Update: Supervisor Jursik is one of the co-sponsors of Milwaukee County Supervisor Marina Dimtrijevic’s reform plan.
South Shore Milwaukee County Supervisor Pat Jursik has called for local, not state, action in restructuring county government in a strongly worded statement issued last week.
Check out the press release (including YouTube links to some of Pat’s comments from a committee meeting last week) here. From it:
The moneyed interests of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and Metropolitan Milwaukee Association Commerce are supporting this shift in the balance of powers. With a large majority of their members living outside of Milwaukee County, these wealthy elites are seeking to control local politics. Make no mistake, Representative Joseph Sanfelippo, who now represents a significant portion of Waukesha County – not just Milwaukee County – is seeking to undermine local representation. Not only my constituents, but all our citizens in Milwaukee County, are losing their local voice. …
About 200 District 8 citizens attended the Restructuring County Government event in South Milwaukee on April 4, 2013. I heard from the local people. Make no mistake, some restructuring will need to be done and I heard loud and clear that the board needs to trim its budget. But I want to work locally to make these adjustments, not with the self-appointed shadow government from outside our county.
The Assembly voted for a bill authored by Rep. Joe Sanfelippo last week and is expected to take a final vote on the matter in May. It’s unclear when the Senate will act, even as a group of county supervisors have come up with their own plan for restructuring.
I’ll keep you posted. Of course, I’d like to know what you think about all of this. Post your comments below.
South Milwaukee Blog 
The County Board is too late. I can’t wait for the binging referendum on this issue once the State passes the Bill. The public has spoken!!!
1. Sanfelippo was pushing for reform long before he joined the State government. It is just that he could easily be ignored when he was just another member of the board.
2. If I remember my State civics lessons correctly, the county government is an extension of the state government (unlike the cities). Therefore, they are entirely within their rights to do this.
3. The county had years to reform. What do they do instead? Elect Dimitrijevic as the chair. It’s too late now. The only problem is that the bill doesn’t go far enough in forcing the reduction of the board and part time salaries for part time work.
Some observations:
Our County Supervisor is very good. Best that I can remember. Thanks Pat.
The Greater Milwaukee Committee, most of whom do not live in Milw. Co., have been planning this for a long time.
I will remain open to new information, but it currently looks to me that the surprisingly imperious behaviour of Chris Abele has led to distraction and disruption that may have long term negative effects. Ablele is done.
After this goes through, too many decisions and too much power will lie in the hands to the county exec. I’m not feeling the liberty.
To those who support this consolidation of power in the county exec, I hope that you are right: that less input into public decisions leads to better results. I’ve got my doubts, but I hope you are right. Because that is where we are going.
Considering that the Milwaukee County Board is about 4 times as large as the Los Angeles County Board reform is needed. Unfortunately, with the latest news reports coming out, the current Chair is not the person who can credibly be proposing anything…and I would suggest that the others on the board consider the political ramifications of supporting her. The state Senate was a lot further away from passing the reform bill than they are now, specifically due to the questionable activities being reported.