Media Trackers, doing the job the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other local media fail to do, reveals that at least 43 CURRENT Milwaukee County DA employees signed petitions to recall Governor Scott Walker.
That certainly creates an impression of impropriety. The appearance of impropriety is unquestionable.
Engaging in public political activity, signing a petition, while supposedly serving as an officer of the court looks awful.
If it looks bad, it's bad. There's a problem.
From Media Trackers:
Media Trackers is able to confirm that 43 current employees of the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office signed the petition to recall Governor Scott Walker. A total of 70 names on iverifytherecall.com matched the names of current employees at the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, but not all could be completely confirmed at the time of publication. The employees signing the Walker recall petition range in stature from a Deputy District Attorney, to at least 19 Assistant District Attorneys, and a host of support staff.
Highest ranking among the officials signing the Walker recall petition was Deputy District Attorney Lovell Johnson Jr. Johnson is one of five Deputy District Attorney’s who report directly to DA John Chisholm.
In addition to DDA Johnson Jr., Media Trackers was able to confirm that 19 Assistant District Attorneys (employee status provided by the Milwaukee DA as of March 26, 2012) signed the Walker recall at the time of publication. An additional 10 ADAs appear to have signed but Media Trackers could not confirm with complete certainty. The Milwaukee County ADAs who Media Trackers was able to confirm signed the Walker recall petition include:Cynthia Brown
Holly Bunch
Ronald S. Dague
Patricia Daugherty
Miriam S. Falk
Jennifer L. Hanson
Paul Hauer
Deann Heard
Nicolas Heitman
Francesco G. Mineo
Jon Neuleib
Dax C. Odom
Irene Parthum
Kristin Schrank
Gale Shelton
Randy Sitzberger
Claire Starling
John M. Stoiber
Megan Williamson
Perhaps one of the most interesting employees at the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office who signed the Scott Walker recall petition is Janet Oelstrom, a secretary for the Public Integrity Unit. The Public Integrity Unit is responsible for anti-corruption probes and the now-familiar ‘John Doe’ investigations. Oelstrom confirmed to Media Trackers on Friday night that she did indeed sign the Walker recall.
Wow.
Oh, my God.
Lawyers should know better than this.
Good grief!
They should be fired. NOW.
If there is no policy that bars Milwaukee DA staff from signing such a PUBLIC petition, there should be.
Journalists are held to that standard to protect their impartiality, but not attorneys at the DA's office?
The appearance of bias must be avoided. Citizens must be able to trust in their government. The DA's office is NOT a private firm.
This isn't a free speech issue at all. It's solely about maintaining the public's trust. Engaging in PUBLIC political activity puts that at risk.
We know how important the separation of church and state is to the Leftists. We also know how important the separation of politics and state is to them as well, at least when it comes to conservatives.
The buck stops with Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm.
Chisholm has to put politics aside, for a change. His office appears partisan.
That's not the way it's supposed to be.
Without question, such political activity presents a potential conflict of interest when it comes to investigating and prosecuting cases.
I have no confidence in the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office. Zero.
Justice in Milwaukee County?
Questionable.
5 comments:
Wisconsin public "workers" have been getting fat and happy on unearned handouts from the taxpayers. Walker has cut off this pure waste.
Hell hath no fury than the greedy spoiled child who has had his hand in the cookie jar, who now finds the cookie jar on a shelf so high he can't reach it.
Why not draft the law to fix this? How would you describe all that they shouldn't ever do? Which positions shouldn't be doing it? Let's make a list. Anyone in a DA's office, no matter how low on the totem pole? Any teachers paid with tax dollars? Why not anyone paid with tax dollars? Why not anyone in the so-called "media"?
Employers have in place policies employees must abide in order to uphold the integrity of their operations, products, whatever the case may be.
The onus is on the employer to create and enforce such policies. If there are no such policies or enforcement, problems are apt to arise.
If the employer is the taxpayer and the employees are involved in the judicial system, maintaining at least an appearance of a lack of bias is especially important.
I find it interesting that Leftists love to use boycotts to punish private business owners and employees. We saw that when private citizens made completely legal contributions to Scott Walker and Leftists/union members went berserk. (Note to self: Buy Johnsonville Brats.)
Why is it when it comes to holding public employees engaged in politicking accountable, there's so much whining?
Mary: The situation is very corrupt: government paying "workers" to engage in partisan politics, which ends up supporting the party in government that most favors this corruption.
It's a terrible situation.
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