Democratic candidate earns more than Walker
Mitchell earned $200K as firefighter
To hear him tell it, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mahlon Mitchell is a regular guy who splits his time between fighting fires and fighting for his fellow firefighters.
But here’s one big way he is not like your average Wisconsinite:
Mitchell would have to take a pay cut if he’s elected governor later this year.
Records show Mitchell was paid a total of $200,000 in 2016 from his job as a lieutenant in the Madison Fire Department, including overtime, and his post as president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin.
By contrast, Gov. Scott Walker earns $144,423 annually. That would be a 27% salary reduction for Mitchell.
Told the figures, state Republican Party spokesman Alec Zimmerman accused Mitchell of using his union as a “slush fund to line his own pockets” instead of advocating for firefighters in Wisconsin.
Lis Smith, a Mitchell campaign aide, dismissed the criticism.
“Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin have always been anti-worker and anti-union,” Smith said. “So it’s no surprise that they’d resort to misleading statements and attacks against Mahlon and his work on behalf of the hardworking firefighters of this state.”
Mitchell, 40, was named president of the state firefighters group early in 2011 in the wake of a scandal in which top union officials were filing fraudulent expense reports. He ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2012 and is part of a packed field of Democrats hoping to challenge Walker, a Republican, in November.
Since taking the union’s helm, Mitchell has seen his pay jump from $54,500 in 2011 to $90,600 in 2016 (plus another $6,787 in other income) — a 66% bump, according to federal Department of Labor filings. His predecessor made about half what Mitchell does.
Along with that, Mitchell collected a salary of $88,631 from the City of Madison in 2016 as a full-time firefighter, and he took home another $13,819 in overtime and other compensation, said Cynthia Schuster of the Madison Fire Department.
That puts Mitchell’s total income at $199,837 for 2016.
Steve Wilding, secretary/treasurer of the state firefighters union, said the labor group’s bylaws and constitution prevent individuals from enriching themselves at the expense of other members.
First, Wilding said, salaries and per-
diems for the union’s brass are voted on by the nearly 200 delegates at the group’s annual convention.
In 2011, Wilding said, the delegates ended a lucrative fringe benefit for officers and set up a compensation committee to determine how much they should be paying Mitchell and his deputies.
The compensation committee did what compensation committees do: It came back a year later with recommendations to “significantly increase” the pay of officers and board members. Wilding said the labor organization also decided to increase the workload for these officials.
Schuster, of the Madison Fire Department, said Mitchell was paid a salary of $91,308 last year, plus another $14,113 in overtime and other compensation, for a total of $105,421. His labor group declined a request to release his union salary for 2017, something not yet available online.
Mitchell’s salary increases come at the same time when other public employee unions have been cutting pay, laying off staff and selling assets in response to Act 10, Walker’s signature legislation curbing collective bargaining for public employee unions. Firefighter and police unions are exempt from the measure.
Under Mitchell’s leadership, administrative expenses and officer salaries rose by nearly 250%, but Wilding said this was due in part to a change in the way these are calculated.
Overall, the firefighter union’s spending has spiked by more than 75% under Mitchell, with expenditures outpacing revenues in four of his six years as president. Over the same time, membership in the union has grown by some 50%.
Along with the increased spending, Mitchell’s union decided in 2014 to start pumping money directly into liberal and Democratic groups, which could be crucial in Mitchell’s quest to become governor. Among the beneficiaries are One Wisconsin Now, state Democratic Party, Greater Wisconsin Committee and Wisconsin Progress.
Since 2011, the firefighter union’s political action fund has donated a total of $129,250 to state candidates and PACs, with 98% of the cash going to Democrats.
Also, during Mitchell’s 2012 lieutenant governor’s bid during the Walker recall election, the firefighters PAC gave $3,500 to his campaign, and the union itself donated $40,000 to an outside group backing Mitchell with independent expenditures. Mitchell had no role, officials said, in the spending of these union funds, having recused himself on the matter.
Of course, it’s no surprise that a labor group spreads money to Democratic candidates and organizations.
That’s what most of them do.
But Zimmerman, the Republican staffer, said the record showed more than that. Mitchell, he said, has been running the union with an eye on a statewide political run.
“He put his own political ambitions and personal interests ahead of the men and women serving as firefighters,” Zimmerman said. “Why should hardworking Wisconsin families believe he would behave any differently as governor?”
Smith said Mitchell’s financial records show nothing of the sort. Instead, she said, he spends part of his time fighting for firefighters in the state and much of the rest putting “his life on the line when he serves alongside them on duty in the city of Madison.”
And he gets paid pretty handsomely to do both.