Legistar.com access expected by 2011

This month at the County Board we are continuing to take steps to further make county government as accessible and transparent as possible. As you may recall, the County Board, along with my leadership as the chairwoman of our County Board Committee on Information Technology, has approved funding for our online legislative access program.

This program, called Legistar, continues to progress and should be launched toward the end of this year. This will be a great resource for you to use to follow the life of legislation you are interested in and see how your representatives are voting on issues that matter to you most.

The second phase of this upgrade will provide archived video from County Board meetings. This is in addition to the audio streaming and archiving we already provide through our website.

In this legislative cycle, I have introduced a resolution to require that the campaign finance reports of all county elected officials and candidates for office be made available online. The city of Milwaukee and state of Wisconsin already have this important online access and it is long overdue that we do the same. This will provide a free, anonymous database for all citizens to view the political contributions that county elected officials and candidates are receiving. The key to good, responsible government is accountability and transparency, and I will continue to make this a priority here at the Milwaukee County Board.

Lastly, continuing my mission to ensure transparency, I have also requested that more detailed information regarding the recent tragedy at the O’Donnell Park garage be made available immediately to the County Board and the public. I have also requested that the no-bid contract which County Executive Walker ordered be reviewed. The firm selected has donated to Walker’s campaign, which could cause distrust during a critical, sensitive investigation. What happened at O’Donnell is prompting us to investigate all county buildings to ensure structural safety. It is also forcing an honest discussion about the deferred maintenance of the county’s infrastructure.

Marina Dimitrijevic is supervisor of Milwaukee County’s Fourth District, which includes Bay View and Milwaukee’s near south side. She can be reached at marina.dimitrijevic@milwcnty.com or (414) 278-4232.

Connecting county government to you

Now that summer is here, I look forward to seeing you at Chill on the Hill, the South Shore Farmers Market, the South Shore Frolics, and our neighborhood Fourth of July activities. I hope you have received my summer 2010 newsletter and found it informative. It was printed on 100-percent recycled paper and has an insert of everyone’s favorite summer events calendar. Please feel free to mail me the portion where you can request county information and we will be happy to send it to you.

We recently held two public open houses regarding the construction of the proposed aquatic features at Pulaski and Noyes indoor pools. As you may recall, these pools were targeted to be closed by County Executive Walker. After major public outcry they remained open but face funding challenges. I cosponsored our Alternative Aquatics Plan, which redirected funding that the county executive wanted to use for an outdoor water park in Franklin to improve and fix our existing pools. Part of this funding helped keep all pools open this year and funded much-needed pool repairs. A large portion of the capital financing will go to enhance our indoor pools by adding indoor aquatics features, resulting in year-round revenue. I am excited to see how this idea will progress into reality and improve our amenities for all generations.

I also participated in the Bike to Work Week and biked to work with Supervisor Jursik. We biked from Cudahy to the Milwaukee County Courthouse and used our great Milwaukee County Transit System and the bike racks to connect. The bike racks are so easy to use and are a good enhancement to our transit system.

Lastly, I wanted to draw your attention to an important resource for seniors in our community. Please pass this valuable information along to anyone who is older than 60 and meets the income requirements to receive this benefit ($1,174 per month or less). The Hunger Task Force has 5,000 “Stockboxes” of free food from the federal government for eligible seniors. The boxes include meat, cheese, cereal, fruit, juice, pasta, peanut butter, and more. Seniors enrolled in the program get a stockbox every month. Call 2-1-1 or my office to get a list of area locations. Interested seniors must enroll by July 30.

Marina Dimitrijevic is supervisor of Milwaukee County’s Fourth District, which includes Bay View and Milwaukee’s near south side. She can be reached at marina.dimitrijevic@milwcnty.com or (414) 278-4232.

Ups and downs

Recently, I was joined at our Milwaukee County Zoo by representatives of Focus on Energy, Johnson Controls, MMSD, and zoo officials to accept a rebate check in the amount of $100,000. As a result of my Greenprint legislation, energy-efficient upgrades were installed at the zoo and are producing big savings. Over 100 million gallons of water and 700,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity have been conserved. These conservation efforts help Milwaukee County reduce our environmental footprint and save taxpayer dollars.

The South Shore Park Pavilion is also undergoing some great upgrades. The upstairs bathrooms have been updated and the inside painted. A small awning will also now be placed outside of the county parks public concession stand, open this summer. In addition, the roof will be repaired and replaced this summer.

