Kris Barrett - MPS Emails

Kris Barrett, wife of Tom Barrett, the disastrous mayor of Milwaukee and Democrat candidate for governor (again), thinks she doesn't have to play by the rules.

On the taxpayers' dime, Kris Barrett, former MPS teacher, engaged in lobbying and campaign activity.

That's a no-no, Kris.

Media Trackers broke the story.

A Media Trackers open records request revealed that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s wife, Kris Barrett, who taught at Dover Elementary used her Milwaukee Public School email account to twice lobby Democratic lawmakers and a third time to recruit fellow teachers to campaign against County Executive candidate Jeff Stone. The use of a taxpayer funded email account for such political purposes is a gross misuse of resources and forbidden by the Milwaukee Public Schools Employee Code of Ethics as well as the MPS Staff Acceptable Use Policy.

On Monday February 14, 2011, Kris Barrett emailed Democrat State Senator Spencer Coggs and Democrat Rep. Tamara Grigsby to encourage them to vote against Governor Walker’s Budget Repair Bill. The title of the email was “a teacher’s voice” and Ms. Barrett decried that “we are all under attack.”

See the emails here.

When a fellow teacher asked if Ms. Barrett had seen the news that night (the passage of the Budget Repair Bill), Barrett answered “Unfortunately, yes. Oh my God. What country is this????”

The use of an MPS email account for political purposes such as lobbying Democratic lawmakers and recruiting fellow teachers to go campaign certainly violates the Milwaukee Public Schools Employee Code of Ethics.

...In addition to the Employee Code of Ethics, Ms. Barrett also appears to have violated the MPS Staff Acceptable Use Policy for the use of the MPS network system and computer resources.

Kris Barrett clearly doesn't care about ethics.

She knew what she was doing.

This is an embarrassment for Tom Barrett and the Democrats, especially since they're trying to paint Scott Walker as a crook.

Yeah, awkward.

If Kris Barrett shows up on Barrett's campaign commercials, like she has in Barrett's other attempts at becoming governor, remember that Kris disregards the rules.

Ethics. Shmethics.

At the very least, Milwaukee first lady and wannabe Wisconsin first lady should issue a statement acknowledging her misdeeds and apologize to the taxpayers and MPS students.

Maybe she doesn't care about being a role model for students. If she doesn't, she should ignore the matter.

We'll understand what her silence means.
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MPS isn't staying silent.

Here's the statement from Milwaukee Public Schools:

"The emails sent from an MPS account appear to constitute a violation of our policies. We did not become aware of the emails until after the employee was no longer working for Milwaukee Public Schools."

From 620 WTMJ:

MPS officials say because Kris Barrett is no longer working at the district and no further action will be taken.

That makes sense. Tom Barrett's comment on his wife's violation, however, makes absolutely not sense.

"They are going to try to drag my wife into this, I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to drag my kids into this," said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. "They will do anything they can because they are fighting for their life because Scott Walker knows he cannot defend his record."

...Mayor Tom Barrett defended his wife. "My understanding is that there was one email out of gazillions that they sent out where she talked about a rally in the county executive race last year. There was nothing in there that had to do with this race whatsoever," said Tom Barrett.

I think it's a mistake for Barrett to defend wrongdoing. It's always best to own up to the offense and apologize.

No kidding Kris Barrett didn't write any emails about the current race.

She wasn't an MPS employee when the recall election got going. What a stupid thing for Barrett to say!

It's wrong for Barrett to lash out at Media Trackers. An open records request isn't dirty politics. It's transparency.

The Barretts should take responsibility for their behavior, not shoot the messenger.

Now, about this statement from Barrett:

"They will do anything they can because they are fighting for their life because Scott Walker knows he cannot defend his record."

OK. That's just sad.

Scott Walker is running on his record. His record is what makes the case for voters to keep him as our governor.

Barrett, on the other hand, has a miserable record as mayor of Milwaukee, absolutely miserable. I've experienced it. I've seen what's happened to the city since Barrett has been in office.

The notion that Gov. Walker "knows he cannot defend his record" is absurd. Barrett is in the position of defending the indefensible. Milwaukee is a mess.

Very sad, but true.