Milwaukee County moves to fire its corporation counsel

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The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors is expected to fire the county’s top in-house attorney Thursday.

Supervisor John Weishan Jr. said the board will consider a resolution at its regular meeting Thursday that would remove Kimberly Walker from her post as corporation counsel.

Walker did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Weishan declined to describe the motivation for the resolution. He said County Executive Chris Abele would be able to nominate someone to take Walker’s place, and until the board approved a replacement, Deputy Corporation Counsel Mark Grady would fill the void.

Grady did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Supervisor Theo Lipscomb Sr., chairman of the board’s Judiciary, Safety and General Services Committee, confirmed the board has the 12 votes necessary to survive a veto, but declined to offer a reason for the move.

Supervisor Mark Borkowski, who said he does not support the effort to oust Walker, said he suspects the board’s dissatisfaction with her stems from three main sources.

First, he said, the board was stung by the late-night move in Madison to settle the land-use question that has stymied Milwaukee developer Rick Barrett’s proposed 44-story building, The Couture.

Second, he said, the board was disappointed in Walker’s response when it requested an evaluation of Act 14, the state law that limits the supervisors’ power and budget. Although Walker told the board she believed her office could review the legality of the act, she also said she was worried supervisors would suspect bias if that review determined the new law was legal.

Third, he said, the fact that Walker is “perceived to be attached at the hip with Chris Abele,” appears to rankle some supervisors.

“I think the majority of the board considers that to be toxic,” Borkowski said.

Borkowski, vice chairman of the judiciary committee, has been a supervisor since 1992 and said he has never seen the board fire one of its attorneys.

Brendan Conway, Abele’s communications director, said he believed the effort to fire Walker was conceived as payback against Abele for his support of Act 14.

“Maybe instead of trying to fire corporation counsel,” Conway said, “many members of the board should also try to have a good relationship with corporation counsel.”

Conway said Abele had been hearing rumors that this was coming for about a week but was told more than once by County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic that those rumors were incorrect.

Dimitrijevic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Weishan said he did not base his effort to hire outside counsel to evaluate Act 14 on Walker’s response to the request. Rather, he said, he wanted to ensure the county hired an expert on the state constitution.

When the board gave Dimitrijevic the OK in May to look at available firms, Weishan said he had faith in Walker as an attorney. But as of Wednesday, he said, his opinion had changed.

“I think that, just to be polite, I’m going to leave it,” he said, “at, you know, I appreciate the time she spent with us.”