Lastly, I rode bus Route 15 into work with neighbors May 7 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of our Milwaukee County Transit System. At the celebration, the new design of cleaner buses purchased with federal stimulus funds was unveiled. These will soon be added to our fleet.

Unfortunately, as we celebrate this milestone, the future of our Milwaukee County Transit System is still uncertain. Like many of you, I was disappointed to see that no action was taken on securing a dedicated funding source for transit in the state Legislature before they concluded their legislative session. The voters in Milwaukee County supported a sales tax in a 2008 referendum and their voice has been ignored. It is my hope that we can find a dedicated funding solution for transit before more cuts must be made.

Marina Dimitrijevic is supervisor of Milwaukee County’s Fourth District, which includes Bay View and Milwaukee’s near south side. She can be reached at marina.dimitrijevic@milwcnty.com or (414) 278-4232.

Federal stimulus dollars at work in Milwaukee County

In 2009 our federal government made a great effort to stimulate our economy by adopting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka “the stimulus bill” or ARRA. The stimulus has been critical for local governments and has truly helped Milwaukee County residents in many ways.

Thank you to the Obama administration and our congressional delegation for providing us this much-needed resource. In addition, it was the County Board of Supervisors who had to legislate acceptance of these funds. Foolishly, our county executive made a political decision against accepting millions of dollars to improve our infrastructure and we almost missed out on a great opportunity to stimulate our local economy.

We have put these funds to great use in Milwaukee County. Some great examples include $25 million to purchase 45 new buses and fund a major fare box upgrade for our Milwaukee County Transit System, $2.5 million for airport runway improvements, $2.8 million for child support enforcement, $2.7 million in public safety, $700,000 for homelessness prevention, $465,000 for veterans housing on 35th and Wisconsin, and $8 million to improve many county-trunk highways and bridges.

Lastly, as the author of Milwaukee County’s Greenprint legislation, I was especially pleased to see the stimulus funds help us further achieve our energy goals. For example we received $200,000 to purchase alternative fuel vehicles, which will enhance our outdated fleet. Two new, state-of-the-art solar hot water systems will be installed in Wilson and Washington Park Senior Centers as part of a $732,000 allocation. Milwaukee County bonded about $30 million for our capital improvements and with the stimulus will save $3 million over the life of these bonds. As you can see, Milwaukee County has been stimulated. I hope that the private market will begin to recover and employment will be re-invigorated as well.

Marina Dimitrijevic is supervisor of Milwaukee County’s Fourth District, which includes Bay View and Milwaukee’s near south side. She can be reached at marina.dimitrijevic@milwcnty.com or (414) 278-4232.

This month inside the County Board

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors will now be on the radio each month discussing what’s going on inside the County Board. The new show airs the first Sunday of each month at 9pm from the studios of News/Talk 1130 WISN radio. The first and only program of its kind in the Milwaukee area, Inside the County Board gives listeners a more in-depth analysis of action taken by county supervisors.

March marked the inaugural edition of the new radio show. In the March 7 edition, I went head to head with Supervisor Joe Sanfelippo on the subject of the structural deficit that the county is facing. Please follow the link below to hear the radio show and also to access our Twitter page to receive radio show updates: county.milwaukee.gov/insidethecountyboard.

Milwaukee County also adopted legislation to become a partner in the 10-year plan to end homelessness in Milwaukee. This plan will include dedicated funding, focusing on preventive services. In 2009, more than 1,600 children and adults were homeless on Milwaukee’s streets. This is a 13-percent increase from 2008. Sadly, many need mental health services, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and special services for our nation’s veterans. I am proud that Milwaukee County will be a partner in ending homelessness and look forward to progressive action on this community issue.

Lastly, I introduced a measure that would deny the overzealous layoffs the county executive has recently authorized. Using a budget that was set up to fail as an excuse to implement his misguided privatization measures, he has gone too far. The County Board sets policy in Milwaukee County, as we were elected to do. His latest political move was to lay off our public security guards and replace them with private guards from Wackenhut, a firm that recently settled with the Miami-Dade government after an audit found that the company had overbilled the county millions of dollars for work never performed. He also laid off workers at the airport, one of our best assets, in a move that doesn’t even save one taxpayer dollar as the airport is supported by airline fees. This has got to stop and my resolution seeks to put an end to these bad policies.

Marina Dimitrijevic is supervisor of Milwaukee County’s Fourth District, which includes Bay View and Milwaukee’s near south side. She can be reached at marina.dimitrijevic@milwcnty.com or (414) 278-4232.

