Open Letter to Milwaukee County Dems

So I suppose I'm going to take heat from friends on both sides for this and maybe I'll even lose work (which I certainly can't afford). But could everyone please just try to take it down one notch?

I've been increasingly troubled by some of the over-the-top and toxic rhetoric flying back and forth between various friends and allies of mine.  I know exactly how divisive this highly controversial Milwaukee County legislation was but none of us are helped by making permanent mortal enemies out of longtime partners and friends.  I just don't see who wins in that scenario besides Republicans...and perhaps that was part of the plan in the first place.

I think I've been fairly clear that I've opposed the legislation to undermine the Milwaukee County Board and I've been vehemently opposed to the manner in which that goal was accomplished.  So I don't have a problem with engaging in an aggressive and sometimes angry battle and debate with friends but it has seemed to go well beyond that point.  Some of the rhetoric has been downright ridiculous and I was hoping it would pass eventually.  But it seems to be migrating from that issue to every other issue now.

The County Board does X and all sorts of personal and absurd allegations and name calling is launched by this group.  Abele, his admin and allies do Y and all manor of venom is cast in their direction.  Again, I'm not saying that we can't vehemently disagree on some very important issues but it seems to be going well past that point. The concern that I'm trying to express here is not really for the entities at the center of this but more for all the genuinely good people caught in between.

I'm certainly not asking everyone to join arms and sing Kumbaya after a heated battle but I'm hoping that we are not doing long-term or permanent damage right now.  There will be a time when many of us will have to team up again in some larger fight.   I'm hoping that we are still capable of doing that after all of this is said and done.  And that is exactly why I'm asking my friends, allies and fellow Milwaukee County Democrats to consider taking some of the rhetoric down one notch while at the same time vigorously standing up for what you believe. I think it really is possible to do both...or am I just being naive?

Releasing Milwaukee County & AB 85 Related Records

In March I posted my first blog item on the proposed legislation to undermine the Milwaukee County Board.  At that time I said that the issue was important enough that it deserved a much closer and fully open examination.  Since that time I've been looking into many aspects of the proposed legislation.  I've tried to identify and document where it was really devised, who exactly is pushing it, how are they pushing it and why.  I'm not sure that I've adequately answered all of those questions to my own satisfaction but I do think that we know a lot more now than we knew then.

During this process I've compiled tens of thousands of pages of county, state and other publicly available documents and pieces of information.  I've also started compiling profile information on some of the key players and special interests that have been pushing this issue the most. So I've decided, in keeping with the spirit of my original blog posting, to fully release all of those documents to anyone and everyone that may be interested in them.  Individuals, organizations, activists, public officials, traditional media, bloggers and anyone else.  This is an important public policy issue with long-term ramifications and the public deserves to know as much as possible about its origin and its potential impact.

CLICK HERE to gain full access to nearly all of my files on this topic.

Since my own research is not yet complete, I will continue to update this public file when I obtain new and relevant information.  When I do update it I might not blog about it but I will try to at least tweet it @cjliebmann.

If you have documents, information or other items that might substantively add to this collection of records, you can contact me at the email address in the column to the right.

Scorched Earth Politics is a Long-Term Loser

Just like many other faithful Democrats, I worked hard to help get Chris Abele elected in 2011.  For my part, I did it because I believed that we really needed a Democrat to clean up the mess that Scott Walker left behind in Milwaukee County.  I knew that Chris Abele would be more conservative than I am in some respects but that is not a deal breaker for me.  In fact I appreciate a practical approach to policy but in my view that is not what Abele and his allies used in their formulation and pushing of AB 85.

If Chris Abele wanted to make such dramatic changes to the very structure of county government, then he really should have clearly and specifically campaigned on it.  However only a few years before he first ran for county executive a poll found that county residents didn't support radical changes to county governmental structure. In fact Chris Abele's Argosy Foundation funded that poll. [Public Policy Forum, August, 2008]

Here is what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported about the poll results at the time:

"Despite a series of budget cuts and other lingering effects of the county pension scandal, most Milwaukee County residents say the county does a good job overall and oppose a radical government restructuring, according to survey results released today". [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/19/2008]

Very late in 2012 was the first time (that I have found) where Abele made a specific public statement regarding his desire to change the actual structure of county government.  The problem is that he planned these actions months (or more) before he ever uttered a word about it publicly.  In fact these plans were already in the works long before the author of the bill, Republican Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, was even elected. To make matters worse, it appears that most of this planning was done behind closed doors either at the elite University Club or in one-on-one meetings with people like GMC President Julia Taylor.

