Cathy Stepp touts her record. Not cubicles

Part One of a long and useful Lakeland Times review (registration may be required) of issues at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has much to offer, including:

* The agency is gearing up for a 2017 wolf hunt:

"The hunt is on the books and as soon as there is a decision at the federal level we will be instituting a wolf hunt," said [Deputy DNR Secretary Kurt] Thiede. 

* DNR Secretary and Scott Walker "chamber of commerce mentality" chief implementer Cathy Stepp is something of a change agency, she tells the Lakeland Times:

"It's not like it's the old days in the DNR where these decisions were made in a building in Madison in a cubicle," she said.  

Thus reprising a key piece of her famously blogged and ranted trope which helped explain why Walker picked her for the job - - aversion to DNR staff and where they worked:

...people who go to work for the DNR's land, waste, and water bureaus tend to be anti-development, anti-transportation, and pro-garter snakes, karner blue butterflies, etc...This is in their nature; their make-up and DNA. So, since they're unelected bureaucrats who have only their cubicle walls to bounce ideas off of, they tend to come up with some pretty outrageous stuff that those of us in the real world have to contend with.

* And though she supported what was a failed effort through the last budget to remove the oversight functions of the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board, with all its avenues of public access into DNR activities, Stepp told the Lakeland Times she was the people's champion with a track record to prove it:

I would hope that people have seen enough of my track record over six years and how much work we have put into getting more public involvement - more transparency, more online chats, more surveys, more meaningful involvement and feedback from the public and back to the public," she said. 

This is not the first time she's sung her own praises.

And her self-addressed paean about transparency contradicts her agency's scrubbing from official websites long-established information and links about climate change.

On climate science, WI DNR's Cathy Stepp out of step

Here's a sequence of events to add to your "What They're Missing About Climate Change" file begun, perhaps, when you learned that Wisconsin DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp had recently overseen the removal of climate change information from another of the agency's climate change web pages - - the one that covered Great Lakes climate change.


Pay attention to the contrasting attention to detail below:

*  On December 12, 2016 the US-Canadian International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes management body created by a 1909 treaty, published, as if often does, some interesting reports. 

One was titled:

The State of Climate Change Science in the Great Lakes Basin

Climate change is posing significant risks to communities, health and well-being, the economy, and the natural environment. These impacts are expected to become more severe, unless concerted efforts to reduce emissions are undertaken.

Climate change effects are being experienced in the Great Lakes. Effects observed across the basin include warming temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, decreased ice coverage, and variations to historic fluctuations of water levels. For example, over the last 60 years (1950-2010), the Great Lakes basin has experienced an increase in average annual air temperatures between 0.8-2.0 degrees C (1.4-3.6 F), with this warming trend projected to continue, according to a 2015 State of Climate Change Science in the Great Lakes basin report...

Recognizing the potential impacts of climate change on Great Lakes water quality and ecosystem health, Canada and the United States incorporated a Climate Change Impacts Annex in the 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). The Annex is focused on coordinating efforts to identify, quantify, understand, and predict climate impacts on the quality of waters of the Great Lakes, and sharing information that Great Lakes resource managers need to proactively address these impacts. Implementation of this Annex is led by Environment and Climate Change Canada and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

*  A second December 12, 2016 report, featuring Toronto and Milwaukee, was titled:

Great Lakes Cities Prepare for a Changing Climate

On the opposite end of the Great Lakes is Milwaukee, where officials believe the greatest threat from climate change is an increased risk of severe storms causing major flooding. Milwaukee suffered “100-year storms” in 2008 and 2010 that caused stormwater and sanitary sewer system back-ups and subsequent backflows into people’s homes. Erick Shambarger, environmental sustainability director for Milwaukee’s Environmental Collaboration Office, said the city put together a “flooding study task force” following the 2010 storm – recognizing that severe storms are on course to become more frequent in the future. Milwaukee’s sewer infrastructure isn’t built to withstand storms of that magnitude, he said. 

The city is tackling the problem in multiple ways. Milwaukee has implemented a “Green Streets Stormwater Management Plan,” Shambarger said. That means any time a street is reconstructed due to pothole or pavement issues, it is inspected to see what sort of infrastructure would work there to contend with major rain events...  

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has its own project to help deal with flood risks with the County Grounds Basin, a way of containing heavy amounts of rain in a specific area to avoid floods. The $90 million project can retain and store 315 million gallons of water during a severe storm, bringing excess water from the Underwood Creek into the basin by way of an underground tunnel... 

