New Union Boss

Cheers.

The West Bend Education Association has new leadership.

West Bend West High School Library media specialist Jason Penterman was elected president of the teacher association.

Penterman started working in the West Bend School District in the fall of 2001 as an English teacher.

  He was elected president of the teacher’s association in March, along with Salley Heuer as secretary and Diane Praeger as treasurer. Terms of office are two years.

Penterman said he hopes to build the association’s relationship with the West Bend School Board and district administration. He also wants to improve student attendance and reduce drop-out rates.

  The WBEA represents about 500 professional staff and another 200 teaching assistant and secretarial support staff in the West Bend School District.

Friends of a Feather

Barrett, Doyle, and the President of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards (daughter of Ann Richards, former Pelosi staffer, married to SEIU thug, etc.).

Hat tip Charlie Sykes. 

Week In Review 7/30/10

I’ll be on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Week In Review tomorrow morning from 8 AM to 9 PM AM.  I’ll be discussing the issues of the day with Christine Bremer Muggli and YOU!

Tune in. 

Milwaukee County Supervisors Display Their Arrogance and Greed

Of course...

A divided Milwaukee County Board Thursday sidetracked a proposal to cut their own pensions and those of other elected county officials by 20%.

If ultimately approved, the cut would apply prospectively to future pension credit earned.

On a 10-9 vote, the board referred the measure for a legal opinion on whether the pension change could advance in the absence of any recommendation from the county Pension Board. The Pension Board, by county ordinance, weighs in on any pension change. But the pension panel has declined to state an opinion.

Voting to delay action were supervisors Gerry Broderick, Elizabeth M. Coggs, Marina Dimitrijevic, Nikiya Harris, Lee Holloway, Willie Johnson Jr., Theo Lipscomb, Michael Mayo Sr., Johnny Thomas and John Weishan.

Supervisors against the delay were Mark Borkowski, Paul Cesarz, Lynn De Bruin, Patricia Jursik, Christopher Larson, Joseph Rice, Joe Sanfelippo, Jim “Luigi” Schmitt and Peggy West.

The measure could come back to the board, but Thursday’s vote suggests there’s a solid though narrow majority opposed to the pension cut, said Holloway, the board chairman.

Whenever I see stories like this, I ask two questions…

Why are elected officials getting pensions at all? 

Why do we allow those elected officials to decide their own pension? 

It’s no wonder there are so many greedy dirtbags on the Milwaukee County Board. 

I Hear the Train a Comin’

I know it may sound a little silly to ask this at this point, but where in the Constitution does it give the federal government the power to force a state to construct and support a train?  At least up until now, the fed at least had to bribe state politicians to enact stupid federal initiatives.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday portrayed a planned Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed rail line as an unstoppable train that Republican gubernatorial candidates can’t derail.

“High-speed rail is coming to Wisconsin,” LaHood said. “There’s no stopping it.

LaHood was in Watertown to sign an agreement to release $46.7 million of the $810 million in federal stimulus money that Wisconsin is receiving to build the 110-mph line.

That’s the second installment, after a previous $5.7 million payment.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neumann have threatened to shut down construction on the line if they’re elected, saying they don’t want taxpayers burdened by operating costs. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the leading Democrat in the governor’s race, backs high-speed rail.

But LaHood, a former Republican congressman now serving in a Democratic administration, brushed those concerns aside, saying high-speed rail is a national program that will survive changes in political leadership.

Billions of Gallons of Sewage Dumped in Lake

Given the environmental catastrophe, we should immediately close all government sewage systems for six months until a thorough review can be done.

More than 2 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm water spilled out of urban sewers into local waterways after last Thursday’s torrential rain storm, but even those overflows could not adequately relieve the sewers and prevent basement backups, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District says in a report to state environmental officials.

“The relief points could not get excess rain and flood water out of overburdened sewers fast enough,” the district says in a report released Tuesday to the state Department of Natural Resources. Three district rain gauges on Milwaukee’s north side recorded total rainfall of more than 8 inches Thursday and Friday.

MMSD estimates total overflows of 2.1 billion gallons - more than four times the total capacity of the district’s deep tunnel storage system - from regional sewers between Thursday evening and Sunday evening, said Peter Topczewski, the district’s director of water quality protection. The volume does not include overflows from sanitary sewers in Milwaukee and nine other communities in the metropolitan area that had acknowledged problems last week.

Combined sanitary and storm sewers in central Milwaukee and eastern Shorewood spilled a total of 1.985 billion gallons of a sewage and storm water mix to rivers and Lake Michigan, the report says. District-controlled separate sanitary sewers spilled an additional 171 million gallons.

No More Chieftains

It’s a sad day when we stop celebrating our Native American history. 

The Osseo-Fairchild School District in western Wisconsin was ordered Tuesday to drop its Chieftains nickname and logo after the state determined it was race-based and promoted discrimination and harassment.

The state Department of Public Instruction’s first-of-its-kind order comes under a new state law that went into effect in May. The law allows the agency to order schools to drop their race-based nicknames and logos if they are deemed discriminatory.

No crisis until you act like there’s one

My column for the Daily News is online.  It’s called, “No crisis until you act like there’s one.”  It’s about the West Bend School District’s priorities.

Here’s the conclusion:

As a citizen and voter in West Bend, I’ll start believing the district’s exhortations that there is a financial crisis when they start acting like it. How they can look citizens in the eye and honestly ask for more money when they are spending thousands of dollars on “nice to haves” like a pool and a fitness center is a mystery to me.

That’s what I do here… making friends every day… 

Wisconsin Agriculture Secretary Drowns In Lake Superior

RIP.

