Milwaukee County Board Chair Marina Dimitrijevic’s tour of Milwaukee county via her Chats with the Chair is a breath of fresh air for county residents. Instead of hiding in the moated community that is the County Courthouse like her predecessor, Chairwoman Dimitrijevic gave county residents a chance to meet her and hear her concerns about the future of Milwaukee County government. Although with the best intentions, I kept putting off attending the chats and I procrastinated until they were all over.
Unfortunately, immediately after she completed her tour, State Representative (and former County Supervisor) Joe Sanfelippo decided to single-handedly try to blow up the MKE County Board.
While reading comments to the various articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as well as comments on various discussions on Facebook and blog sites, it is apparent that many people don’t fully understand the role of county government. And I confess that I don’t know every area that the county is charged with maintaining. One commenter even asked what value he was getting for his county property taxes.
At this point I would suggest a new round of Chats with the Chair that wholly focus on the current functions and responsibilities of county government. If we are going to be forced to debate and to vote on the size of the board, we should make sure we have voters who are versed in county government.
And I would suggest that all county supervisors hold similar town hall meetings in their districts as soon as possible. There seems to be a great disconnect between the county and the voters…and that can be easily rectified before it’s too late.
a little side note: if you are so inclined to comment on any of my blogs about MKE County government, I’d appreciate if you’d indicate if you are a county resident or not
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