Elsewhere in the city, Shambarger said officials are considering converting unoccupied, abandoned and foreclosed properties into storm reservoirs, channeling that backflow floodwater to those properties’ basements to spare occupied homes...The basements would be covered with turf after the house is demolished so that it can better fit in within the neighborhoods. 

Shambarger added that Milwaukee officials also are interested in combating the “heat island effect,” where the pavement causes the area around it to get hotter than it would otherwise. This could include removing pavement, which in turn helps the stormwater runoff issue... 

Milwaukee has set up a Better Buildings Challenge to cut energy use in commercial buildings throughout the city, offering free assessments and loan financing to building owners that want to upgrade their properties. These can range from adding renewable energy sources to improving energy or water efficiency. Shambarger said the city also has residential programs to help homeowners purchase solar panels for their homes or to secure loans for energy efficiency upgrades, and is working to improve energy efficiency at manufacturing plants. 

“Everything we’re talking about is adapting to climate change, but that’s all in addition to work on energy efficiency and climate mitigation,” Shambarger said.

*  On December 22, 2016, I noticed and reported that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources had the previous day heavily edited its web page on climate change and the Great Lakes by deleting all references to the human influences on climate change as well as all uses of the words "climate change" from the page.

*  On December 29, 2016, DNR spokesman James Dick verified the web page editing and said to Madison TV station WKOW, Channel 27 that the DNR knew climate change was no longer being debated among climate scientists:

"Yes, we are aware of that...," Dick said. 

*  On January 10th, Dick also confirmed that the DNR page had been edited following an inquiry from a conservative staffer at a central Wisconsin weekly newspaper:

The Lakeland Times reported that Wisconsin's environmental protection agency removed information saying humans and greenhouse gases are the main causes of climate change two days after the newspaper raised the issue with Secretary Cathy Stepp.

“After questioning from The Lakeland Times, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has changed its climate-change web page to reflect a policy of neutrality on its causes and effects, rather than embracing the dramatic manmade hypothesis the web page has touted since the Doyle administration,” the paper reported on Friday.

DNR spokesman Jim Dick on Monday acknowledged the paper raised the issue with [Secretary Cathy] Stepp during an interview.

"The Lakeland Times reporter did bring that particular Great Lakes web page to our attention during a phone call on other matters," Dick said in an email. "We reviewed it and decided to update it as we’ve stated in previous statements."

In Walker's World, Transparency Now Is A "Slippery Slope"

In light of Scott Walker's 2010 statement to a Wisconsin newspaper that he'd "lived" transparency - - he'd posted it on his campaign website, but the story and interview have been deleted - -  Milwaukee County Executive, his statement to another newspaper today that taking questions about that office operated is "a slippery slope" could not be more weirdly damning.

As I wrote in January, 2012:

MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2012

Walker Claims Transparency, But His Office Kept Secrets

Then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker told the Lakeland Times newspaper in a lengthy interview during the gubernatorial campaign published on September 8th, 2010, that his work and behavior as Milwaukee County Executive established and reinforced his belief in open government:

Transparency

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.

The story remains on his campaign website.

But by the time that interview was published, a then-undisclosed email system in the County Courthouse that was regularly used by Walker's inner circle and other Republican operatives had been there for eleven months, records now show.

The system operated outside of the regular communications networks in the Courthouse, and outside of the reach of legal, Open Records search and requests.

And was set up by long-time Walker associate and County Executive staffer Tim Russell, according to the criminal complaint filed against Kelly Rindfleisch.

She had been hired in early 2010 for a taxpayer-paid position in Walker's public service office, but in reality was carrying out fund-raising and political work for then-State Rep. Brett Davis' unsuccessful campaign for Lt. Gov., the complaint says. Davis was a Walker favorite.

Rindfleisch was later promoted to Walker's Deputy Chief of staff - - an even higher-paid public position previously held by Russell - -  from which she allegedly and repetitively used the secret communications system, on public time for illegal political purposes, that was located in her office less than 25 feet from Walker's office, the complaint states.

It all makes laughable Walker's earlier call for ethics reforms to restore trust in government.

Rindfleisch faces four felony counts of misconduct in public office filed by county prosecutors in the continuing John Doe probe into the operation of Walker's office and campaigns, records show.

