MURPHY SWING VOTE ON RENT-A-COP STUDY

To the members of the Milwaukee Police Association, the idea of having non-sworn officers perform police functions is a very serious matter. The MPA is a union, after all, and unions want to make sure there are plenty of jobs for union members.
Still, the "Milwaukee Police Department, as a vital component of public safety for the city of Milwaukee, receives approximately 98% of the city property tax levy," according to Common Council File 050956, which goes on to say "there exists merit in investigating how alternative positions, sometime called Community Service Staff," may be applied to Milwaukee in order to provide budget relief and to better respond to citizen calls for service."
The file, sponsored by Alds. Hines and Witkowski, then goes on to call for the establishment of a task force to review the use of "Community Service Staff," or as the MPA derisively calls them "Rent-A-Cops."
The file called for the task force to be "comprised of an appointee of the City Attorney, the Milwaukee Police Department, the Fire and Police Commission, the Department of Administration Budget Division, the Office of the Mayor, and two appointees of the Common Council President," who would also get to choose the chairman.
This seems like a diverse group of individuals, all involved in the issue at hand, but if you notice, the "Police Department" representative would almost certainly have come from management, and not from the rank and file.
Well, that troubled the MPA, and a last-mminute amendment was offered by Ald. Zielinski during the Common Council meeting Tuesday morning, December 13th to add a member of the police union to the task force.
That amendment passed on a narrow 8-7 vote, with Ald. Michael Murphy, who does not always vote pro-MPA, casting the vote in the union's favor.
The council then voted 15-0 to conduct the study and to create the task force, giving it a four-month period of time to do its job. -- Michael Horne

POLICE UNION CHRISTMAS PARTY
The Milwaukee Police Association held its annual Christmas holiday party at Serb Hall, Tuesday, December 13th at American Serb Hall Banquet and Conference Center. The party commenced at eight o'clock --A. M., of course, so as to accommodate the early morning socialization requirements of the third shift cops just getting off of work. Milwaukeeworld showed up there around noon, and the parking lot was crowded, as was Serb Hall itself.
A Miller Brewing Company delivery truck waited outside the restaurant's service entrance. The total volume of beer contained within it at the beginning of the day is unknown to this writer. By the end of the evening, however, there would be no question that the trailer would have become considerably lighter than when it rolled into the parking lot in the morning.
Inside, the place was crowded with active and retired union members. The food included the famous Serb Hall fish fry, fried chicken, shrimp salad, mashed potatoes, vegetables here and there, and a variety of cakes.
One poor sucker ordered a beer and a Shirley Temple. "That's two bucks," the bartender declared.
"What the hell, I thought the beer was free!," said the incredulous one.
"Beer's free, but your soft drinks cost you two bucks!"
God love Milwaukee.
Union Chief John Balcerzak proved that he looks as good in an apron as he does in a suit, as he dished out food for his brothers and sisters. The police ranged from uniformed members to undercover officers, leavened with the retired guys. I wouldn't mess with any of them.
But the police were hardly a presence, by percentage of the population at large as were the judges at the event.
A good quarter of the Milwaukee County judiciary was present at the event, and most of the judges were dashing around the room collecting signatures for their nomination papers, some more insistently than others.
You could have called in a bomb scare to the courthouse at the time, and it would not have rated as a particularly high alarm, since so much of the judiciary was at Serb Hall.
Among the Honorables present (in no particular order): Judges Sosnay, Moroney, Wagner, J. DiMotto (keep you guessing there), Brennan, Noonan, Yamahiro, Martens, Konkol, Brash and Kuhnmuench.
Among the City's constitutional officers, the police were honored by the presence of Treasurer Wayne Whittow, City Attorney Grant Langley and Comptroller W. Martin "Wally" Morics, C.P.A., who arrived at the event in a red two-seater BMW.
Yes, you heard it right -- the man who manages our money drives a red German-made sports car to work!
"But only if the weather is nice," W. Martin said, adding that his automobile drives poorly in the snow, and that he walks to work on stormy days. His more reasonable vehicle, he explained, is under the control and operation of his wife who uses it to commute to Cedarburg where she teaches school after having retired from being a school teacher. (A much more common phenomenon than you'd imagine. Them teachers never give up.)
Aldermen Bohl, Dudzik and Bauman attended the event, as did Ald. Puente, a former police officer himself who had spoken out and voted earlier in the day against adding a police union representative to the task force to study the creation of a Community Service Staff within the department. -- Michael Horne

MORE INTERESTING NEWS
Ald Robert Bauman says he has succeeded in gaining a number of supporters for his proposed Canal Street Connector study. As he told Milwaukeeworld months ago, Canal street, now under reconstruction, for a century had rail lines running up and down the middle of it. He was furious that the street was being reconstructed without including a rail option as part of the construction process.
The man wants a street car to run along Canal street, and he has remained vigilant at his task. He says the Canal Connector has the support of the Milwaukee Brewers, Harley Davidson, the Potawatomi Casino, the Menomonee Valley Partners, State Fair and Marty Greenberg.
Now what would Marty Greenberg have to do with putting a rail line down the center of Canal street? Do you think we might see a soccer stadium in the shadow of Miller Park, since a rail line would render so much of Miller Park's parlking lots redundant, thus freeing up space?
Well, anyway, that's the thought that came to my mind.
--Michael Horne