Stop the Presses: Reporter Asks Barrett a Question!

It has been six years since Mayor Tom Barrett famously promised to stop flushing sewage into Lake Michigan. As of press time, no one has asked him how that project is going.

Back in 2004, when Barrett made leadership and MMSD accountability a campaign issue, Wispolitics reviewed Barrett's top three goals for MMSD with MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer.  Given 7 of 11 MMSD Board appointments, six years, and millions in taxpayer dollars to achieve those goals, let's review how Milwaukee's Milk Carton Mayor has measured up against his own standards.

Goal #1: Zero overflows in the separated sewer areas.  NOPE!

Goal #2: Zero combined sewage overflows. NOPE!

Goal #3: No raw sewage dumping. Shafer: I’m not sure what that is unless he’s talking about blending.  (You mean the Mayor isn't communicating his goals to MMSD, yikes!)  In that case, NOPE!

Hey, hey -  another no hitter!  What an exciting year!

For 8-years, the Milwaukee Police and Fire Departments have struggled with the $18 million boondoggle known as the OpenSky Radio system. Amid hundreds of officer reports of the dangers of this failed system and fire department investigations of its implementation, no one in the press has asked Barrett how he is protecting officers and citizens from a system officially declared “not intrinsically safe.”

But, today, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke with tradition and asked the Mayor of Milwaukee about a critical issue under his control and we have the proof.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of July 31, 2010. An article entitled “Water Rate Increases Revised, Proposal doesn't settle suburbs' concerns about rising costs,” contains the following statement in paragraph 14:

“Barrett was not available for comment late Friday.”

Kudos to MJS reporter Larry Sandler for at least making the effort.  Hopefully, it's the start of a trend!

Stay tuned. If they keep asking questions, he may actually answer one - someday.

Barrett Reveals Secret Ingredient that Makes Milwaukee Water Worth 30% More in Taxes

When we started the "Wisconsin Waste Watchers" blog this wasn't necessarily the kind of waste we anticipated.  However, we now understand why Barrett wants to charge so much for water!

From the City that brought you cryptosporidium . . .

two-Billion gallons of Barrett's Secret Sewage Sauce added to Lake Michigan.

To paraphrase the Snapple Commerical, "What used to be the best stuff in the world . . . just got worse!"  We wonder if it comes in "diet" as well as "pre-digested?"  "Would you like a side of E. coli with that, sir!"

Mouthwatering, huh?  Hey Waukesha, still want our water?

Mayor Barrett, How About a Tour of Your Radio System? Or MMSD?

Today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story with Barrett’s Democratic Party flunky bragging that Barrett had stayed in Milwaukee over the weekend and “spent several hours touring five areas that were damaged by the flood.”

Wow, we're sure touring on Saturday was a lot more important than Walker’s touring flooded areas the day before Barrett. In fact, touring a day late was so important that Barrett’s Democratic Party Chief Flunky said, "One man stood up and led, Tom Barrett."

Now that Barrett is leading through timely tours, we have a couple more tours to suggest:

OpenSky Radio System – As CRG uncovered, Barrett has literally hundreds of police officers he is responsible for who would love to show him around this $20 million boondoggle. They would love to talk to him about the 500 plus pages of reports they have filed warning him that their lives and the lives of the citizens they protect are put in danger every day by a system he won’t even talk about.  By the way, Barrett has already had SIX YEARS in office to solve the problem ,, and virtually EVERYONE blames lack of leadership!

Here is what your Police Chief had to say about you.

The police union rep also blamed your lack of leadership.

And the firefighter's union blamed your lack of leadership citing specific incidents like the "Pizza Man" fire where police officers, firefighters, and citizens lives and property were endangered!

Six years Tom - SIX (not to mention millions in cost overruns)!