Success on progressive initiatives

As the author of Milwaukee County’s Green Print, enacted in 2007, I am happy to report some major successes in improving Milwaukee County’s energy efficiency. At our last County Board meeting, we unanimously approved $6 million in energy performance contracts, which directly improve our county’s infrastructure. Many of our older, poorly maintained buildings will be retrofitted with the most energy-efficient upgrades. This saves taxpayers money, reduces the county’s energy use, and preserves our county’s assets for future generations. All of these energy savings are guaranteed, which is a great deal for Milwaukee County taxpayers. Some of the projects include significant water conservation as well. Milwaukee County’s Green Print requires that 20 percent of all county buildings must undergo technical energy audits to analyze potential energy savings.

The County Board also directed $375,000 from the Special Needs County Housing Trust Fund to help finance the construction of affordable housing for residents with mental illness in Milwaukee County. The latest project, at 2500 W. Fond du Lac Ave., will make 38 housing units available to serve the needs of clients from Milwaukee County’s Behavioral Health Division. Since the fund was first created in 2007, more than 260 units of quality affordable housing for individuals with mental illness have been constructed. This continues Milwaukee County’s long-term commitment to providing solutions for individuals with nowhere else to turn. We have established a great track record.

Lastly, at our upcoming County Board meeting in March, we will consider approving a contract for our legislative workflow program here in Milwaukee County. This will allow you more direct access to our proceedings. As chairwoman of the Committee on County Board Information Technology, I have led the effort to implement this program to reduce the use of paper, make more efficient use of staff resources, and, most importantly, provide much better public access into Milwaukee County government. I am excited about this legislation and look forward to allowing more “sunshine” here at the County Board. When the program is fully implemented, users will be able to follow legislation from its birth to adoption, see votes, review reports online, and even watch County Board meetings via webcasts online. More public participation will lead to transparency, accountability, and good, responsible government.

Marina Dimitrijevic is supervisor of Milwaukee County’s Fourth District, which includes Bay View and Milwaukee’s near south side. She can be reached at marina.dimitrijevic@milwcnty.com or (414) 278-4232.

County exec still pushing failed policies

The county executive recently delivered his annual State of the County address and it was full of his same failed policies. Rather then honestly confronting our fiscal challenges and present real solutions as a leader should, he just ended up with a bunch of empty campaign promises.

He once again is trying to sell off one of the county’s most prosperous assets, our airport. After the failure of the Chicago airport deal, why would we sell our successful airport for one-time funds to solve only short-term financial problems? County taxpayers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into our airport and with new airlines and an additional runway, our airport has made a national name for itself.

He continues to advance his privatization plans to further kill jobs in Milwaukee County and erodes our county services. We learned our lesson from our Milwaukee Public Museum-privatizing means less accountability and can even end up being more costly to the taxpayers in the future.

He wants lower-paid, out-of-state contractors to provide county services. Cutting family-supporting jobs does not help our local economy when we need it the most.

The county executive talked about lowering the tax levy when, in fact, each year during his tenure the levy has increased $45 million. He plans on reducing the levy by requiring more employee furloughs, including of deputy sheriffs, which could impact safety in our neighborhoods.

It was only through County Board action that we received federal stimulus money for county projects; the county executive initially refused these funds and now balanced the 2010 budget on them.

In conclusion, we are on our way to improving the county’s finances through long-term strategic planning and seeking more diversified revenues. In January, a state Assembly committee endorsed legislation that authorizes a county sales tax for our county parks. We also continue to work with our labor unions to find the best compromise for our future labor contracts.

We must proceed with caution during 2010 as we work to ensure a balanced budget. Contrary to what some have said, Milwaukee County government provides valuable services to our community and must be preserved for future generations.

Marina Dimitrijevic is supervisor of Milwaukee County’s Fourth District, which includes Bay View and Milwaukee’s near south side. She can be reached at marina.dimitrijevic@milwcnty.com or (414) 278-4232.

Legislative update and winter park options

I wish you and your families a very happy holidays and a happy new year. There are many reasons to get out and enjoy the cold this winter in our Milwaukee County Parks. Beginning this month the Domes will launch the second half of its evening concert series, “Music under Glass,” with performances every Tuesday and Thursday evening through March from 6:30 to 8:30pm. For the price of admission, visitors will be treated to live high quality music and state-of-the-art light shows in the Domes, 524 S. Layton Blvd.