On page 15 of the complaint (use link above), it is alleged that in addition to work for the Davis campaign, there were more than 1,000 emails sent or received among Rindfleisch and three top Friends of Scott Walker gubernatorial campaign officials - - the campaign manager, deputy and communications director - - between Feb. 2 and July 9, 2010 - -  before then-County Executive Walker told the Lakeland Times he had "lived" transparency in County government.

Russell was charged separately with stealing money from a politically-advantageous veterans' fund that Walker assigned him to run out of the County Executive's Office, despite advice from the County's Ethics Board that the fund's operation be moved away from County Government.

Transparent County operations? More like a Nixonian throwback.

Davis, who did not win a primary for Lt. Gov., was appointed state Medicaid director by now Gov. Walker.

Davis' then-campaign manager, Cullen Werwie, remains as Gov. Walker's press secretary despite even though he shows up in some of the email traffic cited in the Rindfleisch complaint, and has been given immunity in the John Doe probe.

Walker Claims Transparency, But His Office Kept Secrets

Then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker told The Lakeland Times newspaper in a lengthy interview during the gubernatorial campaign published on September 8th, 2010, that his work and behavior as Milwaukee County Executive established and reinforced his belief in open government:

Transparency

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.

The story remains on his campaign website.

But by the time that interview was published, a then-undisclosed email system in the County Courthouse that was regularly used by Walker's inner circle and other Republican operatives had been there for eleven months, records now show.

The system operated outside of the regular communications networks in the Courthouse, and outside of the reach of legal, Open Records search and requests.

And was set up by long-time Walker associate and County Executive staffer Tim Russell, according to the criminal complaint filed against Kelly Rindfleisch.

She had been hired in early 2010 for a taxpayer-paid position in Walker's public service office, but in reality was carrying out fund-raising and political work for then-State Rep. Brett Davis' unsuccessful campaign for Lt. Gov., the complaint says. Davis was a Walker favorite.

Rindfleisch was later promoted to Walker's Deputy Chief of staff - - an even higher-paid public position previously held by Russell - -  from which she allegedly and repetitively used the secret communications system, on public time for illegal political purposes, that was located in her office less than 25 feet from Walker's office, the complaint states.

It all makes laughable Walker's earlier call for ethics reforms to restore trust in government.

Rindfleisch faces four felony counts of misconduct in public office filed by county prosecutors in the continuing John Doe probe into the operation of Walker's office and campaigns, records show.

On page 15 of the complaint (use link above), it is alleged that in addition to work for the Davis campaign, there were more than 1,000 emails sent or received among Rindfleisch and three top Friends of Scott Walker gubernatorial campaign officials - - the campaign manager, deputy and communications director - - between Feb. 2 and July 9, 2010 - -  before then-County Executive Walker told the Lakeland Times he had "lived" transparency in County government.

Russell was charged separately with stealing money from a politically-advantageous veterans' fund that Walker assigned him to run out of the County Executive's Office, despite advice from the County's Ethics Board that the fund's operation be moved away from County Government.

Transparent County operations? More like a Nixonian throwback.

Davis, who did not win a primary for Lt. Gov., was appointed state Medicaid director by now Gov. Walker.

Davis' then-campaign manager, Cullen Werwie, remains as Gov. Walker's press secretary despite even though he shows up in some of the email traffic cited in the Rindfleisch complaint, and has been given immunity in the John Doe probe.

Conservative N. WI paper takes credit for DNR's climate change scrub

The Lakeland Times newspaper says it complained to Wisconsin DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp that the agency's webpages were endorsing the "dramatic...hypothesis" of human-caused climate change, and shortly thereafter, the information was gone.

This is how policy, science and public information dissemination is being handled in Scott Walker's Wisconsin through his intentionally-degraded "chamber of commerce mentality" DNR.

Five months ago, the US EPA posted a fact sheet about climate change and its consequences in Wisconsin, including impacts on rainfall, temperature, agriculture, forest land, fish, wildlife, water, recreation, air quality and health.

I posted the first story about the deletions on December 22nd, but no one until today had offered a detailed explanation for the timing of changes other than an agency spokesman having said the scrubbing was a routine updating.

Here is the newspaper's story, and it also includes information from Stepp that the DNR has severed its partnership with UW scientists who had collaborated on the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts.

