CITY EMPLOYEES ON ACTIVE DUTY TO GET DIFFERENTIAL PAY

Differential Pay Resolution Sends Message to Washington

[A Contrarian View]

By Michael Horne

The Milwaukee Common Council handed Mayor Tom Barrett a veto-proof 10-5 majority vote in favor of providing “differential pay for city employees activated into service in the U. S. armed forces.”

Council members on both sides of the issues congratulated their colleagues for resisting the temptation to turn this vote into a referendum on the war in Iraq, with the “no” voters perceived as being among the antiwar set.

The “aye” voters used the argument that city employees should not suffer financially just because they are being shot at in Iraq rather than in Milwaukee.

The “nays” said the measure was an end-run around collective bargaining agreements and could set a dangerous precedent for renegotiating labor contracts without benefit of formal bargaining.

I find the vote indeed was a referendum of sorts, with the “aye” voters ironically providing a rationale to oppose the war.

I feel this way because the city will now bear an estimated $150,000 cost to compensate its employees who have been sent to war. This will help bring the issue home much more than would a news story about direct Pentagon costs of running the war.

As the fiscal note attached to common council file 041221 notes, “A fiscal estimate of $148,000, included as a point estimate in this fiscal note, is based on employees who are currently on leave. [Emphasis original.] Additional call-ups will increase these costs, maybe substantially.” The city has an estimated 50 employees on active military duty at this time.

As Milwaukee, other government entities and some private corporations, including Milwaukee’s Marshall & Ilsley Bank, offer differential pay, it will come to the attention of policy experts and the public that this war, unlike any other, is relying on the National Guard and Reserves for its manpower.

Sen. Richard Durbin is proposing a measure to offer differential pay to federal employees called up for service. His data show that 1.2 million people are in the guard and reserve; 10 per cent of them are federal employees; 17,000 federal employees are on active duty right now.

That reliance on government employees at all levels comes at a cost to the public, both in the form of the differential pay and in the lack of skilled personnel who should be doing their jobs in government at the local level – protecting the public, fighting fires, patrolling the highways – in the United States, rather than in Iraq.

Government officials in California, one of 23 states where differential pay is a state law, are warning of dire fiscal and social consequences due to thousands of government employees called up for service.

The National Guard and Reserves have traditionally drawn their pool of “weekend warriors” from, among other sources, those who are accustomed to wearing a uniform to work. This group, which is disproportionately represented in the ranks of the Guard and Reserves, includes occupations such as police officer, firefighter, sheriff’s deputy, correctional facility guard and the like. The loss of these workers is also disproportionately felt in rural communities, where many Guard members and Reservists are recruited due to lack of opportunity in these sparsely settled, economically depressed areas.

Fifty-one per cent of guard and reserve members report a loss of pay when activated; 11 per cent lose more than $2,500 a month.

We need these people back home to do their jobs and to keep our communities and our economies running. Perhaps if we feel their absence in our pocketbooks and in the deteriorating condition of our communities, it might inspire the grassroots public to develop the political resolve to end this war, of which George Washington would surely have warned us due to its nature as a “foreign entanglement,” pure and simple.

SEN. CARPENTER CITED FOR RECKLESS DRIVING, ENDANGERING SAFETY

[A Milwaukeeworld exclusive]
By Michael Horne

Chapter 346 of the Wisconsin Statutes is entitled "The Rules of the Road," one of which, 346.62(2), states, "No person may endanger the safety of any person or property by the negligent operation of a vehicle."
That is the charge levied against Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-3rd), the Milwaukee legislator who violated the statute on March 18th somewhere in Racine County. The charge, which is a traffic forfeiture case carrying a $375 bond, was not filed until April 5th 2006, as Racine County Case Number 2006TR004679
Carpenter will make his initial appearance at 8 a.m. Friday April 21st, 2006 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center Hearing Room before Hon. Alice A. Rudebusch.
It was not immediately clear what led State Trooper Deborah M. Reis to issue Citation M3917060 to the 46-year old legislator that March Saturday evening nearly a month ago, or why charges were not filed until more than a fortnight later.
Racine District Attorney Michael E. Mieskes says it may be due to a new electronic filing system employed by the State Patrol beginning this year.
He says his office does not have a copy of the citation, and that in a routine traffic matter such as this one, in which a forfeiture is the penalty, it would not be the procedure of his office to review the case beforehand.
For license plate collectors, you will be amused to learn that Carpenter's vehicle has the license plate number of "BASEBAL."

