Posted on 12/16/2010 5:37:39 AM PST by chickadee
Madison - Labor contracts for state workers dramatically stalled in the Legislature late Wednesday after the leader of Senate Democrats defied his party and cast the deciding vote to reject them.
In a rare lame-duck session before Republicans take over the Legislature, the no-pay-raise contracts for tens of thousands of workers were approved by slim majorities in the Assembly with a decisive vote cast by a lawmaker released from jail. But senators tied 16-16 with one senator absent on the contracts and outgoing Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker (D-Wausau) and Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) voting with all Republicans against the contracts.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
Gotta hand it to Decker. It at least appears he has developed a glimmer of a conscience. That’s a big deal for a Democrat who was just tossed out on his behind by the voters. Perhaps after all these years he was weary from participating in Diamond Jim’s kneecapping techniques.
Typical Democrat responses
Beil slams Decker
AFSCME Council 24 exec director Marty Beil, who is in the Capitol today to follow the vote on public employee contracts, had a very concise statement about his feelings on the outcome.
“Decker’s a whore,” he said.
Erpenbach says Walker has put state employees in the crossfire
Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, said state employees are caught in a partisan crossfire, and he pointed the finger at Gov.-elect Scott Walker for putting them there.
“The reason we’re here tonight is very simple,” Erpenbach said. “The number one state employee has painted a target on the backs of every state employee.”
“He has made it his mission to go after public employees. It’s an easy thing to do. They’re in season right now.”
I hope, hope, HOPE someone has the audio/video of the Senate Chamber when Decker voted no. How delicious that moment had to be.
Let’s not forget how they got this passed in the Assembly; by having the member with the deciding vote released from jail. What a joke the Democrat Party of Wisconsin is.
Decker a no vote, He gets it
Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, the Weston Dem defeated in the fall election, voted against state worker contracts.
Gov. Jim Doyle stopped work on high speed rail at the request of Gov.-elect Scott Walker, “recognizing that elections have consequences,” Decker said.
Doyle and should have done the same with state contracts, he said.
Decker said the contracts should have been before the Legislature prior to the election.
“If these contracts had been brought to us before the election, as they should have been, this would have been an entirely different situation,” he said.
“While I would obviously have rather seen a different outcome in the election ... the people of Wisconsin have spoken. They have said they want someone else making these decisions for them. There is no reason the next Legislature cannot take up these contracts.
“Now that the election has been held and the voters have spoken, I do not feel comfortable casting a vote in favor of these contracts.”
.Democrats are stunned as state Senate fails to pass union contracts
MADISON — Stunned Democrats stripped Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker of his leadership position after he abruptly turned on them and voted against new contracts for state workers.
The deals looked all but dead after Decker’s about-face late Wednesday night. Senate Democrats planned to reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday, but they can’t approve the contracts without the Weston Democrat’s support.
Democrats and union leaders said Decker never hinted he wasn’t with them.
Wisconsin State Employees Union executive director Marty Beil lashed out at Decker, calling him “a whore” for siding with Republicans who opposed the contracts.
“There’s no reason for what Decker did here tonight,” Beil said. “No one saw it coming.”
Decker declined to respond. The 20-year Senate veteran lost his re-election bid in November and is out of the Legislature in three weeks anyway. “I have no regrets,” he said.
Decker’s move capped a wild night that featured behind-the-scenes wrangling and a legislator get out of jail to cast the crucial vote.
“This process is broken,” Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said.
Contract negotiations are usually a quiet affair, but Republican Gov.-elect Scott Walker ignited a bitter debate when he demanded last month that the current administration stop negotiations.
He said he wanted state workers to make deeper concessions to help him deal with a projected $150 million deficit in the current fiscal year and a projected $3.3 billion shortfall in the next two-year state budget. He even went so far as to say he might consider abolishing state employee unions.
But Democrats control the Senate and Assembly until Jan. 3, when Republicans seize control of both houses. They pressed on despite Walker’s demands.
Last week they released 17 agreements retroactive to July 1, 2009m, that cover about 39,000 state workers. The deals include no pay increases and 16 furlough days that Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle ordered state employees to take in the state budget. The contracts also call for 5 percent increases in health care contributions, which would generate about $1 million in savings, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
It appeared earlier this week that Decker had reservations, though. Assembly Democrats approved an extraordinary session on Tuesday, but Decker didn’t convene Senate leaders to follow suit.
Decker relented Wednesday morning after Senate Democrats threatened to approve the session without his consent. Hours later he took his place on the Legislature’s employee relations committee and voted to send the contracts on to the full Assembly and Senate, leading everyone to believe he was on board after all.
Assembly Democrats came to the floor first Wednesday evening. They passed 16 contracts by one vote and the last one by three votes.
