Arena Bill Debate - City Council Passes Bill 12-3 - IT'S DONE

[paulpressey25]

Is this accurate? Not seeing this reported in the MJS.

Abele gets Milwaukee County’s go-ahead for debt consolidation plan for arena
By: Matt Taub, matt.taub@dailyreporter.com. July 30, 2015 11:28 am

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, by an 11-7 vote Thursday, paved the way for handing the county's debt over to state's Department of Revenue, which would collect the overdue money to help finance a new Bucks arena.

[MickeyDavis]

This is what the JS has as of right now

The Milwaukee County Board declined Thursday to accept County Executive Chris Abele's advice that supervisors should not raid reserves and contingency accounts for nonemergency purposes.

The board easily overrode two Abele vetoes of expenditures in moving ahead with a total of more than $7.9 million in withdrawals: $6.5 million from a debt service reserve; and more than $1.4 million from a contingency fund.

Before the votes, however, supervisors bristled in response to Abele comments in veto messages that the withdrawals would be "irresponsible." Supervisor Michael Mayo Sr. walked out of the board meeting room to object to Abele comments critical of the board as the veto messages were read into the record.

Supervisor James Schmitt was the first to fire back at Abele. "This is not recklessly spending money," Schmitt said. He reminded supervisors that the board is a partner with the executive in balancing the county budget each year.

Supervisor Patricia Jursik said the board "helped build that reserve" in its budget decisions.

On a 14-4 override vote on one veto, the board reaffirmed a July 15 resolution to transfer $5 million from the reserve for unspecified County Parks improvements and major maintenance along with another $1.5 million from the reserve for traffic signal priority technology for buses serving routes along the Wisconsin Ave. corridor.

The resolution also spends nearly $970,000 from the contingency account for a 1.5% pay raise for most county employees in the second half of 2015.

On a 13-5 vote to override a separate veto, the board chose to follow through on a July 15 resolution to appropriate up to $505,000 from the contingency account to a cleaning contractor so the company pays its workers the full county minimum wage retroactive to June 2014.

The contractor, MidAmerican Building Services, cleans the Courthouse, Criminal Justice and Safety buildings, as well as other county buildings. The company has been providing the service under month-to-month extensions of a contract that expired in December 2012.

Abele described the company as underperforming after an independent audit concluded MidAmerican was not providing half of the cleaning services required under its contract.

But Supervisor Willie Johnson Jr. and others said the issue was fairness to the company's workers after the county board adopted a living wage ordinance that generally covers county workers and the employees of contractors and vendors. The law set a minimum hourly rate of $11.47 an hour beginning in June 2014 and increased the rate to $11.66 an hour in February of this year.

The county's payment for services to the county have not increased since 2012 as it has continued operating with monthly extensions. Since there was no new contract, the company was not required to pay the living wage to its workers.

For that reason, Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb Sr. supported the expenditure, which he described as the "pay me what you owe me" resolution. The $505,000 will pay workers the difference between their hourly rate and the minimum wage for the 15-month period of June 2014 through August 2015.

In November 2013 and in June of this year, the board rejected the Abele administration's attempt to shift the cleaning contract to CleanPower. After the second rejection, the county audit director and corporation counsel advised the board and Abele that the MidAmerican extensions had gone on for more than a year and it was time to bring the company into compliance with the minimum wage.

The company will be expected to comply with the living wage ordinance after August of this year, under the resolution.

[nmeurett]

This is good right?

[MickeyDavis]

I Don't see anything about the debt

[MickeyDavis]

This is good right?

It doesn't really matter as far as the arena goes. The county is commited to $4 million. How they get it is up to them.

[bucks2281]

I'm under the impression that what was voted on allows the Clerk of Courts and the State to negotiate an agreement ... the agreement would then return to the County Board for approval.

[MickeyDavis]

Good info, thanks.

[MadBlueEdwards]

It seems like there's a pretty toxic relationship between Abele and the County Board. I'm assuming they disagree with everything he says/proposes regardless of it's merits. Glad we don't have to worry about that getting in the way of the arena.

[EastSideBucksFan]

Is this accurate? Not seeing this reported in the MJS.

Abele gets Milwaukee County’s go-ahead for debt consolidation plan for arena
By: Matt Taub, matt.taub@dailyreporter.com.. July 30, 2015 11:28 am

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, by an 11-7 vote Thursday, paved the way for handing the county's debt over to state's Department of Revenue, which would collect the overdue money to help finance a new Bucks arena.

