Ten Years

A few months ago, a lot of Wisconsinites took heart at the first anniversary of Scott Walker and the Republicans' open assault on Wisconsin, its people and its values.  They did a series of videos making statements about why they continued their fight.  The common theme among these statements was "We're still here."

As I heard their stories, I was proud of them. Yes, they did a lot. They held vigil around the Capitol Building day and night regardless of the weather.  They monitored and documented the evils committed, often in the dark of the night by the cowardly, avaricious Republicans.  They used the social media to get the truth out and report things that the corporate media wouldn't.

But I was also bemused by this.  I thought to myself, "But it's only one year! They haven't seen nothing yet.  I could do a year standing on my head!"

You see, it was ten years ago today that the war, the real war, started.  It was on May 9, 2002, that Scott Walker was sworn in as Milwaukee County Executive.  And from that minute on, everything he did was done with furthering his depraved ideology and preparing for his run for governor.

For the past year and a half, I have repeatedly pointed out that the things Scott Walker the governor has done isn't much different than the atrocities committed by Scott Walker the county executive.  While the atrocities done as governor has been on a much larger scale, the stuff as county executive has been going for ten long years.

Let me take you for a written tour of Milwaukee County so that you have a glimpse of what is in the state's future if he is not ousted on June 5.  I will show you what austerity can do to a community and the troubles that we face as a direct result of Walker's malfeasance.

Transit

Milwaukee County is the only large urban area in the country that doesn't have a dedicated funding source for it's transit system.  As a result, the transit system is left to contend for a dwindling share of general tax dollars from the county's levy.  And since transit, even though a vital and necessary service for any community, it is not a mandated one.  Because of this, it's portion of the tax levy became less and less each year of Walker's reign.

Because of the dwindling money, Walker responded year in and year out by cutting service and/or raising fares.  By 2008, he cut 20% of these services, a move which separated about 40,000 people from jobs.  And while the Public Policy Forum pointed out that Walker's approach was the wrong one to take, he continued to do so.  The only reason that things aren't worse was because people like Senator Lena Taylor kept sending more money to the county to bolster the depleted funding.

To make matters worse, when the Milwaukee County Board attempted to address the issue by holding a referendum regarding a dedicated sales tax, Walker actively fought against it.  When the referendum passed, despite his illegal campaigning against it, he responded by insulting the voters.

As governor, instead of addressing the problem he created, he exacerbated it.  He first cutting transit out of the transportation fund, calling it a social service, and then by cutting state funding for it even more.

The current situation is that if the county's transit system doesn't get dedicated funding in the next year or two, the system will collapse.  This will cause the loss of many jobs and send the local economy into a tailspin.

One can see his indifference to what the state's transit needs are by his flat out rejection of high speed rail, a move that cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.  Even worse, this will have ramifications for generations as we have to struggle to make up for his myopia with the economic boon that would have brought to the state.

So much for Walker's laser focus on job creation.

Parks

The Milwaukee County Parks System used to be the standard for the world, with "a necklace of green gems" surrounding the county.  That necklace quickly became tarnished under Walker's watch.

As with the transit system, the parks is dependent on a diminishing amount of the tax levy.  As a result, Walker chose to let repairs go undone and deferred maintenance.  He also slashed the number of park workers to a small fraction of what we used to have and what is needed.

As a result, the county is now faced with nearly $300 million worth of repairs and maintenance to do throughout the parks system.  Things have gotten so bad that some of the parks bathrooms had to be closed because they were so unsafe.  And because the staffing is so low, the horrid conditions of the parks, especially during holidays, made the news.

Sadly, the greatest loss for Milwaukeeans, and all of Wisconsin, is just coming to light with the destruction of the county grounds and the priceless loss of the Eschweiler Buildings and the unique Monarch Trail.  It didn't have to be, but for Walker, money tops all else, even history and the environment.

You can see Walker's disregard for nature and the state's natural resources in his push to have the irresponsible mining bill shoved down our throats and the reckless destruction of our wetlands.