After Times' questions, DNR web page catches up to policy Climate-change flap illustrates tension inside natural resources agency

After questioning from The Lakeland Times, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has changed its climate-change web page to reflect a policy of neutrality on its causes and effects, rather than embracing the dramatic manmade hypothesis the web page has touted since the Doyle administration... But how about the rest of the agency's policies and programs, which have real-life economic consequences? There are increasing signs that, when she discovers advocacy inside the organization, Stepp is indeed removing the biases and steering the course away from bureaucratic activism, and it appears to be more significant than mere cosmetic changes on the website. The climate change guide for teachers, for example, has been removed from the agency's teacher pages on its website, and Stepp says the agency's partnership with WICCI has come to an end.

FBI Raid, John Doe Probe Put Walker Transparency Pledge To The Test

Just a reminder, as a John Doe probe unfolds, that Walker said of transparency during his Gubernatorial campaign, and posted on his candidate website, "I've lived it...it would apply to anything..."

The text came from a newspaper interview the Walker campaign thought important enough to reprint, just below the Walker campaign's web page graphic.

You can decide whether Walker's year in office that began with a sneak-attack on collective bargaining, garnered the most PolitiFact "false" ratings of any Wisconsin public figure and has run through today's Journal Sentinel continually-updating story - -

FBI seizes items at home of former top aide to Gov. Walker 

- - meshes with his sweeping claim and endorsement of transparency.

Walker, Neumann talk about their designs for Wisconsin's future (Lakeland Times)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

By: Richard Moore

...Transparency

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said. "(In Milwaukee County), we have put all government purchases online at no additional cost. Every purchase, everything we enter into our accounting software, automatically in real time goes on to a website that tells the public every purchase by department. Not only a journalist but a citizen journalist or anybody else can track it down."

Walker said he does not favor proposed constraints on access to police 911 tapes or to the state's online circuit court records, and he says he also believes the Legislature itself needs to be more transparent.

"In fact I've even proposed - in terms of the budget process, but it would apply to anything - other things that would help transparency," he said. "I don't think there should be any votes in closed caucus, on any issue. If a county board or school board can't discuss a budget in private, then the state Legislature certainly should not. There should not be any closed caucuses on the budget."

What's more, he said, the budget should only entail budgetary items; there shouldn't be any nonfiscal items in it.

"And I would make it, by statute, that the Legislature can't vote on anything after 10 at night or before 9 in the morning," Walker said. "They did things this last (budget) at 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. As I tell my staff, nothing good happens after midnight. But they did it on purpose because not only do they not want average persons to know, they don't want reporters with deadlines to know - after 10 you miss the nightly TV news and you're not in print for the daily newspapers. They push it back on a Saturday, hoping people won't read about things like that"

The Legislature Should Follow Candidate Walker's Transparency Rules When His Budget Is Debated

To: Republican State Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald - - he of the insufficient Open Meetings notice and quick gavel FUBAR that made his management and passage of the Budget Repair (sic) Bill illegal, creating FitzWalkerStan and all that came after it, as I recall.

From: Scott Walker's Campaign Website.

Subject: Candidate Walker's promises about transparent budgeting.

Candidate Walker posted a campaign interview he did with the Lakeland Times in which which he criticized previous legislative procedures and promised an amazingly open budget debate.

So Scott Fitzgerald and brother Jeff running things over in the Assembly might want to brush up on what are surely now-Governor Walker's budgeting expectations and rules, which include some excellent, Good Government practices, like open caucuses, and consideration of fiscal items only and reasonable hours to accommodate media and the general public.

Here's what Walker said:

"In fact I've even proposed - in terms of the budget process, but it would apply to anything - other things that would help transparency," he said. "I don't think there should be any votes in closed caucus, on any issue. If a county board or school board can't discuss a budget in private, then the state Legislature certainly should not. There should not be any closed caucuses on the budget."

What's more, he said, the budget should only entail budgetary items; there shouldn't be any nonfiscal items in it.

"And I would make it, by statute, that the Legislature can't vote on anything after 10 at night or before 9 in the morning," Walker said. "They did things this last (budget) at 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. As I tell my staff, nothing good happens after midnight. But they did it on purpose because not only do they not want average persons to know, they don't want reporters with deadlines to know - after 10 you miss the nightly TV news and you're not in print for the daily newspapers. They push it back on a Saturday, hoping people won't read about things like that"

Remember Walker's Famous 'I've Lived It' Transparency Line?

