Ex-pension manager cites infighting

Politics led to ouster, she says

Marian Ninneman is owning up to mistakes on a pension case that led to her ouster as Milwaukee County’s top pension official.

But she thinks her undoing ultimately came down to not being able to navigate the “minefield” on her job: the ongoing political warfare between County Executive Chris Abele and the County Board.

She said Tuesday that Abele’s office was upset by her call to update Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr. on the case where she delayed correcting an ongoing overpayment of $140,000. She said she was trying to heed county supervisors’ requests for transparency.

Ninneman, head of the office since early 2011, said her strong work ethic and integrity had helped turn around a poorly managed pension office.

“It’s unfortunate that this incident overshadows the many errors corrected and the many hundreds of thousands of dollars now being collected,” she said.

On the overpayment case, she said she told her staff to fix it but didn’t follow up to make sure it happened. After being called out on the delay, she intended to take care of it but was knee deep in fixing earlier errors, she said.

It was a serious mistake, Ninneman said, but in her opinion didn’t merit her being let go.

Ninneman was recruited to the retirement office in 2008 during Gov. Scott Walker’s time as county executive.