This is an unbelievable display of crony politics at its worst…
Acting County Executive Lee Holloway has quietly given the county’s top staff job to Renee Booker, whose controversial tenure as head of the county’s child welfare division ended with the state’s 2001 takeover of the operation.
Booker, who is being paid $120,372 as director of Milwaukee County’s Department of Administrative Services, oversees the county budget, purchasing, contracts and other key tasks.
A county audit in 2001 found $6 million in overspending in the child welfare division, prompting calls for Booker’s firing and triggering the state’s takeover of the troubled operation. Then-County Executive Tom Ament demoted Booker instead, naming him to a lower-paid administrative job at the House of Correction in Franklin, now called the County Correctional Facility-South.
That job was eliminated in 2002 shortly after Gov. Scott Walker took office as Ament’s successor.
Predictably, Lee Holloway declined to comment on Booker’s hiring.
Lee Holloway can’t be voted out of office fast enough.
first scott walker now renee booker, it seems that bankrupting Milwaukee is qualifications to move on to a bigger and more lucrative career.