County Buildings

Along the same line as the parks, county-owned buildings have suffered greatly from Walker's willful neglect.

Despite being warned of the damage done to the cornices of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, Walker did nothing until parts of it fell off during an election year.  And because Walker slashed housekeeping funds and personnel, the filthy and horrid conditions of the courthouse's bathrooms became made the county a laughing stock to the rest of the nation.   The only clean and stocked bathrooms was the one in Walker's office.  (No word if they also had a secret router in there as well.)

Mitchell Field, the largest airport in the state and the economic hub of not only the county but the state, started falling apart.   The county greenhouses became so derelicts from years of neglect.  And I already mentioned the Eschweiler Buildings, but they are worth mentioning again.

However, one of the deepest examples of shame for Walker is the tragedy of O'Donnell Park, in which a section of the park's parking structure fell off and killed a teenage boy and injured two other people.  Records show that the building, already known for structural problems, had been neglected for years.  To make things look worse, it was then revealed that money that would have gone to the upkeep and repairs of this building and others, were siphoned off by Walker to fill the holes in his faulty budgets.

My advise would be to visit the Capitol Building now, while it's still relatively safe to do so.  There's no telling how long it will last under Walker's negligence.

Corrections

Milwaukee County is unique in that it is the only county with its own House of Corrections (HOC).  It is meant to hold prisoners who have been sentenced under a year or are awaiting trial for minor crimes.  The county also had the Community Correctional Center (CCC) which was in downtown Milwaukee and used for prisoners on Huber release.

As one might surmise, these facilities also suffered from the common themes of neglect and being short-staffed.

CCC eventually had to be closed because it was so roach and rat infested and in such poor condition, it couldn't be salvaged.  The inmates on Huber are now struggling to find a way to get to their jobs since the transit routes to the HOC, where they are now housed had been slashed long ago.

HOC fared no better under Walker.  Due to the shortage of staff and the deep state of disrepair, inmates were escaping and there were several injuries to inmates and correctional officers alike.  Very much as Walker has done to the state's correctional institutes now.

Walker claimed, as he always did, that his moves were to save taxpayers money.  However, a federal audit showed that not only was HOC in a state of failure, overtime costs and the cost of the privatized services ate up any savings and then some.

Sadly, the costs from Walker's malfeasance was much more than money.  It also cost human lives, such as young Alexander Orlowski, a young man whose death can be directly attributed to the staffing shortage and burnt out officers.

Eventually, the County Board took control of HOC and put under the auspices of the Sheriff's Office.  This proved to be no better under the control of the inept Sheriff Clarke, but that's a story for another day.

Safety Services

This is a very encompassing subject, so I shall just touch on the highlights of the lowlights of Walker's mismanagement.  As you've already seen, the theme of insufficient staffing and cutting of services is the only tools Walker uses.  

In the height of the Great Recession,  the county board supplied enough funding to staff the Income Maintenance Program's call center with thirty people.  However, Walker took that money to fill budget holes and pay off campaign contributors, leaving as little as five people to do the work of thirty.    This led to many people in desperate need unable to even get through to the call center, much less get the assistance they sought, like food for their children or aid in keeping the heat on.  His goal was to privatize the system, even though parts of it couldn't be privatized by law. (Yeah, he tried the same stunt already as governor with the same results.)

Things got so bad that the state had to take over the program to prevent state and county taxpayers from having to pay out millions of dollars in a class action lawsuit.

As outrageous as his maltreatment of the poor was (and still is), his treatment of the mentally ill was exponentially worse.

He allowed the mental health complex to become in such disrepair that an audit labeled the facility to be in "shoddy condition."  But the real outrage came from the fact that Walker willfully put female patients in harm's way by allowing them to be sexually assaulted.  It was all to save money, of course.  That was the same excuse he used when he refused to establish a secure unit which would have protected both the female and other vulnerable patients, but staff as well.

And as with corrections, the staffing shortage only led to more problems for patients, staff and taxpayers alike.  Even the complex' neighbors weren't safe as patients were allowed to escape and attack people in their own homes.

