JSOnline says that County Board Chair Marina Dimitrijevic is stepping down from the board chair effective Thursday July 30th:
Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic is stepping down from the post she has held since April 2012.
On Friday, Dimitrijevic notified supervisors of a scheduled July 30 election for a new board chair to complete her current term that ends in 2016. The election for chair will be held during the regularly scheduled board meeting that day.
Dimitrijevic will continue to serve as chair until Thursday’s election, she says in correspondence to supervisors.
Though she did not give a reason for her decision, Dimitrijevic reminded supervisors that when Gov. Scott Walker signed Act 14 into law two years ago — cutting the power, resources and pay of the County Board — it “was the worst of times.”
Supervisor terms will change from four years to two with the April 2016 elections, under terms of the law. At that time, supervisors’ pay will drop by 50% to about $24,000 a year. Current chair pay of $71,412 will be cut in half.
“We cannot let this divisive law define us, or its supporters truly will have won,” Dimitrijevic says in the letter to supervisors.
Supervisors Willie Johnson Jr. and Theodore Lipscomb Sr. said Friday that they will compete for the chair position. Deadline for submitting a statement of candidacy is 4:45 p.m. Tuesday.
I am not comfortable that Sups. Johnson or Lipscomb have what it takes to stand up to County Executive Abele…Sup. John Weishan might be a better choice.
Perhaps she is planning to run against Abele.
It seems like either her or Chris Larson (who made Abele look bad and came out looking good on the Bucks arena) for the progressive side in Spring 2016. Very interested to see how that plays out, as Abele’s got to go.
I think Larson’s seriously considering a challenge to Abele, and I think that of all the possible Democrats to challenge Abele, Larson would have the best chance, given that he’s shown he can raise the kind of money it would take to beat Abele. Larson’s also a very good campaigner, so he’d likely be able to put together a very strong ground game.
I would support anyone who decides to run against King Abele. He is a really poor manager of county services.