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 April 5, 2004 THE EXTRAORDINARY LONGEVITY OF MILWAUKEE POLITICIANS By Michael Horne When Tom Barrett was chosen by the voters April 6th, it was only the third time since 1960 that we elected a new mayor. The political stability of Milwaukee's four constitutional office holders is legendary, and seems to be relatively secure. Consider this:
*acting mayor Assuming Barrett will take office as planned on April 20th, he will be the eighth mayor of this city, if you count Marvin Pratt, which you may or may not depending on your whim. This is an average term of nearly 11 years per mayor, even including the very brief administrations of the first Zeidler and of Pratt. Even so, the mayor's office has seen considerable turnover compared to the other constitutional officers. Consider this: MILWAUKEE CITY ATTORNEYS 1917-2004
Langley has already served 20 years in this position, but his predecessor Fleming was in office 32 years. In all: only seven people have been City Attorney since World War I. Can any other large city claim the same? Still, the City Attorney's office is hardly a paragon of stability compared to that of the office of Comptroller. Consider this: MILWAUKEE COMPTROLLERS 1917-2004
As you see, only six men have been comptrollers of this city since World War I. Often the Deputy Comptroller followed in the steps of his superior, as in the instance of Morics and McCann. The Kotecki - Wendt transition was perhaps the most unusual. On July 12, 1933 Kotecki entered the office of Wendt, his deputy, and shot him. He then turned the gun on himself, fatally. Wendt recovered, and remained in office another 15 years, just a blink of an eye by Milwaukee standards. Still, the Comptroller's office is a hotbed of instability compared to that of the office of City Treasurer. Consider this: MILWAUKEE TREASURERS 1917-2004
That's right - Milwaukee has had only four Treasurers since World War I. Can any large city say the same? Taken as a whole, twenty-four men have served in the city's four constitutional offices since World War I. This is an average term per elected official of over 12 years. Even given the four year terms of Milwaukee office holders, this is a staggering record of continuity and longevity. (Actual comparisons with other cities are possible, but may be imprecise since many municipalities elect their officers for only two, or in some instances three years. Some cities have switched from two- to four-year terms during the period studied. Other cities may have additional, or fewer constitutional officers. In some cases, Mayors and other officials are not chosen by popular vote, but may be elected by members of the Common Council or equivalent. Still, it seems quite unlikely that any large city matches Milwaukee in the stability - some may call it inertia - of its political leadership.) The mayor's race was played out on N. Water Street in the final day of the campaign. Tom Barrett sent out a press release saying he planned to hit the town's sports bars that evening for his last-minute campaigning. No sooner had he headed west than the Pratt RV pulled up outside of Brew City Barbecue. His Honor, Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt made his way through the crowded taverns, stopping in at Fitzgibbons Pub, 1127 N. Water Street en route to BW3. Former mayoral candidate Vince Bobot stuck to Pratt's feet like gum on a hot sidewalk, appearing nearly everywhere with his candidate. It is hard to tell if Bobot was looking for a position in the Pratt administration. We'll see if he will be using the transition website to apply for one in the Barrett administration. An interesting development late in the campaign was a Pratt campaign advertisement that showed an image of the candidate with his adviser, H. Carl Mueller. Nice cameo, Hans! … Election day dawned nice and pretty in Milwaukee, a rarity in early April as we all know by now. I exercised my franchise at the Riverview public housing project on East Kane Place. Two spruce trees in front of the tower died over the winter, and I blame the chemicals they always spread on the lawn there. After the vote, I whiled away the hours until the polls closed, even paying a cameo visit to my office. By 8 p.m., I had bicycled to Santo's Restaurant on South 1st Street.The former Monreal's was the election night party headquarters of Jim Witkowiak who hoped to win his aldermanic seat back from Angel Sanchez, who had snatched it from him four years previously. At 8:40 the victorious Witkowiak entered the restaurant, telling his crowd of about 25 "we won." One beer later, I pedaled off to the Italian Community Center where hundreds of people had gathered for Tom Barrett's victory celebration. Among those present were Jo Anne Anton, Terry Perry, Rita Renner, Gary Strothmann, Paul Nannis, Ron Sanfilippo, John Tries, Dan Jones, Candace Owley, Jim Kaminski, Bill Ward, Julie Penman, Eric Von and others too numerous to mention, including Supervisor Gerry Broderick who exclaimed, "we've got a new board" over at the courthouse. While the crowd milled around the packed room Marvin Pratt was over at the Hilton blaming any number of people for his defeat, which he did not quite concede. Finally, at 11:20 p.m. Tom Barrett took the stage with his family and spoke of the wonderful new days ahead. Mark Metcalf, the Hollywood star who moved to his