The Return of County Cronyism

County Treasurer David Cullen, County Clerk George Christenson and Register of Deeds Israel Ramón.

Back in 1947 legendary Milwaukee Journal reporter Richard Davis described Milwaukee County government in scathing terms, as a place run by a “clique” whose “needy friends… can be placed in jobs for convenience all around.”

That kind of cronyism, of insider dealing to reward each other, was a key driver of the infamous Milwaukee County pension scandal, which would ultimately cost Milwaukee taxpayers more than $1.3 billion. Officials I interviewed after I broke the pension story in October 2001 described county government as an “old boys and old girls club,“ a kind of “family” with “so many people who think their function is to protect their friends” in the courthouse.

Thus, even though board members knew the constitutional offices of county clerk, county treasurer and register of deeds were unnecessary and were on record urging the Wisconsin Legislature to eliminate the positions, they continued to give generous pay raises to those officers. Then-supervisor and later Milwaukee alderman Mark Borkowski told me all three positions required so little work they should be combined into one, as did then-county treasurer Dorothy Dean.

But that was more than 20 years ago. Today, with so much turnover of positions and a reduction of the county board to part-time pay, it felt as though the old cronyism that once ran the courthouse had dissipated. One possible sign of this was that the county paid far more — $130,000 — to the fourth constitutional officer, county clerk of courts, for a job that is considered truly full-time, while the other three constitutional officers were paid just $91,484.

Then came this year’s push to increase the pay for these three officers by an unprecedented 36%, for jobs that county insiders knew were essentially sinecures. The smarmy process by which this proposal was pushed was exactly the sort of thing Davis described more than half a century ago.

County insiders suggest that the three men holding these positions —  County Clerk George L. Christenson, Register of Deeds Israel Ramón and Treasurer David Cullen — approached the County Department of Human Resources — to push for a raise. The department then complied, issuing a report in February recommending that all three officers get an 11.5% salary hike, increasing their pay to $102,004.

While the report claimed to be a “market rate analysis,” it did no analysis of comparable positions in the private sector, probably because these are elective positions for which there is no market rate and which have never had a problem attracting candidates to run for them. County Clerk Christenson himself described the report’s recommendation as arbitrary: “they just came up with a number.” The report read like a lazy way to end the bother of these three guys pushing so hard for a raise.

But the three men weren’t satisfied with a $10,520 raise and wanted more. Much more. And as Urban Milwaukee’s county reporter Graham Kilmer documented, they lobbied for an even bigger raise. A spokesperson for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told Kilmer that “the three constitutional officers requested and had a formal meeting” with the human resources department “to dispute the administration’s original compensation recommendation.”

But the department would not go further than an 11.5% hike so the three men began lobbying the county board for more. Ramon admitted this, but claimed he was merely explaining that county ordinances required that the constitutional officers must receive pay in line with the salaries of other county department heads.

But if that was so, why had they long been paid less than other county department heads and less than the clerk of courts? And why hadn’t the Milwaukee County Corp Counsel, the office whose attorneys advise county officials on proper interpretation of the law, suggested a salary hike for constitutional officers was needed?

Making this all the more suspicious: the three men began pushing for the raises right after the resignation of Milwaukee County Corp Counsel Maggie Daun, a smart, no-nonsense attorney who was likely to have seen through the whole thing. (Daun, who is now a talk radio host and executive for Civic Media, has criticized the proposed raises on the air.) This left Ramón, who is an attorney, to offer his interpretation of county laws, and boy, did he succeed. Sup. Tony Staskunas amended the proposal, increasing the raise to 36% by 2028, eventually bringing their pay from $91,483 to $124,513. And nearly the entire county board voted for this stunning pay raise, with only Sup. Sheldon Wasserman voting no.

Staskunas and Sup. Shawn Rolland both said the salary hike was required by county ordinance, with Rolland saying he was advised this by County Clerk Christenson, who was quoting Ramón. But why would you accept the second-hand legal interpretation of someone who stood to personally benefit? Why did no one on the board check with the Acting Corporation Counsel Scott Brown for his opinion?

On April 5, some two weeks after the board approved this massive salary hike, Brown issued a memo that flatly contradicted Ramón’s assurance that this was required by county law. A review by the Office of Corp Counsel “has found no authority in statute, ordinance, or caselaw that requires that the County adopt a specific salary for the positions of the Register of Deeds, County Treasurer, and County Clerk,” the memo stated.

It’s a safe assumption that County Executive Crowley, who vetoed the 36% hike and supported the 11.5% hike, pushed Brown to do the legal analysis. Crowley’s spokesperson told Urban Milwaukee that “This situation raises ethical concerns regarding any County employee, including constitutional officers, using their special access, power, and influence to lobby for their own compensation.”

The board had called a special meeting to consider overriding Crowley’s veto, but in response to Crowley’s comments, and Urban Milwaukee’s story documenting the brazen lobbying by the three men, the board reversed its vote and approved the lower figure. But if the county ordinance doesn’t require any salary hike, then what’s the justification for the 11.5% salary hike, other than that three officers wanted more money?

Adding more of a stench to the entire affair was the fact that this came after the county successfully lobbied for a sales tax hike from state legislators, after repeatedly assuring that Milwaukee officials would be wise stewards of the taxpayers’ money. The 36% raise would have cost taxpayers more than $99,000 per year. As Wasserman noted, in voting against the proposal, the parks system has massive financial needs that surely take priority over these raises.

How then could all the other board members, like pliant sheep, reward the three officials for “using their special access, power and influence to lobby” for a pay hike? It certainly looks like classic county cronyism.