PABST -- THE PARKING LOT

By Michael Horne

Paul Kalmanovitz, the corporate bottom feeder who purchased the Pabst Brewery in 1985, two years before his death, was said to have always viewed any company he purchased with an eye to turning the place into a parking lot after he was done raiding the shop. After all, the man got his start in the automobile parking business.
Well, it looks like his dream will come partly true for at least six months beginning February 1st, 2006 when the existing surface parking lot on the Pabst site at approximately 800 - 1000 W. Juneau Avenue will be leased to the County of Milwaukee for use by county employees whose automobiles are to be displaced by the pending demolition of the Milwaukee County Courthouse Annex.
Juneau Avenue Partners, an outfit created to advance the failed PabstCity development, will be the county's landlord at the site.
Juneau AveWisconue Partners is a subsidiary of Wispark, which is a subsidiary of Wisconsin Energy Corporation. Wispark president Jerold Franke confirmed the lease in a telephone conversation with milwaukeeworld Friday afternoon. He declined to disclose the amount of rent the firm is charging the county, saying only that "you can get that information out of the courthouse."
Milwaukeeworld has placed a call to Rod McWilliams of the office of County Executive Scott Walker requesting this information, which will be transmitted to you when it is received.
[UPDATE -- Monday, January 30th, 2006 -- Bob Dennik, the director of the Milwaukee County Department of Economic Development responded in an email sent Saturday morning. He says the county will pay Juneau Avenue Partners $6,800 per month for the lot. -- Ed.]


More Interesting News
Barbara Stein opened her Cudahy Condominium (the building, not the city) to several dozen supporters of J. D. Watts, a candidate for Branch 39 of the Milwaukee County Court system Thursday evening, January 26th 2006. Among attendees were such worthies as Judge Kevin E. Martens, Judge Carl Ashley and his positively beautiful children, Todd Montgomery and wife Sue Montgomery, Leonard and Ruth Zubrensky, Jean Kies, Michael Hupy, Leon Todd and others too numerous to mention, including former Alderpeople E. Faye Anderson and Larraine McNamara-McGraw.
The candidate's mother Martie Watts was there, and in good spirits. She's still living up at the family farm in Ozaukee County after the death of her husband George Watts, of local gift shop and political fame.
She dismissed the notion some hold that her house must be brimming with glittering place settings and sparkling crystal. "George always said, leave downtown downtown. I live in a farmhouse, and those things would be out of place." She added that her children would have probably destroyed everything, anyway. Apparently they're still in the habit of wrestling each other when in a rowdy mood.
The hostess could not have been kinder, and welcomed each guest individually. When you're in her house you're family, guests were told, and the family helped themselves to hors d'oeuvres served on psychedelic-colored paper plates and matching napkins. Four varieties of wine were served, as were soft drinks. The large apartment is filled with art and fragile items (no wrestling here). Ms. Stein is a particular devotee of artist David Lenz; she has countless of his paintings, including a well-known one of a farmer and his wife, the creation of which had been exhaustively documented in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story. She even has a scrapbook filled with articles about Lenz.
Watts likes to discuss his candidacy using a baseball analogy. He says he's been "a prosecutor, a guardian ad litem, a businessman. I've been on the field, I've pitched, I've caught, I've played the infield and the outfield, I've batted, I've run the bases and I've sat in the stands." And I want some Cracker Jacks and a beer after all that.

ANOTHER CONFLICT FOR SEN. OLSEN

SENATOR OLSEN, INSURANCE COMPANY BOARD MEMBER, VOTES PRO-INSURANCE IN APPARENT CONFLICT OF INTEREST

[a milwaukeeworld scoop]

By Michael Horne

Although Senator Luther Olsen (R-Berlin) has recused himself from voting on ethanol issues due to his family and financial connections that range from selling seed corn to farmers to distilling alcohol from their crops, he has not responded to a milwaukeeworld request regarding another conflict of interest that looms over him.

As was mentioned here before, Olsen is a member of the board of directors of Manitowoc Mutual Insurance Company of Reedsville, which is listed by Weiss Ratings, Inc. as one of America’s 20 weakest insurance companies, with a rating of D-, or somewhere between “weak” and “very weak.”

