Posted on 03/11/2002 5:36:34 PM PST by T. P. Pole
Remember the Milwaukee County pension scandal (and here, and here, and here) over the last few months? Just when you thought it couldn't get any crazier, we find out one of the supervisors called the Sheriff (at three in the morning) and asked him to declare martial law to "put this community at ease." Here's the story:
As citizen furor over Milwaukee County's pension scandal mounted early last month, Supervisor Kathy Arciszewski made a 3 a.m. telephone call to then-Sheriff Lev Baldwin, asking him to consider declaring the equivalent of martial law.
Arciszewski - who revealed during a town hall meeting Monday that she made the request - said she was dead serious.
"I said, 'Lev, this is getting out of control. We must put this community at ease,' " Arciszewski said in an interview Tuesday. "At the time, you've got to remember, the community didn't trust the county executive and legislative body.
"I thought that if Lev Baldwin would step in for 30 days, we could look for a solution to the problem. . . . He discussed that with Tom (Ament), and they decided no. The county executive said that's martial law and they didn't think that it called for that. I needed to ask. I wasn't directing, I was asking."
Arciszewski's revelation stunned people who packed the Greendale High School cafeteria for the meeting she called to explain the pension mess.
Arciszewski, the target of a recall effort because she approved pension and sick-leave benefit enhancements and then defended them even after supervisors admitted they had made mistakes, was hoping to slow the movement to oust her. Instead, she appears to have fanned the flames.
"At the time, we were just gasping. I was going, 'What? What did I hear?' We were just looking at each other and saying, 'Where did that come from?' " said Herbert Ripka, who organized the recall movement against her.
"I'm more glad than ever that I filed the recall. Let's just leave it at that," he said.
"As people sat there, they lost their respect for her. For the first few minutes, the people were listening to her, but when she was coming off the wall, they just lost their respect completely," said Ken Mirecki, a spokesman for the recall group. "I personally believe she would be much better off if she just resigned. She'd save herself a lot of turmoil."
Bryan Olen, spokesman for the group behind the Ament recall effort, termed Arciszewski's request "very strange."
"I think she's under a tremendous amount of pressure. . . . I think she needs to re-evaluate her future. I'd be very surprised if she'd win the recall election," he said.
Baldwin on Tuesday said Arciszewski was trying to do the right thing.
"She called in essence to say, 'Do you have the constitutional authority to try and calm the waters?' Not that there's major chaos in the county and that the sheriff needs to take over - I don't think that was the case," Baldwin said.
"I ended up saying: 'Kathy, it's 3 o'clock in the morning. I think we need to talk about it in the morning,' " Baldwin said. "She was very concerned. She was in my office at 7 a.m. I explained it's not in the constitutional authority of sheriff to do that."
During Monday's meeting, an emotional Arciszewski apologized for approving the pension package, which could have awarded million-dollar-plus payouts to top county managers. She told residents her vote was based on information provided by county officials, information she said she later learned was inadequate.
The meeting was punctuated by jeers, shouts and calls for her to step down.
Arciszewski said she hoped her disclosure of the call to Baldwin would be "interpreted as a sincere communication - that I love this county and I was worried about its residents."
Supervisor Mark Borkowski said he was stunned to learn of Arciszewski's request.
"Martial law? I don't know where that came from. What would that have meant? Sheriff deputies on each corner? It's ludicrous," he said.
Other supervisors were reluctant to comment, saying they didn't want to add to the troubles of a colleague.
Arciszewski, meanwhile, said she will not step down and is preparing for the recall election.
The effort against her already has more than 5,300 signatures, in excess of the required 3,492.
In other developments, recall papers were filed with the Milwaukee County Election Commission on Tuesday against Supervisor Lori Lutzka, bringing to 10 the number of supervisors facing recall efforts.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Feb. 27, 2002.
Can you imagine a politician so out of touch with the people that she would think declaring martial law would calm the locals down? Especially when all the locals were doing was collecting signatures on recall petitions.
And you thought this only happens in Africa?
Taking Liberties by Joe McNally
Kathy's Big Crackdown
Stop complaining about the county-or else
In this age of terrorism when unexpected horror on a massive scale can threaten our way of life at any time, there is nothing more terrifying to some public officials than a sudden outbreak of democracy.
. . .
Some proposals are beyond satire. It's an indication of just how isolated county supervisors are from the political concerns of citizens that Arciszewski not only would consider such an idea, but that she'd reveal it out loud to an already angry group of constituents.
. . .
Arciszewski was right, of course, that there was a lot of citizen unrest. She was totally wrong to believe there was something frightening or unsettling about that. . .
. . .the citizens who sought to recall Ament and members of the County Board were following an orderly democratic process. There were gathering signatures on petitions as required in recall election procedures under the law.
. . .
It shows just how small the world of elected officials is when they confuse citizens' complaints about their actions with civil disorder that must be controlled by the police.
We will never know exactly what Arciszewski had in mind for deputies to do to put the community at ease after the sheriff's department seized control of the county. It's doubtful that armed deputies showing up at the doors of those who signed petitions would put those citizens "at ease" about their government.
. . .
If complaining about excessive county pensions prompts a call for martial law to restore order, then suggesting the County Board could be reduced by half without any loss of brainpower could be enough to get us all thrown into concentration camps.
I would guess that this is not an exclusive trait of females, or of locals.
Although we do seem to breed more than our share, here.
The nature of the jobs pretty much ensures that a fairly large percentage of the people who want these jobs are the people who should not have these jobs. Comments are welcomed.
Well put - That is exactly the problem: People who put their personal ego gratification and/or self-enrichment ahead of an ideology. I want "fire and forget" politicians that subscribe to conservative ideology and can be trusted to further it without requiring our constant supervision. I'm getting tired of writing letters to remind conservatives what it is conservatives believe; These pinheads know how they are supposed to vote - They need to go do it, and if it means falling on their sword, so be it.
Is this woman insane? I bet that she was hoing that Baldwin would impose martial law so, that they
wouldn't loss their jobs. I say throw all of the bums out.
You would think something like this would reach legend status. If it wasn't for an inside-joke reference to it in the Shepherd I wouldn't have heard of it either.
Personally, I think this ranks with or above the whole pension thing.
I thought the Milwaukee police were always in a state of martial law!
Darn jay-walking tickets!
I thought the Milwaukee police were always in a state of martial law!
You ought to see it now. Chief Jones (little hitler) has made things pretty bad for the good cops.
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