Voters should be allowed to weigh in on board reform question

Public Forum:

I read with great disappointment in the Jan. 26 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that republican legislators in Madison decided to give the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors a year to implement reform. Anyone who has not been living under a rock the past ten years understands that you could give the Milwaukee County Board five to ten years to reform itself and it would not get done. Case in point: Former Milwaukee County Supervisor Joe Rice, a republican, advocated for reform over the course of many years and when the County Board finally decided to implement reform, it downsized the board by just one member and eliminated reform-minded Rice's seat in April 2012. Coincidentally, this was the same month that twelve of nineteen municipalities voted overwhelmingly in the non-binding referendum to make the board part time. To put this issue off for a year and to not let the voters in Milwaukee County weigh in on a referendum ballot on April 2 is baffling and one can only wonder if tit-for-tat politics is in play here.

Don Schwartz

Hales Corners