The key was Rep. Jeff Wood, a Chippewa Falls independent. Wood is serving a 60-day jail sentence in Chippewa County for impaired driving in Marathon County. Jail officials said Wednesday he got a judge to release him long enough to go to Madison and vote. He ended up siding with Democrats.
Wood left the chamber after the vote with a horde of reporters on his heels. He said nothing before ducking into an office.
Minutes later the Senate convened. Decker got up and said he couldn’t approve the deals. He said Doyle should have completed the contracts a long time ago and it’s the next Legislature’s turn to address them.
Democrats voted anyway. Decker and Sen. Jeff Plale, D-Milwaukee, voted against the first contract, creating a 16-16 tie, which meant the vote failed. Democrats immediately recessed to a closed-door meeting, where they stripped Decker of his leadership position and gave it to Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay.
Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, said Decker has never gotten along with Doyle but to strike at the governor by denying state workers new contracts was selfish. He compared Decker to a 3-year-old.
“I’m struggling for the words,” Jauch said. “I’ve never seen any behavior this bizarre.”
Democrats returned to the floor and voted on each contract anyway. Decker and Plale voted against every one, killing them. Plale, who lost his re-election campaign as well, said later he didn’t want to hamstring the next Legislature.
Walker issued a statement all but declaring victory.
“Due to the delay of these contracts,” he said, “I have all options on the table to tackle Wisconsin’s budget challenges.”
Thanks for the input on the story. Marty Biel is very colorful and is the personification of the term “whore”.
I originally tried to post the Bloomberg version, but FR doesn’t accept Bloomberg. (I wish they would tell you that before you do all the work on posting, sigh.)
This is a hilarious account. Man, are the Dems are vindictive.
I woke up to this news this morning on 550 WSAU news. What a wonderful way to start the day!!!
I LOVE the SQUEALING in the JSOnline comments section!!!
The member of the Wisconsin Legislature is a Whore????
This is coming from the President of a UNION?????
Too Funny!!!
I have been in 5 unions during my early working life. I never saw bigger whores than the Union “leaders”.
Here is more Union activity
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/111766149.html
Daniel Bice
Expense-report fraud still smoldering in firefighters union
Dec. 12, 2010 |(80) Comments
As individuals tasked with saving lives, firefighters must be brave and honest.
That’s the ideal.
But it has not been the practice at the state firefighters union.
For at least seven years, leaders of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin filed fraudulent expense reports so they could be reimbursed for donations they made to the union’s federal political action committee.
Records indicate that 11 past and current Executive Board members submitted expense vouchers for fictional meetings between 2002 and 2008, collecting more than $17,000 in mileage and per diems as a result.
The money from the phantom meetings covered the amount those board members had given to the International Association of Firefighters PAC, commonly called FirePac.
During that seven-year span, FirePac gave tens of thousands of dollars to Wisconsin politicians, primarily Democratic members of Congress. In 2006, for instance, the federal firefighters PAC contributed at least $5,000 each to U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin, Ron Kind, Dave Obey and Steve Kagen, all Democrats. Two Republican representatives received smaller sums.
A special committee set up by the state union investigated the expense voucher controversy and unanimously concluded in June: “The reimbursement practice was illegal and placed the PFFW in jeopardy of financial liability and the cost of legal defense.”
After that, the 11 board members agreed to reimburse the union $17,146. The union also ordered an audit of its books and set up a new committee to monitor the organization’s spending and adherence to state and federal campaign laws.
But here is what the union didn’t do:
The investigatory committee didn’t report its findings in June to federal or state election officials or other authorities. Five union officials involved in the expense voucher scheme haven’t stepped down from the Executive Board. And the issue was not debated openly at the union’s summer convention.
Mike Woodzicka, president of the Wisconsin firefighters union, issued a statement suggesting the issue is resolved. He said the union’s board acted quickly after receiving the initial complaint, concluding that “certain practices were inappropriate.”
“The remedy has been implemented,” Woodzicka said in the statement. “We are confident that the PFFW is in compliance with campaign finance law.”
Woodzicka has declined to answer detailed questions about the matter since late October.
Some in the union are not happy that the board appears to be trying to keep the lid on a potential scandal.
Chris Bell, president of the Eau Claire Firefighters Local 487, called for the resignations of the five current board members who collected fraudulent expense reimbursements. The most paid back by any board member was $3,000.
“The actions of these individuals damage the credibility of all firefighters, not just those within Wisconsin,” Bell said. “Further stonewalling of this issue will prove to be equally as damaging as the actions themselves.”
Bell also urged union leaders to report what happened to the Federal Elections Commission. In fact, sources say, the union just recently began the process of notifying the FEC.
An FEC spokeswoman, Judith Ingram, declined to comment on the specific case. But she pointed to a federal law that prohibits someone from funneling money from another group or individual to a federal candidate or committee without disclosing the true source of the funds at the time of the campaign donation.
