Earlier tonight I posted a guest blog by Graeme Zielinski noting that Fran McLaughlin, the current Public Information Officer for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, is poised to receive a promotion (possibly to Deputy Inspector) despite having absolutely no sworn law enforcement experience.
What’s notable about Fran McLaughlin is that her position was targeted for elimination in County Executive Chris Abele’s most recent budget, only to have that position restored by progressives on the County Board who gave conservative Sheriff David Clarke essentially the budget he requested, at the time justifying their actions as “coming out of a concern for public safety.” Conveniently ignored by his defenders on the County Board was the fact that in his capacity as Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has shown himself to be better at promoting himself than at promoting public safety – after all, look at how few deputy sheriffs are actually left in the Sheriff’s Office compared to when Sheriff Clarke was sworn in. The number of deputy sheriffs available to do actual law enforcement duties has been reduced by over half, which seems to fly in the face of arguments that Sheriff Clarke needs an ever-increasing share of the County budget in order to effectively keep our county safe.
In the aftermath of the County Board providing him the budget he wanted, Sheriff Clarke has made a series of personnel moves within his office. While he is poised to reward Fran McLaughlin with a very nice promotion, Sheriff Clarke has demoted seven sergeants back to their positions as deputy sheriffs without providing a reason for those demotions. Further, Clarke has moved Captain Nancy Evans, who’s widely known to be a favorite of Clarke’s, into a leadership position at General Mitchell International Airport, which is among the most sought-after positions in his office.
Here are the memos from Sheriff Clarke’s office outlining the personnel moves.
It’s also worth noting that according to the memos I’ve provided, Sheriff Clarke has also created the Countywide Services Bureau, a completely new bureau within the Sheriff’s Office, but there’s been no indication from Sheriff Clarke as to the purpose or necessity of the new bureau.
I should not have retired. If I only had known.
Merry Christmas, Lev & Sue….what a shame for the fire storm you created….shame on you..!
A hell of a legacy, for a ONCE proud Milwaukee County Sheriff Dep’t. It is now dead in the water…Sunk…Will it ever resurface??
Yes Lev, too bad you too the money and ran. You only cared about one person, just like Clarke. If you cared about anybody, but SOB (Sweet Old Baldwin) you would have stayed. You were too afraid they’d take that healthy drop-back away. What a phony to put that post up…We’ll always remember you for that.