WITH MANIAN'S TERM UP, TWO NAMES FORWARDED FOR GAB POST

A Curious Public Wonders

Will it be Barland?

or Vocke?

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

Former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Victor Manian [Marquette U ‘60] will leave the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board next month when his term expires. A nominating committee composed of four Appeals Court judges forwarded two names to Governor James E. Doyle to replace him.

Doyle will choose either Thomas H. Barland [U Wisconsin ‘56] of Eau Claire County or Timothy Vocke [U Wisconsin ‘73] of Vilas County, it was announced today, Thursday, April 9^th 2009.

Both are retired elected judges, as are all six members of the board, as is required by law. The nominee selected by Doyle must receive the approval of two-thirds of the members of the Senate. Board members serve staggered, six-year terms. Manian is the first member to leave the board, created in 2007.

At its most recent meeting, held over two days from March 30-31^st, 2009, members voted on Rule 6.05 mandating a standardized system for electronic filing, generally required for all candidates with over $20,000 in campaign activity. Apparently folks were entering their data in incompatible formats. [See p. 146 of the 232 page agenda.]

Spokesperson Kyle Richmond says the board will allow paper backups of electronically filed campaign finance reports until the systems can be coordinated. Some candidates have complained of difficulties with the state’s electronic filing website.

Well, now that we know the state is serious about requiring electronic filing in a timely, accessible manner, as required by Federal government regulations since January 1^st, 2001, perhaps we shall examine how other governmental units in milwaukeeworld deal with this critical issue after the Hound Dog does a bit more digging.