Rod Nilsestuen, the secretary of the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, died Wednesday, the governor’s office announced in a news release.

A source a confirmed late Wednesday that Nilsestuen drowned while swimming in Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Police in Marquette, Mich., confirmed late Wednesday that a drowning occurred in the afternoon but were not releasing the identity of the victim pending notification of family. Police said in a news release that the victim was a Wisconsin man visiting Marquette.

Harley Davidson Scouting Sites

Predictable.

Company executives are sitting down with union leaders this week in order to find a way for Harley to stay in Wisconsin. The production workers’ contract expires in 20 months.

A company spokesperson has stated that scouts are already investigating other cities for its engine and transmission departments.

As I said in the past, Harley is selling a luxury item in a down economy to a demographic that is trading in their hogs for condos in Florida.  They haven’t done a good job in adapting their product offering (granted, it’s hard to do when the lion’s share of your product is the image), so they are left with trying to cut production costs.

“NOT the Whiteman’s Bitch”

Uhhhhh… OK.

State elections officials Wednesday narrowly rejected a Milwaukee Assembly candidate’s attempt to run with the slogan “NOT the ‘whiteman’s bitch’ ” under her name on the ballot.

Ieshuh Griffin, an independent candidate with a history of feuds with local officials, said in response she would sue the state Government Accountability Board for infringing on her freedom of speech.

For the record, this statement is almost as nonsensical as the slogan:

Board member Thomas Barland, who voted to allow Griffin to make the statement, disagreed.

“She says a lot in five words,” Barland said of Griffin. “It wasn’t pornographic. It wasn’t obscene, and I didn’t interpret it as racial.”

Not racial?  Seriously?  This man is voting on these things? 

4K Moving Ahead in West Bend

Sigh...

Two of three members of the Board Instruction Committee gave the okay to Ted Neitzke to continue studying the possibility of adding 4K to the West Bend School District. Voicing strong objection to this added program, Dave Weigand recommended not pursuing it further.

The West Bend School District is looking to “partner “with local parochial schools, the YMCA daycare and other preschool providers for an offsite 4K program. It would not be fully funded until its third year.

Tim Stepanski questioned why the district would add a non-mandated program in the midst of “budget cuts”. Weigand echoed that thought, further stating that the district would likely use union teachers, which are part of the current budgetary problems we have today. Weigand cited the financial liabilities and legacy costs that come with hiring teachers from the teacher’s union. No one denied that the district would hire union teachers for 4K, even though it would not be necessary to due to 4K not being mandated by the state.

[...]

Kris Beaver strongly supported the proposed program, stating that not all moms can prepare their kids for school. “There are moms who know how to teach kids and moms who don’t”.

[...]

We are told that this program is optional, “We’re not encouraging anyone to do anything.” they say. But, they are forcing the tax payer to add another program which will increase taxes and cause parents to give up their responsibilities to the schools again.

So let’s see… we allegedly have a budget crisis, but in the past few weeks we have moved ahead with a new fitness center, keeping the pool open, and now 4K - none of which are either mandated or part of the core mission of the district.  I guess there’s plenty of money flowing already.  It’s like the guy in the welfare line talking on his brand new iPhone. 

Woman Carrying Gun Not Charged

Good decision.

In a letter to police released to the public Tuesday, Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel explained that while Sutterfield did violate the letter of the firearm transport law, he was not going to formally issue the ticket, for several reasons.

For one, he said, Sutterfield had no bad intent. She had worn the gun to church services peacefully and was never asked to remove it or leave. She told investigators that a salesperson where she had purchased the 9mm handgun had explained to her that it only needed to be in a case when she was driving.

Further, Schimel wrote, the statute in question, which is a non-criminal infraction that carries a maximum forfeiture of $100, was passed before the Wisconsin Constitution was amended to clearly specify residents’ rights to keep guns for various purposes. He said he did not think the facts of Sutterfield’s case made it the right one to prosecute in an effort to set the limits of gun restrictions.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that the state’s ban on concealed weapons did not apply to a shop owner in Milwaukee who had a gun to protect his business, which had been robbed at gunpoint numerous times. But it also upheld the concealed-carry conviction of a passenger who had two loaded guns in a car.

Schimel noted that the latter case, however, did not address whether the constitutional amendment might protect someone carrying a loaded gun in his or her own car for protection.

“Given all the circumstances in this case, I do not believe this is the case to test the outer reaches of the application of the CCW statute in light of the constitutional amendment,” Schimel wrote.

Lastly, Schimel noted, Sutterfield might well be able to challenge the legality of her stop by police because she had done nothing illegal at the church and police had no separate reason to suspect that she was transporting the gun while loaded in violation of the state statute. If the stop was not legal, the evidence of the loaded gun would not be admissible.

Barrett Proposes Relatively Responsible Budget

Gee, one would think he’s running for governor or something.

For the first time since he was elected, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is trying to craft a city budget that doesn’t raise either property taxes or major user fees - right in the middle of his campaign for governor.

Barrett and his aides say the zero-tax-increase goal isn’t politically motivated and has more to do with the economy and the city pension fund than the election.

Uh huh.  The economy has been hurting for several years now and it’s been even more prolonged in Milwaukee.  Yet, despite the fact that Barrett has proposed a levy and fee increase in every singe budget while he’s been mayor, NOW he wants to hold back?

Whatever. 

Barrett is trying to change his skin.  It’s not believable. 

West Bend Common Council Meeting

Ginny has some video from the West Bend Common Council meeting last night where some folks hammered the city’s RDA. 

Wow.