Milwaukeeworld has placed calls for further information with the court officer of the Wisconsin State Patrol and with the office of Sen. Carpenter. Milwaukeeworld has also asked for a copy of the citation issued by the trooper.
You will receive information as soon as it becomes available.

FOURTH AND FINAL BRADLEY PRIZE ANNOUNCED

[A Milwaukeeworld Exclusive]
By Michael Horne
[Dear Reader -- It looks like we scored a scoop here today, even beating the Washington Times! --Ed.]
Clint Bolick, the President and General Counsel of the Alliance for School Choice has been named this morning as the fourth and final winner of the 2006 Bradley Prize for Outstanding Achievement.
The award, to be presented at a gala ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Thursday May 25th, 2006 (mark your calendar!) comes with a $250,000 honorarium.
Bolick has ties to Milwaukee and Wisconsin. He argued school choice issues before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1991 and won the 1998 Jackson v. Benson case before the Supreme Court that ruled in favor of parental choice in Wisconsin.
It is said that when he delivered his arguments before the court in 1991 he had expected to see school children in the gallery. There were none! The school bus carrying the tykes to Madison had broken down en route. By the time the children arrived, their seats were filled.
Bolick remembers seeing their faces pressed against the glass windows of the courtroom. The poor children on the outside looking in provided him with a metaphor for the condition of the educational system in this country as he saw it.
This touching incident may rank as a watershed moment in the history of Compassionate Conservatism.
The selection committee for the Bradley Prizes included Thomas L. "Dusty" Rhodes, Bradley Foundation President & CEO Michael W. Grebe, William F. Buckley, George F. Will, Charles Krauthammer, Terry Considine, Reed Coleman and Dianne Sehler.
Will, a previous winner of the Bradley Prize, will be the keynote speaker at the awards ceremony.
Milwaukeeworld will try to provide on-the-scene coverage of this momentus event. Please use the search feature to find other articles on this website about the Bradley Foundation.

THIRD OF FOUR BRADLEY PRIZES ANNOUNCED

To hear Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation President and CEO Michael W. Grebe put it, the mainstream liberal media ignores his organization's prizes, while paying attention to the awards handed out by Teresa Heinz Kerry. Face it, Grebe -- Teresa's got more money!
Milwaukeeworld shares Grebe's concern that our hometown conservative think tank is not getting the national attention it deserves, so once again this website leads the city (and all of the nation, with the exception of the Washington Times, whose reporter seems to have a special relationship with Grebe) in announcing yet another winner of the famed Bradley Prizes.
The winner is: Shelby Steele, a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a recipient of other, more readily-recognizable honors, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, a National Humanities Medal and an Emmy.
None of them come with a $250,000 payday, as do the Bradley Prizes, which will be awarded at a gala celebration May 25th at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (I so want to go!) The host of the event will be George F. Will, himself a former winner of the prize.
I've posted other stuff about the Bradley Prizes elsewhere on this website. I also called Grebe for a comment, and he did not call back.
However, the most recent press release issued by the foundation gives us a telephone number of a public relations outfit in Virginia that will be happy to arrange an interview with Grebe, so I'll give the number a ring. Only one prize winner remains to be named. We'll try to beat the Washington Times with that news!
--Michael Horne

