Posted in News, Those Kooky Conservatives!

Something stinks in the Courthouse, and it’s not the nasty bathrooms

   December 15, 2009

As first reported by Dan Cody, there’s something smelly in the County Courthouse (and this time, it’s not the disgusting bathrooms).

After Scott Walker eliminated the jobs of over 90 County housekeepers in his effort to privatize as much of County government as possible, MidAmerican Building Services was awarded the contract to provide housekeeping services at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, a contract which will pay MidAmerican Building Services $97,793 a month to clean the Courthouse. What’s most interesting about the contract awarded to MidAmerican Building Services is the fact that Edward Aprahamian, the owner of MidAmerican Building Services, made a $1,000 contribution to Scott Walker’s gubernatorial campaign on June 30, 2009.

And here’s where the plot really thickens – at least in my opinion. As noted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Scott Walker used a standard procurement process for picking the companies to clean the various County facilities (including the Courthouse) rather than a professional service contract method. In using a standard procurement process instead of the professional service contract method, Walker was able to avoid the contract coming under any scrutiny from the County Board of Supervisors, but perhaps that was Walker’s intent all along. Put the fact that the contract didn’t come under scrutiny from the County Board together with the fact that one (or more) of the contract’s bidders gave campaign contributions to Scott Walker and something certainly smells awfully funny.

Is there some “pay to play” going on at the Courthouse? I don’t know, but something certainly doesn’t seem right about the way the County Courthouse cleaning contract was awarded.

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8 thoughts on “Something stinks in the Courthouse, and it’s not the nasty bathrooms”

  2. MidAmerican Building Services appears to play both sides, the Js online article indicates that Aprahamian also gave $2,000 to Barrett and then recieved contracts from the City of Milwaukee.

    Now we are starting to look like Chicago.

    1. Hmm. Wondering about making the argument against contribution limits…

      By limiting the amount someone can contribute, it makes it more difficult to figure out if they’re actually trying to buy something with it or not. Granted, for me personally, if $1,000 to someone would be a huge amount of money & mean either it’s a friend or close family or I’m getting something for it. But for most of the types of people involved, $1,000 doesn’t necessarily mean much. Now if there were no limits, and they donated considerably more than that, we’d know to be very, very suspicious.

      1. Locke, $1,000 might not be much to the players involved here, but perhaps that’s the point – donate enough to make a dent but not so much as to draw scrutiny.

        1. My own thought is that the donations probably didn’t help get the contract awarded. In my experience working with a number of contractors in public works projects the contracts are generally required to be awarded to the low bidder absent other circumstances. That being said, the donations have value as it ensures you will get a returned phone call even if it does make a difference in getting the award. From a business standpoint, being able to talk to Doyle, Barrett, or Walker is valuable to learn of potential upcoming work so that you can staff your business appropriately.

  3. The worst part of the privitization of the cleaning of the courthouse and other county buildings is that the contractors can do this for less only because they pay poverty-level wages.

    I happen to know that the “new” cleaners at the courthouse are being paid a whopping $8 an hour to clean it. And this is with very limited benefits. The former county workers were paid between $10.50/hour and $14.00 an hour to clean it with EXCELLENT benefits. $14 an hour to be a janitor is not the highest pay for this position in the area, but the great county benefits more than made up for it.

    For this the county had loyal, dedicated workers who cared about thier jobs. And the courthouse staff know who would be cleaning their offices, courtrooms, restrooms, etc, day in and day out. The county employes also had beenfits like sick leave, paid vacations, holiday pay, and a pension.

    I work in the custodial business. Having an in-house crew is the best way to go. You have significantly reduced theft by cleaners this way and you know who is going to be in the building on a day-to-day basis.

    When you use a cleaning contractor, there is always high employee turnover, employees can be reassigned without notice, and the quality of work in general is poor. There are also problems with employees reading confindetial papers on desks and of course, theft from offices. How much incentive is there to do a great job when you are paid $8 an hour and you cannot afford the premiums on the poor-quality health insurance your company offers?

    One result is the Walmart syndrome where few eligible employees actually take the health insurance. The others simply go on programs like BadgerCare if they have chidren. The single employees simply go to the emergency room at places like Froedert Hosptial and the taxpayers pick up the tab.

    1. JGW, I’ve always been a firm believer that you get what you pay for when it comes to certain jobs. Pay someone barely above minimum wage, and you’re bound to get a low quality of work from that person. Now obviously not every custodial worker at the Courthouse worked to the same level, but I think we’ll see that with lower paid staff, the overall quality of service is going to be much lower.

    2. THANKS JGW FOR THE KIND WORDS. I WORKED IN COUNTY GOV.FOR 16YEARS AS A CLEANING PERSON LET ME TELL YOU THE TAX PAYERS DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT SINCE WALKER CAME TO OFFICE OUR DEPARTMENT WENT DOWN FROM 65 EMPLOYERS TO 26 THAT IS TO COVER 5 BUILDINGS 30 AREAS TOTAL IN THE COURTHOUSE COMPLEX C.C CAMPUS AND CCC.THAT IS VERY THIN WE DID THE BEST WE COULD DO.SOME DAYS ONE PERSON WOULD HAVE 2-3 RUNS THAT IS ALOT OF SQUARE FOOTAGE TO HOLD FOR ONE PERSON .BUT WE DID WHAT WE HAD TO DO BECAUSE IT WAS NOT THE PEOPLE ON THE FLOORS FAULT THAT WE WERE SHORT AND WE COULD’NT SHORT THEM OUT OF SERVICE AS FAR AS US NOT COMING IN TO WORK THOSE LAST WEEKS .ALOT OF US HAD VACATION LEFT THAT WE HAD TO USE ,WE ALL DIDN’T CALL IN SICK .WHAT MAKES REALLY UPSET ABOUT ALL OF THIS IS THESE ARE JOBS NOONE WANTED 10-20 YEARS AGO CLEANING A TOILET WAS BELOW THEM NOW WE ARE THE ONES DRAINING THE TAXPAYERS I DON’T THINK SO…WE WERE FRONT LINE WORKERS THAT DID THE BEST WE COULD..THANKS AGAIN JGW FOR ALL OF YOU SUPPORTIT REALLY DOES MAKE DIFFERENCE TO US ,NOW THAT EVERYONE WAS PUTTING US DOWN THANKS AGAIN

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