MMSD – Normally, Barrett would have to go down to the Milwaukee River or Jones Island to see his sewer system continue its annual pollution of our Lake. This week, he can tour basements all over the city to see what his six years of inaction has left for others to clean up. Maybe Milwaukeeans can wipe their floors with the MMSD study Barrett commissioned six years ago.  Hmmm, speaking of things no one has seen or heard from lately, where is that report?

Here are a couple of interesting shots.  No, this is not the Gulf Coast.  This is Tom Barrett's Milwaukee.

Anchors away Tom!  We have a boat fueled and ready to take you on this tour and await your call!  Funny how visible and eager you were when you were blaming it all on Marvin Pratt!

Earlier this month, CRG revealed internal Milwaukee police documents showing the Mayor and the police chief know cops lives are placed in jeopardy as $20 million in radios fail in deadly situations. And even more documents, obtained under the Open Records Law, reveal that the radios are failing the firefighters, too.

Mayor Barrett has issued no public statements in the wake of those revelations. His silence is deafening, and he needs to plop his butt down in Milwaukee and fix the mess before he starts job-hunting. We’d at least like to know he spent enough time in Milwaukee to read the reports from his officers before someone gets killed.

Mayor Barrett, tours are nice. But, they shouldn’t be confused with leadership.

Stand Up! Lead! Protect your police officers! Protect Lake Michigan!  If you REALLY care!

Take your own advice; don’t leave Milwaukee until the crises you are responsible for are fixed!

Mayor Barrett Appoints Graffiti Supporter to City Anti-Graffiti Committee

You just can't make this stuff up!  Talk about being anti-productive and wasteful.

In Obama-like fashion, Mayor Barrett appointed graffiti supporter Reggie Moore to his Anti-Graffiti Policy Committee. Mr. Moore is the putative head of Center for Youth Engagement, which (based on the fact that the website has had less than 250 page hits and no substantive information) seems to be nothing more than a shell consulting firm. He also lists himself on his Linked-In profile as Assistant Director, Youth Activism for the American Legacy Foundation but we can find no mention of him there. He also lists himself as the Board Co-Chair of Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing. Although he is listed as a Board Advisor we can find no corroboration that he is a Board Co-Chair.

More curiously, Mr. Moore is ALSO the Vice President of True Skool's Board of Directors. True Skool has been the recent focus of several raised eye-brows for its graffiti training program and has drawn the ire of Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan for promoting graffiti in his district.  This organization suggests its mission is as follows.

"We believe Hip Hop can be a tool to reach, teach and build foundations for young people to create real change in their communities. Since the Civil Rights Movements, there have been few driving forces that unite cultures and classes like Hip Hop. We understand that the billion dollar and worldly popular Hip Hop industry has deviated far from its cultural origins of the 1970s and 80s of Peace, Unity and Having Fun. Current media coverage of Hip Hop culture is filled with negative stereotypes and degrading messages to youth who are increasingly lured by the manipulation of materialistic greed. Whether it is through community activism, addressing environmental issues, or youth programming and events, we explore how Hip Hop has been and continues to be a means and voice for social change."

Hip Hop as a teaching tool, really?  Funny, we didn't need to use beatnik philosophy to teach kids in the "good old days."  One wonders how Mr. Moore has been advising Mayor Barrett and what city anti-graffiti intelligence he might be covertly leaking to True Skool staff and attendees. Typical anti-graffiti programs involve the placement of live and fake cameras. Hmmm, wouldn’t it be valuable for a tagger to know the difference?

True Skool Director Sarah Dollhausen-Patterson’s husband Eliot Patterson is the Program Director and a well-known graffiti advocate and many True Skool attendees are there under court order for tagging vandalism.

The City of Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services expressed the following

"...Sharon Blando, special enforcement inspector with the Department of Neighborhood Services' graffiti program, said that while the mural was legal and approved by the building's owner, it appears to have prompted an "incredible amount" of illegal tagging throughout the neighborhood between Saturday night and Sunday. There were several illegal tags within 15 feet of the project, including on garbage cans and a fence, she said.  Covering up the mural with paint the way TRUE Skool did it is actually inviting to taggers, too, Blando said. Painting over the wall, she said, identifies it as a place that has attracted graffiti before and may not be monitored for tagging."