Red Arrow Park’s Slice of Ice outdoor ice-skating rink, at 920 N. Water St., is now open. Skates may be rented at $6 per pair and participants with their own skates can skate for free. Depending on snowfall, outdoor sledding is open at numerous county parks. Concessions and a warming fireplace are available at the Whitnall Park sledding hill. Hills open near our neighborhood include Humboldt and Sheridan Parks.  »Read more

Milwaukee County Board adopts 2010 budget

We were handed an unrealistic and irresponsible 2010 budget from County Executive Scott Walker. His budget is based on major service cuts and a wage concession package that was never presented to the unions. The County Board hosted weeks of public hearings and testimony leading up to the budget adoption. More than 500 attended our annual public hearing to voice their opinions. The vast majority opposed Walker’s cuts. In addition, I hosted two town hall listening sessions in November.

After hours of debate, the final budget was not perfect, but was a great improvement. Many of the amendments I sponsored were approved, including the creation of a County Board Office of Sustainability to implement my Green Print legislation, step up our efforts to save money through efficiencies, and become a more sustainable county. Also, as chairwoman of the Committee on Information Technology, I authored an amendment to install a legislative workflow program to improve public access to county government. In addition, the South Shore Park Pavilion will get renovated bathrooms and a new roof in 2010. I am also pleased that a veto-proof two-thirds of my colleagues voted in favor of the creative aquatics initiative I cosponsored. Our plan keeps all pools open, addresses some deferred maintenance, and adds new water park features at our two indoor pools, Pulaski and Noyes, in hopes of generating more revenue.  »Read more

Budget battle continues

The County Board is deliberating the 2010 Milwaukee County Budget. There are Finance and Audit Committee hearings daily and our public hearing is set for 7pm, Nov. 2 at the Washington Park Senior Center, 4420 W. Vliet St. We will adopt a budget Nov. 9. There is much work to be done between now and then.

The county executive’s proposed budget is based on wage concessions that have not been presented to our employees. This is not the way to do collective bargaining. I am a member of the Personnel Committee, and we have reached a tentative agreement with all of our unions regarding wages and benefits. However, the county executive chose to ignore this and balance his budget on extreme wage cuts that go beyond what the union will likely take. If we can’t work together, then we will go into 2010 with a $30 million budget hole. In my opinion, this not fiscally responsible.

I am completely against privatizing our zoo as it is an asset we must protect for future generations. I have introduced an amendment that diverts the funds for zoo privatization toward studying the possible relocation of South Shore Beach.  »Read more

Positive plans for 2010 county budget

On Sept. 24, the county executive proposed his 2010 county budget. I will host two listening sessions in the Fourth District to discuss the budget with you. In addition, the County Board’s public hearing is 7pm Nov. 2 at the Washington Park Senior Center, 4420 W. Vliet St.

In my past five years on the board, the same thing has happened every year. The county executive uses the County Board’s tax levy from the previous year, while cutting hundreds of positions and slashing services we all depend on, such as parks and transit. Then, the County Board works on your behalf to provide a balanced budget that is both fiscally and socially responsible. We are at a breaking point in Milwaukee County. Our transit system cannot face more route cuts or fare increases and remain viable. Our parks need infrastructure investments rather than maintenance cuts.  »Read more

Doyle disappoints Milwaukee

Governor Jim Doyle recently signed the next state budget into law. He vetoed the sales tax for Milwaukee County Parks, transit, and public safety. Like many of you, I am wondering what part of “Yes” did he not understand? We held a public referendum in Milwaukee County, and voters expressed their support for a sales tax increase and property tax decrease, which will provide dedicated funding for transit and our Milwaukee County Parks.

Unfortunately, the governor vetoed the compromise that the state Legislature had presented and completely ignored the voters of Milwaukee County. What I found the most bothersome is that, after vetoing what we had clearly asked for, the governor failed to present any solutions to provide dedicated funding for these important Milwaukee County quality-of-life services.

Even worse, I now hear that some state legislators and the governor are interested in creating a parks district. We never asked for that. Milwaukee County is doing a great job managing our great parks system. Governance is not the problem; the lack of resources is. In fact, Milwaukee County has won many awards and continues to provide outstanding service in our parks system despite major budget cuts and a lack of dedicated funding.

A parks district would add yet another layer of government and would provide less accountability to residents. We are constantly fighting privatization requests in our parks. Just imagine what would happen without oversight and public input in Milwaukee County. My suggestion to state government is simple: focus your energy on allowing Milwaukee County to increase our sales tax revenue in order to provide dedicated funding for parks, transit, and property tax relief. We are not asking for a parks district.

Marina Dimitrijevic is supervisor of Milwaukee County’s Fourth District, which includes Bay View. She can be reached at mdimitrijevic@milwcnty.com or (414) 278-4232.

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