Like a home seller leaving behind a hidden termite nest in the foundation, Scott Walker walked away from Milwaukee County government in 2010 and left the next administration a multi-million dollar mess to fix:
$4.1 million in wages Walker illegally withheld from County employees through mandatory furlough days he had no authority to order, plus responsibility for a yet-to-be-calculated legal tab run up in the last two years by employees who won restoration of the lost wages, the Journal Sentinel reports.
His imperious behavior - - on top of eight years managing County finances into the ground - - hurt individual workers, and now all County taxpayers, but Walker is now ensconced in the Governor's Mansion and beyond local accountability.
I fear he's going beyond statewide accountability as well. Who knows what secret messes are piling up in the closets and back hallways of the governor's mansion?
ReplyDeleteI don't think he is beyond accountability. What about going after the contractors who were awarded contracts for security in County offices? Even a declaration by the current board that Walker acted beyond his powers to the detriment of the County and it's taxpayers would be something. It feels wrong to just throw up our hands and say "well, too bad for us." Others must have better ideas than I do on this.
ReplyDeleteWith healthcare now, too, Walker has decided to flaunt the law. He's banking on Obamacare being overturned by the Supreme Court and perhaps on Romney becoming president. But he won't follow the terms of the Affordable Care Act even if it isn't overturned. And the taxpayers of Wisconsin will have to pay for his scoff-law behavior just as the taxpayers of Milwaukee County are paying now. Is this fair? Walker can flaunt law and destroy the very government he was entrusted to run and still keep those millions of dollars he's so good at raising. Is this still America?
ReplyDeleteI'm curious, every time I see stories on Walker's multimillion dollar mess from ordering furloughs, as to whether Doyle also did wrong in ordering the furloughs (read = pay cuts) for two years on all state employees? Did the governor have the right to do so, unilaterally and entirely as a surprise to state workers (both union and nonunion workers)? And, as he did at the same time, did he have the right to unilaterally cancel the raises due to the nonunions workers (the union workers had gotten theirs)?
ReplyDeleteAny legal minds know the answer to this one -- the answer as to whether what turns out to be wrong for a county exec to do was okay for a governor to do? At least Walker rammed through his Act 10 in the legislature. Doyle acted alone -- and ordered his cuts on workers for a lot longer than did Walker.
@anon3- managers who do not belong to unions have no rights - the governor or a mayor can do anything they want to them. My wife has worked as a high level manager for over 25 years at the city level. She has not received a raise since 2008.
ReplyDeleteEven a declaration by the current board that Walker acted beyond his powers to the detriment of the County and it's taxpayers would be something.www.compmanwc.com
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