Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express has a new piece outlining how Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele sided with the conservative county board chairs from three other counties to appoint a non-Milwaukee County resident to the MATC board.
Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele once again sided with suburban conservatives, this time when making appointments to the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) board of directors.
In March, Abele passed over his fellow Milwaukee Democrat Sandy Pasch and other Milwaukeeans and appointed Mequon-based manufacturer Mary Isbister to the MATC board, a move that has his critics crying foul.
Shorewood resident Pasch, a former state legislator who’d had a long career as a nurse and nursing instructor, was up against Isbister for a seat on the board. Cedarburg resident Isbister and her husband Eric own GenMet, a manufacturer that’s become the poster child for the skills gap controversy in Wisconsin.
Abele chairs the four-person appointment committee comprised of the board chairs of Milwaukee, Ozaukee and Washington counties plus himself. But when the memberscast their votes, the suburbanites and Abele stuck together against Milwaukee County Board Chair Marina Dimitrijevic. The committee voted 3-1 for Isbisterover Pasch as well as Von Briesen & Roper attorney Mark Foley over VeoliaNorth America communications and community relations manager Joyce Harms for another open seat. Graciela Maizonet, a machine builder and repairer at Master Lock,earned another term as a large employer representative on the board.
Dimitrijevic told the Shepherd she was shocked that Abele passed over Pasch, saying that her health care background would have been helpful to a board lacking anyone from that industry.
“Wouldn’t we want that training and curriculum development and leadership on the board?” Dimitrijevic said.
She said that MATC also would have benefitted from Harms’ experience at Veolia, since the water industry is attempting to turn Milwaukee into a global water hub.
Harms’ presence on the board would have taken MATC “to the next level,” Dimitrijevic said.
But Dimitrijevic said she was most shocked that Abele voted against adding another Milwaukeean to the board. Of the eight potential candidates, only Isbister lives outside of Milwaukee County. “I assumed that we would be united at least in the interests of Milwaukee County citizens,” she said. “That did not happen.”
Zach, thanks.
Last I checked, Mequon was in Ozaukee County.