Olsen is also a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Insurance, which votes on insurance issues.

He was the swing vote on two 4-3 decisions on insurance issues rendered by the committee at the end of 2005. The two bills under consideration were AB764 and AB766, both of which attempted to place caps on damages in medical malpractice cases. Olsen, in committee, voted in favor of the caps as the swing vote. This helped propel these bills through the system, where they were ultimately vetoed by Governor James Doyle.

Would you imagine that a director of an insurance company who is also a legislator would vote against caps in liability cases? Of course not, and these two bills are excellent arguments why Olsen, who was also a sponsor of one of the bills (AB764), should recuse himself.

I called Olsen’s office with a question, asking whether the Senator ought to recuse himself from voting on insurance issues due to this evident conflict of interest. The senator has not responded.

I also contacted the office of R. Roth Judd, who polices ethics for the state, to see if he had investigated this conflict. I have not received a response to that call.

Olsen Recuses Self from Ethanol Vote

-- “Republican Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Berlin, said today he made the decision a while ago to recuse himself from voting on the pending ethanol bill due to business ties. ‘I had decided to do that a long time ago. We're just too close to it,’ Olsen told WisPolitics.com in an interview.” – [Source: www.wispolitics.com ]

Milwaukeeworld was happy to break the news of the Luther Olsen – Ethanol connection some months ago, and the news that Olsen has recused himself from voting on SB15 is welcome, and was probably prompted, in part, by the publicity generated by the posting, which was widely viewed, particularly after wispolitics.com linked to it.

When Olsen said, “we’re just too close to it,” he was referring to his family connections to the ethanol industry. These connections range from Olsen’s Mill, Inc., to Berlin Feed, Inc., both owned, in part, by Olsen, to Utica Energy, an ethanol plant run by Olsen’s brother.

The plan to require 10 per cent ethanol in nearly all automotive fuel sold in Wisconsin, as proposed in SB15, would be a boon to Utica Energy, without question.

Utica Energy has participated for at least three years in the United States Department of Agriculture Bioenergy Program, according to documents I researched.

In the program, “payments were made to bioenergy producers who increased their purchases of eligible agricultural commodities and converted that commodity into increased bioenergy production, as compared to the corresponding period in the prior fiscal year.”

Payments to Utica Energy from this program are in the millions, and should be studied when one considers the enormous subsidies in the ethanol racket.

For the Fiscal Year 2003, as of December 12, 2003, Utica Energy received $2,396,752 from the program. In 2004, the firm netted a subsidy of $4,050,003, and in 2005 Utica Energy received $2,393,504 from the program. Total program funding for all ethanol producers participating over the three-year period was $326 million.

--Michael Horne

MORE UNANSWERED CALLS

Schreiber - Adelman - Doyle connection pondered.

By Michael Horne

Several months ago when the travelgate story first broke, I called Craig Adelman, whose Adelman Travel Group had just been awarded the now-controversial contract for state travel arrangements. I left a message for Adelman asking if he had had any conversations, of a formal or informal nature with Martin Schreiber, the former acting governor and lobbyist who is close to Governor Jim Doyle.

I never heard back from him, and let the matter drop. I have also called Atty. Schreiber with the same question, leaving a message with his office, and have not heard back from him.

I think it is a reasonable question, based on the closeness of Schreiber and Doyle, and considering the circumstances of the travel contract, including Adelman's $10,000 contribution to the governor's campaign. I have a feeling, though, that the question will remain unanswered until such time as it is asked by somebody with subpoena powers.

