Scott Walker’s Record on Mismanagement

Financial penalties for violations of Wisconsin environmental laws fell sharply in 2015 to their lowest level in at least a decade. Data released by a conservation organization show forfeitures paid by individuals and companies for violating state law totaled $306,834 last year. That’s down 78% from nearly $1.4 million paid out in 2014. It’s also the lowest amount paid out for violations dating back to at least 2006, according to data. The figures are the most recent showing Department of Natural Resources enforcement activity has dropped off under the administration of Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who took office in 2011 with a pro-business agenda and a vow to make the DNR more friendly to the private sector.

Gov. Scott Walker’s administration this month put off making $101 million in debt payments, driving up costs for taxpayers by more than $2 million in the long run, according to the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office. The state was due to pay off the debt in May, but instead restructured it so that payments would be extended for another eight years. That translated into $2.3 million in additional interest costs for taxpayers, according to a pair of memos issued Tuesday by Bob Lang, director of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

The personnel agency in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration privately blasted changes to the state’s civil service days after they were proposed, telling his office the overhaul would slow hiring, turn away qualified job applicants and trigger more lawsuits against the state, public records show. Documents obtained under the state’s open records law by the Wisconsin State Journal include a memo that sharply critiques a version of the civil service bill passed by Republican legislators and signed by Walker in February.

A state John Doe investigation into a troubled juvenile prison in northern Wisconsin has been closed under a law signed last year by Gov. Scott Walker that put time limits on such cases… That coincides with the six-month time limit imposed by a new law that reduced the power of John Doe investigations in Wisconsin. John Does are semi-secret probes run by judges that give prosecutors broad power to collect evidence. Republicans in the state Legislature diminished their power following a broad John Doe that targeted Walker’s campaign and several conservative groups.

While the policy has been in place since at least 2008, the agency’s monthly and quarterly employment data came under intense scrutiny after Gov. Scott Walker promised to add 250,000 private sector jobs during his first term, prompting the agency exert greater control over shaping the message around those numbers.

In advance of Sunshine Week, Gov. Scott Walker is ordering his administration to improve its handling of public records requests, speed up response times and provide mandatory records training for all state workers. The move comes months after he helped draft legislation, later withdrawn, to severely restrict the kind of information the public can use to learn about how state and local governments work on behalf of taxpayers. Walker is also fighting a lawsuit over his refusal to disclose certain records by saying they were part of a “deliberative process.” Walker on Friday issued an executive order that emphasizes a number of areas in the state’s Public Records Law, including responding to requests quickly and not charging for electronic responses to requests when possible.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker, who appointed Bradley to three judgeships in as many years — including as Supreme Court justice last fall — said Monday that “neither the Governor nor our office was aware of the columns.” The spokeswoman did not immediately respond to whether Walker would have appointed Bradley had he known. “Justice Bradley appropriately made it clear today that a column written in college does not reflect her views as a Supreme Court Justice, a court of appeals judge, a circuit court judge or as an attorney,” Walker said in a statement.

In the days after the Oscar Mayer announcement, Gov. Scott Walker pointed out that Soglin never contacted his office or WEDC. In Thursday’s interview, Soglin maintained that Madison made no mistakes.“We’re the ones who are supposed to be more brilliant than them?” Soglin asked. “This is their function. This is their job. We did our job. We contacted Oscar Mayer.”

In February, Gov. Scott Walker’s office released records that showed Lincoln Hills staff in 2012 failed to take an inmate who was sexually assaulted to an emergency room until after a prison basketball game — three hours after the assault took place.

Walker also signed a bill allowing towns in Dane County to opt out of county zoning laws. The bill, authored by Rep. Keith Ripp, R-Lodi, was introduced after the Dane County Towns Association pushed for a way for towns to gain more autonomy over developments in rural areas, and to grow tax bases to pay for services. But officials from Dane County, its cities and villages and a group of towns say town governments lack the financial and staff resources to responsibly administer their own zoning codes, and that allowing an opt-out could unleash irresponsible rural development.

Wisconsin’s decision last week to challenge a fee imposed by the Affordable Care Act set up a comparison not lost on advocates who support the law.The fee has cost the state about $23 million so far. In contrast, Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature’s opposition to the law is projected to cost $678.6 million in state tax dollars through the 2017 fiscal year.

The proposed EPA Impaired Waters List for 2016 in Wisconsin contains 1,694 listings, more than double the 761 approved for the list in 2004.The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has recommended an additional 209 waterways for the 2016 list … Critics of Gov. Scott Walker blame the increased pollution in many agricultural counties like Brown, Kewaunee and Manitowoc on his promotion of new jobs in dairy and other agriculture that pollute waterways with runoff from livestock manure, fertilizers, pesticides and byproducts of cheese manufacturing. They claim that Walker has cut the DNR budget to such a low level that, they say, it is nearly impossible for its staff to monitor agriculture runoff that is creating the high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in the state’s waters.

Despite what a former state employee called a strong case, officials in 2013 abandoned pursuing charges against a juvenile inmate accused of sexually assaulting his roommate at a secure Northwoods facility now at the center of an investigation into sexual assault, prisoner abuse, child neglect and other crimes.”It blew me away that no one was charged,” said James Townsend, the former supervisor at Lincoln Hills School for Boys who investigated the March 2013 incident.

Taxpayers cut nine checks for five figures — including one for more than $93,000 — to members of Gov. Scott Walker’s security team last year after a federal agency found the state had wrongly withheld overtime pay from them. In all, taxpayers had to pay more than $577,000 to nine current and former members of the team to cover overtime pay from May 2013 to May 2015, according to the State Patrol. That’s a period when the GOP governor was ramping up his run for president — an effort he abandoned in September amid fundraising trouble and plummeting poll numbers.

A staffer at a troubled Northwoods youth prison has been put on paid leave pending an investigation of the medical treatment of a juvenile who was taken to a hospital this month. The situation comes amid a criminal probe of Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau. Corrections Secretary Ed Wall is stepping down next month, and other top leaders at the Department of Corrections could change soon as well, a spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker said Monday. About 50 agents and attorneys raided the schools in December as they investigate allegations of prisoner abuse, child neglect and sexual assault. More recently, the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation took over the probe.

