Politics & Government

Abele Vetoes Items That Board Turned Toxic to Tosa

Amendments by supervisors put an end to a hotel development and a water swap that would have benefited all parties.

County Executive Chris Abele essentially called for do-overs by vetoing two County Board resolutions he very much wanted to see passed – one allowing a hotel on Wauwatosa's Innovation Campus, the other a water utility swap that would have benefited both Tosa and the county.

Abele's problem: In each case, last-minute amendments by board supervisors would have killed the very projects the measures were meant to move forward.

The hotel proposal came to the County Board as a simple but necessary change in the county's development agreement with UWM Real Estate Foundation that would allow a 128-room extended stay hotel on the County Grounds campus.

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But the amendment to the agreement was itself amended, "at the 11th hour," Abele said, with a provision calling for a minimum pay scale for hotel workers starting at 125 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of four.

That has been estimated at around $12.50 per hour, and the hotel's developer immediately said he would give up the proposal rather than be forced to pay wages out of scale with the industry.

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In his veto measure to the board, Abele said the wage provision "placed illegal and unprecedented wage and sick pay requirements" on the developer "despite the administration’s attempts to ensure the Supervisors were explicitly aware that such requirements would jeopardize the deal."

Unable to veto only the wage provision, Abele had to deny the whole development amendment and ask supervisors to start over.

The amended measure passed on a 10-8 vote, making an override of Abele's veto unlikely.

"I urge the Board to sustain this veto and pass the original resolution to get this project back on track," Abele concluded.

Amended water deal also turns off Tosa

Abele also felt obliged to veto a resolution that would have transferred seven County Grounds water customers to Wauwatosa's system, along with a water tower linked to them.

The transfer would have kept Milwaukee County from having to pay for rebuilding its own aging water mains during the reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange, at a cost estimated at $3 million.

Wauwatosa would have paid $25,000 a year for the next 10 years to the county for the maintenance of the 60-year-old West Water Tower on the Research Park grounds, and then Tosa intended to demolish it.

The negotiated proposal called for the quarter-acre of land occupied by the water tower and a cellular tower to then be transferred to Wauwatosa for $1.

Wauwatosa would have gained more customers for its water, the county would save a great deal on infrastructure costs (as well as accruing $250,000 in direct payments), and the customers would save because Wauwatosa water rates are cheaper than the county's.

However, and again a the 11th hour, with no negotiations with the stakeholders, Supervisor John Weishan called for amendments that would make Wauwatosa pay for the quarter-acre of land and take away from Tosa any revenues from future cellular transmission installations.

The amended deal passed, and Wauwatosa promptly turned its back on it, with city Finance Director John Ruggini saying it was "no longer in Wauwatosa's interests."

The original plan submitted to the board "was the result of months of work by professional and dedicated Milwaukee County staff, the City of Wauwatosa and other stakeholders," Abele said in vetoing the measure.

"In a matter of a few minutes and without consultation with the Administration, the County Board –with the notable exceptions of Supervisors Mayo, Schmitt, Borkowski, Alexander and Jursik, who supported this project– amended the agreement despite their foreknowledge that the amended terms were unacceptable to Wauwatosa."

"As expected, the City of Wauwatosa has since informed us that they will not accept the new terms."

Asking that his veto be sustained, Abele said that the County Board's action would cost taxpayers $250,000 in revenue and "ultimately put the County’s Water Utility customers at risk for more than $3 million in extra costs."

"In the longer term," Abele said, "the County will be on the hook for significant costs to invest in the water business without infrastructure or service benefits for our customers or the community."

Abele also pointed out that if the county were forced to build its own new water pipline, it would be trenched right through the protected monarch butterfly habitat zone on Innovation Campus – which the County Board created.

Scotching the deal would also disrupt the water supply to community gardens and Camp Wil-O-Way off Underwood Creek Parkway, Abele said.

Again, Abele could not undo Weishan's amendment, leaving him to veto the whole resolution and call on the County Board to take up the original resolution and pass it as written.


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