I don't know why JS avoided this topic, but this was voted on and did pass. It still has to be approved by the county comptroller and Gov Walker in Madison though. But, essentially, the Senate was able to remove the debt collection portion of it, thereby washing their hands of it, while it was able to be added back in later because of language in the deal itself.

Politics sure are odd sometimes.

I haven't gotten a clear answer on the county boards role moving forward, it doesn't seem they have the ability to stop anything even if they get a vote on it.

[GrandAdmiralDan]

I like Abele for the most part but it's not good for him (or anyone) to have too much power. They gave him the power to sell that land for $1 without any other approvals. I'm ok with that as it's a one time thing. If the $4 million plan (whether it's debt collection or something else) has to get board approval that's not necessarily a bad thing.

It is a misconception that Abele can just, on his own, sell county land for whatever he wants. Everything goes through a very standard Request For Proposal process. There were only 2 groups that bid on the land. The Bucks $1 as is bid was significantly higher of a bid than the other bid. The other bid was also for a $1, but they expected the city/County to pay to remove all the old freeway remnants and pay to move sewer lines.

[JackSIKMA43]

No intention to ruffle anyone's political feathers, but Walker is going to be in Downers Grove, IL - a suburb not too far from me, in two weeks, for a luncheon thing. I think I'll show up wearing Bucks gear and present him with the pen he can use to sign off on everything.

[MickeyDavis]

I don't know his schedule but I would think he'll be in the state before then and will have already signed it. Maybe not.

[humanrefutation]

So, he hasn't signed it, yet? Can't someone just fax him a copy in Iowa or wherever he is, get a signature, fax it back, and just have a formal "ceremony" signing later? I want the state portion committed.

It's not like I expect him to veto or it anything, but I'd just feel better about the whole thing if we could get that done and over with.

[MickeyDavis]

I guess this shows that we should make the Gov's job part time just like the county board.

[Toodles1980]

So, he hasn't signed it, yet? Can't someone just fax him a copy in Iowa or wherever he is, get a signature, fax it back, and just have a formal "ceremony" signing later? I want the state portion committed.

It's not like I expect him to veto or it anything, but I'd just feel better about the whole thing if we could get that done and over with.

I believe if he doesn't sign it, it will go into law after a few days, Wisconsin doesn't have a pocket veto, so Walker has 6 days to sign it, or it become law automatically, is my understanding, but that may not be the case with fiscal legislation.

[humanrefutation]

So, he hasn't signed it, yet? Can't someone just fax him a copy in Iowa or wherever he is, get a signature, fax it back, and just have a formal "ceremony" signing later? I want the state portion committed.

It's not like I expect him to veto or it anything, but I'd just feel better about the whole thing if we could get that done and over with.

I believe if he doesn't sign it, it will go into law after a few days, Wisconsin doesn't have a pocket veto, so Walker has 6 days to sign it, or it become law automatically, is my understanding, but that may not be the case with fiscal legislation.

Hmm, interesting. I did not know that.

[paulpressey25]

The six-day period takes place after the legislature transmits the bill to the Gov's office. I do not know if that transmittal has taken place.

I'd assume they'd want to schedule something ceremonial here with all parties.

In a related note, the Bucks now have a blast email out from Barry Alvarez asking people to buy tickets for the Oct 20th preseason game in Madison. Really great to see the new organization start building those ties with UW and a potential Madison fan base.

[Stoltz3]

The six-day period takes place after the legislature transmits the bill to the Gov's office. I do not know if that transmittal has taken place.

I'd assume they'd want to schedule something ceremonial here with all parties.

In a related note, the Bucks now have a blast email out from Barry Alvarez asking people to buy tickets for the Oct 20th preseason game in Madison. Really great to see the new organization start building those ties with UW and a potential Madison fan base.

I loved how it ended.

I'll be there, and I hope to see you there too!

Fear the Deer!

Barry Alvarez


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

[MickeyDavis]

I would also think there would be some kind of signing ceremony.

[VooDoo7]

Not sure which thread to stick this in, but remember that Wisconsin high school who had to change their logo because it looked too much like the Bucks? Well, it was the NBA who made them change it. And since they had just gotten a whole new floor, the Bucks paid to have it all re-done. Very cool of them.