Baas won’t be new tourism chief after criticism
The region’s visitors and convention bureau isn’t getting a new chairman of the board after all.
Visit Milwaukee announced June 8 Steve Baas will take over as chairman of the Board of Directors at the beginning of next year. Bass would assume the role from Omar Shaikh Jan. 1, 2021.
Baas’ appointment was objected by Ald. Michael Murphy because of leaked documents from the now-defunct John Doe investigation of former Gov. Scott Walker. The 2011 emails, Murphy said, showed a “sad and cynical” effort by Republicans to manipulate the public by making up concerns about voter fraud.
Instead, Shaikh agreed to serve a full term, ending in June of 2021, said Visit Milwaukee CEO Peggy Williams-Smith in a statement.
“At the VISIT Milwaukee Board meeting today, current Board Chair Omar Shaikh agreed to serve a full term, ending in June of 2021, pending final approval from the full board, which will occur in July,” Williams-Smith said. “Typically our executive team is approved in June; however, the pandemic has delayed a few appointments from community stakeholders, and so the Board has approved a one-month extension for the slate of officers.”
“I think Omar is a much better person to be leading Visit Milwaukee,” Murphy said Friday. “He has a good track record.”
Murphy had said that selecting Baas was “outrageous” because of his history as a longtime Republican aide and the leaked emails.
“Do we need to start messaging ‘widespread reports of election fraud’ so we are positively set up for the recount regardless of the final number? I obviously think we should,” Baas wrote in April 2011.
“Just seems like there are a few more important things to do right now than to re-hash a decade-old statewide political campaign,” Baas said in response to Murphy’s criticism.
Baas, who has served on the board since 2018, works as the senior vice president of government affairs for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. He has been vice chair of the board of directors.