You might say the Milwaukee Journal helped invent the position of Milwaukee County executive. The paper’s longtime county reporter, Avery Wittenberger, used to chat with then-County Supervisor William F. O’Donnell about courthouse issues, and in the late 1950s, they both concluded the county needed to have an executive similar to a city mayor.
Both might have had a somewhat glorified vision of county government, given their respective positions, but the idea was soon embraced by many (including, I suspect, the Milwaukee Journal editorial board) and passed by the state legislature. Five decades later, County Board Chair Lee Holloway has proposed rolling back the legislation and eliminating the position of county executive.
Wittenberger was a legendary reporter who knew as much about county government as anyone in history, but I think he was wrong about the need for an executive. The county is not the same as the city. The city has full autonomy to make decisions overseeing Milwaukee – except where state government rules otherwise. The county, by contrast, is strictly constrained and can only do what the legislature allows. It is largely an arm of state government, the local administrator of its programs.
Former County Executive F. Thomas Ament often – and wrongly – compared the County Board to the state legislature. But the legislature has far broader powers: It writes the state’s criminal and civil laws and creates bills affecting everything in this state. Meanwhile, it is the governor’s job to oversee the various state departments. There is a true separation of powers.
By contrast, the County Board of Supervisors, as the name implies, mostly supervises county departments that have already been heavily regulated by the state legislature. That is the same duty the county executive has. That’s why there has been frequent bickering between the executive and the board, ever since John Doyne was elected the first Milwaukee County executive in 1960. The board chair and county executive are essentially redundant positions. The board and executive each have their own assistants and policy analysts, which are also redundant. Taxpayers pay for all this redundancy, and get worse government in the bargain.
To add insult to injury, the board has 19 supervisors, whereas most urban counties in the nation have less. Mighty Los Angeles has just five. There’s no reason to have such a large board just to oversee the local branch of state government.
The only rationale for the position of executive is that he has been elected by the entire county (whereas each board member represents a specific district). If you like that rationale for the executive position, you might support keeping the post and cutting the board back to five members. On the other hand, the board chair is elected by a majority of the board, who represent most of the county. And the board chair’s salary is a lot lower than the executive’s. If you like that approach, you might favor killing the position of executive.
And if you’re feeling radical, you might want to slash the size of the board and get rid of the county executive.
County Executive Scott Walker has responded to Holloway by suggesting county government be eliminated and replaced by, among other things, a series of boards separately overseeing the zoo, parks and transit. But it’s hard to see how multiple boards will be more efficient than one. (I looked at the prospects for eliminating county government in an Endgame column last year.)
Holloway has been accused of “playing politics” in seeking to remove the county executive. Yet Walker never received such criticism when he proposed cutting back the size of the board. Personally, I applaud both for seeking cutbacks. Their ideas will help trigger a serious discussion of how to improve our truly inefficient county government.
Too Many MPS Cooks
Is there anyone who doesn’t want to run Milwaukee Public Schools? Mayor Tom Barrett has just sent the school board a letter asking that the new Advisory Council he helped create be involved in selecting the next superintendent. Meanwhile, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers has issued a long list of demands he has for MPS. The Greater Milwaukee Committee has created an education committee that has been working to initiate changes at MPS. And Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines has suggested that aldermen should have some say over the schools.
The good news is that so many stakeholders have an interest in the schools. The system needs all the help possible if it is to improve. In particular, it’s critical the mayor be involved. I have previously argued Barrett should seek state legislative approval to take over the schools.
But Barrett doesn’t seem to want that. Instead, he’s artfully staked out the mushy middle, working with Gov. Jim Doyle to create an advisory council that allows the mayor to stick his nose into MPS policy without necessarily taking any responsibility for the schools.
School Board member Terry Falk finds the whole thing slightly maddening. He wonders why the mayor and the GMC can’t combine to create one committee. “They all want their own committee. Superintendent [William] Andrekopoulos has complained, ‘We’re spending all this time teaching people about the schools.’ ”
Greater Milwaukee Committee President Julia Taylor concedes that the situation might be problematic. “I do think it’s a time of confusion for MPS.”
