By Michael Horne

Back in March, Milwaukeeworld was skeptical of plans to eliminate the Private Industry Council and replace it with a city-based Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, as proposed in Mayor Barrett’s State of the City Address.

Despite the mayor’s claim that the PIC was ineffective and poorly administered, we had this take on the story: “It can be much more readily understood as a power play by Barrett and Governor Doyle to remove a Republican appointee (Gerard Randall) in favor of their own man (Donald Sykes).”

As it turns out, Milwaukeeworld’s take was right on. On Thursday, June 21^st, 2007, the PIC board voted to oust Randall and to replace him with Sykes.* The Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development would not be created, and the PIC would continue to operate the federally funded job development program for the region.

The losers in this case are Randall, forced out of a job, and republican County Executive Scott Walker, who should have seen the battle for what it was and should have put up some show of force on Randall’s behalf. He either lacked the political wherewithal, the political capital – or both.

Ald. Bob Bauman said Thursday, “Despite all of the hoopla, this was always about removing Randall and putting the mayor’s man in his place.”

This probably could have been accomplished without all of the attendant distractions and circumlocutions by the Mayor, the Governor and the County Executive. Barrett even went so far as to appoint a 20-member board to oversee the transition from the PIC to the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development.

It is also of interest to note that John Hiller, the chairman of the Private Industry Council of Milwaukee County Board of Directors is also a member of the 20-member transition team Barrett announced in May to oversee the ceding of the workforce development programs to the city's control. This puts Hiller in a unique position, wouldn't you say? Well, maybe not! Others who serve on both the PIC board and the transition team include Darnell Cole of MATC, Supervisor Willie Johnson, Jr., Lupe Martinez of UMOS, Carol Sample of Spotted Eagle High School, Linda Sowell of Gilbane, and Tim Sullivan, CEO of Bucyrus Corp.

As pointed out here in an accompanying story, Federal law automatically grants Barrett the authority to operate job training programs in Milwaukee, yet he used $75,000 of taxpayer money to hire a consultant to do a study of the PIC and local job training efforts.

The consultant was Sykes. As noted then, that’s similar to George W. Bush’s hiring of Dick Cheney to go and find him a vice-presidential candidate.

It was clear all along that if the job development funding were to disappear, so would the great majority of the PIC budget. The agency could have hobbled along for awhile, and then would have imploded (or exploded) leaving contracts unfulfilled, its creditors and employees unpaid and its staff in disarray. Meanwhile, it was never clear if the Barrett administration had the savvy and the moxie to create a whole new bureaucracy from scratch. The obvious solution: Keep the PIC, dump the boss – and do it without having to walk through a political minefield of your own making.

Only one question remains now: Will the Sunday morning talk shows continue to include Randall as a panelist, or will they dump him as unceremoniously as his board did?

Stay tuned.

*[Update: June 22nd 2007 -- According to the Journal Sentinel, which had first reported the dismissal of Randall, board chairman John Hiller didn't exactly fire him at the meeting. "We didn't agree to replace him. That may happen. But we haven't made that decision." However, there is no question that Randall's goose is cooked. If Barrett's man Sykes is not chosen, a subhead to the Journal Sentinel article says, he'll just go and start his own agency, as previously announced. --Ed.]

PROBLEMS WITH NEW PARKING METERS

(exclusive to the readers of Milwaukeeworld)

The City’s new parking meters, being installed downtown and in the Third Ward, are already falling apart. Over the last couple of weeks, workers have been installing little kiosks on the street to accept payment for street parking. Unlike the old meters, these devices accept bills and plastic, and are easier to monitor and to empty. Each device handles about 11 parking spots, and the former meter heads were removed and replaced with space markers indicating parking spots. You park, note the number on the adjacent space marker, and go to the kiosk to pay. Seems simple, but there is one problem: The space markers are exceedingly easy to remove from the poles, something the former meter heads certainly were not. As of this writing, numbers 2665 and 2666 were among the many numbers missing in the vicinity of the Milwaukee Public Market. As a test, I jiggled one number and it nearly came off in my hand. It is very likely that the numbers are targets for vandals, as is everything on earth. But whatever the reason, the engineers should find a way to better affix them to the poles. Perhaps using the same fasteners as were used to secure the meter heads might work. Let’s hope it’s a manufacturer’s defect so we taxpayers don’t have to pay for another automobile related hassle.

--Michael Horne

GOING OUT OF STYLE

Our friends at the Chipstone Foundation, known for adventurous programming, have come up with a whimsical exhibition to open today, June 21^st, 2007, at the Milwaukee Art Museum. “Going Out of Style: 400 Years of Changing Tastes in Furniture” features 18 pieces of furniture from the 1600s to 1980s and accompanies them with comments made about the pieces as they went out of style as tastes evolved (or devolved.) Those who revel in cattiness (and we’re not all gay, you know) will be delighted with the verbal scratchings inflicted on some ponderous pieces.

Is the Belter Rosewood Sofa (c.1850) “false and detestable?” Is the Secretaire à Abattant (1815-1830) a “ponderous and frigid monstrosity?” Is the 1840 Gothic Hall Stand an “instrument of torture?” The questions are yours to decide. The Milwaukee Art Museum organized the exhibiton in conjunction with the Chipstone Foundation, which lent a number of its priceless artifacts to the show, curated by Sarah Fayen, the Yale-educated assistant curator of Chipstone, and adjunct assistant curator of the art museum.

It should prove to be a refreshing summer show, and a different take on the study of historic furniture, which usually focuses on styles at their height of popularity. It’s time to study fashions in decline. The show, in the Decorative Arts Gallery, will run until September 30^th. Wednesdays are free for Milwaukee County residents at the museum. Take that, Mequon and Brookfield people!

--Michael Horne