These examples don't include his repeated attempts at ending or severely curbing other safety nets such as community-based support programming at targeted case management.

Walker's disdain for our most vulnerable citizens have continued into the state level as shown by his attacks on Family Care, Senior Care, Badger Care and Unemployment Compensation.

Economic Development and Jobs

Walker never did have a clue regarding economic development or how to create jobs.  When he first was sworn in ten years ago, he place his campaign staff in these jobs.  Needless to say, they were absolute failures.  Eventually, he thought he'd fix the underperforming economic development division by abolishing it.
Shockingly, this didn't work either.

But we realized that we couldn't expect much out of him when he compared the task of economic development in Milwaukee County, the county he was in charge of for years, as trying to put lipstick on a pig.  Not a real strong sales technique, that.

And with his failure to draw or even keep businesses in Milwaukee County, the employment rate continued to sink.  It got so bad that then Governor Jim Doyle had to take control of the Private Industry Council away from Walker and give it to Tom Barrett, who was just nominated to take on Walker in the recall.

We need to follow that example and give the responsibility of creating jobs in the state to Barrett.

Fiscal Responsibility

If you think that Walker is fiscally conservative or fiscally responsible, you are only kidding yourself.

As county executive, he did not make it one year without having some sort of budget meltdown.  Usually, these fiscal crises were merely contrived emergencies which he would use to cut services and/or privatize things.  One year, in the middle of an unusually fierce heatwave, he thought it was a good time to close down the pools.

His last two budgets as county executive were illegal because they contained tens of millions of dollars in concessions from the unions.  However, since he refused to sit at the negotiating table, not only were these concessions never made, but the loss of savings were in the tens of millions of dollar.  

In order to make up for his predictable budget shortfall, Walker ordered all employees to take excessive amounts of furlough days. This was ruled illegal and will now cost taxpayers at least six million dollars in back pay to the affected workers.

Ethics

I would be utterly remiss if I did not mention Walker's conduct as county executive.

Needless to say, ethics is not Walker's strong suit.

Without going into the scores of examples, Walker has proven to be one of the most dishonest, manipulative politicians ever.  And that says a lot.

He's fabricated fiscal emergencies for no other reason than to lay off public sector workers and privatize their jobs, even when it proves to be more expensive than the public sector.  And, as you might have guessed, most, if not all, of these contracts went to campaign donors.

As county executive and as governor, his administration is rife with cronyism, corruption and pay for play scheming.

But the biggest sin of all which Walker committed against us Milwaukeeans wasn't really publicly known until  Walker was well ensconced in the Governor's seat.  Of course I'm referring to the rebirth of the caucus scandal known as Walkergate.

And no matter how the right will deny it, try to discredit it and ignore it, Walker is in the thick of it.

Summary

In the past fifteen months, the State of Wisconsin has finally woken up to the truth about Scott Walker.

They have learned that Walker and his administration is one that is rotten with cronyism, corruption, and ineptitude.  They have learned that Walker is a manipulative, insincere liar.  They have learned that there is no level too low for him to stoop in order to get his way.

Something that many Milwaukeeans have know for a decade.

In the past ten years, I have seen thousands of my coworkers laid off.  I have watched as Walker cut services year after year, making things worse and worse.  I've seen ten years of Walker victimizing the most vulnerable of our citizens for not other reason than to score some political points.  I've seen him drive away businesses and jobs in his obsession with gaining more power and gaining more wealth.  I've seen atrocities and crimes against humanity play over and over as he misled the people.

Oh, I tried to speak out, risking both my professional and personal safety to do so.

Sadly, my words of warning were not heard.  Or if they were heard, they were not heeded.

Please, for the sake of Wisconsin, do not fail to heed my words again.

We cannot wait for John Doe to do what we should have done all along, which is get Walker out of office.

For if, somehow, by hook or by crook, Walker manages to keep his seat through the recall, the things that we have seen, heard and felt will seem like a walk in the park.

And, as an old veteran of this ongoing, ten-year long struggle, you can take my word on that.