GIOVANNI'S RESTAURANT TO CLOSE

a milwaukeeworld.com exclusive

(c) 2006 By Michael Horne

Giovanni's Restaurant, 1683 N. Van Buren St., will close by June, milwaukeeworld has learned after speaking to numerous sources in the neighborhood and in the foodservice industry.
The building is to be sold and razed, and there is some speculation the property would be converted to retail use. The building had once been a gasoline station, and there is some talk that it might return to that function, perhaps as a BP station.
Owner Giovanni Safina was not immediately available for comment. A receptionist at the restaurant did not deny the sale and impending closing of the restaurant, but said any comment would come from Safina.
Sam McGovern Rowen, of the office of Ald. Michael S. D'Amato, said he was unaware of any changes in ownership of the property.
Jeff Beutner, the restaurant reviewer of the Shepherd Express, recently wrote a favorable review of Giovanni's, mentioning it as a survivor among Milwaukee's Sicilian restaurants, and noting the disappearance of such once-familiar names as Cataldo's, Tarantino's and Nicolo's from the local dining scene. Those restaurants, like Giovanni's, were located on E. Brady Street. Giovanni's has remained a neighborhood favorite, and was a popular spot for other restaurant and bar owners and characters such as Dennis "Libby" Librizzi, Jimmy "Pitch" Picciurro and John Bowers. It was a frequent luncheon spot for members of the Police and Fire unions, including Bradley DeBraska and Greg Gracz.
It would be possible to take a 2004 BMW to Giovanni's and to have it be the crummiest car on the lot.
The property was most recently assessed at $138,000 for the land and $471,100 for the improvements, for a total of $610,000.
Martin Greenberg, an attorney for Giovanni's, said a confidentiality agreement prohibited him from commenting on the matter.
More details will follow as they become available.

MEQUON MURDER UPDATE

MEQUON MURDER UPDATE:

TRATTNER CASE TO STAY IN OZ

Steve L. Trattner appeared in Ozaukee County Court Branch 2 Monday, April 20^th 2006 and asked Judge Tom R. Wolfgram for a change of venue for his upcoming trial on first degree reckless homicide charges of killing his wife, Sin Lam Trattner at their Mequon home on January 4^th 2006.

The motion was denied, and Trattner is to face a jury trial in Ozaukee County on June 26^th 2006. He remains in custody in the Ozaukee County Jail in lieu of $750,000 cash bond.

The court also denied defense motions by Trattner’s attorney, Michael J. Fitzgerald, to suppress testimony by Mequon police officer Tarie Umhoefer and Mequon detective Richard Schnell.

--Michael Horne

WAR STORIES: BATTLE FOR PAY MOVES TO CITY HALL TUESDAY

A SOLDIER WRITES

By Michael Horne

The Common Council will meet Tuesday, April 11^th to decide whether City of Milwaukee employees called up to military duty should receive the same pay they would had they remained in their jobs at home.

The ordinance, Common Council File 041221 has been kicked around a bit since it was introduced years ago. The matter is of particular interest to municipal unions looking out after the interests of their workers.

It should also be noted that the United States government has decided this war should be run substantially by reserve and guard units. The record will show that a disproportionate number of these service personnel come from law enforcement and firefighting backgrounds.

The measure calls for supplementing the pay city employees receive for service from the federal government with such funds as are sufficient to bring the employees’ pay up to the level received from their regular jobs with the city, and for no more than 179 days. The resolution, in any event, would expire in December 2007.

Here is a letter from a Milwaukee Police officer serving overseas, to his wife, who was working in favor of council file 041221:

Dear Janice:

A simple phrase is used over here:

We the unwilling,

Led by the unknown,

To help the ungrateful

To do the impossible

Can we at least get the support from those who for whatever reason, are not willing to support or protect their Country and way of life? Can you do your part by at least letting us fight with a clear head, knowing our financial situation is stable?

The USO and many citizens, have been very supportive. I can't tell you enough how grateful the guys are by the support. While waiting to fly into Iraq, the guys were sitting around trying to figure out if we were all going to make it out of Iraq alive. A lady from the USO came by and was handing out phone cards. For 5 mins, it was like Christmas, and the fears and uncertainty were gone. Yes we know we can't fill up the day with fun & games, but it sure makes the time more pleasant when people care. Does the City of Milwaukee care? We'll find out Tuesday.

Your Husband, Joe

Another Milwaukee officer, serving in Iraq, sent a letter to Mayor Barrett requesting action on the differential pay. He received this response, some time later. By this time, the officer was in Afghanistan:

Thank you for contacting my office regarding the proposal to supplement military pay for City of Milwaukee employees called to active duty. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts with me. While I have nothing but respect and support for our troops overseas, I feel that if the City of Milwaukee were to confer such a benefit on our employees called to active duty, it would have to be granted as part of the collective bargaining process between Milwaukee and the union. It is the opinion of the City Attorney's office that such a benefit cannot legally be granted outside the bargaining process. Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me and I wish you a safe return home. Please do not hesitate to contact my office with any other issues you feel deserve my attention.
Sincerely, TOM BARRETT Mayor