Progressive Thinking

During the Senate debate to pass the bill dismantling our 100-year-old civil service system, senators told of secret meetings held with state workers where supervisors intimidated employees and forbid them to talk with their elected representatives. A LAB Hotline established is valuable in cases of intimidation.

MADISON - One by one Senators stood on the Senate floor and told of secret meetings held with state workers. Supervisors had forbid employees to talk with their elected representatives. Employees felt intimidated. They wanted to improve state services but were afraid of losing their jobs if they raised questions of mismanagement.

Late in the evening, the Senate passed a bill to dismantle our over 100-year-old civil service system put in place by Governor La Follette to ensure that ‘the best shall serve the state’.

The dismantling of protections for state service workers seemed already done as I listened to debate on AB 373. Prior to the vote, I heard some of the most disturbing testimony I’ve ever heard on the Senate floor. Testimony shared by Senators who spoke directly to intimidated workers with knowledge of mismanagement and abuse.

Corrections workers told a Senator about an inmate strangling a psychiatrist such that the doctor would probably never work again. State workers forced to work so much overtime, it stressed their marriages because workers were never home. Employees were afraid to speak up about wrong doings and dangerous situations. Workers were fearful supervisors would spy on them if they participated in meetings with their own elected representatives.

The climax of the evening came with the testimony of Senator Bewley from Ashland. She described the chilling effect employee intimidation had on her ability to represent her constituent.

“…As I was sitting here and I was thinking of sharing a story with the body, Mr. President about a constituent who told me please don’t tell anybody. And I was going to say a little bit about his circumstances but I realized I better keep my mouth shut in this body, with my colleagues that I’m supposed to trust, because if I say too much he could lose his job. In front of my own colleagues, we are setting up an atmosphere where I worry about my constituent’s job lest someone here find out who he is and get him fired.

…This is not the state we want to be in. I do not want to be afraid of discussing the concerns of my constituents with my colleagues for fear that someone will overhear something, have too much information, find out who that employee was and have him lose his job. That is what we are setting up. And, this is what you are going to have to defend to your own constituents after you take this vote today”.

Following the night of disturbing debate, I spoke with State Auditor Joe Chrisman. I asked what he could offer to employees who were too afraid to confront state mismanagement. He offered the Fraud, Waste, and Mismanagement Hotline, staffed by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB), which investigate reports made to its Hotline.

“There are so many protections put in place that protect those who call the hotline,” Mr. Chrisman told me. Callers to the hotline are provided some of the strongest whistle-blower protections in state law.

“Statutes require the Bureau to maintain the confidentiality of the identity of the caller at all times,” Mr. Chrisman said. “This means more than just the name of the caller.” Protections may include keeping the person’s job title, position, gender, agency, institution, or campus confidential.

Anyone can reach the hotline at 1-877-FRAUD-17 (1-877-372-8317). During business hours, trained staff answers hotline calls.

People can call during off hours and leave a voice message. They can complete a web-based form, or they can print off the form, fill it out and send it by snail mail.

They can leave information without leaving their name. However, Mr. Chrisman cautions, in doing so it is more challenging for auditors to follow-up. “Sometimes all we need are answers to two questions to proceed in an investigation.”

Even if the problem identified by the caller becomes part of an investigative report, state law requires the caller, including any identifiable details, still be protected.

As we discussed the problems in key agencies like Corrections, Mr. Chrisman said, “Tools exist at the Bureau for these kinds of reasons.” I encourage people to contact the LAB Hotline to report confidentially any concerns with state government.

ALTOONA, WI - I hear it or see it every day. Somebody says it at a meeting. Or posts it as a comment on an Internet message board or social media site. It’s imbedded in a question asked at some public forum. It is on a sign at a demonstration.

Democracy in America has been killed. It’s dead. It’s over.

I disagree for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which is that democracy is more verb than noun and verbs can’t be killed. Democracy lives as long as there are at least some among us who are doing it.

There’s no overlooking the fact that democracy is gravely ill in many respects, however. Democracy is dependent on many things, but none more important than the consent of the governed. What passes for consent of the governed nowadays is frightening when you consider what most Americans think of those doing the governing and further consider how elected officials demonstrate that they don’t care what the general public thinks.

The two major parties have very different ways of dealing with these troubling conditions. The Democrats run scared. There is a long list of things they believe but won’t say and things they would like to do but don’t. The Republicans run roughshod. Their answer for pretty much everything is more tax cuts primarily benefiting the rich and more government deregulation. Regardless of what the public wants, that’s what Republicans do. They are one-trick ponies, even though the trick has only made the rich vastly richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class disappear. For decades now it hasn’t produced the widespread prosperity they promise, yet they don’t try anything different. They double down on their one trick.

In Wisconsin, a governor who swears up and down he is not a career politician but who has spent his adult life holding one public office or another while running for a higher one is unfazed by the fact that the state leads the nation in shrinkage of the middle class and undaunted by news that people are fleeing Wisconsin in large numbers. He insists his policies are working and the state is mounting a “comeback” under his regime, despite new waves of layoffs coming on the heels of dismal reports of heavy job losses year after year after year during his time in office.

