Just a couple of thoughts on election night:
- At the risk of further endangering my status as a tried and true liberal, I actually support downsizing the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. I was no fan of the Board’s decision to “downsize” by only one seat as a result of redistricting, and I’d like to see the County Board downsized to 15 Supervisors. While I don’t agree with a recent op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel advocating for a part-time board, I just don’t see the need for Milwaukee County to have a County Board larger than the County Board of Supervisors in Los Angeles County, California.
Here’s a “tale of the tape”:
Los Angeles County, California
Population: 9,818,605 (according to 2010 U.S. Census)
Number of County Supervisors: 5Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
Population: 947,735 (according to 2010 U.S. Census)
Number of County Supervisors: 18I fail to understand why Milwaukee County needs 18 County Supervisors to represent under one million residents while Los Angeles County, which has a population ten times larger than Milwaukee County’s, needs only 5 County Supervisors to represent residents in that county.
While I’ve heard the arguments in favor of keeping the County Board at its current size, I’m among those residents of Milwaukee County who think a smaller County Board wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
- With 54% of the votes counted in the City of Milwaukee, incumbent Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is leading challenger Edward McDonald 70% to 30%. To be honest, I’m surprised Barrett has managed to get 70 percent of the vote, given his recent announcement he’s going to run for governor in a recall election against Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
I would argue though that the Los Angeles County board is too small. There are a lot of areas in Los Angeles County that are not part of an incorporated city, which means that the county government has to be pretty important and powerful. Having each county board member represent an area that is twice the population of Milwaukee County is not democratic either.
Probably the best idea would be to keep the same number of county supervisors, but go to a “Unigov” system like Indianapolis and Louisville, which would get rid of all of the mayors, city council members, and overall get rid of an entire layer of bureaucracy. It would also equalize tax rates across Milwaukee County and eliminate the incentives for say, West Allis or Franklin to try to lure businesses out of the City of Milwaukee or vice versa. You could even keep existing school districts as Indianapolis did; that might eliminate some resistance to the idea.
You fail to look at the comparative salaries and duties of the two different county boards.
I would much prefer the less expensive board we have now which does a better job of representing the entire county and not just the suburbs. I would not want to live in a county where the people like Joe Sanfelippo, Paul Cesarz and Joe Rice hold sway.
Zach, something we agree on. I won’t tell my friends if you don’t tell yours.
The LA-MKE comparison has been made before. LA County relies heavily on a large professional staff to manage it, with each supervisor getting something like 8 or 10 professional staff per supervisor to run their offices (I don’t have time the AM to look it up again) and budgets in the many-times-higher range, plus appointed staff making many decisions. In other words, LA County has less accountability to the voters because so much of the work of running the county government is done by non-elected officials. Looking at the number of elected officials gives a false sense that MKECo government is too large.
I do think MKECo, MKE, and other govt agencies like MPS, MMSD, MATC, and even UWM and other school districts could do a lot more coordination of services and sharing or pooling of resources, but cutting the county board arbitrarily, without regard for how the services will get managed well with fewer supervisors and staff, is not the right first step, especially if it’s fueled by a fallacious comparison to LA County.
@Zach I’m with you, I agree the County Board should continue to get smaller..
I could see a smaller sized board, but a part time? I don’t think it’s a great idea. If anything, cut the numbers of the Board and increase the work load of the individuals in the role. I would say the same thing about the Common Council.
I’ve never heard a good (or really any) argument on exactly why less representation would be a good thing.
To save a couple hundredths of a percent off the budget (and have to hire more staff, making even that weak claim questionable)? Gobbledygook.
And cutting pay will only further discourage well-qualified people from running.