Uttered when he was Milwaukee County Executive and had hired not one but two Deputy Chiefs of Staff - - Tim Russell, later convicted of theft, and Kelly Rindfleisch, later convicted of misconduct for using a secret communications system set up by Russell in Walker's office suite to work on GOP campaigns while Walker was a gubernatorial candidate.

Yet this is what Walker told The Lakeland Times newspaper, and what was posted on my blog more than two years ago:

Transparency 

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.

     The story remains on his campaign website.

 But now can't be found. 

Wrong-Way Walker Again Invalidates Transparency Claim

I have noted the contradiction - - and that's a kind term - - but when I see a story with a headline like this - -

Scott Walker keeps IDs of workers in new TV ad under wraps

- - it's instructive to go back to the record:  

Then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker told the Lakeland Times newspaper in a lengthy interview during the gubernatorial campaign published on September 8th, 2010, that his work and behavior as Milwaukee County Executive established and reinforced his belief in open government:

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said. 

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.

Transparency - - like dropping the bomb on public employees?

And we've seen Walker's campaign-mode version of transparency [Sic] before:

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's account of communications disclosed in court Monday among Scott Walker, his partisan, gubernatorial campaign team and public officials in County government - - and on his taxpayer-paid staff - - when he was Milwaukee County Executive:

Walker's campaign staff also vetted the county response to the June 24, 2010, death of 15-year-old Jared Kellner, who was killed by a concrete panel that fell from the side of the O'Donnell Park parking garage at the lakefront.

[Then-Walker campaign chief of staff Keith] Gilkes, in an email written the day of the accident, advised Walker's county staff to "make sure there is not a piece of paper anywhere that details any problem at all."

Having "Lived" Transparency, I Assume Walker Backs This Bill

You may remember that Scott Walker made a statement to The Lakeland Times during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign about his dedication to transparency in government and liked the interview so much he put it on his campaign website:

Transparency

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said. 

Moving forward, as Walker likes to say, I'm sure he's urged GOP legislators to get behind this bill rolled out May 21 by two Democrats:

MADISON (WKOW) -- Two state lawmakers want stricter requirements for legal defense funds.

Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, and Rep. Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie, announced Monday that they're drafting the Legal Defense Fund Transparency Act.

As GOP Legislature Pulls All-Nighter, And Walker Hides Out...

Please remember his ironic, iconic bluster given to the friendly folks at The Lakeland Times newspaper during the 2010 gubernatorial election, including these keepers:

Transparency

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said…

Walker said he does not favor proposed constraints on access to police 911 tapes or to the state's online circuit court records, and he says he also believes the Legislature itself needs to be more transparent.

"In fact I've even proposed - in terms of the budget process, but it would apply to anything - other things that would help transparency," he said. "I don't think there should be any votes in closed caucus, on any issue... If a county board or school board can't discuss a budget in private, then the state Legislature certainly should not. There should not be any closed caucuses on the budget."

What's more, he said, the budget should only entail budgetary items; there shouldn't be any nonfiscal items in it.

" And I would make it, by statute, that the Legislature can't vote on anything after 10 at night or before 9 in the morning," Walker said. "They did things this last (budget) at 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. As I tell my staff, nothing good happens after midnight…" 

Walker, WEDC, And "Transparency." Very Situational

Though he chairs the troubled cookie jar known as the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, where state auditors found that rules, laws and everyday spending, accounting and performance standards had been routinely ignored since the WEDC's inception, Walker somehow summoned up the chutzpah today to say that repairing the mess over which he has 'presided' is an opportunity for more transparency.

The situation also provides an opportunity to develop more transparency with "clear expectations, clear policies and clear follow-up," Walker said.

How does he get away with mocking true transparency by hiding his attack on labor during the 2010 campaign, then "drop[ing] the bomb" with what he called "a modest proposal" on citizen/public employees?

And by killing the Department of Commerce as a political, promise-fulfilling replacement for the WEDC, where  transparency has been turned into its opposite?

Walker has played fast and loose with the phrase and its implementation dating back to 'managing' the Milwaukee County Executive's Office with partisan fund-raising, Internet and organizing operatives hidden on his staff and payroll.

And Walker's campaign website had for more than a year carried a link to this piece in the Lakeland Times in which he endorsed "transparency" as a lifestyle:

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.

