish hatchery:

Page 9000 – 3: “The Hunger Task Force is the lessee on the property that plants and harvests fruits and vegetables for its Stock Box Program. The Parks Fish Hatchery Specialist raises fish to stock the ponds and lagoons throughout the parks. Over 40,000 fish are stocked each year [throughout the County Parks System] and this coincides with several free fishing clinics for Children.” [Emphasis added.]

Page 9000 – 5: “The 2012 Budget begins the transition for the closure of the Fish Hatchery. [Emphasis added.] The fish that are harvested remain at the Fish Hatchery for 3 years prior to being released into the County ponds and lagoons. In 2012, after the ponds and lagoons are stocked in spring, no additional fish will be added to the Fish Hatchery. The full closure would not occur until all fish currently at the Hatchery are released in the spring of 2014. There are no anticipated savings in 2012. After full closure of the facility in 2014 the County would begin to see annual tax levy savings of approximately $150,000. [...] The Parks Department is authorized and directed to seek out potential entities that would be interested in assuming full responsibility for the Fish Hatchery operations from the County prior to the closure in 2014.”

Supervisor Romo West’s budget amendment would grant all operation and maintenance of the fish farm to Hunger Task Force. After Supervisor Jursik raised some fair points about the possible ramifications of handing over an asset for the long term (HTF would run the operation for 25 years), Supervisor Romo West made a motion to lay over the amendment. The motion passed 6-0.

Lotta stuff got done. Frustratingly, some didn’t. I’m glad that we passed the funding for CAMPAC, but it will remain to be seen how that plays ouf in the final budget and vetoes.

Tomorrow we will be working on the sheriff’s budget. Should be interesting!

Day 1 of Milwaukee County 2012 budget hearings

Today was the first meeting on the 2012 budget by the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Finance & Audit Committee. This intrepid group of seven six county supervisors, more commonly referred to as the Finance Committee, or just “Finance,” is entrusted with leading us through the dissection of the proposed 2012 county budget. If you don’t want to read through the whole, check out the excellent Budget Overview that was written by the County Board Staff.

I have to say that this budget is better than Walker’s budgets, in that there aren’t tricks being played, such as including a $9 million land sale—a sale that has not actually happened, and whose chances are slim to none. But the figure from this “sale” would be used to help balance the budget. The immediate problem with doing that is when the fictitious capital from the hypothetical land sale is removed from the budget, that left a nine million dollar hole in the budget. And the supervisors would have to figure out where the money to fill the hole would come from.

That was what Scott Walker did in many of his budgets.  (What ever happened to that Walker kid, anyway? Do you recall?*)

Anyway.

County Executive Chris Abele is betting the house on a big federal grant coming in to save transit for the next two or three years. I hope we get it, as I don’t want to lose bus service to the extent that the state has striven forced on us. We probably won’t know if we’ve gotten the grant until much later this month.

So then, in today’s session, we went through the following items:

• Human Resource and Payroll System
• State Shared Taxes
• County Sales Tax Revenue
• Power Plant Revenue
• Surplus (or Deficit) from Prior Year
• Offset to Internal Service Charges
• Charges to Other County Organization Units
• Potawatomi Revenue
• Appropriation for Contingencies
• Capital Outlay/Depreciation Contra
• General County Debt Issue
• Debt Issue Expense
• County Treasurer
• Earnings on Investments
• Unclaimed Money
• Other Miscellaneous Revenue
• Investment Advisory Services
• Election Commission

Pretty good for one session’s work.

If you’re curious and want to attend, the Committee meetings are in Room 203-R of the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Here’s the meeting schedule.

If you’re not able to attend, you can listen to the meetings as they are in session.

I made it through the first day fairly unscathed. Here’s to the next one!

Consensus on the Occupy Wall Street reflects my earlier point

It’s nice to be right. It’s pleasant to see agreement with your thoughts. However you want to say it. Vice Presidenet Biden has said as well that the OWS people have something in common with the tea party people. He’s a man who speaks his mind if there ever was one—almost an Eyon Biddle.

Here’s another thing about the OWS/TP comparison. Nobody has really been able to say one fixed, certain thing the tea party movement is about, beyond a shrill cry of “smaller government!” Similarly, the Occupy Wall Street movement has many different rallying cries, albeit for the roughly common purpose of opposing massive corporate greed. That’s why the comparison is apt.

Never mind that the spokesmen for the tea partiers think the OWS is a tangle of disorganized, incoherent anarchists. (The latter they are certainly not.) So we rely on Jon Stewart to bring it home with a smack to the head of those who say it’s right for some but wrong for others to do virtually the same thing.

And now, back to the budget for me.

Protests spreading across the United States

I know you don’t come here for breaking news. So it’s no news that protests against the rampant corporate greed that has been spreading quickly around the country. Even as it starts to get crazy in New York City.

When I heard of this a few weeks ago, I wondered if this was something like what had stirred up the tea party people, or at least something similar to it. While the Occupy Wall Street folks were saying very different lines than the tea party folks, there seems to be something common at the root of their protests. Both seemed to be upset about the state of the nation, and the way things had been allowed to fester and degrade. That said, I think a message of “gov’t bad,” this new protest is going after the forces that are storing up huge piles of cash, money which could go to infrastructure, or education. It’s money that could be used for nation building—our nation.

On Saturday, the protest will officially come to Milwaukee. Though it’s been here since the moment it started and was publicized via the shortwave zine that we call the Internet.

I don’t know where this movement will go. But it will sure be interesting to be in on the ground level of it on Saturday. Saturday, October 15, from 10:30am to 3:00pm at “Ziedler-Union Square,” 301 W. Michigan Ave.

I think Frank would approve.