Political appointees of the Department of Natural Resources discussed disciplining an employee after she provided public records to a Sheboygan County citizens group fighting plans by the Kohler Co. for a golf course on the shore of Lake Michigan, emails show. In the view of at least one top official then serving at the DNR, the employee took the extra step of compiling information the group had requested, presumably in a more understandable form, rather than turning over raw data. The case highlights the sensitivity of open records cases involving the DNR — an agency that under Gov. Scott Walker has come under fire from environmentalists and conservationists for a more pro-business tilt. Walker says the agency enforces all regulations but has sought to rein in what he says is the agency’s overreaching nature. Environmentalists have sued the DNR twice since December over the length of time they must wait for records they have requested.

Department of Corrections secretary Ed Wall has resigned amid a wide-ranging investigation of the state’s youth prison, now led by the FBI. The disclosure Friday of Wall’s resignation came hours after federal officials confirmed that the FBI is leading the investigation of alleged abuses at the state’s only youth prison, Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls in Irma. It came less than a day after Gov. Scott Walker’s office acknowledged it was warned of safety problems at Lincoln Hills dating back to 2012 — which appeared at odds with Walker’s previous comments. Walker announced Friday that Jon Litscher, a former Corrections secretary appointed by Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, will take Wall’s place at DOC.

Wisconsin Department of Corrections Secretary Ed Wall has resigned amid an investigation into abuse allegations at the state’s youth prison, the governor’s office said Friday as news emerged that the FBI had taken over the inquiry. Gov. Scott Walker’s staff said Wall submitted his letter of resignation on Feb. 5. He will be replaced by Jon Litscher, who served as the corrections secretary more than a decade ago. The allegations first came to light publicly in December when state DOJ agents descended on Lincoln Hills and a sister facility, Copper Lake, which shares a campus in northern Wisconsin. But two newspapers reported Thursday that a judge sent a letter four years ago warning Walker of possible criminal conduct at the Lincoln Hills School in Irma. Walker has said he was unaware of allegations of misconduct until recently. His spokeswoman, Laurel Patrick, has said the governor never saw the judge’s note and that it had been referred to the corrections department.

In the five years since Act 10 became law, Wisconsin school districts have experienced a dramatic decline in the number of applicants for each teacher vacancy. In 2015, there were an average of 3.2 candidates per vacancy, down from 6.6 candidates in 2012, according to Wisconsin Education Career Access Network data provided by Means. In the Mequon-Thiensville, the district has an average of 16.9 applicants per vacancy, down from 31 applicants in 2012, the data indicate. “I think Act 10 has hurt the image of our profession,” Means said. “I think that the consternation and the conflict that people saw in our state five years ago has had an impact on morale, on people’s view on our profession.”

The fact is that Gov. Scott Walker’s rabid anti-union agenda has been a disaster for the economy of Wisconsin, which remains in the bottom third of states for job growth.

In recent days, Lincoln Hills inmates have fought with each other multiple times, refused to go into their rooms – at least once en masse – and in one case threw urine on a staff member, said Towne, who has three family members who work at the school. Those incidents erupted in the days after Gov. Scott Walker said he believed Lincoln Hills was now safe, Towne said.

Gov. Scott Walker privately signed a measure Wednesday loosening the state’s campaign finance laws and eliminating the state elections and ethics agency that investigated his campaign for teaming up with conservative groups.

He noted that Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has already used the new definition of “transitory” records to justify denying records that existed at one time, but were not maintained. One of those cases involved text messages related to a failed $500,000 state loan to a struggling Milwaukee business.

Earlier this week Gov. Scott Walker said he didn’t think there was a connection between staffing issues and the Lincoln Hills allegations. “I think their concerns were not specific to that,” Walker said. “But certainly we’ll have to wait until we see everything at the end.”

Gov. Scott Walker said Friday his administration is reviewing safety measures and policies at all state prisons as the Department of Justice investigates alleged abuse of inmates at a juvenile prison in Lincoln County. Also on Friday, the Department of Corrections announced it plans to purchase body cameras for staff at the Lincoln Hills boys and Copper Lake girls schools as one of several steps in response to the allegations.

Gov. Scott Walker on Monday refuted reports that his administration is doing anything questionable when it comes to Wisconsin ‘s open records law. But those reports brought to light a change made this summer by the state’s Public Records Board that could shield communications like public officials’ text messages and Facebook messages from being made public.

Under a law Gov. Scott Walker signed Oct. 23, John Doe inquiries cannot be used to investigate allegations of misconduct in public office. The John Doe request in this case was filed a day before that law was signed. Previously, no parties involved in a John Doe could acknowledge even the existence of such an investigation. Under the new law, only judges, prosecutors, court officials and investigators are prohibited from speaking about the probe; witnesses may now discuss what they have been asked or testified to.

An obscure board overseeing state public records gave so little notice of a move to sharply limit electronic records that it appears to have violated the state’s open meetings law, attorneys and open records advocates say. The changes have already had an impact — they were used by Gov. Scott Walker’s administration as a reason not to release records just one day after the action was quietly taken in August by the Public Records Board, which oversees the preservation and handling of government records.

The facility, which is about 30 miles north of Wausau, is the state’s youth prison. Copper Lake houses female offenders — 36 as of Friday — while 228 male inmates were at Lincoln Hills, according to Corrections data. Gov. Scott Walker told reporters Monday that DOC supervisors did not deliberately suppress assault records at the facility.

Speaking to reporters in Madison on Monday, Gov. Scott Walker said Wall and top agency officials had brought concerns to the Department of Justice and Lincoln County Sheriff Jeff Jaeger and that Walker didn’t believe they had tried to cover them up.

The DNR has come under fire from Democrats and environmentalists under Gov. Scott Walker. Officials have said they are enforcing regulations but also trying to reduce unnecessary costs and red tape by an agency that is traditionally one of the most controversial in state government. The letters also raised questions over whether the DNR is as far along as it says it is in complying with 75 deficiencies the EPA cited in July 2011 over Wisconsin’s handling of water regulations. The EPA ordered the DNR to address the problems, which began before Walker entered office in January 2011. The DNR says some issues have been cleared up. In an Oct. 28 statement, the agency said the rest are moving ahead through a state rule-making process.