And I'd copied the link to the campaign posting more than once - - examples from 2011 and 2012 are here and here - -  but this is where those campaign links take you now:

Not Found, Error 404

Wisconsin Development Board, Members, Being Used, Dissed

One of Scott Walker's signature, pro-business moves upon becoming Governor last year was morphing the cabinet-level Wisconsin Department of Commerce into something that CEO's and investor-types were supposed to like even better- - a public/private hybrid with a business-dominated Board of Directors called the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

Set aside that the executive director there is quitting after little more than a year at the helm, and that the new agency has failed to lead a business turn-around in Wisconsin as Walker is only +11% towards his campaign pledge to create 250,000 new jobs during a four-year term.

Facts are emerging that the agency kept its board in the dark about allegations from federal regulators that millions of taxpayer dollars were being poorly managed and perhaps spent without legal authority.

The Wisconsin State Journal broke the story.

It's bad policy to keep important information like that from a board, especially one with a public mission and multi-million-dollar public budget - - and worse, in this case, since it was the board chair Scott Walker himself who is on record opting for management by bureaucratic double-speak instead of disclosure, as reported by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Walker, who chairs the economic development board, defended the decision not to inform the board of the matter, saying the federal government "routinely" corresponds with the state.

"It's one where the Department of Administration is still waiting to hear back from HUD in terms of whether the things they're proposing are acceptable to them," he said. "And if those are things that need approval from the board certainly we'll have a special meeting of the board."

Late Thursday update: Apologies and other CYA activities smooth over the administration's bad behavior.

All of which undermines something Walker told The Lakeland Times during the 2010 campaign about "transparency:"

Transparency

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said.

"I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.

The Journal Sentinel is also reporting that one board member, threatening resignation, seems to be catching on.

I suspect the public will be close behind.

WI dismisses climate science as roads, farms and lives suffer

[Updated four times from 7/21/17]

8/8:

Wisconsin's 2017 rainfall setting records:

Records date back 123 years.

7/23:

For perspective - - Many Western Wisconsin roads and other infrastructure washed out in 2016 floods are still not rebuilt; one NW local official says he has seen a dozen 100-year-storms in the last 30 years, while a state official says road-building standards have not caught up with "evidence...pointing towards increasing frequency of large" storm events.

The state upgraded culverts and made improvements where possible while trying to restore travel routes as quickly as possible last summer, said Gary Brunner, chief project development engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. And while making quick and quality repairs is crucial, Brunner said there is a need to look at how the state plans for storms like the one that ripped across northern Wisconsin.

"We do know that evidence is pointing towards increasing frequency of large events like this," Brunner said. "I don’t think the standards have really caught up in terms of how we should try to design for the future, because you also have to think about how are we going to pay for designing for the future..."

Brunner said it would break the bank if every local government tried to engineer roads to withstand 500-year to 1,000-year flood events like last July’s flood. Many towns have struggled to pay for repairs just to return them to their condition before the storm. Some local governments who have finished work are still waiting to be paid.

Imagine.

But you don't have to imagine that no one raised the alarm last year.

State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, (D-Alma), said after the 2016 floods:

Repairing rural roads is a huge challenge for every town board. For many years, the state budget provided less money than towns needed to keep up with routine wear and tear on roads. With the recent floods, new problems appeared and old problems are worse.

Likewise, conservation structures – dams and so forth – were not built to handle the storms we experienced. Again, state support has lagged behind needs.

Or that the US EPA hadn't been raising the alarm since 2003 - - a warning to local officials I heard for myself - - and which I have repeatedly cited on this blog:

Then-Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist and I attended a conference in Chicago in 2003, hosted by Mayor Richard Daley, where officials from the EPA told Midwestern elected leaders that climate change models predicted heavier rain events.

The EPA officials were urging the Midwestern leaders to adapt their planning and spending to more aggressively confront storm water and related services because heavier, intense rains were going to be come more frequent.

Part of the message was: forget the notion of the "100-year-storm." They'll come more often than that in the Midwest as the atmosphere warms.

And when I discovered last year that the Wisconsin DNR under Scott Walker had deleted climate change science and published data from its webpages, it deleted specific information about a warming climate tripping off more rain and flooding, including deletions like this which you can see for yourself:

Changes in rain and snowfall patterns (including more frequent and severe storms) could change water flow in streams and rivers and increase stream bank erosion and runoff pollution.

 ---------------------------------------------

Updated 7/22:

Flood emergency disaster declarations for 17 additional Wisconsin Counties brings the current total to 20, or nearly 30% of the state's 72 counties.]
----------------------------------
With apologies to Bob Dylan, you don't have to be a weatherman to know that Western Wisconsin has again been hammered with storms since last summer's road-and-bridge-breaking onslaught.

