CHIEF HEGERTY'S WISH LIST

Dear Reader –

Thank you for dropping by the milwaukeeworld outpost for a visit. Today we follow one of the city’s most interesting ongoing stories – the Police Department Asset Forfeiture plan set forth by the Chief of Police. It’s always interesting to see where these funds get spent. It’s mad money for cops, and Nannette tells us where she would like to spend it.

Then, we’re off to Federal Court to look at another c-r-a-z-y lawsuit filed there.

If you haven’t checked in for awhile, I also posted a story about an interesting and controversial Journal Sentinel photograph which was good enough to make the front page of the Metro section, but not good enough, apparently, to save online. Read the story and you’ll figure out why.

Thank you for visiting, and stay in touch.

Michael Horne

Editor / Publisher

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NANNETTE’S SHOPPING LIST

CHIEF CALLS FOR SECURITY CAMERAS, COMMAND POST AND INTERROGATION ROOM UPGRADES

PLUS – ROOM AND BOARD FOR FIDO AND TRIGGER

By Michael Horne

It’s asset forfeiture time, that season when the chief of police puts her hat in hand and asks the Common council to approve expenditures out of the money she is likely to receive from federally seized forfeiture funds.

The Public Safety Committee will hear her request in a special meeting on February 7^th 2006, immediately preceding the regular meeting of the Common Council. Enough with the special meetings, already!

The request for funds was sent to the council by the chief on November 29^th. As of the day before, the Asset Forfeiture account balance was $1,084,161. By law, the funds must be expended to enhance police operations, and may not be used to replace regularly-budgeted items.

This feature has made the fund both a cookie jar and a Pandora’s box. As the chief noted in her request letter, “Historically about half of the items presented in the plan are eventually funded, based on the needs of the Department throughout the coming fiscal year.”

Now let’s get down to business!

The chief wants $15,000 in administrative fees so that the U.S. Marshal’s Office can recover its administrative expenses from seized assets. The police department “must make direct payments to offset expenses incurred in seizure of vehicles or other non-monetary property.” [Cash property is recovered net of the Federal Government’s costs.] “Payment of these fees allows continued participation in this program.”

The chief wants a like sum for Bomb Squad Training & Equipment, including alarms for “explosive bunkers.” Keep me away!

Chief Hegerty gives credit to Steven Avery and the State Supreme Court for occasioning a $60,000 expenditure for Booking & Interrogation Room Upgrades to provide better camera and audio recordings. I’ll stay away from that one, too!

A $10,000 item will pay for the food, medical care and boarding of three drug-interdiction canines. “Without funding, the Department will be less effective in drug interdiction and subsequently less successful in its attempts to secure federally seized forfeiture funds.” Keep those dogs away from me!

She would like another $145,700 to replace antiquated computer equipment purchased way back in the dawn of the century, in 2001. “Computer technology rapidly becomes obsolete and some of these older computers won’t run the current software that the department is installing.” From what I gather, few of the department’s computers run any of the software the department is installing.

Chief Hegerty also asks for $50,000 cash to be used in criminal investigations, “including drug related cases. If these funds were not approved, we would potentially have to suspend or curtail certain types of criminal investigations.”

Speeders beware! “Replacement of speed detectors has been neglected for a number of years.” The chief wants $41,125 to purchase at least 10 speed detectors.

Also on the list, Lights for Warrant Squad Shotguns ($7,200) “Personnel assigned to the Fugitive Apprehension Unit search daily for dangerous suspects in closets, attics, and basements. These lights attach to their service weapons, thereby illuminating the area being searched.”

The Mobile Command Post Update will cost $250,000 since “the current technology in the command post is antiquated. It will not interface with the new Computer Aided Dispatch, Records Management Systems or radio infrastructure in any meaningful way,” which is something you’d think the department would have thought about some time ago when the failed dispatch system was designed.

More ominously, for some, the chief also would like $100,000 to fund Pole Cameras. “With these funds, the Department will be able to purchase several portable outdoor camera surveillance systems that could be utilized to combat crime in targeted areas around the City. These units are both a crime deterrent and an investigative tool, when matched with other law enforcement initiatives.”

Also on the list is $105,000 for the Mounted Patrol. This sum will cover the cost of leasing seven horses for the patrol, once considered a controversial budget item.

Want more? There is plenty more here .

ANOTHER WACKY FEDERAL CASE

Do you remember Fidelis Omegbu? He sought to be a candidate for Milwaukee County Executive in 2002, but he was not allowed on the ballot because his nomination papers were riddled with false signatures. Omegbu was eventually criminally convicted in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, where he also has a criminal conviction for battery.

He’s back, this time in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Case 05 C 596, in a suit captioned “Omegbu v. State Elections Board et al,” where he joins dozens of others who have a gripe and want to make a federal case of it.

Among the et als named in the suit: The Milwaukee County prosecuting attorneys, the Milwaukee County House of Correction, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department and the Milwaukee County Clerk of Court.

