Too Many MPS Cooks

By Jeramey Jannene - Jul 20th, 2009 11:00 pm

You might say the Milwaukee Journal helped invent the position of Milwaukee County executive. The paper’s longtime county reporter, Avery Wittenberger, used to chat with then-County Supervisor William F. O’Donnell about courthouse issues, and in the late 1950s, they both concluded the county needed to have an executive similar to a city mayor.

Both might have had a somewhat glorified vision of county government, given their respective positions, but the idea was soon embraced by many (including, I suspect, the Milwaukee Journal editorial board) and passed by the state legislature. Five decades later, County Board Chair Lee Holloway has proposed rolling back the legislation and eliminating the position of county executive.

Categories: Commentary, Urban Ideas

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