An obscure board overseeing public records in Wisconsin has quietly cut back on requirements to maintain some electronic records such as text messages about major taxpayer awards to businesses. … Gov. Scott Walker said afterward that the attempted rewrite in which his office participated was a “huge mistake.” In September, it was disclosed that after initially retreating on the issue, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) had continued to work on it behind the scenes in July. That prompted Vos to repeat that he was not advancing an open records bill this legislative session.

Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has found another novel method to deny the public access to government records. In at least two recent cases, the administration says it doesn’t have to keep certain “transitory” records and therefore can’t release records it doesn’t have.

Speaking to reporters in Madison, Gov. Scott Walker said Wall and top agency officials had brought concerns to the Department of Justice and Lincoln County Sheriff Jeff Jaeger and had not tried to cover them up. The governor said he had been briefed on the probe and met with Attorney General Brad Schimel last week about it. “What they reported to us is that they thought there was a failure in reporting in the chain of command,” and that the concern “doesn’t appear to be in the secretary’s office,” Walker said.

In making his case to Republican lawmakers this fall that the state’s civil service system needed to be overhauled, Gov. Scott Walker cited the case of two state workers who he said couldn’t be fired even though they had been caught having sex in their office. But records released Friday show no efforts were made to fire those workers — and that the only discipline sought and issued to them was letters of reprimand. Walker administration officials declined to address Wisconsin State Journal inquiries about why the workers could not have been fired for their conduct…. Two former state human resource officials said Friday that nothing prevented state officials from more harshly disciplining or firing the employees — one of whom, Doug Wood, is a Monona alderman. Walker’s comments about their case are at least the second instance in which he told anecdotes about state workers to plug the civil service changes that aren’t supported by state records… Walker cited the case of the two state workers caught having sex at the office but not being fired for it — without mentioning Wood’s or Piliouras’ names — in a speech to GOP lawmakers in September. In a statement Friday, Walker’s spokeswoman, Laurel Patrick, said the case shows “exactly why we need civil service reform.”… State records of the case, first reported on Thursday by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, confirm that the employees got scant punishment for their actions. As part of his push for civil service changes, Walker also claimed that a short-order cook scored high enough on a hiring exam to be considered for a state financial examiner job.But when pressed, Walker’s administration couldn’t produce documents to support the claim, the State Journal found.

GOP Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the Legislature created WEDC in 2011, soon after they were swept into power. The new agency replaced the state Department of Commerce and was aimed at making economic development efforts more nimble and swift. It has been beset with problems. Troubled businesses have gotten taxpayer-funded incentives, and top officials at WEDC have steadily left the agency… Walker and GOP lawmakers cut tens of millions of dollars from WEDC in the state budget they approved in July. Nygren said lawmakers would look at restoring some of those cuts, possibly in the spring. “It’s become a political football and it shouldn’t be,” Nygren said of WEDC.

In 2011, the EPA identified 75 failings in the DNR’s enforcement of the state’s wastewater pollution permit program. Last month, after the residents’ petition was filed, the state agency announced it is working on two rule packages that will address 21 of the issues… “Our state has historically been, and continues to be, a leader in many water-related areas,” DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp said in a news release. But the residents’ petition said the agency’s actions to resolve deficiencies represent a “lack of meaningful response.” The petition also charged that the agency’s authority and staff have been whittled away, citing the loss of 600 positions in the past 20 years. The petitioners claim Wisconsin now lacks the staff to adequately inspect and manage permits for wastewater sources, including large farms, municipalities and industries. EPA estimates show two-thirds of such facilities in Wisconsin are operating with expired waste discharge permits — the third worst rate in the nation. Recent reorganization at the agency by Gov. Scott Walker “raises even more doubt” about its ability to carry out its duties under the Clean Water Act, according to the petition. One of those changes is eliminating a separate water division and consolidating both water and air pollution under a Business Support and External Services Division. “The governor and state Legislature have starved the DNR’s power and robbed the agency’s experienced staff of professional autonomy to make informed decisions,” Wright said in a statement, adding, “Without effective government, we are compounding what our children and grandchildren will face in a world increasingly short of drinking water.”

Gov. Scott Walker’s economic development agency made no contact with Kraft Heinz as other states did in the months leading up to the company’s decision to close its Oscar Mayer headquarters in Madison… Soglin said the city never sought help from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the state agency Walker created to help create and retain jobs. Walker told reporters Thursday that WEDC had offered assistance to the company, which it later rejected. But a WEDC official later said the only state assistance offered was $194,800 in tax credits in 2013 to Kraft Food Group — before the merger with Heinz this year — for a $4 million investment in the Madison offices, which the company turned down in 2014… The company announced Wednesday it is closing its Oscar Mayer headquarters on Madison’s East Side and cutting 1,000 jobs by early 2017, part of a nationwide restructuring that will cut 2,600 positions nationally. It had previously announced it was laying off 165 non-union Madison employees in August, but Walker and local officials have expressed surprise at the decision to close the nearly 100-year-old plant. Walker said his office learned about the closure plans Wednesday along with the city of Madison and Dane County. “It has nothing to do with Wisconsin,” Walker said. “It has everything to do with a corporate decision that was made by the merger of those two companies.”… Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said Thursday that a representative of Kraft Heinz contacted the governor’s office in early October to request a meeting “and our office immediately responded to schedule that meeting.” But the company cancelled later that month, she said. Going forward, she said, the governor is focused on “working with local officials and the Department of Workforce Development to connect affected workers with other potential employers as well as a variety of services that include job training and job search assistance.” “The decision to close seven plants across the country (the majority of which are in states run by Democratic governors) and their decision about when to notify local officials is a question for the company,” Patrick wrote in an email.

Like most everyone else, Gov. Scott Walker only learned of Kraft Heinz’s decision Wednesday, spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said. She said his office “will work with local officials and our Department of Workforce Development to connect affected workers with other potential employers as well as a variety of services that include job training and job search assistance.” Patrick said the state’s “economy is growing and moving in the right direction. Our unemployment rate is 4.3 percent, the lowest it’s been since April 2001,” she said in an email.

