For years, we’ve been hearing what a bad guy Ald. Mike McGee was. This culminated in a federal trial proving he was a sleazy criminal who brazenly extorted money from business owners. So if McGee is such a uniquely evil man, why are we now rushing to blame his crimes on “the system?”
No sooner did the trial conclude than Mayor Tom Barrett and U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic declared that the system of “aldermanic privilege” needs to be reformed. This triggered newspaper and broadcast stories and lots of pressure on Common Council President Willie Hines to solve the problem. Hines must have wondered how the blame for the situation got dumped on him, and he first declared there was no such thing as aldermanic privilege, and then flip-flopped, sort of, announcing he was creating a task force to look at the issue.
The discussion has gotten a tad hysterical, and almost metaphysical, with a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial darkly warning that “City Hall is haunted by the apparition of aldermanic privilege” and concluding that a “ritual cleansing” is needed. A ritual cleansing? Are we talking about baptizing the Common Council chamber or will some blessed bottles of Mr. Clean do the trick?
Before everyone goes off the deep end, let’s all pause and consider the situation, minus all the false drama.
Yes, there is such a thing as aldermanic privilege. No, it’s not enshrined in law. Indeed, when Common Council members are appointed to the licensing committee, the city attorney’s office trains them and covers the issue of “aldermanic privilege;” aldermen are told it is illegal. But the long tradition in City Hall is that the opinion of the alderman for that district is given more weight, which gives him or her more power than others over licenses in that district.
Aldermanic privilege can be a good thing. When residents are up in arms over a noisy tavern, the alderman for that district is most likely to be aware of and concerned about the problem and best equipped to offer guidance to policy makers as to the neighborhood’s nuances. Beyond this issue of policy is a political concern: that alderman could lose a re-election if residents are angry enough about a particular tavern, and common council members will inevitably protect each other on such issues. This may sound parochial, but a similar approach dictates the appointment of federal judges: The U.S. Senate rarely approves someone appointed by the president if a senator from the nominee’s state opposes him or her. Partly it’s a matter of courtesy, but it also reflects a sense that the senator from the state is more familiar with the nominee and closer to the issue. Variants of this approach govern decisions by legislative bodies at all levels of government.
McGee’s conviction doesn’t prove the system is broken. Actually his conviction proves just the opposite. The city’s method of handling liquor licenses goes back to Prohibition and earlier, back to when the squeaky-clean Socialists ran things. If aldermanic privilege creates a corrupt system, then why haven’t there been other aldermen convicted of similar charges? The real abuses of the system are more subtle: A tavern or liquor store owner who has donated to an alderman might get undue consideration from the official when a competitor seeks a license for a new business. The power of aldermen can at times restrict or slow the marketplace.
Hasty reform could backfire. By all means, study the current system. It never hurts to look at what other cities are doing. The JS editorial referenced an old idea suggested by Barrett when he was a state legislator – to create a citizen’s review board to oversee tavern licenses. But citizens can seek bribes, too. Odds are that cities using this approach have also encountered problems.
There is no perfect system. The notion that we can legislatively – or ritually – wash away all the evil is irresistible, but rather risible. Policy making is rarely that simple.
Catholic Church Meltdown
In November 2006, an in-depth story in this magazine by Mary Van de Kamp Nohl documented the problems facing the Milwaukee archdiocese. This is a very Catholic metro area, where 30 percent of the people once identified themselves as Catholic, compared to 22 percent nationally.
One measure of that strong Catholicism was Mass attendance. In the 1990s, the story reported, some 40 percent of 675,000 Catholics – about 270,000 – attended weekend Mass. But by 2005, Nohl found, that had dropped to about 29 percent.
Things have gotten even worse since then. Buried toward the back of a recent Journal Sentinel story by Tom Heinen was a statistic showing that weekend mass attendance was down to about 165,000 people, or 24 percent of registered parishioners. In just over a decade, the number of Catholics regularly attending Mass dropped from 270,000 to 165,000. That’s stunning.
The revulsion over the many examples of sexual abuse by clergy has doubtlessly soured many Catholics. But the coverup by Catholic officials has compounded the problem. Our story this month by Jessica McBride on an abusive nun, Sister Norma Giannini, recounts years of active and passive attempts by both the Sisters of Mercy and archdiocesan officials to frustrate the victims in their attempts to seek justice.
Yesterday, Brother David Nickerson, another clergy member accused of sex crimes against children, made his first appearance in court at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.
That makes the 16th cleric arrested and brought back to Wisconsin since the sex abuse scandal erupted some six years ago, according to the Wisconsin chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. SNAP has repeatedly called for the Milwaukee archdiocese to turn over to law enforcement authorities all files concerning any religious order priest, nun or cleric transferred out of state under suspicion of child sexual abuse.
The archdiocese has offered no signals it will do so. Meanwhile, more cases of abuse keep arising, further eroding the church’s moral authority and its standing with once-loyal Catholics.
The Buzz
Former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin is leading an effort to convince businesses to drop out of the statewide lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Soglin and other liberals argue the group has gone beyond lobbying for business in its attacks on Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates like Louis Butler and Linda Clifford.
Janesville-based contractor J. P. Cullen & Sons is the first company to drop its WMC membership, as Isthmus has reported. Soglin boldly predicts there will be more. We’ll see.
-And remember Michael Porter, the Harvard professor who convinced local governments, businesses and foundations to spend $800,000 on his ideas to jumpstart Milwaukee’s inner-city economy? A Milwaukee Magazine story in November 2006 declared that the effort went nowhere. More documentation comes from a story in the June issue of Inc. magazine, where Porter touts all the inner-city companies rising up nationally. Just one Milwaukee business, Sun Cleaning Systems (rated 63rd) made his list of the top 100 inner city companies.
And the Sports Nut predicts big things for the Bucks, and rushes to Herb Kohl’s defense.