In a January 20th 2006 letter sent to members who had served on the Elections Board at the time of the events mentioned in the suit, Kevin J. Kennedy, the board’s Executive Director, writes: “The theory of his lawsuit is unclear, but it appears he alleges a denial of equal protection based on his race and based on a too-short period of time to circulate nomination papers.”

Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Charles Hoornstra is representing the Board as well as the Milwuakee prosecutors.

I’ll try to get a copy of the case so I can publish it for you. It is certain to be an amusing read. But I do have some advice for Mr. Omegbu – he owes $975 fines from the fraud case, which he should probably pay before he presents himself to law enforcement officials. – Michael Horne

THEY'RE OFF! COUNCIL JUNKETS FUNDED

Have Taxpayer Money, Will Travel

By Michael Horne

When the City of Milwaukee Common Council meets on February 7th, one of the items on the agenda is File Number 051005, a "substitute resolution authorizing attendance at conventions, seminars and other travel in the amount of $13,050.
We learn from the file that "four aldermen" [unnamed -- Ed.] will attend the "National League of Cities - 2006 Annual City Conference" from March 10-15, 2006 in Washington, D.C. at a cost to the taxpayers of $7,920. The events in the Nation's Capital will include "Lobby Day," during which buses will be available to take delegates from the Hilton Washington and Towers (standard room: $209 night, $229 double. Do aldermen bunk together?) to the Capitol where they are to descend on our legislators in Congress.
I'm certain the K Street lobbyists will be ignoring their regular clients like Exxon, Haliburton and the World Bank once they hear that four gentlemen from Milwaukee's Common Council will be in their town.
Alderman Michael McGee, Jr. is getting $1,80-0 to travel in April to Fort Worth, Texas where he will participate in the "National Forum for Black Administrators, Forum 2006 - Building Coalitions & Connecting Cultures." This trip will give Mr. McGee a chance to hang out with some real "plutocrats," the term he famously used to describe his colleagues on the common council during the Zoning and Neighborhood Development Committee hearing Tuesday, January 31. (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel even chose McGee's "plutocrat" reference as its Word of the Day on the front page of Wednesday's newspaper!)
McGee is well acquainted with "building coalitions and connecting cultures," but the Black Administrators' website gives no clue as to whether programs at the forum might include topics like "Building Coalitions with Co-workers." If such a class exists, I move the council appropriate such funds as shall be sufficient to guarantee McGee's attendance thereat. Hearing no objections, so ordered.
Finally, the Common Council will send three of its members [unnamed -- Ed.] to Las Vegas, Nevada for "2006 ICSC Spring Convention -- Breaking New Ground" from May 20 - 24. The ICSC is the "International Council of Shopping Centers."
That foray will cost the public $5,310 but will return far, far more to our city's coffers, as past experience shows.
As you may remember, this is the convention that was a must-attend for city leaders last year when so many "leases" were "signed" for the PabstCity project, giving us the shops that now surround the House of Blues and Gameworks downtown. As you know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

BOYS' SWIMMING TEAM PHOTO THREATENS SOME
Last Friday, January 27th, 2006 the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Metro section featured two color photographs of the swimming team of Homestead High School, Mequon, my alma mater. The boys were in their suits in the locker room dying each other's hair -- and much of the locker room floor -- bright red. I thought it was a great picture, but by evening Friday people were saying things to me like, "I wonder what would have happened if an Ozaukee County teacher had that photo on his laptop?"
I was rather mystified by the comments until I wrote to Journal Sentinel photographer Richard Wood, who took the picture, and got his response.
Here's what he had to say: "Ever since ___________ implied ... that this was a situation that would appeal to perverts, the e-mails and calls have been coming in. ... but most people thought it was a great moment showing the rituals of youth, no different thatn say a group of high school guys painting letters on their chests for a high school football homecoming game., etc."
So what was Wood doing at Homestead, anyway? Heavens to TABOR, here's the answer:
"I was actually at the Mequon pool that afternoon to photograph the Germantown Boys Swim Team that practices in the pool at Mequon because they don't have a swimming pool in the Germantown Schools (they filled it in over a year ago due to budget concerns and haven't rebuilt). ... While I was there, I noticed all the Meuqon swimmers at the other end of the pool had bleached hair. That struck me as odd so I asked the Mequon coach why. He explained it was a tradition on the team to dye their hair for the conference meet, shave patterns in their hair for the sectionals and to shave their heads for the state finals (a bald head creates less friction a a swimmer gets better times.)
Wood goes on to say his own children, (one in high school, and the other in college) said "it's done all the time with many swimming programs and not a big deal." He then took proofs of the photos to the school to show the swimmers, and the athletic department, to get the names spelled correctly, etc.
So there you go! Sometimes a locker room photograph of boys in swimsuits is just a steamy, hot, locker room photograph of boys in swimsuits with Homestead printed on their rears. You don't have to get so excited about it.

--Michael Horne