On the civil service bill, both sides in the GOP dispute are holding firm, meaning that the proposal is unlikely to pass the Senate until early next year. The bill would overhaul a system begun in 1905 that is aimed at ensuring tax dollars go for competent state employees rather than political hacks… Republican Gov. Scott Walker has strongly backed the proposal, which he took up as a major cause just days after he dropped out of the race for president last month. He has said the civil service rules for 30,000 state workers need reworking to become more efficient and help hiring keep up with the crush of retiring baby boomers. The bill has gotten a mixed reception from others who formerly worked within the state’s system of merit hiring and firing.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Scott Walker said he supports overall reform of the GAB, and he “looks forward to working with lawmakers on a replacement for the GAB that is fair, transparent, and accountable to Wisconsinites.”

The proposal, which would reshape how cases of bribery of public officials and other political crimes are often investigated, was largely prompted by a probe into the Republican governor’s campaign and conservative groups that supported him. The state Supreme Court this summer shut down the investigation, which Walker and other Republicans have described as a political witch hunt. Prosecutors deny that, saying they had to pursue evidence they obtained. Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said the governor would evaluate the legislation when it reaches his desk but added he supports “common-sense reforms that protect free speech and ensure transparency and accountability” for John Doe investigations… It would lift past secrecy orders that have been issued for targets and witnesses. That would free up Walker and conservative activists to speak freely about the investigation of them, but prosecutors would be constrained from countering their comments unless a judge released the prosecutors from the secrecy order. The probe into Walker’s campaign was conducted by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and special prosecutor Francis Schmitz. Chisholm is a Democrat and Schmitz has described himself as a Republican. The secrecy order in the probe of Walker’s campaign would also remain in place for members of the Government Accountability Board, which oversees campaign finance laws. The board’s chairman, Gerald Nichol, said he disagrees with the provision that would lift the secrecy order for witnesses and targets and held open the possibility he would ask a judge to lift the secrecy order that applies to him.

In a teleconference, the group said that budget cutting, retirements and actions by the Legislature have effectively curbed the power of the DNR. The EPA said it is monitoring the efforts of the DNR. “WDNR must continue to report to EPA on progress to address the remaining issues,” said EPA spokesman Pete Cassell. In a statement, DNR spokesman Jim Dick said that the agency “takes its responsibility to protect Wisconsin waters seriously and does enforce the Clean Water Act.” He said the agency could not provide further comment until it can study the allegations. Gov. Scott Walker addressed environmental regulations more broadly when he spoke to a meeting of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce in Madison on Tuesday. He said the DNR has changed under his leadership from an agency whose acronym was said by some to mean “Darned Near Russia” to a department that considers the environment and the economy. “We’re not perfect, don’t get me wrong,” Walker said. “But we made changes that provided a balance.” This summer, the DNR announced a major reorganization of the agency that included the elimination of its water division. The functions of water regulation would remain, but administrators are in the process of farming the duties to the other parts of the department.

“Governor Walker believes it’s possible to protect our clean air, clean land, and clean water while enacting policies that improve our business climate and spur economic growth,” Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said in a statement. But critics say Wisconsin’s natural resources are increasingly at risk as government moves away from a conservation tradition dating back to the 1920s, when academics and other citizens were placed in charge of restoring forests and wildlife that had been plundered by commercial interests while politicians looked the other way. Walker’s DNR secretary is Cathy Stepp, a former Republican state senator and critic of the agency. Pat Stevens, former environmental director for WMC, was placed in charge of air and waste regulation. Water quality protection was added to his division in the reorganization. Stepp declined interview requests, but in August she said that while protecting researchers from political pressure is key, senior scientist positions were being shed because the DNR Bureau of Science Services had run afoul of elected officials. “We want to make sure that research that’s going on is answering the questions our regulators on the ground have or our biologists on the ground have or our user groups and interested citizens have,” Stepp said in an interview with WisconsinEye. “That hasn’t been the case in the past. “We’ve seen a pretty sound response from the Legislature during this last budget process on some things that they saw that happened historically in that particular area of the department that they were unhappy about, and they wanted to send a message to us, (which) is, you know, ‘Get your researchers in better line with what their constituents are telling them, the legislators,’ and we’re going to do that.” Stepp said an example was a science bureau compilation of scientific literature on environmental effects of mines while a controversial iron mine was being developed in 2014.

Additionally, the governor slowed the progress made in 2010 by the Department of Revenue in collecting delinquent taxes. In 2010, the Department collected $193 million in delinquent taxes, a $40 million increase over the previous year. But now the Governor would scale back on tax-collection activities, reducing the Department’s goal by $20 million a year. (Department of Administration’s Executive Budget for the Department of Revenue, pp. 453-454)

Gov. Scott Walker’s top aides and a powerful lobbyist pressed for a taxpayer-funded loan in 2011 to a financially struggling Milwaukee construction company that lost the state half a million dollars, created no jobs and raised questions about where the money went, a State Journal investigation has found...The push to fund the BCI project came after Minahan gave Walker’s 2010 Republican campaign for governor a last-minute infusion of $10,000 on Election Day — the maximum individual contribution. Jadin said Minahan and Huebsch -- a nonvoting member of the WEDC board by virtue of his role as Administration secretary -- pushed for a $4.3 million WEDC loan, but the agency could justify no more than a $500,000 loan, which Jadin said he considered “fairly risky.”

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, facing a $283 million deficit that needs to be closed by the end of June, will skip more than $100 million in debt payments to balance the books thrown into disarray by his tax cuts.
The move comes as Walker, 47, mounts a 2016 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and while his state is under stress from a projected shortfall that could exceed $2 billion in the two-year budget beginning in July. Delaying the $108 million principal payment due in May on short-term debt would free funds. The move doesn’t require legislative approval, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said in a Feb. 13 memorandum. The terms of the debt sale allow Wisconsin to defer the payment in any given year, a procedure known as a restructuring, without defaulting.