wife's home state of Wisconsin to open a restaurant in Mequon, has filed for divorce. Petitioner Metcalf, 58, filed for "default divorce," "annulment/legal separation" in Milwaukee County Case 2003FA008969 on December 12, 2003. His wife, Elizabeth "Libby" Wick, is listed as the respondent. The next hearing on the case will be July 14, 2004 (Bastille Day) in the Family Court Commissioners Office before Michael J. Bruch. Metcalf was best known as the character Niedermeyer in the Animal House motion picture. He also had a recurring role on the television sitcom "Seinfeld" where he played an imperious musical conductor who insisted on being addressed as "maestro." Metcalf and Wick operate the Libby Montana Restaurant at 5616 W. Donges Bay Road in west-of-the-river Mequon. Jim McGuigan put everything he had into his failed bid to regain his seat on the County Board, going so far as to mortgage his house. Opponent Joe Rice took the honors in the race, and is seen to be one of Scott Walker's principal allies on the new County Board. McGuigan and his wife strolled hand-in-hand south on N. Farwell Avenue at E. Windsor Pl. the day after the election at about 12:42 p.m. He looked rather dejected. The last time George W. Bush was in Mequon, Wisconsin it was front page news in the New York Times. He was a candidate for president then and appeared at a fundraiser at the Brooks Stevens Automotive Museum, a building that has since been razed. The president will return to the Queen City of Ozaukee County to speak at the graduation ceremonies at Concordia University, the Lutheran college that occupies the former site of the headquarters of the Catholic School Sisters of Notre Dame. It has come to my attention that although some of the office equipment in the college - er, university, doesn't work, crews are busy installing air conditioning in the facility where the president will make his speech. We all know how hot it can be at the lakefront in May. WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE HIGH PRICE OF GASOLINE (It isn't all that high) By Joe Klein
The other night while watching the election returns I had a discussion My friend said gasoline was at an all-time high. I said it wasn't. In fact, I said the price of gas is less now than it was in 1960, picking at random another interesting election year. To put it politely, my friend disputed the assertion, and I began to have some doubts myself. After all, fuel taxes are so much higher these days. But, then again, the value of the dollar is quite a bit lower, I figured. I might just be right! But, how to find the answer?
After recovering from the election night festivities I decided to For me the quest for the answer was almost as satisfying as was the answer itself. I suppose that's a good definition of learning, and I thought you might like to come along for the ride as I sought the truth. I began with Google. I first tried to find a way determine the current value of a dollar to the value of a dollar in 1960. Easy enough: I searched for "inflation adjusted dollar". Oregon State provided me with a nice Excel spread sheet at: http://oregonstate.edu/dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/sahr.htm I then looked for current gas prices, another factor in my equation. It turns out a whole web industry exists for those looking for cheap gas. Check for yourself at: http://www.milwaukeegasprices.com. (Milwaukeeworld has added a gas price monitor from this website that you can check any time you want, right here. See related story - Ed.)
This proved interesting but so far it had not gotten me the 1960 price http://www.1960sflashback.com/1960/economy.asp The site gave me the 1960 price of gas as: $0.31 / US gallon. The peak local price for the last two years listed at the milwaukeegasprices site was given as $1.86 / US gallon (on 4/2/2004). I then did the math. The Oregon State Consumer Price Index chart uses 2000 as the base year. The 2004 dollar must be divided by the 2004 CF to get the 2000 amount, then the 2000 amount must be multiplied by the 1960 CF to give the amount in 1960 dollars.
2004 CF = 1.015 To show the math:
Adjust 2004 dollar to 2000 dollar: $1.86 / 1.015 = 1.832512 Doing the reverse we can find what the 1960 amount would be today.
Adjust 1960 gas price to price in 2000 dollars: $0.31 / 0.161 = 1.925466 Therefore, the 31 cent per gallon gas in 1960 would be about $1.95 today. Since $1.95 is less than $1.86 we can say, even with the current tax levy, the current price of gas adjusted for inflation is less than the price of gas in 1960. (Do you have any comments on this volatile subject? E-mail Joe Klein at jtk@titania.net -- Ed.) Local prices at the pump now just a click away This week we include a new feature on milwaukeeworld. The Gas Buddy icon, displayed here, lets you see the current high and low price for gasoline at the pumps in the Milwaukee area. If you click on the icon, you can find out much more information, including the current cost of gas in your neighborhood, or in the vicinity of your travels. You are also enlisted to call in pump prices that you may encounter in your travels. The data will soon be available by cellular telephone. Check out Gas Buddy today! --- Michael Horne, Editor/Publisher, Milwaukeeworld.com Your comments are welcome.
Michael Horne, Editor/Publisher, Milwaukeeworld.com |
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