The Way I See It!

We Need To Get Behind This And Make It Happen!

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on Sept. 2, 2011

Milwaukee County, Taxes

This is something that needs to happen!

Milwaukee County doesn’t have any unincorporated areas and we need to stop wasting money on do very little positions.

From MJS

Supervisor proposes part-time status for Milwaukee County Board

Pay cut, meeting time among changes sought

Milwaukee County Supervisor Joe Sanfelippo called Monday for transforming the County Board into a part-time body that meets in the evenings.

Sanfelippo introduced a measure that would chop annual salaries from $50,090 to $15,000 for most supervisors and from $71,412 to $17,500 for the board chairman, end pension credit for supervisors, and reschedule board meetings from day to evening.  If the board approves, all of the changes would take effect after the April 2012 election.

Sanfelippo said lowering supervisors' pay would force them to have other jobs, so they wouldn't be able to spend as much time "dreaming things up for them to be involved in.”  Instead, he said, the board could operate more like a corporate board of directors, setting policy for the county executive's administration to carry out without dictating the details.

Sanfelippo said the changes would bring the board more in line with its counterparts around the state, based on surveys by the Wisconsin Counties Association.  Milwaukee County is the only county in the state with a full-time board, but it's also the most populous county, the one with the biggest budget and payroll, and the only one that consists entirely of incorporated municipalities.

Even at the reduced levels proposed by Sanfelippo, Milwaukee County would still have one of the highest-paid county boards in the state, based on a 2009 survey by the counties association that drew responses from 41 of the state's 72 counties.  Some counties reported they paid their supervisors nothing, while others said pay was based on per-diem or per-meeting rates, plus expenses.

County board chairmen - the top elected officials in counties without county executives - are often paid a salary but usually less than the $17,500 that Sanfelippo proposed, the survey found.

Milwaukee County is in the minority in having daytime meetings, a separate counties association survey showed. Of 67 counties responding to that survey, including Milwaukee County, 39 meet in the evening, 17 meet in the daytime and 11 meet at different times, such as evening meetings in the summer and daytime meetings for the rest of the year.  In southeastern Wisconsin, only the Milwaukee and Washington county boards meet during the day.

Sanfelippo said it was difficult for residents to attend daytime meetings during the workweek. Weishan said Sanfelippo could have proposed a change in meeting times without changing supervisors' compensation.

Read full article here

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/128607128.html