An assistant law professor at Marquette University said the reimbursement scheme is a clear violation.
“It is illegal, and people have been prosecuted for it under the federal election laws,” said Rick Esenberg, who teaches campaign finance law and runs a politically conservative blog. “There are really two potential criminal problems here - violations of federal election law and fraud on the union. I am really surprised the union was so forgiving.”
Bell is not alone in his frustration with the union’s top leaders.
“There are issues of it that are unresolved,” said Chad Bronkhorst, president of the Green Bay Professional Fire Fighters Local 141. “Even at convention, it never got discussion on the floor. When discussion was brought up, it was ruled out of order.”
Apparently, that wasn’t the first time that debate on this issue has been squelched.
One former Executive Board member said she first alerted her colleagues to the possible ethical consequences of their actions several years ago.
“I was new to the Executive Board, and I brought up my concerns at that time,” said Ann Peggs, a Green Bay Fire Department official who left the board in 2007. “Really, nobody else on the board at that meeting supported my concerns at all. It was explained to me that this is the way it was done.”
Then the issue surfaced publicly at last year’s state union convention, according to a memo provided April 15 to the union’s five caucus chairs by the four-member committee that investigated the matter.
According to that memo, someone made the remark at the 2009 convention that one Executive Board member, Pat Kilbane of Janesville, would get reimbursed by the state union for his FirePac donations. Board members can donate to the FirePac instead of paying the registration fee when attending the national union’s annual legislative conference.
The comment at the convention caught the attention of Joe Conway, a Madison firefighter who is the regional vice president for the federal firefighters union.
According to the April 15 memo, Conway began looking into the matter. The memo said Kilbane disclosed that he was directed to submit vouchers for fictional meetings by Rick Gale, the former union president. It also came to light that Kilbane wasn’t the only one doing this.
Gale, who didn’t return calls, stepped down as union president in 2008 after using a racial slur against President Barack Obama. Gale reimbursed the union $1,900 earlier this year, while Kilbane gave back $354.
Earlier this year, Conway alerted state union board officials what he had turned up, and in March, they set up the four-member investigatory committee made up of Executive Board members who did not submit fraudulent expense vouchers.
Along with identifying the 11 board members who faked expenses starting in 2002 - the records do not go back any further - the special committee found that Woodzicka, the current state union president, quietly stopped the practice when he took over for Gale in 2008.
The investigatory committee recommended the money be repaid but did not call for any resignations.
Mahlon Mitchell, a member of the investigatory committee, said most of the union’s local affiliates did not favor forcing the resignations of the board members.
“Our obligation in the union is to follow the law, one, and to follow the will of the majority of our members,” Mitchell said.
That prompted Eau Claire firefighter Tony Biasi to file a complaint with the national union against the five sitting Executive Board members who participated in the scheme. Among the five are Woodzicka, who had to reimburse the union $1,100; Troy Haase of Fond du Lac, $1,000; and Brookfield firefighter and Baord Vice President Robert Baird, $3,000.
Just weeks ago, the complaint was tossed by a preliminary review panel set up by the national union. The panel noted that Biasi filed his complaint against just the five current board members, not all 11 individuals caught up in the scheme, saying this suggested a “personal and retaliatory motivation.”
Besides, the preliminary panel concluded, “There is no evidence that the charged parties intentionally or knowingly engaged in conduct they knew to be wrong.”
Bell, the Eau Claire union boss, said this makes no sense.
How could individuals fill out expense forms for meetings that didn’t occur, he asked, and not know this was wrong? In addition, some Executive Board members never participated in the scheme while others did initially and then quit.
The issue is coming to a head, he said, only because the federal union became aware of the fraud by leaders of Wisconsin’s firefighters union.
“They only confessed after they were caught,” Bell said.
39,000 state workers. What is the total population of Wisconsin???
1. I was hired in the Highway division of the state of Wis in the early 60’s. We calculated & verified the contract bids sent in on projects. EVERY month, we worked hard for 2 weeks & literally sat at our desks and read books, magazines or knitted for the other 2 weeks of the month. I knitted quite a bit & found that I could make a full pair of wool tall socks in that 2 week period. Hand made hunting socks. I still have a pair. At the end of the 6 month probation, I told them it wasn’t for me. I thought it made much more sense to have 1/2 the staff & work them the entire month.
2. A woman who glommed onto my Dad after he divorced my mother worked at the State of Wisconsin. I recall her proudly talking about the fact that she had worked there for 35 years ++. She was 20 when hired.
She was even more proud of the fact that she still had the very same job that she had started with—a typist. She had NEVER advanced up one single position.
That is the type of employee that are hires of states, cities & municipalities. They would never last in the private sector.
Wisconsin 2009 population was 5,509,026
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