Progressives protect their own!
When a county committee voted to strip the sheriff of 28 deputy positions, (first reported here) it wasn’t to alleviate a $31 million budget deficit. No, they’re going to spend that $3.76 million of lost safety protection — just on other things. Like homeless shelters and more human services. Yes, in Dane County, even the Public Protection & Judiciary Committee is Defund the Police.
Save $6 million by asking county employees to pay a bit more for their generous health insurance? This County Board voted NO WAY! by a vote of 33 to 2 (the two being Matt Veldran & Jeff Weigand). AFSCME — the county employee union — showed up in force to block that kick. AFSCME boasts that it “supports progressive candidates for county board.” The employee union paid for this county board, now they own it.
Lax oversight
Apparently, human services was paying its scores of contracted social service providers up to a year head of time before actually getting the services. That’s according to some investigatory journalism committed by WISC-TV’s Channel 3000:
While trying to address Dane County’s $31 million structural deficit, County Executive Melissa Agard put forth her own budget promising to close violations of state statutes Human Services continues to make by paying providers ahead of time. In follow-up discussions with the county, it became clear human services knew since 2016 it was violating state statutes, yet is still failing to fully comply. Agard says ending the violations will save the county $1 million in next year’s budget.
The exec’s chief of staff, Carrie Springer, tells The Werkes “This policy moves that process to a monthly event for all of contracts rather than waiting until the end of the year.”
Fat is in the fire
In January, supervisors voted 28 to 5 against conducting a program audit of Urban Triage, operated by Brandi Grayson, the BLM bully with a bullhorn. Ms. Springer maintains, “The Human Services team already had in place a system to monitor and review contracts to ensure the county is receiving the services [that] contracts call for from the providers.”
Yeah but! Can anyone guarantee that the contract agencies divvying up $325 million in human services are not a) benefiting from political cronyism and b) getting fat off the taxpayers’ teat?
Ms. Grayson paid herself $292,000 in 2023. Former Madison alder Tim Bruer is the head cheese at a taxpayer-funded energy assistance contractor. His take? Just over $700,000 annually, according to his non-profit’s (“non-profit?”) IRS 990 filing. Are Grayson and Bruer the exceptions or the rule? This county board won’t ask so we can’t tell.
“It is becoming painfully clear that many of Madison’s publicly funded non-profit executives are enriching themselves at the expense of struggling families,” commented former Madison alder Nino Amato, who‘s been digging into this stuff.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: All 37 county supervisors are up for election this spring. Three-fourths of them are endorsed by the Democratic Party of Dane County. AFSCME has scrubbed the endorsements it made during the last election. You know both will be coming after Jeff Weigand.
5 responses to “This county board is for them, not us”
Anyone remember when the old Milwaukee Sentinel put a spotlight on the Milwaukee County exec and board members who enriched themselves with fat retirement plans, unbeknownst to the taxpayers? No doubt ink-stained wretches are on the case in Dane County!
Just “Free The 350” and think of all the money that could be saved in the sheriff’s department.
I am appalled seeing this. The entire county board should be held accountable for supporting these “grifters”. “Regressive Dane” runs this county and city like a “Secretary of Region” in Soviet times.
Not to worry. They are putting their money into trump crypto.
Let’s compare two similarly-sized organizations: Energy Services Inc (Bruer): $22.9MM revenue, $10.8MM in total compensation exp, $2.3MM advertising, $820k office exp, $872k occupancy cost (they own their own ~12,000 SF bldg, no debt, pay $15k in RE taxes), $351k travel, report 6 employees making $2.16MM, $268k of expenses for fundraising events leading to a $48k loss from fundraising vs. United Way of Dane Co: $21.9MM revenue, $5.5MM compensation, $167k advertising, $127k office exp, $196k occupancy cost, $47k travel, report 2 employees making $422k, $124k in fundraising expenses leading to $267k profit. Energy Services gave out $6.7MM in grants (29% of revenue) while UWDC gave out $14.2MM (65% of revenue). Can anyone guess which organization receives 82% of its funds from the government and which receives 10% from the government?