Update: It’s nice to know I’m not alone in my concerns about the tepid, at best, redistricting plan put forth by the board.
In her latest eNews update, Supervisor Pat Jursik has shed some light on the local impact of the looming Milwaukee County Board redistricting. The answer? Essentially none.
Here is the item from the update …
I support reducing the overall number of supervisors on the Milwaukee County Board. A plan for 15 districts (a reduction of 4) was submitted to the Board and I voted for this plan. After this failed, I offered a compromise plan reducing districts to 17. This also failed to get a majority. I could not support the staff plan for 18 supervisory districts (a reduction from the current 19). Under the 18 plan, which is on track to take effect in April 2012, our 8th District will continue to include the entire cities of St. Francis, Cudahy and South Milwaukee and add approximately 600 more Oak Creek residents.
Check out the Journal Sentinel story on the redistricting plan here.
I am glad to read that Supervisor Jursik supported a plan calling for further redistricting, as I don’t think the plan approved by the board goes nearly far enough. Nineteen full-time supervisors is too many, just as 25 was too many until 2004.
So how many is enough? Better put, how many is too few?
I’m honestly not sure, but I’d like to see the debate bend to the bold and less to the types of half-measures that the board passed earlier this month. Want a good place to start the discussion? Try the Greater Milwaukee Committee’s Make it Your Milwaukee initiative.
Of course, I’d like to know what you think of this issue. Please post your comments below.
South Milwaukee Blog 
It probably depends on the relationship, accessibility and function supervisors expect/want to have with Milwaukee County residents and vice-versa. Counties in California — even the largest like San Bernardino (more than 20,000 square milies) and most populous like Los Angeles County (nearly 10 million) have only five. While I knew my supervisors in the counties I lived in and had accessibility to them, I have very much appreciated the more personal and hands-on modus operendi Milwaukee County supervisors have with their constituents. Nevertheless, for a county the size (241.56 square miles) and with the population (less than a million) of Milwaukee to have 25 supervisors seemed appallingly excessive when I moved here. Eighteen still seems like a lot. I do agree with Supervisor Jursik that the maximum should be 15. That would still allow for an accessible and realistically functional supervisor, but would be less costly and most likely more efficient county government.
Jerrianne: I agree, and I am glad you pointed out the “personal and hands-on” way of doing business by county supervisors. That is certainly the case with Pat Jursik, who has always impressed me with how passionately she takes her job and her responsiveness to her constituents. She and her staff are role models in this regard.