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

REP. WOOD, FISCAL CONSERVATIVE, HAS UNPAID JUDGMENT

A Crystal Ball Vision Two Years Ago
Returns as a "Character" Study Today

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

Two years ago, in November, 2006, I sent a letter to Rep. Jeffrey S. Wood wondering if he had anything to say about an unpaid judgment entered against him in Eau Claire County in 1990. I never heard back from him, but the judgment, in the amount of $367.50, owed to the Herrick Hart Duchemin law firm, remains unsatisfied. Back in 1992, Luther Hospital in Chippewa County satisfied its judgment against Wood by garnishing his wages at Old Country Buffet.
I wrote then about what a train wreck he appeared to be, but that was back before he decided Republicans weren't fiscally conservative enough for him, and he became the first Independent elected to the legislature in over 80 years.
It was also before he was arrested for drunk driving (third time) and marijuana possession on December 12th, 2008.
Those charges have yet to be filed against Wood.
Wood was a sponsor of 2007 Assembly Bill 68 which was designed to increase from two to 10 the number of special temporary "Class 'B'" alcohol beverage licenses a municipality could grant to qualifying clubs, organizations, etc. These licenses allow church groups, veterans posts and the like to hold fundraising festivals that politicians like to attend. The bill failed to pass.
Wood was successful in changing a law to permit underage attendance at the Chippewa Falls Renaissance Fair, heedless that it might lead to a lifelong pattern of Mead consumption among Northwoods teenagers.
In addition to drinking, naturally Rep. Wood takes an interest in driving, and he was a sponsor of a failed bill to require Driver Education programs to include training about the need to stop for emergency vehicles, like when the State Patrol has your drunken assemblyman pulled over on the side of the road in his crashed car, and urinating into the ditch. Who wouldn't want to stop for that?

BALDWIN CO-CHAIR OF INAUGURAL COMMITTEE

Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Madison has been chosen as a co-chair of the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee according to an announcement posted on the inaugural website today, Monday, December 22nd, 2008. Of the 15 members, three (Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton) are ex-presidents.

BARRETT LISTS INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

Mayor Tom Barrett submitted his list of infrastructure projects that are ready-to-go to the incoming administration last week. Here it is.