The highly respected and nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) released new projections showing that Wisconsin is ending its current budget with a $283 million deficit, more than twice what Walker’s aides said it would be just a few months ago. And Wisconsin is heading into a $2.2 billion deficit in its next budget cycle if Walker grants all of his state agency requests. Even if he doesn’t, Wisconsin will still have a $648 million hole in the next budget just to continue operating as it does now. Walker’s $283 million deficit is so big that it should trigger a budget repair bill, argued Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Schilling (D-La Crosse), but the Walker administration doesn’t seem to be interested in proposing one. State law requires a balanced budget at the end of every cycle and a budget repair bill changes current spending to uphold the law. Walker should know that—almost immediately after taking office in 2011 he proposed one and it was his 2011 budget repair bill that included the union-busting provisions that sparked massive Capitol protests and made Walker the darling of billionaire tea party guys. Not surprisingly, Walker is trying to hush up the budget shortfalls created on his watch. Walker may be a fresh face in Iowa and California as he makes a case for himself as the Republican presidential nominee. However, his ideas are the same old failed policies of giving massive tax breaks to the rich, weakening the middle class and ending up with larger and larger budget deficits.

Walker's county and campaign staffs collaborated in determining how to respond to one issue after another — sexual assaults of patients at the complex, security lapses, controversial remarks by Milwaukee County's mental health administrator. At one point, Walker's campaign manager complained that a county lawyer needed to "think political for a change." Walker played an active role in how to respond, even when he insisted on staying at a distance publicly.

"We need to continue to keep me out of the story as this is a process issue and not a policy matter," Walker wrote on March 27, 2010. The issue at that point was fallout from stories on a patient sexual assault of another patient that resulted in a pregnancy. [...] In this exchange, Walker was careful to send the email to personal accounts — not official county email accounts — of his county staffers. "We need to be 100% certain that everything is working and that all state and federal regulations are in place," Walker wrote. He also directed mental health administrators to "keep us in the loop on all issues going on at BHD," referring to the county's Behavioral Health Division. And Walker suggested reaching out to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial writers, noting: "The next problem will be editorials and this can nip it in the butt."

John Chianelli, then administrator of the county's Behavioral Health Division, was quoted telling county supervisors that sexual assaults in mixed-gender wards were a trade-off for more violent assaults that would happen in all-male psychiatric units. Walker's staff furiously exchanged views on what to do. Gilkes, Walker's campaign manager, told Rindfleisch: "We won't be commenting at all." Rindfleisch emailed back that Walker wasn't likely to comment and that "it's not really (Walker's) place" to weigh in on Chianelli's remarks. An effort through a lawyer hired by the county to handle patient abuse claims might help to discourage further comment by supervisors, Rindfleisch wrote. A Journal Sentinel reporter "doesn't get any traction if he can't get anyone to say anything," she said. Exchanges on May 10 among Walker's campaign and county staff ended with Walker drafting a statement to be issued by a county official saying "any form of violence at the Mental Health Complex is unacceptable." Chianelli was later demoted, then resigned.

Gilkes told Rindfleisch to prod a county lawyer — then-Deputy Corporation Counsel Timothy Schoewe — to take a tougher stance. "Just do me a favor and tell him that we are getting the crap kicked out of us by the County Board," Gilkes wrote. "At some point I would like him to stop being a lawyer and think political for a change and let us fight back." The emails released Wednesday included a message by Mark Cameli, a private lawyer for the county, attempting to persuade Journal Sentinel Managing Editor George Stanley to withhold publication of an article about Chianelli's remarks to supervisors. They were made during a closed session but later disclosed by several supervisors, including Lynne De Bruin. She said danger to patients outweighed her obligation to keep quiet about the discussion and provided notes she took from the session and a letter she wrote to a reporter. Stanley told Cameli, "There is no way a letter from an elected county official to a county administrator is protected by attorney-client privilege. It's a public record, period."

Rindfleisch was sarcastic about the Mental Health Complex issue in a Sept. 2, 2010, email to a friend. "Last week was a nightmare," she wrote. "A bad story every day on our looney bin. Doctors having sex with patients, patients getting knocked up. This has been coming for months and I've unofficially been dealing with it. So, it's been crazy (pun intended)." Rindfleisch seemed unconcerned the mental health controversies would hurt Walker's chances with voters in the governor's race. In a Sept. 1, 2010, email she said she expected Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to make the issue "the center of his campaign" for governor against Walker. She agreed with Joan Hansen — then a county official and later a deputy secretary for the state Department of Children and Families — that Barrett would lose. "Yep," Rindfleisch replied. "No one cares about crazy people." The emails show how Walker's campaign staff dictated county personnel moves.

Instructions from Scott Walker's campaign manager were explicit: Delay settlement of a long-standing legal case over the starvation-relateddeath of Cindy Anczak at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex. "Could care less what it is on," Walker campaign manager Keith Gilkes wrote in an Oct. 22, 2010, email exchange with a Walker aide at the county, referring to the claim's legal basis. "Keep it buried until Nov. 2nd and then hopefully they'll settle." Walker went on to win his term as governor that Nov. 2. Anczak's parents, Jean and Myron Anczak of Greendale, would wait another full year before the county approved a $125,000 settlement. The emails were part of thousands released last week in an appeal by Kelly Rindfleisch of her 2012 felony conviction for misconduct in office. Rindfleisch was Walker's deputy chief of staff during his last year as county executive.

After Chianelli was demoted for his handling of sexual assaults at the complex, Gilkes wrote to Walker's staff about the need to fire him: "I think we throw John under the bus for covering up how dysfunctional the place is." The campaign took a hard line on reacting to the sexual assault scandal, even as county staff members pleaded for mercy for Chianelli. "I feel bad, too, but the reality is that this needs to be a clean break," Gilkes wrote. "Now is not the time to be exchanging accolades."

