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Milwaukee County supervisor threatens pay cut lawsuit

By: Beth Kevit, [email protected]//January 27, 2014//

Milwaukee County supervisor threatens pay cut lawsuit

By: Beth Kevit, [email protected]//January 27, 2014//

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Milwaukee County supervisors are considering suing County Executive Chris Abele to force him to cut the salaries of several department directors.

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors approved the pay cuts through an amendment in the 2014 budget. Supervisors then overrode Abele’s veto attempt.

The override means Abele has to enforce the pay cuts, said Supervisor John Weishan Jr., but the county executive has not done it. The next step, Weishan said, is a lawsuit.

“This is such an insult to the process,” he said, “that it cannot go unchallenged.”

Abele was not immediately available to comment.

According to Abele’s veto message, the pay cuts would cap salaries at $120,613, a “reckless” move that “hinders retention and recruitment of skilled public servants and ultimately threatens the services the County exists to provide.” Abele’s message also cited a county corporation counsel opinion that the board cannot legally adjust the pay of the targeted employees.

Corporation Counsel Paul Bargren on Monday confirmed his opinion that state Act 14 restricts the County Board’s authority over pay. He refused to comment further.

According to a memo attributed to Bargren, the department directors targeted by the amendment “are part of the administrative structure under the County Executive, and are therefore subject to the Executive’s ‘day-to-day control of any county department or subunit of a department’ that under Act 14 ‘may be exercised only by the county executive’ and not by the County Board.”

But Weishan said Act 14 does not affect the board’s authority to set pay ranges. He said the board compared county salaries to comparable ones in state government and found the county, in some cases, paid more than the state.

The budget amendment, Weishan said, was designed to align the county salaries with those at the state level.

Brendan Conway, Abele’s communications director, said the board conducted a flawed comparison. The County Board, Conway said, compared actual state and county salaries rather than positional pay ranges, and that did not take into account that the state salaries have room to grow.

Conway said the director salaries the County Board wants to cut include the departments of administrative services, human resources, health and human services, aging, and family care.

The amendment exempted from salary cuts the directors of parks, the airport and the zoo, as well as corporation counsel.

Supervisors Mark Borkowski and Steve Taylor said they did not support the amendment during budget deliberations because of those exemptions. But, both said, Abele has to enforce the board’s vote.

“This is the vote, and there’s going to be winners and there’s going to be losers,” Borkowski said, “and the losers don’t get to decide, ‘Well, we’re going to win.’”

Borkowski said he has not decided whether he would support the lawsuit. To gain his support, he said, the lawsuit would have to make it clear the board is not trying to goad Abele into a petty fight.

Taylor said he supports the lawsuit and criticized Abele for how he has refused to enforce the pay cuts. If the executive believes the board’s policy could be illegal, Taylor said, then Abele should file a lawsuit.

“It’s not set in stone,” Taylor said. “It’s not, until a court decides.”

Weishan said he is not sure when the lawsuit could be filed. If it were up to him, he said, he would file immediately. However, he said, he needs to consult his colleagues, and hopes the lawsuit will be filed soon.

“I think the county executive has nothing but contempt,” Weishan said, “for democracy in general and the process here.”

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