Consider for example the following chain of events which are based on Abele administration records that were obtained via open records request:

• On Monday June 25, 2012 Abele meets with Julia Taylor to discuss topics including "legislative strategy." 
• In an email less than a month later he makes what appears to be his first recorded comments about changing the current government structure.  He talks about various actions by the board that he doesn't like and says that it provides "lots of new material for the narrative re board and the need for change."
• The very next day Abele was scheduled to attend a GMC County Task Force Meeting at the elite University Club. 

There is no indication that any other stakeholders were invited into these private planning sessions about public policy.  Apparently you had to be a GMC member, ally or consultant to give input on the plans that they were devising for the rest of us.  That theme was reinforced when we found out that GMC lobbyists were literally in the room with legislators as they drafted AB 85.  

I don't imagine that this legislation would have gone over well with many people if they would have worked on it in the open but at least you could have had some input and perhaps buy-in from some major stakeholders.  Instead they chose to use a large wallet, a GMC front group, a professional spin machine and an army of lobbyists to ram this legislation through.  Perhaps that is why they could only get 1 solitary Democrat to sign on to the legislation.  Perhaps that is why most Milwaukee-area legislators have aggressively fought it.  Perhaps that is why the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County voted unanimously to oppose this legislation.  It really didn't have to be this way. While you surely wouldn't have brought everyone over to your way of thinking, you could have at least made an effort to convince some. Maybe you could have actually considered other ideas and compromised in some way. But instead of doing any of that, the choice was made to blindside everyone that was not invited to the University Club.

Further evidence of the scorched earth tactics were demonstrated in other ways. For example, when our Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Chris Larson put out a newsletter that was critical of the legislation, Chris Abele had his county communications director send out talking points attacking and undermining him.  Those talking points were sent to Sen. Lena Taylor's Chief of Staff and to a GMC operative who was all too happy to circulate them regardless of the cost to Democrats.  Was that really necessary?

The bottom line is that the tactics that have been used to spring this legislation on Milwaukee County and then to ram it through by brute force has turned many former and potential allies into enemies.  In some cases Chris Abele has burned bridges and I really don't believe that it was ever necessary.  While Abele and GMC might win the fight to ram this legislation through, their scorched earth politics might prove to be a long-term loser.

Lobbyists Wrote AB 85 & I'm Waiting for the MJS Editorial

Earlier this week we found out that the Greater Milwaukee Committee's lobbyists were literally in the room helping write Rep. Joe Sanfelippo's legislation to undermine the Milwaukee County Board (AB 85).  Most people that were paying attention expected as much but Dan Bice's column verified those strong suspicions and provided us with actual documents to prove it.

When I reacted to the news that GMC's lobbyists were in the room helping write the legislation, I compared it to a very similar incident that blew up in 2006.  That was the time that some of the very same players and interests were busy writing secret legislation to by-pass county officials and even county voters.  That legislation involved lifting a very successful Milwaukee County asset and suddenly making it a regional entity. They were plotting and planning for years behind the scenes to accomplish their goal without input from local/county leaders, any real stake holders or even the public.

Fortunately when this secret legislation was made public in 2006 it quickly blew up on the special interests that were behind it.  Even the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board, who (naturally) supported the actual idea, chastised the special interests for their secretive tactics and anti-democratic methods.  Here is a sample of what the MJS Editorial Board said at the time (all emphasis below is mine):

If a college political science class is looking for a classic case of how not to accomplish something worthwhile, the proposal to create a regional airport authority fits the bill to a T. People that should have known better, namely private business interests and state lawmakers, missed the runway by a mile. In drafting the proposal to create the authority, they needlessly burned political bridges and, in effect, thumbed their noses at local democratic representation.

The MJS Editorial Board then agreed with a the statement that the 2006 move was "the most anti-democratic proposal that has come through here in a long time."  They go on to state they they are puzzled at why this legislation would be forged behind the scenes. They then chide the special interests saying that going behind local elected officials backs is a lousy way to try to achieve their goal. They conclude the editorial by saying that although they believe that the idea is worthy of pursuit, they say that next time it should be done, "openly and with all stakeholders represented."

Now that we know that some of the same players and special interests are involved now with planning and writing AB 85, where is the strong editorial from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board? If they were willing to take these same special interests to task over the single issue of a regional airport (one that they actually agreed with) then how can they not comment on the same tactics being used for a much bigger and all encompassing piece of legislation?  AB 85 doesn't just threaten one Milwaukee County asset, it seeks  to overturn our entire system of county government.  Someone besides GMC and their lobbyists should have been invited into the room on a bill with such sweeping ramifications.  And the MJS Editorial Board should show some intestinal fortitude and take the same stand for local democracy that they took back in 2006.

I'll be waiting and I hope it is not in vain.