For the second time in less than four months, Gov. Scott Walker has fired an aide for making demeaning comments about Hispanics on social media. Walker — who has been calling on fellow Republicans to do more to reach out to minority voters — ousted Taylor Palmisano as his campaign’s deputy finance director on Tuesday. The first-term governor made the move after No Quarter contacted his campaign regarding the inflammatory tweets. In one, Palmisano, 23, complained about an individual who was doing custodial work in a library in which she was working. "I will choke that illegal mex cleaning in the library. Stop banging (expletive) chairs around and turn off your Walkman," she posted on March 9, 2011. Two months earlier, she went to Twitter to write about her bus trip from Pasadena, Calif., to Las Vegas after watching the Wisconsin Badgersplay in the Rose Bowl: "This bus is my worst (expletive) nightmare Nobody speaks English & these ppl dont know how 2 control their kids #only3morehours #illegalaliens.”

Just days before receiving the grant, the lobbyist for United Sportsmen offered free fishing excursions to Suder, the Journal Sentinel reported Monday. The day the trip began, Suder joined 17 other Republicans in urging a committee to give the grant to United Sportsmen.
The liberal group One Wisconsin Now filed an ethics complaint with the state Government Accountability Board over the matter.

Mere days before he was slated to start a $94,000 a year job in the Walker administration, it was announced today that former Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder has taken a different job as a special interest lobbyist.

The author of a sweetheart deal worth potentially millions of dollars for a politically-connected organization was offered a free, two-day Lake Michigan fishing excursion by the lobbyist and Executive Director for the group, according to a story in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One Wisconsin Now has filed a formal complaint with the state Government Accountability Board asking for an investigation of possible violations of state ethics laws based on the report, according Executive Director Scot Ross.

To see the recent struggles of the state's jobs programs, take the case of a missing crane, a seemingly untraceable business owner and $83,000 in squandered taxpayer money. When the state lent the money to Milwaukee Iron Works in the fall of 2010, seemingly everything soured — from the state's spotty follow-up on the delinquent loan and the firm's eventual status as a tax scofflaw to a shortchanged pension fund for the company's workers and even a sloppy job of lawmaking by legislators eliminating the state program. Taxpayers were left with bad debt and no collateral: The crane that was supposed to back up their loan can't be found. The case turned up in an ongoing Journal Sentinel review of the state's job programs that encompassed hundreds of records on delinquent loans and matched a database of tax-delinquent companies against firms that have received state jobs incentives such as grants, loans or other awards. The review found seven companies that benefited from nearly $1.3 million worth of taxpayer subsidies — including loans, grants and loan guarantees — and that owe nearly $300,000 in state taxes and other charges, according to a recent count in state records. One business actually owed taxes at the time the state gave it the award, and others, like Milwaukee Iron Works, had growing financial problems that could have been spotted by state officials had they looked deeper into the companies.

In his twenty years in office, Scott Walker has amassed a truly astounding record of failure. To commemorate the looming anniversary of his first election to office, One Wisconsin Now is highlighting a different and depressing failure of Gov. Walker every day, for twenty days. Today we examine the close aides and associates, with whom Gov. Walker has surrounded himself, failures to follow the law.

In what parallel universe does a scandal-plagued agency that just got dinged for failing to account for the money it’s been spending get more money? That parallel universe would be Scott Walker’s Wisconsin. There’s something flat-out bizarre about the governor's response to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. fiasco...The governor, who chairs the WEDC board, actually wants to give the agency more money BEFORE the mess is cleaned up. That may make sense to Walker. But in the real world, common sense says this: Fix WEDC before you throw any more taxpayer dollars at the failed experiment.

The continuing mismanagement and misuse of public funds at Governor Walker's Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) ought to disqualify the agency from any new funding, according to One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. Particularly egregious is a 2013-15 budget proposal giving WEDC $11 million in new taxpayer money to run an advertising campaign.

“A stinging audit has found that the state's flagship jobs agency repeatedly failed last year to follow basic standards in state law for ensuring the clear and proper use of millions of dollars in taxpayer money, prompting lawmakers of both parties to call for immediate changes. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. has faced repeated criticism for poor financial controls since Gov. Scott Walker and lawmakers created the quasi-public authority in July 2011 as a replacement for the Department of Commerce. The agency's chief financial officer, Mike Klonsinski, resigned in October when problems came to light. His position remains open - the latest person to take the job resigned after 24 hours to accept a promotion from his old firm.”

A blistering audit released Wednesday said Republican Gov. Scott Walker's premier job creation agency repeatedly broke state law in its first year of operation, failed to adequately track money it awarded for economic development projects and sometimes gave money to ineligible recipients...The audit found numerous examples where the agency did not consistently follow the law or existing policies when making awards, and had no policies for determining how to handle delinquent loan amounts. In one example, WEDC executed a $2.5 million contract through a tax credit program that required jobs to be created in order for companies to get the credit. But the contract did not require any jobs be created, the audit said...Employees of the public-private entity also made unexplained purchases of University of Wisconsin football season tickets, alcohol and iTunes gift cards, the audit said. The audit faulted WEDC for not having sufficient policies to administer its $520 million worth of grant, loan and tax credit programs effectively, including some policies required by law. It awarded $80 million in its first year.

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements regarding the Legislative Audit Bureau's findings of serious performance inadequacies at Gov. Walker's Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC):

Across the country, the economy is slowly but steadily improving. More companies are hiring, consumers are spending again, the stock market is tickling record highs and many Americans say they are feeling more optimistic about the future. But Wisconsin stands somewhat apart from this trend, consistently and stubbornly lagging in job creation and finding itself near the bottom of many measures of economic health...It’s a familiar story across Wisconsin. While fewer businesses are cutting jobs these days, they sure aren’t adding a lot of new employees either. And for those with a job — whether in the private or public sector — the pay raises have been few and far between. So what gives? Some observers point to Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature. They say the drastic spending cuts in the 2011-2013 state budget, just as the economy was beginning to recover from the recession, have actually made things worse. “Wisconsin did absolutely the wrong thing at the wrong time,” says Kenneth Thomas, a political scientist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and author of the popular Middle Class Political Economist blog. “You want to practice austerity when things are going well, not the other way around.”