Link here to read about the FAILURE OF FREE WALLS. More info on the failure of municipally sponsored graffiti exhibits can be found here.

Numerous allegations against other True Skool employees have been reported that are so outrageous that we will only report on them after full corroboration.  More later ...

Blogger Rips Off Taxpayers and People in Need to Spew Big Government

Taxpayer Subsidized Speech isn’t Free to Taxpayers

Milwaukee County employee Christopher Liebenthal’s “extensive blogging activity, including blogging of a  of political nature” from his taxpayer-funded computer may not be a felony, but it’s an outrage against the taxpayers and those he is paid to serve.


If he has any self-respect, he should resign his job as a county social worker or he should be fired for forcing taxpayers to subsidize his big-government tripe.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney had earlier seized the Liebenthal computer from his county office based on a complaint issued by Orville Seymer of Citizens for Responsible Government. Despite what Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf, who investigated the case, called “extensive blogging activity ... of a political nature” at taxpayer expense on his county computer, the DA’s office declined to issue criminal charges citing a narrow interpretation of state statutes that would require such online activity to solicit a direct campaign contribution or service (read memo from DA's office).

Well we all have a First Amendment Right to pop off online about anything we want.

We don’t have the right to make taxpayers pay for it.

Liebenthal is an unabashed liberal who whines on his three blogs about being overworked at his $48,000 per year government job.

More appalling than his ripping off taxpayers is the fact that he was being paid as a social worker to help those most in need.

This is like Robin Hood in reverse. He’s taking from the poor to help his posh-pensioned government worker buddies.

He has no right to take the taxes we pay to aid those in need and spend them on his political crusades.

Liebenthal has been active in Milwaukee County First and AFSCME Local 48. He has blogged or maintained web pages for those groups as well as his own. Blogging under the name “Capper,” Liebenthal writes for three political blogs called Milwaukee County First, Cognitive Dissidence and Whallah!

Go read that stuff. It’s out there.

Now Liebenthal must do what is right and submit his resignation.

Where is the Mayor?

Since Mayor Barrett saw fit to have his puppets interject the issue of "politics" into the equation, here is the question I would ask the mayor should he deign to so much as acknowledge the OpenSky fiasco: “Are you ignoring OpenSky because you are not doing your job or because the lives of our officers aren’t as important as your political career?”

No, Mr. Mayor, we are not talking about a future job. We are asking you to do your current job.

CRG, the police and fire unions and Alderman Donovan, Chair of the City’s Public Safety Committee brought forward 500 pages of police officer reports documenting life-threatening situations caused by the City’s scandal-ridden radio system. The response: the Mayor sends a PR guy to try and sweep it under the rug (or, at least over to the police chief). What could be more insulting to the officers who put their lives on the line?

Could it be that OpenSky might turn out to be the biggest scandal in his administration?  What else could have left the mayor so shy and tongue-tied?  Believe it or not, the Mayor had a staffer issue a statement on his stationary that did not mention the Mayor’s name, his position or a response to the scandal.

So, I Googled “OpenSky Mayor Barrett.” Give it a try. I paged and paged and could not find an instance of the Mayor talking about the radio system his Administration has been “working on” for six years.  If you had people working for you who said your action (or inaction) risked their lives, would you get personally involved?

I guess the Mayor's team didn't have much time to prep their fall-guy for the post press conference spin-a-thon. It seems even Chief Flynn (who has only been around for a couple of years) admits "not much had gotten done" over the previous six years.  Oops, that's right, his boss, Mayor Barrett, was in charge for all six of those years!

Click the video above.  Wow, talk about getting it straight from the horses mouth!