NO SEAT FOR CITY ON ASSEMBLY URBAN COMMITTEE

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

And the Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

You'd think something called the Urban and Local Affairs Committee of the Wisconsin State Assembly would find a place for Milwaukeeans on the eight member panel, especially now that the Democrats control the legislature. But you'd be wrong.
Incoming speaker Mike Sheridan announced the Democratic members of that and the other 30 assembly committees today, Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008, and none of them are from Milwaukeeworld
.
The Urban and Local Affairs Committee will be headed by Rep. Terese Berceau, who has served on it since 1999. She is a resident of Madison, population 208,594. The Vice Chairman will be Rep. Terry Van Akkeren. He represents Sheboygan, Wisconsin's 12th most populous city and home to 50,000 souls, or about the size of a single Milwaukee County Supervisory district.
Robert Ziegelbauer is also among the five Democrats who will serve on the panel. He is from Wisconsin's twentieth-largest city, Manitowoc, home to 34,053 souls. Back in 2005-2007 he served on the "Rural Affairs Committee," which seems more like it.
Gordon Hintz of Oshkosh will continue to represent the 62,916 residents of that burgeoning Winnebago County community, Wisconsin's seventh largest, on the committee.
Rep. Joseph Parisi, another Madison resident, will continue to serve on the panel, giving the state's capital and second largest city two members on the committee.
Robert Turner, an assemblyman from Racine, will no longer serve on the committee, depriving Wisconsin's fourth largest city and its 81,000 residents a voice there.
The Republicans have yet to announce their three appointees to the committee, but it is certain that none of them will be from the City of Milwaukee, which does not elect members of that party to state office.
During the last legislature, when the Republicans were in control, their committee representatives included Mark Gottlieb of Port Washington, Daniel LeMahieu of West Bend, Scott Gunderson of Waterford, Thomas Lothian of Williams Bay and Donald Pridemore of Hartford.
None of these cities are considered among the principal metropolitan areas of the Badger State, but all of them are geographically closer to Milwaukee than any of the cities the Democrats on the new committee represent.
So, Milwaukee has no members of leadership in the assembly, and nobody at all on its urban committee. We shall see how this bodes for the ambitious legislative agenda of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and his 596,974 constituents.

PUBLIC BUILDING TO HOST PRIVATE EVENTS ONLY
It looks like we will have to devote a good deal of electronic ink to restaurant closings in the upcoming months. Coast Restaurant, in the O'Donnell Park Pavillion, will close to the public at the end of the year. It will remain open for private events. I really wonder if that can be done with a building owned by the public, in this case the county government. I must take a look at the lease for that place. Perhaps I could lease a county golf course and turn it into a private country club. ... Tequila Rita's, 1131 N. Water Street, has shut after a little more than 18 months in business. ... The Ladybug Club on N. Water St. is undergoing a 45-day suspension. More disasters to follow in an upcoming post.
Michael Horne