But as I wrote at the time:

Despite major floods, WI has zero interest in climate change  

Yet across the state, Southern Wisconsin keeps getting soaked as both the days and nights heat up:

Thursday’s high in Madison was 87 at 4:01 p.m., 5 degrees above the normal high... Thursday’s low in Madison was 67 at 5:38 a.m., 6 degrees above the normal low... 

For meteorological summer (June through August), Madison’s precipitation total rose to 11.4 inches, 4.09 inches above normal. The 2017 total rose to 27.06 inches, 7.92 inches above normal.

And to the suffering Southeast:

Millions in flood damage, millions of gallons of sewer overflows in Racine, Walworth, Kenosha counties

And 600 damaged properties just in Racine County two days ago.

So are these so-called 100-year storm events, or more or less weekly Wisconsin happenings?

Well, don't ask any of those science-types.

Because the state for ideological reasons has officially stopped recognizing the obvious implications of climate change and publishing such information on public sites.

But note how many of these issues were dealt with by a detailed, February, 2010 report, including data and charts showing: 

Wisconsin has become warmer, especially at night, and wetter...

More frequent extreme precipitation events... 

More warming at night...and more warming up north and away
from Lake Michigan 

...issued by the highly-respected, science-based, data-driven Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts, (WICCI) program.

Change in Annual Average Precipitation (inches) from 1950 to 2006

From 1950 to 2006, Wisconsin as a whole has become wetter, with an increase in annual precipitation of 3.1 inches. This observed increase in annual precipitation has primarily occurred in southern and western Wisconsin, while northern Wisconsin has experienced some drying.

Yet Walker's "chamber of commerce mentality DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp has stepped away from the climate change initiative, according to the Lakeland Times newspaper last year: 

...Stepp says the agency's partnership with WICCI has come to an end.

The agency was heavily involved in the 2011 assessment by WICCI that still serves as the group's benchmark, but Stepp says those days are long gone.

"That was a study that was done through a lot of different partners and the former DNR under the past administration was very involved in that," she said. "We are not involved in that anymore."

John Doe Probe, Criminal Charges, Make Walker Boast Laughable

With more criminal charges apparently coming against Scott Walker insiders and former staffers who worked for him during his Milwaukee County Executive tenure, these lines from a Lakeland Times campaign interview with gubernatorial candidate Walker in September, 2010 sure look silly now:

When he says he believes in government transparency, it's not just a campaign slogan, Walker said "I don't just say that, I've lived it," he said.

By the time that interview took place, a shortfall of funds had already been discovered in a veterans fund managed from Walker's office, and Walker had already ignored County ethics' advice to remove the fund from his office and personally it handed to long-time aide Tim Russell, who now stands accused of stealing from it.

Transparency?

Please.

Add Your Voice To Recall Media

Terrific letter to a small-town newspaper - - The Lakeland Times - - bringing details, with specifics and web addresses for more information about Walkergate to the local readership.

To the Editor:

I am writing this letter to be sure that people in our area are aware of the investigations, charges and convictions that have been going on regarding Scott Walker and his Milwaukee County administration. 

People in the newspaper business know that letters get more readers than editorials.

Now is a good time to compose and send a similar letter to your local paper.

Magazine Columnist Missed Walker's Sucker Punch

The "Lexington" columnist David Rennie, writing in The Economist this week, profiled Scott Walker and assessed his presidential bona fides.

Rennie is the magazine's DC bureau chief, has been writing the column since September, 2012, but misreads Wisconsin and American history if he really believes Walker "has a knack for economic populism."

Here is a link to the piece - -  and I will organize my objections around this line from the piece:

After Mr Walker announced plans to curb collective bargaining for state workers, the state capitol was besieged for months by thousands of protesters." 

"Announced plans" omits what really happened - - and why Walker has more of a knack for opaque scheming that democratic, populist practice. 

*  Walker did more than 'announce plans.' He sprung a set of unexpected and unprecedented bills (now state law) and said their revelation was when he "dropped the bomb." (See Walker's remarks in the transcript of Ian Murphy's infamous taped phone call.)

Even The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a paper that endorsed Walker for Governor in 2010 and in the 2012 gubernatorial recall election, said Walker was wrong to have withheld the bomb from voters:

Walker never campaigned on disenfranchising public-employee unions. If he had, he would not have been elected. He got a spare 52% of the vote - hardly a mandate for what he is trying to do.

