Former Milwaukee County Supervisor Joseph Rice has won a minor battle against his former colleagues.
In last year’s redistricting tussle, the County Board eliminated Rice’s seat and split up his turf among surrounding districts. In the process, his home in Whitefish Bay landed inside the boundaries of a district held then (and now) by longtime Supervisor Gerry Broderick, whom Rice decided not to challenge in the April 3 election.
In bowing out of a potential race, Rice said in December 2011, “I never intended public service to be my career and look forward to seeking new challenges and a new path.”
He sent out this statement not long after a Milwaukee County judge, Jane Carroll, sided with him in a case he brought challenging the redistricting plan. The judge ordered a total of $600 in fines and $6,575 in attorney fees. The $600 ($300 from former board chair Lee Holloway and another $300 from the board itself) will go to the state of Wisconsin, and the $6,575 will cover Rice’s counsel, which was provided by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a non-profit legal firm headed by Rick Esenberg, an adjunct law professor at Marquette University and conservative blogger.
But Carroll decided against barring the redistricting plan from implementation. Rice’s claim stemmed from an alleged violation of the state open meetings law. He argued he was not given adequate notice that a preliminary redistricting plan would be discussed or voted on at an April 21, 2011 meeting; notice was only posted after the meeting had already begun. (The final plan wasn’t adopted until late July 2011.)
While a county insurer will cover a total of $6,921 in attorney fees and court costs, what remains to be seen is whether supervisors will be forced to pitch in to cover the $300 levied against the board. Under a provision in state law, public officials can be fined up to $300 for attending a meeting that violates the open meetings law. What’s confusing for county officials is that the judge’s order fines not individual members (except for Holloway) but the board as a whole, which was also how Rice filed the suit originally.
At a committee meeting earlier this month, a county attorney said he thought the money would come from board funds, but Supervisor Joe Sanfelippo argued that state law required it to come from the supervisors themselves. The committee asked the county Office of Corporation Counsel to prepare an opinion on the issue and present it to the board by its next meeting, which is this Thursday.
The suspense is killing us.
