Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors

How Not to Run a Public Hearing

We often hear about the lack of "transparency" or that "the process wasn't followed," and it is actually my belief that often enough this isn't true.

Apr 6th, 2009 by Dave Reid

MCTS Adds New Bus Route

MCTS, empowered by a veto override by the Milawukee County Board in November, has added (in reality restored) a bus route to their service offerings, offering service from the Downtown Transit Center through downtown and out to 60th Street via Vliet Avenue.

Apr 1st, 2009 by Jeramey Jannene

Kitty Corner, Across the Freeway

This is how County Executive Scott Walker described just how close UW-Milwaukee's new Engineering School could be from the Milwaukee County Research Park.

Mar 24th, 2009 by Dave Reid

County Board Votes for Task Force Recommendations

The proposed Regional Transit Authority recommendations were on the agenda after being delayed at a previous meeting of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. At the previous meeting a task force was created and charged with putting together a positive message from the county supporting regional transportation. Supervisor Pat Jursik explained that despite the task force’s work and positive output the Transportation, Public Works and Transit Committee unfortunately rejected the findings. She expressed her displeasure with the committee’s actions saying “I’ve been very depressed the last few days”. She then made a strong plea to deny the committee’s rejection so they could then move to take positive action on the task force’s recommendations. She also referred to a public meeting held on January 13th saying “I was really quite surprised by the consensus of the speakers in terms of regional transit”. The concerns over governance and control popped up again when Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs stated “my concern is the governance issue wasn’t brought up” and that “I think it needs to be strongly said that we do need representation”. Supervisor Chris Larson attempted to quell these concerns saying that “we’re trying to issue our opinions on this” and added that “there’s a coalition building and I think Milwaukee County should be part of it”. He felt Milwaukee County needed to step up as even “the business community is willing to step up”. He was part of the task force that put forward the recommended response. Supervisor Johnny Thomas added his support to the task force recommendations saying “if we don’t get outside of this room we’ll be talking about this for at least another 30 years”. The board took an extended lunch to work out an amendment to the task force recommendations to gain majority support from the board. This amendment added specific governance recommendations, including additional appointees for Milwaukee County and diversity requirements, to the RTA’s configuration. In the end the board rejected the committee’s action and voted positively in support of the task force’s recommendation with the additional amendment in place.

Feb 6th, 2009 by Dave Reid

What is the Problem in the Park East?

Changes proposed to lure developers to Park East lots.

Jan 19th, 2009 by Dave Reid

Board of Supervisors Lay Over RTA Resolution

This meeting of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors featured the much debated resolution regarding the proposed Regional Transit Authority.

Dec 21st, 2008 by Dave Reid

Potential Changes to the RFP Process

Milwaukee should explore how land sales are managed in order to achieve the highest and best use. If Milwaukee can become better at converting land from public and vacant to private and developed it will only be a benefit to the entire city by building a better urban fabric and raising the city tax base.

Nov 28th, 2008 by Jeramey Jannene

Milwaukee Transit

The Solution

A regional transit authority with a dedicated funding source is the solution to the Milwaukee regional transit woes. The use of an authority represents the most efficient and reliable way to deliver a service to a region. A dedicated and reliable funding source is essential to empowering an authority to deliver the services for which it is tasked. While Milwaukee's freeway system was designed and built to serve the region, the Milwaukee region's multiple transit systems stop and start at invisible lines. The various transit systems have different fares, operating hours, vehicles, and branding. As they are now, the systems simply aren't designed to work together to ensure a high quality of service to the region.

Nov 4th, 2008 by Jeramey Jannene

What is Supervisor Coggs Thinking?

At a time when Milwaukee County is cutting transit service and neglecting our parks, Supervisor Coggs is promoting a $3,600 pay raise for Milwaukee County Board members.

Jul 26th, 2008 by Dave Reid

Murphy’s Law