The Milwaukee Post

The Public Service Commission wants Milwaukee residents to pay for the cost of moving utility lines for the downtown streetcar. What are your thoughts on picking up the tab? "I do not, as a taxpayer, want any part of this. I pay enough as it is.We could put dollars to bet- ter use. How about more cops to get our town into better shape or are we headed to the likes of Detroit, God help us." — Joanne Hazlett Milwaukee "This is just what us Milwaukee residents were expecting from Mayor Tom Barrett and County Executive Chris Abele's champagne appetite with Milwaukee's beer pocketbook. Big ideas with someone else's money. Ours. Not one tootin' dime (excuse the pun) should come out of our pockets for their project 30 years to maybe get back a portion of it back in tax rev- enue. Ha, 2,074 related jobs, and possibly 150 permanent jobs, so that's 1,924 people who make out like bandits while we take a huge loss. Derail, derail or find another way to pay for things. Toot-toot, not aboard." — Bonnie Meyer Cudahy "No cost for utility lines from the people. The people are not going to pay for moving utility lines for that streetcar or the Looney-Toon trolley." — Frank Markelc Milwaukee "No picking up of the tab for a legacy streetcar. Milwaukee needs jobs. Better programs to train the poor. Clean up the city. Stop the streetcar now." — Noah Borkenhagen Franklin "Simply put, I am against paying for the down- town streetcar costs and I don't know anyone who is in favor of it now and the future costs the streetcar will entail. When will our mayor stop and put this to rest? He is wasting time and money. The Public Service Commission wants residents to pay. How do they want us to pay for it? Would it be another new wheel tax, a higher property tax, more cigarette taxes, beer, liquor, entertainment? Hey, how about the Potawatomi casino money? They should certain- ly benefit from this downtown trolley car." — Dorothy Seidl Milwaukee "Since only the 1 percent elite of Milwaukee will profit from the 44-story tower and trolley car to nowhere platform, they should pay for the entire project themselves.The 99 percent needs a transportation system that at one time was one of the best in the nation to get to the good- paying jobs outside of the area on time. That is not happening presently." — Marilyn Faucett Milwaukee "No matter how you cut it, for whatever entity initially picks up the tab to move utilities for the installation of "Barrett's Folly" (a resurrection of the circa 1940s hinky-dinky electric rail serv- ice in Milwaukee), you can be certain that we residents will eventually pay the price with appropriate increases (property taxes, various city fees, utility rate increases, etc.) from now until doomsday (just like the stadium tax from "stick it to 'em" Thompson). Remember? How quickly we forget. I say no. Let's not have to pick up this foolish, needless expense. We already have a great bus service." — Joseph Zmuda Milwaukee "Businesses along the trolley route will benefit most from its addition.They should be the ones to pick up the tab for the wire transfer and not residential taxpayers.They trolley is a nicety but not a necessity. Let's spend our tax dollars on the real needs of the city." — Sandy Sue Szanderek Milwaukee Should the name of the police officer who shot Dontre Hamilton been released? Editor's note: When responding to the Question of the Week, please include your full name with spelling, phone number and city where you live. Phone numbers will not be published. Anonymous responses are no longer accepted by the publication. Call 744-6370, Ext. 15 and leave a brief answer. Readers may also send an email with a brief answer to: dbutler@conleynet.com. 8 • Milwaukee County Post • September 12, 2014 By JESSICA MCBRIDE The Susan Happ controversy is troubling in several ways. In case you didn't hear about it (because it's not exactly getting major story treatment outside of talk radio), Happ, the Democratic candidate for state attorney gener- al, had signed a land contract with an alleged child molester whose first-degree sexual assault charge her office later reduced to a deferred prosecution agreement for disorderly conduct. Here are the things I find most troubling about that: Having a former fiduciary rela- tionship with a defendant is an obvious conflict of interest for a district attorney. It's troubling that Happ apparently didn't realize min- imally the perception this presents when her office handled the case. I find it equally troubling that she still apparently can't see the prob- lem with this, either, as her c a m p a i g n s p o k e s p e r s o n has resorted to attacking the messenger. Happ, the J e f f e r s o n County district attorney, had an easy option to avoid even the perception of a problem here. She could have asked for a special pros- ecutor outside of her office in the case. This is something done all of the time by Wisconsin district attorneys to ensure the fairness of the process. Her campaign spokesman says this is no big deal because Happ's subordinate handled the case. However, that does not inspire con- fidence, as Happ was obviously the boss of said subordinate. Again, the standard procedure in such cases is to farm the case OUTSIDE the office. Another troubling part about the Happ controversy is the ulti- mate decision her office made in the case. For a felony first-degree sexual assault of a child charge to be pleaded down to a deferred pros- ecution agreement for disorderly conduct is almost unheard of. Deferred prosecution agreements mean that the defendant won't even end up being charged with a crime if he keeps his nose clean for a peri- od of time. It's the lightest thing you could give a person outside of dismissing the charge outright, and I believe it's exceptionally rare for such agreements to be offered to defendants with such serious felony sex offense charges. The details of the criminal complaint are sickening, the assaults alleged- ly involving a fifth-grade girl. Frankly, such a plea down would be a controversy even if it didn't end up that Happ and her husband had previously given a land contract on a house to the suspect! Happ's spokesman claims it's really her husband's house, but with Wisconsin's community prop- erty laws, that's just a ridiculous, facile argument. Plus, she signed the land contract. Yet another troubling aspect about this controversy is that the story was broken by a conservative partisan outlet, Media Trackers. I say that's troubling only because of this: Where were the other media on this one? The media should operate as more than stenogra- phers in campaigns; they should look into the backgrounds of candi- dates and properly explain them. The media seem to be reporting the Happ story by reporting that a conservative site reported on the Happ controversy and then quoting the Happ campaign trashing the conservative site. In other words, it's being framed as a political story. I would contrast the reporting with the zeal with which the traditional media hammered Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler when she was running for the high court. Remember that story? Ziegler was accused of having a conflict of interest in cases involving a compa- ny in which she owned stock and for which her husband had served on the board of directors. They slammed her with that allegation for weeks but the Happ story seems like it is barely making an impres- sion. Should this disqualify Happ? Well, she's an obscure DA in a fair- ly small county that most voters know absolutely nothing about and whose record the media's done very little to explore (other than the plea deal her office gave former Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski for drunk driv- ing). So, yes it matters — and I think a lot. It's a question of judg- ment, minimally. The attorney for the alleged child molester says the plea deal was the right thing to do because the case was weak. Maybe that's true. That's why a special prosecu- tor would have been a good idea; the decision wouldn't have been questioned then, and his client wouldn't be in the news. (Happ is running against Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel; as a matter of disclosure, Schimel is the former subordinate of my hus- band, who is supporting him in the AG race and speaks quite highly of him as well.) Part of the reason Happ is so unknown, of course, is because no one really saw her primary victory coming, not the margin anyway (as well as her lead in the recent Marquette poll). It can't be that admittedly excellent Harley ad, can it? Happ may have benefitted from the gender makeup of Democratic primary voters; she's admittedly a stronger candidate for Democrats than Jon Richards would have been because at least she's actually been a prosecutor (and I think most vot- ers see the AG post as a law-and- order one). She was a stronger candidate, that is, until this saga. (Jessica McBride is a member of the journalism faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her column runs occasionally in The Post. Readers may email her at jessicamcbride05@live.com.) OPINION Happ controversy could have been avoided Question of the week McBride AG candidate's handling of sex assault case questionable at best

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