No wonder PolitiFact rated Walker's claim "False" that he had campaigned on a platform to wipeout collective bargaining.

* Note also Walker disclosed to his largest donor his a "divide-and-conquer" labor strategy.

Does that indicate "A knack for economic populism?" 

Hardly.

*  And the column's description of describing Walker's approach as "plans to curb collective bargaining" also sanitizes the extent of the measures.

Under the news labor laws, only proposed salary raises locked that do not exceed 1% annually remain as the allowable vestige of 50 years of economic and workplace bargaining, with union elections impossibly hamstring by procedural impossibilities embedded into state law,too.

* No wonder PolitiFact rated Walker's claim "Pants on Fire" that Wisconsin's collective bargaining protections were somehow "fully Intact" under his measures.

*  And the measures were extended to local public employees, too - - teachers, snow plow operators, file clerks, nurses, et al - - not just state employees, as The Economist column states.

Walker kept his intentions under wraps throughout a 2010 statewide campaign during which he had the gall to brag about a dedication to transparency (See "Transparency" section in this Lakeland Times interview transcript, here).

Wisconsinites were as upset with Walker's guile as they were with his goals.

It would be a mistake to allow recent Wisconsin history to be recast or forgotten altogether.

Mining Takes A Hit In N. Wisconsin

The Lakeland Times has the story:

The Oneida County Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday against pursuing mining as a vehicle for economic development.

After three hours of discussion, including emotional testimony from a number of mining opponents, the board voted 12-9 to discontinue exploring the feasibility of opening a mine in the town of Lynne or in any other part of the county...

Since the resolution failed to receive a majority vote, mining “will no longer proceed as a policy goal for Oneida County,” Corporation Counsel Brian Desmond said. “The mining issue will be stricken from the agendas (of the Forestry Committee),” he added.

Assembly Budget Vote Makes Mockery Of Candidate Walker's Pledges

The GOP-controlled State Assembly, having done its horse-trading behind closed doors and passed a $66-billion budget at 3:00 a.m this morning, broke Scott Walker's sanctimonious open-governing-and-budgeting promises to the Lakeland Times [see "Transparency," towards the bottom] and posted on his 2010 campaign website.

In fact I've even proposed - in terms of the budget process, but it would apply to anything - other things that would help transparency," he said. "I don't think there should be any votes in closed caucus, on any issue. If a county board or school board can't discuss a budget in private, then the state Legislature certainly should not. There should not be any closed caucuses on the budget."

"And I would make it, by statute, that the Legislature can't vote on anything after 10 at night or before 9 in the morning," Walker said. "They did things this last (budget) at 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. As I tell my staff, nothing good happens after midnight. But they did it on purpose because not only do they not want average persons to know, they don't want reporters with deadlines to know - after 10 you miss the nightly TV news and you're not in print for the daily newspapers. They push it back on a Saturday, hoping people won't read about things like that"

GOP-run JFC 'Coup Amendment' empowers legislators' pension system power

[Updated from Monday, 9:58 p.m.] Based on what they have seen already slipped into the budget process through the dreaded 999 motion - - what I am calling the Coup Amendment, as it was intended to neutralize the Open Records law and make many other foundational state government changes that strongly smell of heavy-handed lobbying - - all to further empower one-party special-interest-obeisant/GOP rule in Wisconsin - - why should state employees and retirees trust this gang of power-mad Republicans to have the public good in mind as they stealthily enhance their authority over the state retirement system without notice or justification by kicking off public, non-legislator oversight committee members?

I defer to the conservative Wisconsin Newspaper, The Lakeland Times, on the big picture here. It's GOP sleaze, cronyism and corruption.

And it's all been done out of the public eye, without hearings, without debate or discussion or warning offered through the last amendment taken up by the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee after weeks of work, talk, delay, more talk and then high-speed 'legislating' to help meet Walker's presidential campaign timetable.'

Let's call it what it is: 

The Coup Amendment. 

It's entire undemocratic content, and not just the Open Records outrage from which Walker has bailed - - though acts officially as it it were law - - should be excised from the budget.

Coup by email attachment or text message or hand-written note slipped to the committee chairs is still a coup, a theft of power that updates and validates Woody Guthrie's robbery-with-a fountain-pen reference, no?