Walker's Cronyism Costing County

by capper

Several weeks ago, I questioned Walker's move to place a crony from his campaign to a public liaison position in his administration. It was the third time that Walker's hired this guy, Tim Russell, to his administration, between his campaigns for governor county executive, governor, and governor county executive again.

A frequent commenter, Andy, argued that perhaps, Mr. Russell was suited for his position, as well as the other two jobs he filled in Walker's administration.

Today's edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel belies Andy's position in defending Walker's cronyism. In a story on how Walker is basically trying to dismantle a whole section of county government, probably so he can continue to do his behind the scene, no bid contracting and sell-offs, we find that Mr. Russell and another Walker crony, Bob Dennik, weren't so qualified after all (emphasis mine):

Walker’s last two choices to lead the county economic development office, Bob Dennik and Tim Russell, came from his campaign and lacked depth in the development business, Clark said. Dennik left the post this week to become an executive with a Pewaukee construction company. Russell is now Walker’s community relations director.

“Walker chooses folks who don’t have (the necessary) experience,” she said. Dennik came under repeated fire from the board the last two years over disappointing land sales results that put the county budget in a jam. He didn’t return several phone calls seeking comment.

Only about $226,000 of the $7.2 million in budgeted land sales revenue for this year has materialized, contributing to a projected multimillion-dollar, year-end deficit. The land-sales budgets have been off $1 million or more in four of the last seven years, county figures show.

Between this and the fact that he is ticking off a lot of elderly folks, and he is giving his people a lot of big raises while trying to shove a decrepit hospital on the tax payers of the county, I don't really see how Walker thinks this is going to help his perpetual run for governor.

More on this is coming up, but will probably be on (shameless plug time) my other home, Cognitive Dissidence.

Yet Another Broken Promise By Walker

by capper

We have seen that Walker has a problem with keeping promises. First, he lied about not running in 2008. Then we saw him lie about privatization. The most recent lie he has been caught up in is about cronyism.

In 2002, when he rode CRG's wave into the County Executive's office, he signed off on CRG's platform of campaign promises. One of these promises was this:

Implement a program to eliminate cronyism and nepotism in county government, including a review of all management and supervisory functions under the executive. Within 60 days.

Funny, I thought to eliminate meant to remove, not to participate in.

We have three examples to highlight this. The first one, and to be honest, the weakest example was the special election last summer, when he tried to get his friend and campaign contributor, Chris Kujawa, elected to the County Board in a special election. Kujawa lost, fortunately.

The next example is Thomas Nardelli. In 2002, Walker's main opponent, Jim Ryan, accused Walker and Nardelli of scheming and backroom dealing in the sense that if Nardelli would quit the race and support Walker, Walker would in turn give Nardelli a job. Walker and Nardelli both denied it. Now, Nardelli is Walker's chief of staff. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Ryan had good reason to suspect a deal was in the works. A lot of people had similar thoughts. From the archives of WisPolitics.com:

Walker, who claims to be a reform candidate, appears to have promised high-ranking county government jobs to unqualified individuals. While pretending to oppose nepotism and favoritism, Walker instead plans to hand out taxpayer-supported jobs to political buddies.

In recent days, numerous Walker campaign workers have openly told reporters that they anticipate getting government jobs in a Walker administration. A number of these individuals have no experience in county government, and their biggest "qualification" is political support of Scott Walker.

One of these campaign workers is Jim Villa. Jim Villa has worked on both of Walker's previous campaigns for County Executive, and had been Walker's Chief of Staff (to be replaced by Nardelli-see the pattern yet?). Now we see Walker is trying to give Villa further rewards by nominating him to the Milwaukee Public Museum Board.

Fortunately, once again, the county board shows more sense and integrity than Walker by tabling the nomination. From All Politics at JSOnline:

Supervisor Richard Nyklewicz Jr. asked for Villa's appointment to be tabled, citing "significant concerns, given his political background." He declined further comment.

Supervisor Lynne De Bruin, the parks committee chairwoman, said she voted for tabling Villa's appointment to avoid a divisive public debate that might cause the public to question the management at the museum.

"I didn't want any worries on the public’s mind of who is on the museum board and who is not," she said. The museum working through a financial recovery plan begun last year.

With a track record like his, it is clearly evident why Walker would have a fear of commitment to Milwaukee County.

Please help support Lena Taylor, so that we can take our county back from corrupt liars like Tom Ament and Scott Walker.

Tuesday's Election: Who Wants a Crony This Summer?

by capper

I knew that there was an election next week to fill a seat on the Milwaukee County Board, which was vacated when Ryan McCue won his bid to be the mayor of Cudahy. The race is between Chris Kujawa and Pat Jursik. But to be honest, I wasn't paying too much attention to it, as that I don't live in that district, and I was preoccupied with getting ready for a vacation trip up north next week (aren't you jealous).

However, when I saw this morning's paper, and read this article, I became more concerned. What raised a red flag was the second paragraph,

Chris Kujawa, 45, operates a family landscaping business and was the early recipient of Walker's endorsement. Kujawa bills himself as a conservative, small-government budget-cutter who often - though not always - backs Walker. Kujawa donated $1,000 to Walker's abortive bid for governor in 2005, and a Walker campaign aide also works on Kujawa's campaign.

I knew I had heard about this guy before, but at first couldn't remember where. Then I remembered why it seemed so familiar. It was because of this story, from Walker's grandstanding on his budget veto last year. At the end of the article, it reads:

If Walker is somehow able to rally the votes today, the County Board would have to resubmit a budget to him. Asked where he would suggest additional savings, Walker said more outsourcing of county services could be proposed.
He made his veto announcement among friends and supporters gathered at Kujawa Enterprises Incorporated, an Oak Creek landscaping company whose executive vice president has contributed to Walker's campaign fund.
Walker noted that companies such as KEI do a lot of work for local governments and that such a move to private landscaping help could be more efficient for the county.
KEI has done repair work for the county but currently does not do landscaping for Milwaukee County. Walker said after the event that the firm's executives were longtime supporters of him and backed his position on taxes.

So, basically Scott Walker wanted to give a campaign donor, a chance at a county contract, if he got to privatize the parks like he wanted to do. Fortunately, the county board overrode his veto, and the privatization never happened. Now, Walker is backing Kujawa for the open seat on the open board. This is cronyism. It is not the first time Walker has practiced (or tried to) cronyism as evidenced here.

SIDENOTE: Walker is practicing cronyism, even though he promised to clean it up, as noted here and here. I guess it's OK for him to do it, just not anyone else.

Now, I am not saying that Kujawa is a bad person, I don't know him personally. But, if you have a politician that is trying to get his buddy into the county system, repeatedly, it reeks to me. Especially, when Kujawa is trying to pretend that he isn't tight with Walker, even though he hosts Walker's grandstanding at his company, donates to Walker's campaigns, almost gets a privatization deal, and just happens to be using the same campaign aides. We already have seen with the Ament pension disaster what can happen when you have cronyism run amok.

The fact that Walker and Kujawa are practicing cronyism, or at least trying to, again, disturbs me and makes me wonder what their true motivation is. Is it that Kujawa wants to be able to manipulate the law to favor his company, like Peter Agnos did? Or are they trying to get their own pieces of the county pie, thinking that no one will be watching them while distracted by their pension scandal outrage?

To the people that are voting on Tuesday, please consider if you want a repeat of the Ament dynasty, or if you want someone that wants to help the people of Milwaukee County move beyond Walker's messes.

Most importantly, please vote, no matter who the candidate of your choice is.