For decades, certain Milwaukee Common Council members would grumble about the amount of money spent on the police department versus the amount of public safety delivered. Former Mayor John Norquist was a budget slasher, but not when it came to the police. He learned quickly that a mayor can be vulnerable to a get-tough-on-crime candidate, and easily assailed by talk radio, and spent lots on the cops.
Mayor Tom Barrett has learned the same lesson. And so his proposed budget offers fiscal conservatism (a below-inflation increase of 1.7 percent in taxes and fees) while throwing still more money at the men and women in blue. He wants to increase the department by 76 employees, including 30 more officers in the schools and 34 more on the street.
Yet there’s considerable evidence Milwaukee already spends way too much on police. A June audit by the city comptroller found Milwaukee has far more police than other mid-sized cities: 364 sworn personnel per 100,000 people versus 194 to 255 sworn personnel per 100,000 people in eight other cities studied. Are all those cops needed because we have more crime? Actually, among the cities studied, Milwaukee ranked below the median in total crimes per 100,000 people.
Despite having so many more police than other cities, Milwaukee still spent far more on police overtime: $11 million in 2005, compared to anywhere from $200,000 to $8.8 million among the other cities studied. The study, frankly, gives ample reason to believe Milwaukee’s police department is overstaffed and inefficient. Milwaukee, it found, had more injured police on limited duty than other cities. Officers are paid a minimum of 2.5 hours per court appearance, regardless of the amount of time actually spent in court.
The police department budget, as Barrett has noted, is equal to nearly the entire city property tax levy (the rest of the budget comes from state shared revenue). So what the heck, let’s throw even more money at the police department.
Barrett’s pro-police budget is smart politics, given that he’s running for re-election in the spring. And much of the budgetary fat in the police department predates him, and is partly the result of a powerful police union that got good deals for its members.
But at what point is some mayor going to put down his or her foot and say that we don’t need more officers, we need to more efficiently use the huge force we already have? There are signs some Common Council members are asking this question. The comptroller report was requested by Council President Willie Hines. But the city needs to use its recommendations as a springboard to reform the police department.
Rip Van Walker
It took Rip Van Winkle 20 years to wake up. By that standard, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has been quick to rub the sleep out of his eyes, waiting a mere five years and four months to take action on the Milwaukee County pension scandal.
Last week, county officials announced the hiring of two top attorney/investigators to check the legality of pension credits and special benefits given over the decades and report back to the county.
Isn’t this why we first elected Walker on April 30, 2002? He was going to clean up the pension mess. Instead, he has obsessed about freezing taxes, which has a short-term impact on the budget, while dilly-dallying on the long-term fiscal impact of the various pension sweeteners. During his first year in office, he hired an outside attorney, Charles Stevens, to advise the county on its legal options regarding the pension, and Stevens put in a mere 25 hours on the task.
By contrast, the new investigation will have no minimum or maximum budget or any timetable. In short, it will be a comprehensive examination of the pension problems, the sort any proactive administrator would have done years ago.
Why did Walker wait so long? In essence, the media has allowed him to repeatedly blame his disgraced predecessor, Tom Ament, for any problems that have arisen. But at a certain point, you have to take ownership of the government you run. And so, five years after Walker’s glorious revolution, he’s finally taking action.
Lena-Gate
Has any non-campaign generated more controversy than state Sen. Lena Taylor’s run – or non-run – for county executive? For the last few weeks, everyone’s been buzzing about her taking on Scott Walker. Liberal blogs like Progressive Majority and In Effect, along with talk radio’s Mark Belling, all announced she was running, and other bloggers began welcoming or decrying her entry.
It was actually Milwaukeeworld.com that jumped on the story first. My column credited that Web site with reporting Taylor’s intention to run, as declared in her speech at the Fighting Bob Fest in Baraboo. But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel soon quoted Taylor to the effect that she wasn’t running yet. That led the liberal Pundit Nation to warn that if Taylor’s going to run “she needs to make an announcement and she needs to make an announcement soon.”
The Shepherd Express then waded into the hubbub and decided there was some kind of conspiracy at work. “Contrary to the story spread by right-wing radio ranters and the Republican-oriented Milwaukee Magazine’s Bruce Murphy, Taylor did not make it official at Fighting Bob Fest in Baraboo,” the magazine declared in its “Expresso” column.
Let’s see. So I’m now a Republican? And I’m in cahoots with right-wing talk radio? And together, our cabal of strange GOP bedfellows is hot to push a Democrat into the race?
Wow. Just what was the author of this article smoking? Actually, there’s no way to know, because the Shepherd’s“Expresso” column carries no byline. Ooh, they’re so tricky.
Meanwhile, Milwaukeeworld.comdid follow-ups, with a quote from Fighting Bob organizer Ed Garvey conceding that Taylor’s speech did indeed sound like she intended to run for county executive. The Web site also found Taylor had dropped by the county election commission to inquire about filing papers to run for county executive. The Web site speculated that Taylor wanted to grab all the campaign donations going to legislators while the budget was still being decided, and would announce after that (she would legally be allowed to transfer the donations to a race for county exec.)
Sounds reasonable. But doubtless some pundit is going to find a murky conspiracy behind the whole thing.
The Buzz:
-Speaking of smoke-filled rooms, the Private Industry Council, now renamed the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board, had information up on its Web site last week naming Bader Foundation leader Daniel Bader as new board chair of the organization. The only problem is that the board elections weren’t being held until today. Gee, I guess we know who will win the election.
-After all the endless hype about Ken Burns’ new documentary on World War II, the tape of the show, as presented Sunday night on Channel 10, was screwed up, with the sound and visuals consistently out of synch. I was mesmerized by all those lips moving at the wrong time.
-Last week, I questioned why Circuit Court Judge Joe Wall is resigning to return to the U.S. Attorney’s office. One close observer told me Wall was made an offer that could give him as much as $40,000 more in salary and benefits than he gets as a judge. Wall confirmed that “financial and career considerations” convinced him to make the change. When I mentioned that one source suggested Wall was showing signs of stress on the bench, he scoffed at this. “My demeanor has been perfect,” he modestly declared.
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