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When are these folks going to get it right?

Understaffing in Milwaukee County’s procurement office has left it vulnerable to inside rip-offs, a new audit report says.

Budget cuts shrank the staff by more than 50% between 2003 and 2007, leading to shoddy recordkeeping, poor training and corner-cutting, the report from County Auditor Jerome Heer states.

Most notably, a policy change in 2003 allowed buyers to make purchases of any amount without any management oversight, the report says.

“We were just lucky somebody didn’t exploit the vulnerability,” Heer said Wednesday. The office oversees about $50 million in county purchases annually.

So I can’t help but wonder, does dumb luck count as a management style? After all, it’s thanks to dumb luck that the county has avoided being ripped off due to staffing cuts, poor training, and corner-cutting. I’m also left to wonder if this is really the kind of County government Scott Walker is proud to manage. I know he’s pushed hard to decrease the size of county government, but at what cost? Some cuts just shouldn’t be made, and cutting the ability of the county government to provide oversight and prevent wasteful or inappropriate spending shouldn’t be something we strive for.

Perhaps if Scott Walker spent more time managing Milwaukee County and less time getting his gubernatorial campaign up and running, this kind of problem wouldn’t be happening.

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Being a former employee at the Milwaukee County House of Correction, I try to keep up with the latest news and happenings from that particular institution, so imagine my surprise when I opened today’s paper and saw an article about an inmate from the HOC who’s being charged with first-degree reckless homicide after being accused of supplying another inmate with prescription methadone pills, causing that inmate’s death. What’s most disturbing to me, at least at first glance, is the fact that the HOC wasn’t even licensed to distribute methadone to treat heroin withdrawal:

Methadone is frequently used to treat pain and as a non-addictive substitute to help wean heroin addicts off that drug. The House of Correction is not licensed to treat heroin withdrawal with methadone, according to the criminal complaint. It wasn’t immediately clear why Fitzpatrick was getting the methadone, but according to the complaint, he had been getting 14 pills twice a day from the medical dispensary. He traded an unspecified number of the pills to Orlowski for snack chips from the House of Correction commissary, the complaint says.

While it’s obvious to me internal House of Corrections policies regarding prescribed medications are largely to blame, both for continuing to give an inmate methadone despite not being licensed to do so and also for allowing the inmate to hoard his methadone for weeks at a time. However, I can already see who Scott Walker and HOC Superintendent Ron Malone are going to blame, in order to deflect blame away from themselves:

Attempts to revive Orlowski about 6 a.m. were unsuccessful, the criminal complaint says. A correctional officer checked on Orlowski at 4 a.m., when he was snoring loudly, and last checked on him at 5:25 a.m., the complaint says.

The Orlowski family claim says that correctional officers “refused to look at or check up” on Orlowski early that morning despite repeated pleas by other inmates.

If you’d like to read more on the foibles and follies at the Milwaukee County House of Corrections, check out a series of excellent blog entries by capper over at folkbum’s, or feel free to check out my archive.

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Just last week, Other Side came under fire for posting side by side pictures of Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and Adolf Hitler, and while he had a reasonable explanation for posting those pictures, he still came under fire for his use of a photo of Adolf Hitler. Predictably, conservatives voiced some of the strongest opinions on the issue, and so I wonder if those same folks will now focus their outrage on Kevin Fischer.

See, last weekend Fischer spent some time blogging about the Wisconsin DNR, and here’s what he had to say:

The Wisconsin wing of the Nazi Party, the DNR did get involved. (“Now we’re getting somewhere” thought the litigious mob).

Fischer - who by the way doesn’t look nearly as corpulent on television as he does in the photo posted on his blog - doesn’t seem to think it’s in poor taste to compare entire state agencies - and by default those folks who work at said agencies - to Nazi, which I find to be curious, given the fact that the Nazis were responsible for killing millions of Jews, while all the DNR has done to warrant a Fischer comparison to Nazis seems to be the approval of a permit for a waterpark.

So where’s the outrage from folks on the right? It’s been a little over a week, and yet not one conservative that I’ve seen has called Fischer to task for his comparison.

Edit: Michael Mathias over at Pundit Nation, James Rowen at The Political Environment, and capper over at Whallah! have more on this story.

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First of all, there’ll be no gnashing of teeth or whining here.

Am I disappointed in how things turned out last night? Hell yes, but such is politics. Sometimes your side wins and sometimes they lose; that’s just the reality of our political system.

While I’ve made no effort to hide my dislike for Scott Walker and the job he’s done as Milwaukee County Executive, I wasn’t terribly surprised he won, because Lena Taylor ran one of the worst campaigns I’ve witnessed since I became interested in politics. At times she seemed disinterested, and at others she seemed clueless, and I can’t help but wonder if she was really the best liberal candidate out there to run against Scott Walker.

And sure, I’m disappointed Louis Butler lost to Michael Gableman, but my disappointment has less to do with Gableman’s ideology - though I do disagree with his judicial philosophy, to the extent that he has one - and more to do with the kind of negative and unethical campaign he ran.

While last night had its share of disappointment, there were also some positives. The “Frankenveto” is no more, and that’s definitely a good thing. The “Frankenveto” allowed for tremendous abuses by Republican and Democratic governors alike, and I for one am glad to see it go. Besides, our governor will still have some of the broadest veto powers in the nation without the “Frankenveto.” Another high point was the re-election of Lisa Neubauer to a full term on Wisconsin’s Second District Court of Appeals, defeating newly conservative wannabe Bill Gleisner.

Closer to home, I’m glad to see Pat Jursik won a full four year term on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors without any opposition, and I was happy to see Tom Zepecki elected to another term as South Milwaukee’s mayor. Pat and Tom have done well during their time in office, and they definitely deserved another term in office.

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On the eve of Wisconsin’s spring election day, I’m going to make a few picks.

Wisconsin Supreme Court: This is a no brainer. Michael Gableman has run one of the most disgustingly vile and dishonest campaigns in as long as I can remember, and in doing so he’s exposed himself as supremely unqualified and unfit to sit on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. Louis Butler has shown himself to be a more than capable jurist, and he deserves a full term on the Supreme Court.

Milwaukee County Executive: There’s no denying Lena Taylor has run a poor campaign, but putting aside the quality of her campaign, she’s the only reasonable choice for Milwaukee County Executive. Scott Walker’s had plenty of time to deliver on campaign promises past and present, and I daresay his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive will be remembered as one of broken promises and incompetence.

Milwaukee County Supervisor, District 8: Pat Jursik is running unopposed, and for good reason. She’s done a good job in her short tenure as Supervisor for the 8th District, and she deserves a full four year term.

Veto Referendum: I’m voting yes. Wisconsin’s “Frankenveto” has been abused by Democrats and Republicans alike, and even if the referendum passes, our governor will still have some of the broadest veto powers of any governor in the United States.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court: Both Rebecca Dallet and Jeffrey Norman seem qualified, but having met and spoken with Rebecca Dallet, I believe she has the temperment and smarts to be an asset to Milwaukee County on the Circuit Court.

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