Democrats are reluctant to offer a bold alternative and steer a different course. They have little confidence in the appeal of their ideas. Republicans are showing telltale signs that they know the public is growing less and less likely to keep buying what they are selling. Why else would they feel the need to go to such extreme lengths to suppress voting, stack the courts and rig elections by gerrymandering political boundaries?

It’s easy to look at these assaults on democracy and their devastating effects and conclude that it’s over. But it’s useful to remember that voter suppression and court stacking and partisan gerrymandering were not invented in the last few years. These tactics are as old as the republic. They’ve been put to use by crooked politicians for ages, and they’ve been overcome many times by past generations of citizens.

As Bluto Blutarsky’s Germans bombed Pearl Harbor rant comically reminds us, nothing is over until we decide it is.

Every day I hear or see “RIP democracy.” Maybe the best response is simply “GBPH.”

MADISON - 43 years ago today, the Supreme Court made it clear that a woman has the right to make her own health care decisions.

On this day, we celebrate a historic ruling that respects a woman's right to make private decisions with her doctor. We are also reminded today that we must stand firm against efforts to undermine or chip away at those rights.

Wisconsin families look to their leaders to focus first on economic policy. Instead, we've seen a Republican-controlled legislature focused on curtailing access to a legal and safe abortions, and passing draconian legislation that puts women's health at risk.

It's a shame that 43 years later after the Supreme Court has settled the issue of reproductive rights that some still want to roll back the clock. Today, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin recommits itself to fighting to protect reproductive freedom.

MADISON - The state Senate approved and sent to the governor a bill on Wednesday that changes the longtime hiring process for 30,000 public sector jobs. The measure was backed by powerful business and conservative ideological groups that have spent millions of dollars since 2011 to help Republican lawmakers, who control the legislature, and GOP Gov. Scott Walker keep their jobs.

The measure, Assembly Bill 373, overhauls the state’s 110-year-old civil service hiring process by eliminating the requirement that job applicants take exams; shortening the process used by employees to appeal their discipline or dismissal by more than half; and prohibiting senior employees from avoiding termination by bumping less-senior workers from their jobs.

AB373, which was approved on a party line 19 to 14 vote in the Senate, was passed in October by the Assembly, and now goes to Walker, who supports it, for his signature.

Backers of the bill say the civil service process needed to be changed because it takes too long to hire and fire people. Opponents of the measure say the changes will hurt the quality of the state’s workforce by bringing political patronage and corruption back into the hiring of public employees.

The special interests behind the bill are generous backers of Republican legislators and Walker.

AB373 is backed by the state’s largest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce(WMC), and Americans for Prosperity, a conservative ideological group created and funded bybillionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

WMC boasts a membership of 3,500 businesses that represent more than a dozen special interests groups, like business, manufacturing, construction, energy, transportation, and health care. The special interests represented by WMC contributed $11.2 million to current Republican legislators and another $31.8 million to Walker between January 2011 and June 2015.

In addition to direct contributions, WMC and Americans for Prosperity, which does not directly contribute to candidates, are among the top special interest sponsors of outside electioneering activities. Together, the two groups spent an estimated $22.4 million between January 2010 and December 2015 to support Republicans or smear Democratic candidates for statewide offices and the legislature.

MILWAUKEE - Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a statewide membership organization with over 38,000 members, announced today its endorsement of Judge Joe Donald for Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Judge Joe Donald is an extremely experienced jurist. With nearly 20 years presiding over civil and criminal court cases he is by far the most qualified candidate. Throughout the legal community, Judge Donald is highly respected for his command of the law, his fairness, and his common sense approach. Judge Donald will deliver justice for everyone in Wisconsin.

At a time when special interest dominance is eroding public confidence in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, it is critically important that we elect judges who make independent judgments based on the merits of each case. The specter of Supreme Court judges failing to recuse themselves from cases involving parties who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their behalf has sullied the reputation of Wisconsin’s highest court. That is why Citizen Action of Wisconsin believes we need a Supreme Court Justice like Joe Donald, whose long record of judicial independence is beyond reproach.

Judge Joe Donald is a leader in improving and modernizing our criminal justice system. Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate for African Americans in America. Judge Donald has been a leader in the creation and development judicial solutions like drug treatment courts, which reduce the mass incarceration of nonviolent offenders and work to address the root causes of drug addiction and poverty. We need this kind of common sense innovation to reduce crime and improve lives at our highest court.

The election of Judge Joe Donald would also be a historic milestone. Judge Donald would be the first African American elected to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court (Former Justice Louis Butler was appointed).

“On behalf of our 38,000 members in every corner of the state, we are proud to recommend Judge Joe Donald for Wisconsin Supreme Court,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “Judge Donald will work to secure justice for everyone in Wisconsin, not just well connected special interests and big campaign contributors. Based on his proven record of judicial integrity, innovation, and impartiality, Judge Donald has earned a place on Wisconsin’s highest court.”