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements in response to Gov. Walker’s announcement on mental health funding in his 2013-15 budget proposal:

A second person has resigned as secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development in Gov. Scott Walker's first year in office. Walker announced Monday that Secretary Scott Baumbach had resigned after being in the position just four months. He replaced Walker's first appointee, Manny Perez, who resigned in May after five months in the post. Baumbach said in his letter of resignation Monday that he wanted to pursue opportunities in the private sector to connect job seekers and employers. Walker said that Reggie Newson, who had been serving as executive assistant at the Department of Transportation, was taking over as secretary effective Monday.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who forced public workers to pay more for their pensions as part of a push to curb union rights, broke his campaign promise to pay the full cost of his state pension immediately after taking office in January. “It is indefensible Scott Walker promised to live by these rules and then broke his word to Wisconsin,” said Scot Ross, head of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now. “Scott Walker tore Wisconsin in two to pass these unnecessary changes and then tells us ‘Do as I say, not as I didn’t.’”

Despite Governor Walker’s message of the importance of paying off he State’s debt, newly created WEDC dropped more than $43,000 to by 74 iPads for all of its staff. Along with the 3g service and WiFi connection the total will amount to $60,000.

About a dozen law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, searched the Madison home of a former top aide to then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker on Wednesday morning...The search of Archer's house comes amid a John Doe investigation in Milwaukee County, which started last year after another staff member working for Walker, then county executive, was caught posting online political comments during work time. Archer was director of administrative services for Walker, the county's top staff position, while he was county executive, and followed him to Madison after he won the governor's race in November.

Cindy Archer, who abruptly left Scott Walker's administration last month for "personal family matters," actually had another politically appointed job under the governor already lined up. She'll take a $25,000 pay cut in moving to the Department of Children and Families, but the nearly $100,000 she'll be making is tens of thousands of dollars more than the pay of others who have had the job. State officials said Archer remained on leave. Department spokeswoman Stephanie Hayden would not answer whether Archer was being paid while on leave, saying that was confidential...Archer, in her resignation letter emailed to Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, said simply that she was done with her job that same day. Now, documents provided by the state show she actually was already hired a day earlier, on Aug. 18, to a $99,449-a-year job in the Department of Children and Families, as the department's legislative liaison, according to a letter released Friday from Eloise Anderson, who heads the department.

WEDC has been the source of some controversy. From its inception, critics worried it would wrestle with the same problems that plagued similar hybrid agencies in other states. In Texas, state leaders have gone after officials with TexasOne for making stock deals that allegedly cross the line into conflicts of interest. A Dallas Morning News investigation found the organization had final say over a fund that awarded $16 million to companies with ties to friends and supporters of Gov. Rick Perry, who is now running for the Republican nomination for president. The Michigan Economic Development Corp. got in trouble last year after awarding $9.1 million in tax credits to a convicted embezzler. And recently, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. was scrutinized for inflating job creation numbers and resisting efforts to open its books to the public. But according to Jadin, there is more than enough oversight in place to make sure his new agency will be accountable. "I can't imagine that Commerce was ever as accountable as we will be," Jadin said.

The public-private hybrid agency officially opened July 1, but there still are no outward signs of its existence. Now, some eight weeks in, WEDC officials are working out the details. They've installed new human resources and payroll software, hired employees and set up customer-relations services. But they are trying to fill four vice president slots and several key director positions.

There is this perception that we just took Commerce and privatized it, said Paul Jadin, Commerce secretary and CEO of WEDC. "The truth is, we are creating a whole new organization and there is a lot that goes into that." The governor signed legislation in February abolishing the Commerce Department and replacing it with WEDC, an agency free of the regulatory duties many felt hampered Commerce. Now, some eight weeks in, WEDC officials are working out the details. They've installed new human resources and payroll software, hired employees and set up customer-relations services. But they are trying to fill four vice president slots and several key director positions. And they're still wrestling with how to brand the agency. Should it go by its acronym and phonetic pronunciation, "weed-ic"? Or should it be "The Corporation"?...WEDC is tasked with one thing: attracting and retaining businesses. The agency was given an $83 million budget, almost twice what Commerce received for economic development. Since July, WEDC has awarded more than $34 million in grants it says have created more than 900 planned jobs. That's not a marked jump in the amount or number of awards from what Commerce disbursed in January through July, but officials say they are laying the groundwork for future success.

Tom Nardelli abruptly quit his state job with Gov. Scott Walker in late July, pulling the plug on his $90,000-a-year position just days after accepting the post…Nardelli said Tuesday he resigned as administrator for the state Division of Environmental and Regulatory Services because he decided it would be unfair to keep the job knowing he planned to resign soon anyway. In an interview, Nardelli said "other little things" related to the internal operations of his former state agency also led to his resignation. He declined to say what those were.

Attempts by the new Republican administration to largely privatize the state's food assistance program have been all but stopped in their tracks. The controversial plan, first proposed by Gov. Scott Walker in March, would have replaced county-level sites where residents can simultaneously apply for FoodShare and medical assistance with a limited number of centers across the state staffed by private workers. The move would have cost roughly 270 public workers their jobs…Turns out, USDA officials were never keen on private workers being involved in the administration of the federally funded food assistance program. The federal officials have been warning the state to change its course, or at a minimum refrain from hiring more private employees, since early 2010. ”The state right now is not in compliance (with federal law)," said Alan Shannon, a spokesman with the USDA's regional office in Chicago. "It's that simple."

Tom Nardelli was named to his second job in Gov. Scott Walker's administration Monday as administrator of the state Division of Environmental and Regulatory Services. The division, formerly housed in the state Commerce Department, now falls under the newly organized Department of Safety and Regulatory Services. The environmental division regulates underground fuel tanks, petroleum quality assurance and the state Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Award. Nardelli served for six months as state administrator of Safety and Buildings. He'll be paid the same $90,000 salary in his new position that he earned in his initial state post under Walker, said John Murray, a department spokesman.

Gov. Scott Walker has named Scott Baumbach as fulltime secretary of Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development. Baumbach had served as interim secretary since last month when Manny Perez resigned just five months after his appointment by Walker. Baumbach was named the department's deputy secretary last January. Before joining the department, he was an associate and partner at the Michael Best and Friedrich law firm in Milwaukee from 2001-2010. Baumbach received his law degree from Marquette University Law School.

First DWD Secretary: The Wisconsin secretary of workforce development has resigned just five months after his appointment by Gov. Scott Walker. Manny Perez says in a statement that he'll return to the private sector to seek out new opportunities and looks forward to watching the Wisconsin economy grow. He is the first Walker cabinet appointee to leave his post since taking office.

