Milwaukee County Board fires attorney, votes to hire Hawks Quindel (UPDATE)

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The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors fired its top in-house attorney, Kimberly Walker, without debate Thursday. She will continue, however, to serve the board for brief period.

County Executive Chris Abele has pledged to veto the resolution ousting Walker, and two-thirds of the board must vote to override that veto.

Thirteen supervisors authored the resolution to dismiss Walker from her post as corporation counsel for the county, which she has held since July 2011. That is enough to override a veto, but Walker will continue to serve as corporation counsel until the process reaches an end.

Walker said Supervisor Theo Lipscomb Sr. called her Tuesday afternoon to offer her the chance to step down rather than sit through Thursday’s vote. Walker declined.

“Leaving as some thief in the night, as if something has gone wrong or awry,” Walker said, “sends the wrong message.”

Walker is Milwaukee County’s first female and first African-American corporation counsel. Letters supporting her came from leadership of the Milwaukee chapter of the NAACP.

She refused to speculate on whether her race or gender could have influenced the supervisors’ decision.

Although there was a special Judiciary, Safety and General Services Committee meeting before the full board met Thursday, the resolution to oust Walker did not go through the committee cycle.

Lipscomb said the group that authored the resolution did not want to have a public hearing on the resolution.

“There was no advantage to that,” he said.

He said he did not want to discuss the reasons he is dissatisfied with Walker, and a public hearing through the committee cycle could have prompted such a conversation.

On Wednesday, Lipscomb refused to comment on the motivation behind the resolution beyond denying that either Walker’s race or gender or any payback for a state law limiting the board’s authority were factors.

The resolution does not describe those motivations, and like Thursday’s votes, is devoid of detail, specifying only the state statute granting the board authority to remove Walker.

Only Supervisor Jim Schmitt, one of the 13 authors, broke step with the 13-5 votes, casting a sixth vote against barring debate. That break, however, did not push the number of no votes over the threshold necessary to spur discussion.

In addition to Schmitt and Lipscomb, Supervisors John Weishan Jr., Pat Jursik, Jason Haas, Russell Stamper II, David Bowen, Peggy Romo West, Khalif Rainey, Gerry Broderick, David Cullen and Anthony Staskunas and Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic authored the resolution.

Deputy Corporation Counsel Mark Grady could fill Walker’s role until a new corporation counsel is named.

On Wednesday, Supervisor Mark Borkowski speculated that the board’s dissatisfaction with Walker stemmed from her and Abele’s strong working relationship, her perceived reluctance to evaluate Act 14 that reduced the power and pay of the board, and some board members’ belief that Walker was involved in a county effort to have the state Legislature determine whether Milwaukee developer Rick Barrett’s proposed 44-story building can be built legally on the Downtown Transit Center site.

Walker refused to speculate on the board’s motivation and said she was not given any explanation for her removal.

Abele likewise refused to speculate but said he was disappointed the board blocked debate. Abele, who appointed Walker, said he continues to believe she was the right choice.

“She was the best damn person,” he said, “of everybody I talked to.”