Abele withdraws request that city pay part of backdrop

Milwaukee city taxpayers are no longer on the hook for a portion of a $424,000 backdrop payment to a recently retired Milwaukee County worker.

On Thursday, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele’s administration withdrew its request that the city pick up 10% of the lumpsum check to former county employee Marilyn Booker because she had once worked for the city.

The move came a day after Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett went public with his objections to the proposal, saying he was “flabbergasted” by the request. Booker, a longtime paralegal with the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office, worked for the city from 1979 to 1981. She retired from her county job late last year.

“My view is we’re going to pick up 0% of any backdrop ever,” the fourth-term mayor said this week. “It takes a lot of chutzpah to ask us to contribute to this.”

Even though it has now been resolved, this short-lived dispute may have long-term consequences.

Sources confirmed this week that Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele was upset to learn about the mayor’s objections to the backdrop request from the media and not from Barrett. The sources said Barrett still hadn’t talked to the county executive about the matter as of Wednesday.

In response, Patrick Curley, Barrett’s chief of staff, released a statement on Thursday trying to make nice.

“There are numerous issues and challenges facing our community that need to be, and should be, addressed by the city and county,” Curley said in an email. “Mayor Barrett certainly appreciates County Executive Abele’s continued willingness to do just that.”

Barrett and Abele have long been political allies. But their relationship has frayed recently to the point that the mayor declined to endorse Abele in his 2016 reelection bid.

Some of the misunderstanding in this case may be due to the different positions that the retirement chiefs have in the county and city administrations. The county pension director reports to Abele, while an independent board appoints the city pension boss.

Last month, Marian Ninneman, head of the county pension system, sent a letter to city officials asking that they pay $42,445 to the county for Booker’s backdrop and to contribute $233 a month toward her pension.

Backdrops are essentially bonuses paid to veteran workers who stay on with the county past their retirement date. The public uproar over the six- and sometimes seven-figure backdrops paid out under the 2001 pension plan led to the forced resignation of then-County Executive F. Thomas Ament and the ouster of seven County Board members. One Ament aide also was convicted of misconduct in office.

The city and county have a reciprocity agreement under which they share paying retirement benefits for individuals who, at various times, drew a paycheck from both the city and the county.

Barrett’s office agreed to pay 10% of Booker’s monthly retirement check. But the mayor argued that the reciprocity agreement did not cover backdrops and that Booker’s time at the city did not count toward that lucrative benefit.

“There’s no way we’re going to bail that out,” the mayor said this week. He said the request was unprecedented.

And it’s not likely to be repeated.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBiceor on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.