COUNTY BOARD DIPS PINKY TOE INTO VAST OCEAN OF INTERNET

Dimitrijevic: Time to Leave "Dark Ages"
Committee will Study Electronic Recordkeeping,
Meetings to be Broadcast on Tele-Vision
Finance Records on Internets

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

Milwaukee County will leave the "Dark Ages" and "allow more sunshine here at the County Board" with the creation of its new Committee on Information Technology, says its chairman, Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic [4th].
She will also head "Project T.E.A.M." [Technology, Efficiency, Accessibility and Modernization] and will wield the gavel at its first meeting, Monday, April 27th, 2009 at room 201-B of the Courthouse.
She will be joined by Vice-Chair Supervisor John Weishan, Jr. [16th], County Clerk Joseph J. Czarnezki and unnamed staffers from the board and the county's Administrative Services Information Management Services Division.
Have they got a job to do!
With an ambitious agenda that mirrors the work done by the City of Milwaukee commencing with the Henry Maier administration [1960-1988], the board hopes to bring Wisconsin's worst-administered governmental agency into compliance with late 20th century norms.

This bold step into an already time-worn future includes such components as:

• The broadcast, by television and streaming video, of all board and committee meetings
• "On-line" access to all board proceedings and campaign finance documents
• A reduced use of paper files
• The recycling of Printer Toner Cartridges

It should be noted this is a board initiative, which is sad in a way, since this is the sort of common sense, taxpayer-friendly effort that ought to have originated in the office of County Executive Scott Walker. At the very least, Ms. Dimitrijevic's T.E.A.M. must be expanded to include many other offices in the courthouse.

• Court files, as noted here previously, are prepared in electronic format, yet exist only in paper format in the courts. Electronic filing should be mandated for all court documents, with a paper trail for evidentiary purposes.
  
• The Corporation Counsel's files are opaque.
• The Comptroller does not appear to have any electronic files available.
• The "Airport" has a website. Well, the county has two airports -- where are the Timmerman files?
• Walker's lame website promises "2009 Adopted Budget to be posted after County Board approval in November" -- well, it's April and it isn't.
• The Ethics Board files are not searchable.
• Etc.
  

These and numerous other county agencies are the responsibility of Scott Walker, who has done nothing to advance good electronic government. Even his role model, Gov. Scott McCallum, whom he resembles in many ways, had a Department of Electronic Government.
Supervisor Dimitrijevic is to be lauded for her efforts, but this job is much more than her T.E.A.M. can handle.

THE CITY'S EXPERIENCE

The City has a far finer electronic government, beginning with its early implementation of Geographic Information System technology, its invention of the widely used Legistar legislative tracking systems, and numerous public-friendly features. In fact the city markets its proprietary GIS systems to other governmental units.

CITY'S ELECTRONIC FILING OBSERVED IN THE BREACH

The city has allowed electronic filing of campaign finance documents since 2004. The county has yet to make this simple process available.
However, this is not to say that all is good with the city's implementation of its electronic paradise.
Electronic filing is permitted, but it is not required. For the current election cycle the only elected officials to make their campaign documents available to the public electronically are Mayor Tom Barrett, Ald. Robert Bauman and Ald. Terry Witkowski, along with School Board member Peter Blewett. [Ald. Jim Witkowiak promises to file his electronically in the future.]
Milwaukeeworld asked all city elected officials to explain why they did not choose to file electronically. Only Witkowiak responded.
Yet we have sent several aldermen to jail. In more than one instance, their crimes were readily detectable by a search of their campaign filings -- all of which were hidden away in paper files until the police and FBI bothered to look at them, at which point they were used as evidence.
Who knows what lurks in the paper campaign files of current City and County elected officials that would come to light if filed electronically?
--Michael Horne