LANGLEY MULLS D'AMATO DEFENSE

Bernie, Dennis, Mike and Jill Bondar are listed as the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Alderman Michael D'Amato filed January 23rd in U.S. District Court. They are suing D'Amato "in his individual capacity," according to the complaint drawn by Madison attorney Paul A. Kinne in a civil action to "redress the retaliatory treatment of plaintiffs by Defendant D'Amato."
Since he is being sued in his "individual capacity," I wondered if this might be a tactic to force D'Amato to hire his own attorney.
If it was the tactic, it might not work.
"Don't put too much emphasis on the 'individual capacity,' as it is a 'term of art,'" said City Attorney Grant Langley who added that he is looking into representing D'Amato.
A "term of art," I learned, is a legal expression for something that has a precise meaning in a particular subject area.
Langley says D'Amato has not yet been formally served with a summons and complaint in the matter, but the city attorney says he has glanced through the complaint and notes the document also states "all of D'Amato's actions described in this complaint were taken within the scope of his employment and under color of state law," which, to this layman, would seem reasonable justification for Langley's involvement in the case.
Langley already represents D'Amato in another federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) civil suit in which the alderman is one of a number of parties named by plaintiff Joseph Kaye. At issue in both cases is the East Village Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District championed by D'Amato and opposed by the Bondar family which owns a dozen properties in the neighborhood. The brothers also own and operate Wolski's tavern.
Langley said he would make a decision whether to represent D'Amato "very soon."
--Michael Horne

Wandering Peg

When Peggy A. Lautenschlager was the United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, from September, 1993 to April 2001, she did a considerable amount of traveling at the taxpayers' expense. Her journeys took her from such exotic locales as Tomah, Wisconsin (October 8, 1997; $60.76) to Sedona, Arizona (February 3-5, 1999;$1117.74) and to many points in between and beyond.
Altogether, Lautenschlager claimed $30,378.89 in her travel vouchers during the period of October, 1996 to April, 2001, according to a review of records provided by the Department of Justice after a long, long wait. [The records received did not indicate any travel between the time of her appointment in 1993 until 1996. It can not be determined if this is because Ms. Lautenschlager did not travel, or if it was because the DOJ did not include this information, although it was requested.--Ed.]
She took 19 trips to Washington, D.C. from 1996 to 2001, usually to attend "meetings" and "conferences."
She met and conferred at such places as Portland, Oregon (Halloween, 1996; $774.11), Santa Fe, NM (May, 1997; $667.20), New Orleans (March, 1998; $563.40), Memphis (May, 1998; $521.70), Tucson (June, 1999; $590.70), Columbia, SC ("training," October, 1999; $1121), San Francisco (February, 2000; $316.26), Keystone, Colorado (June 2000; $755.26), Boston (September, 2000; $1645.01), and Cambridge, MA ("training," December, 2000; $1156.65), to mention just a few.
Lautenschlager also made many trips by automobile throughout the state of Wisconsin, claiming her 31 cents per mile for expenses. On the road, she also received $21 per day for "subsistence."
--Michael Horne, with research by Leslie Stewart, Jr., a graduate student at Marquette University.

Retraction and Apology for December, 2004 item

Dear Reader, On December 13, 2004, I wrote the following: "And then, we all remember that Dave Begel was accused of solicitingsignatures for Gary George¹s gubernatorial campaign on state time. Isn¹t it time we mention -- and I can prove this one -- that Begel wasn¹tsoliciting campaign signatures as much as he was forging them? Go back tothe files and take a look that is Begel¹s handwriting all over.

Mr Begel contacted me on January 12, 2006 with this message:

“This is a lie. I demand a retraction and an apology, in writing and in yourcolumn. As you know, handwriting experts hired by the Milwaukee CountyDistrict Attorney, clearly said the signatures in question were not myhandwriting.” Apology and Retraction: I apologize to David C. Begel and retract my statement that I could prove he was the signatory of forged nomination papers. I should have said, as did a forensic expert, that there were “irregularities in the signatures on the papers” circulated by Dave Begel, Debbie Thao and Locha Thao. I should not have attributed the signatures themselves to Dave Begel. The forensic expert told me that the signatures, in her opinion, were not in Begel's handwriting.

For further information, including examples of the nomination papers, complaints and affidavits filed in the case, I am grateful to wispolitics.com for maintaining, in its archives, the documents below, which the reader is welcome to examine.

The first link is to the affidavit of a forensic handwriting expert, and the second is a complaint filed with the State of Wisconsin Elections Board that includes the affidavit referenced above and other documents in the case.

http://archive.wispolitics.com/freeser/features/featdl/george/attachE.pdf

http://archive.wispolitics.com/freeser/features/f0207/f02071601.html

I apologize for any loss of reputation Mr. Begel may have suffered due to my posting.

Michael Horne

Editor / Publisher

www.milwaukeeworld.com