Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Views From A "OUR Milwaukee" Town Hall

As I've been reporting, there have been several "OUR Milwaukee" hearing sessions in which members of the County Board are reaching out to the citizens to hear what they have to say about reforming Milwaukee County government.

Milwaukee County Chris Abele has shown an utter and complete disdain for his constituents by not coming to even one of them to listen to the citizens.  Which is a shame, because he would have been able to learn that his usurpation of Milwaukee County is very, very unpopular, which has been shown by reports on the meetings as well as a Marquette University poll.

I know he has his staffers patrol and troll this site as well as others, so if they don't want to believe what I write, they, as well as the gentle reader, can see if for their own eyes.

The following is a video taken at the hearing session held Tuesday night in the Supervisor Deanna Alexander's district, which is by far the most conservative district where such a hearing has been held so far:



As you can see and hear, the citizens are very angry about this, and justifiably so.  And remember, this is the district in which they expected the usurpation to receive the warmest reception.  As the gentle viewer can see, they were sorely mistaken.

There are a few things to note from the video.

One is that at the 4:18 mark, Representative Joe Sanfelippo is accusing Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Steve Schultze as being "completely wrong."  This is an approach that was taken before by Bruce Murphy.  It is as completely false now as it was then.  Schultze nailed it on the head since he reported on a memorandum written by Anna Henning, a staff attorney with the Wisconsin Legislative Council.

If this bill was so great, why do they have to say that reports written on the state's own analysis of the bill is false?

Sanfelippo also indicated that there might be a move later on for the state to make the same unilateral power grab in every county in the state, as I had warned.

Thirdly, even though the state is recall weary, people are so outraged at this assault on local control and on democracy, that there are some starting to call for another recall, although it's not clear if they are referring to Abele, Alexander or Sanfelippo - or all three.

It's starting to look like Abele's overreach just might have lit off a powder keg that they weren't expecting.

3 comments:

  1. Did the MU poll say the bill is unpopular in the whole county? Or are you reporting just the results in the City?

    If you're reporting for just the City, what were the results for the suburbs?

    Why is the opinion of the few dozen people who show up to the listening sessions worth more than the thousands that voted in the referendum?

    Thank you in advance for your cogent, well-thought out response.

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  2. The poll was for the only the city.

    The suburbs were not asked about the bill, nor did they vote on any referendums about the bill. They were only asked about one minor part of the bill. You're asking for a comparison of two different things, which would be a false comparison.

    And why are you so dismissive of the city residents? The city constitutes two thirds of the county's population. Is it, because I have heard others accuse, that the citizens of the city also include minorities?

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    Replies
    1. The Marquette poll did ask that question of the county residents and they did report those results. I am disappointed they did not combine the results to give an accurate number, which I am guessing is slightly against the "reforms".

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