If Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas and the Waukesha County Board really want voters to have complete trust in our election system, they’ve got a long way to go, especially after Tuesday night’s County Board Personnel Committee meeting. That’s because, according to Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel, a Waukesha County Supervisor made a motion at the meeting to “remove language in the proposed spending ordinance that identifies specific failings of County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus.” The motion failed, but questions remain.
The Waukesha County Board’s Personnel Committee had little to say about the $256,300 needed to resolve problems and reduce risks in the county clerk’s elections operations, recommending approval of the spending request unanimously Tuesday.
Members, however, refused an attempt by newly elected Supervisor Jennifer Grant of Menomonee Falls to remove language in the proposed spending ordinance that identifies specific failings of County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus.
Supervisor Grant’s reasoning was that it was too personal:
“The County Board can take care of business in a professional and respectful manner,” Grant said, explaining why she wanted the language removed. “I think it’s fairly personal in nature.”
But when approving such a large amount of taxpayer money to be spent- more than $256,000- to fix errors made by Kathy Nickolaus, wouldn’t it make logical sense to include ALL of the information in the spending ordinance? It’s certainly relevant:
…$15,000 was spent on hiring SysLogic Inc., a business process expert, to evaluate Nickolaus’ operation. And $237,300 is for Command Central LLC, an election software vendor, to program balloting equipment – a job only Nickolaus knows how to do in her office. Command Central’s fees include $136,500 for the May and June recall election ballots and $100,000 for the August primary election.
The avoidable costs also include $4,000 to train others in her office to program equipment for the November election, avoiding further Command Central programming work for that election.
Now, I realize that the Supervisor who filed the motion to exclude Nickolaus’ name from the ordinance, Jennifer Grant of Menomonee Falls, is newly elected, but does she realize how her attempt to shield Kathy Nickolaus from scrutiny looks?
Board members didn’t appear to be troubled by the attempted motion and are moving on, because, while Kathy Nickolaus, herself, was not at Tuesday’s meeting, she has promised to follow proper procedures in upcoming elections.
Nickolaus did not appear before the Personnel Committee on Tuesday. But Norman A. Cummings, director of administration, said Nickolaus told him Monday that she would follow the consultant’s recommendations and work with his department to ensure smoother sailing in the August and November elections.
“We’re delighted,” he said. “That’s music. I’ve been waiting for that for a long time.”
Mr. Cummings seems to have a tremendous amount of faith in Kathy Nickolaus. But after everything Kathy Nickolaus has done and considering the way it has been handled, Waukesha County Board members cannot expect voters to be as trusting.
The goods news here is that Kathy Nickolaus’ self appointed “indispensable” computer god status has been downgraded to that of a dispensable mere mortal.
I look forward to the day when I don’t hear any more news stories whatsoever about Kathy Nickolaus/
Remember Bob D’Angelo? Perhaps you don’t, it was a fairly Madison-centric story. Head of the Overture Center, was involved in sexual harassment of co-workers over several years, but THEN the investigation found he was using his office to run a business and also income-tax evasion from that business… spent part of a year in the pen. I just love that we never hear any more about ol’ Bob D’Angelo.
After all, there are NEW crooks in town!
Yes, time marches on. And so does corruption–oh wait, Wisconsin used to be known for having honest, open government. Wouldn’t looking forward to days when we had few negative news stories to complain about be a better thing? That would make me happy, for sure.
Kathy Nicolaus would like nothing better than you forgetting about all this. So would the local government that lets these misdeeds happen.
But nothing is done to repair the damage done by these bad problems if you just forget about them. Eliminating news stories describing these bad events doesn’t fix the problem, either! We have government to keep our society orderly and honest. When that happens, then we have reason to celebrate.
The purpose of this blog is to promote open and honest discussion about current events and their relation to politics–with a “Blue” perspective, of course.
Why a reply would have to be “moderated” after posting a comment before being published by the blog seems a little strange, though.
Apparently the misdeeds of Kathy Nickolaus are all to be forgotten; they were just HER “mistakes,” although working with software and hardware that have raised plenty of questions about election integrity. Following the April 3rd fiasco, Kathy agreed to step aside from running future elections; Kathy was the sole programmer, working with Command Central (they also are the Wisconsin distributers for the Dominion voting machines, including Sequoia, see http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/06/07/recall-election-fraud-in-wisconsin-you-betcha/) software. Noone else was allowed to program Waukesha County’s vast voting system, only Kathy and Command Central. Command Central also exclusively services the machines, both prior to and following an election. Software is changed prior to every election. Kathy kept no backup on the system or documentation of the voting machines through the election cycle. That is called covering your tracks; with no record of the system, it’s quite easy and more than just a little self-serving to blame the problems on her own, supposedly innocent “mistake.” After all, she had only the best intentions for voters!
Command Central is completely let off the hook! Waukesha County continues to contract with Command Central for future elections, even though the firm has caused alarms to sound in many other Wisconsin counties, as well as elsewhere. The Government Accountability Board has given them a free pass!
Voting systems can altered for election day any number of ways: see http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6369
Considering this quarter-million-dollar-plus expense you would think would be unnecessary–for Kathy and Command Central to continue their operations–one would think local tax payers would be outraged…
But Ms. Grant the issue is “fairly” personal, the language is fair. When did specific acknowledged facts about a person in the public domain become unfair.