Beyond that is a problem of responsibility. Barrett, Evers and the GMC want some say over the schools, but aren’t offering to take any responsibility. If their ideas fail, will they take the blame, or simply point the finger at the board?
It’s hard to see how the creation of a second school board (though it’s called an advisory council) will solve the problems of MPS. It may simply diffuse and obscure the issues. I applaud all the stakeholders for wanting to get involved, but what they are creating is beginning to look like an organizational mess.
Meltdown at the Skylight
In the one short week since I last wrote about it, the situation at the Skylight Opera Theater has degenerated into complete chaos. Skylight board President Suzanne Hefty sent a letter terminating contracts with two freelance artists, Bryce Lord and Jon Stewart, citing their hostile online comments about the Skylight. Hefty made this decision in cooperation with Managing Director Eric Dillner; the two had previously fired the Skylight’s popular artistic director, Bill Theisen, and then fired Music Director Jamie Johns after he condemned the firing of Theisen.
Theisen had agreed (even after being fired) to direct several shows as a freelancer, but in response to the firing of Lord and Stewart, he’s withdrawn his commitment to do these shows.
“My agreement with Eric and the Skylight was to return to direct these shows as I originally conceived them and with the casts that have been in place for months,” Theisen wrote the Skylight. “With the firing of two … cast members last week the agreement I signed has been broken and I am not able to return to the Skylight under these conditions.”
The full list of artists withdrawing from contracts with the Skylight is reported today by Journal Sentinel arts writer Tom Strini. That includes Richard Carsey, who withdrew as music director of two shows next season. Carsey has worked with the theater for nearly 20 years, including eight seasons as artistic director. Popular Skylight performer Becky Spice has also quit in protest. “After 23 years and 30-some performances at the Skylight, I would like to tender my resignation as a freelance artist,” she wrote. “I am typing this through tears. … Skylight means so much to me.”
Last week, I disagreed with Strini, who called for Dillner’s resignation. In light of the most recent events, I’d like to second Strini. Not only should the board ask Dillner to resign, but it should ask Hefty to step down as well. In more than 25 years of observing Milwaukee arts groups, going back to my early days as a freelance writer, I have never seen a board so alienate the community of artists upon which it depends.
The Skylight is a wonderful, uniquely Milwaukee institution that has truly lost its bearings. Its board of directors needs to save the organization – and soon – before all is lost.
The Buzz:
-Strini has confirmed he will take a buyout offer from the Journal Sentinel. At his best, Tom brought intelligence and passion to his writing about classical music and dance. He will be missed.
-Others who are rumored as likely to go include theater critic Damien Jacques, rock critic Dave Tianen, and entertainment editors Chris Foran and Jim Higgins. All this would decimate the JS entertainment coverage.
-Tony Clements’ blog is the best source for all developments regarding the Skylight Opera Theater.
–GQ comes to New Berlin: Writer Michael Joseph Gross has written a provocative feature, “Sextortion at Eisenhower High,” that really, er, fleshes out the bizarre story of Anthony Stancl. Stancl, a high school senior, posed as a flirtatious girl and got dozens of male students to e-mail him sexually explicit photos, then successfully blackmailed some of them into having sex with him. No one comes off as a good guy or girl in the story, which portrays New Berlin Eisenhower as rather chillingly upscale and dull (students call it “The Bubble” because nothing ever happens there). But it also suggests that more of this kind of Internet blackmail could go on because so many teenagers see nothing wrong with sending nude images to each other.
-Experts have suggested Scott Walker has the edge over Mark Neumann in the upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary, but here’s a shocker: Neumann is so far getting more tweets! Blogger Cory Liebmann reports .
-Check our online poll and vote whether to eliminate the county exec position.
-And the Milwaukee Brewers have not given up on the pennant race, to judge by their latest steal of a trade. So declares our baseball-loving Sports Nut.