Tom Nardelli, former chief of staff to then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, has been named administrator of the state Safety & Buildings Division….As head of the state safety division in the Commerce Department, he inherits an operation with about 165 employees and has oversight of state building and safety codes on everything from amusement park rides to elevators and fire safety, Nardelli said.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s eight years of failed leadership are highlighted in an interactive timeline documenting his misdeeds, mismanagement and incompetence created by One Wisconsin Now and available at www.ScottWalkerFailureFiles.com.

“Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway Friday defended the board's opposition to use of county streams for treated wastewater from Waukesha on health grounds. Waukesha has proposed using Underwood Creek as a way to return Lake Michigan water the suburban community wants to buy from Milwaukee. Holloway said in a statement that "returning water in this manner would create a terrible public health situation and put children at risk. Children play in this water and animals drink from this water," Holloway said. Waukesha Water Utility Manager Dan Duchniak has said the treated effluent would improve water quality in the creek. Holloway also said he disagreed with Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's comment that the board's opposition was ‘a knee-jerk reaction.’ Walker said he would veto the board's resolution opposing the Waukesha water plan. But if the 13 supervisors stick to their position, they could override the veto. Holloway said the county should have a direct role in the issue.”

“Unpaid furloughs ordered to help balance Milwaukee County's 2010 budget could compromise public safety, according to law enforcement and court officials. The impact of furloughs -- or other substitute budget cuts - -could range from slower prosecutions to delayed trials and criminal arrest warrants, the officials said. Restraining orders in domestic violence cases also might be slowed, they said. The furloughs may force him to make ‘triage decisions’ in which charges for lesser crimes are delayed or skipped so prosecutors can focus on serious felony cases, said District Attorney John Chisholm.”

“Milwaukee County under spent its budget for running the Wisconsin Shares child-care program by more than $4.3 million since 2004 -- money that could have gone toward greater fraud prevention, state officials said. The county was authorized to spend $8 million or more annually to run the program, under contracts with the state that included oversight of participants and child-care providers. The county, however, passed up the chance to use $1.4 million in 2004 and high six-figure sums nearly every year since then. In 2006, the county didn't use $376,000 of its child-care oversight money -- the smallest sum the county left on the table through 2008, state figures show. The county also is on track to leave unspent another $600,000 of its child-care administration funds this year. Counties are not allowed to roll over the money they don't spend on the program in any given year.”

“Meanwhile, the board delivered a second snub to Walker on Thursday on his plan to outsource operation of the public assistance call center, voting 12-6 to reject his plan. The board also voted against the idea last year. Walker favored hiring Impact, a private agency, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to operate the call center for $2 million a year. ...The board approved a resolution calling on Walker to increase the call center staff to 30 using county employees, which would cost slightly less than Walker's outsourcing, according to board figures.”

“The state's unprecedented move Tuesday to strip Milwaukee County of its role in administering food aid, child care and medical assistance programs was prompted by years of county mismanagement, state Health Services Secretary Karen Timberlake said. The takeover requires installing state managers but retaining county case workers, a ‘hybrid model’ she said had never been tried before. Timberlake said that will require a law change that's likely to win legislative support. She said the new setup was the best way to fix the problems quickly.” The state memo noted: “The county's poor performance in the programs includes answering only 5% of the hundreds of thousands of phone calls to the county's public assistance call center every month; The county fails to process 30% of its benefit applications within the required seven days, with some families waiting weeks or months for food or health care; In 2007, 60% of county decisions to deny food or health care benefits were overturned within two months. That resulted in benefit delays and forced families to go through time-consuming appeals or a second round of applications; and, The county's high food assistance error rate means nearly one in five deserving applicants were cut off from the program in fiscal 2008.”

“Milwaukee County's 2008 overtime spending is on pace to match or beat last year's record $15.8 million tab, despite extra recruitment and hiring of mental health and corrections workers, an analysis of county spending records shows. The overtime bill for the first 10 months of this year was $14.4 million. Overtime costs for November and December are expected to drive the bill to more than $16 million. ...Amid the economic downturn, Walker imposed a partial hiring and travel freeze in September to help ward off a year-end deficit. He credited such moves with keeping the county in the black. But critics on the County Board say Walker has courted overtime growth by too thinly staffing county departments.”

“The board did not disrupt Walker's plan to place oversight of the House of Correction under Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and merge it with Clarke's operation of the county jail. Under the change, Walker would give up his management responsibility over the House of Correction and county work-release center. The center came under fire in a federal audit early this year. Holloway said he wasn't enthusiastic about that change, but noted supervisors had little choice because of some $3 million in savings linked to the merger. Supervisors ordered a specific merger plan by July 1 and use of the National Institute of Corrections audit as the blueprint for changes at the House of Correction.”

“His message to his staff members as they gear up for the annual budget pageant: economize and privatize. ‘Anywhere and everywhere, they should be considering contracting out’ so services can be provided at less cost, Walker said in an interview. That's been his mantra since he took office, one that he re-emphasized during his successful re-election campaign this year.”

“Also Thursday, Malone released a report showing the House of Correction has mistakenly released six inmates since April 2005 and the downtown work-release center has had 54 inmates who left without permission since 2003. The minimum-security center downtown can't lock its doors overnight when inmates are supposed to be confined because the converted 1930s hospital building is a fire hazard.… The jail is run by Clarke, while the House of Correction and work-release center are the responsibility of Walker.”

Freddie Dudley was a work-release inmate when charged with reckless homicide for killing a man on the city's west side last August while he was supposed to be sleeping at the House of Correction center.”

“The Milwaukee County House of Correction in Franklin and the downtown work-release center come under severe criticism in a new federal report, which calls the operations seriously flawed and marred by security lapses, bad management, poor employee morale and crowded conditions. Both facilities also have serious fire safety shortcomings, including inoperative alarms and no sprinklers at the work-release center. The report, by the National Institute of Corrections, calls for a major overhaul of operations and suggests that the county plan to build additional lockups and consider merging the county jail with the House of Correction under management of a single department.”