Abele accuses Lipscomb of sneaking through Pension Board conflict rule change
Unlike music concerts and basketball tournaments, political feuds take no time off during pandemics. Just look at Milwaukee County. Milwaukee County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr. has submitted a proposal that would allow his appointee to remain on the Milwaukee County Pension Board even though the appointee’s mother draws a retirement from the county.
But Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele — who once spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to unseat Lipscomb — is balking at the move, saying it would ease the conflict-of-interest rules for Pension Board members.
What’s more, Abele said Lipscomb is trying to sneak the proposal through the County Board late in his final term. Abele is also retiring next month.
“The citizens of Milwaukee County know first hand how disastrous conflicts of interest around our pension system can be — they’ve had to pay for them to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars over the years as a result,” Abele said in a statement.
Abele continued by saying anytime a county officeholder turns a blind eye to conflicts of interest is “the day they should be recalled from office,” just as seven supervisors were almost 20 years ago.
Lipscomb immediately pushed back, saying there was no comparison between his proposal and the pension scandal, which has led to certain county workers getting paid six- and sevenfigure bonuses at a total cost of more than $300 million.
Lipscomb said he is simply clarifying the vague conflict-of-interest rules for Pension Board members. He said he can’t believe Abele has time to worry about this.
“I don’t understand their obsession with this issue, particularly now, while we are trying to run county government during a pandemic,” Lipscomb responded.
The dispute between Lipscomb and Abele’s team played out in public on Wednesday.
Lipscomb and Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel Margaret Daun, an Abele appointee, went toe to toe for more than an hour before the county Finance and Audit Committee in what Daun called “a high-spirited disagreement.”
Lipscomb, who lost his bid for county exec last month, said he appointed Michael Harper to the Pension Board in 2015. At the time, the deputy corporation counsel said Harper didn’t have a conflict of interest despite his mother receiving a county pension.
County ordinances ban Pension Board appointees from having a “family member” who receives retirement benefits from the county, but they don’t define who is a family member.
In 2018, Lipscomb reappointed Harper, now the Pension Board chairman.
But Daun told the committee that she recently reviewed the matter, citing her experience on such issues, and sought the opinion of an attorney with Duane Morris, a Philadelphia-based law firm.
Her opinion: Harper has to go. “Is a mother a family member?”
Daun asked. She said no court in the land would find otherwise.
Daun told Lipscomb as much in a lengthy letter in early February. But instead of forcing Harper’s resignation, Lipscomb drafted a change in the conflict-of-interest rules.
Under Lipscomb’s plan, Pension Board appointees could not serve if they had a child, parent or step-relative who receives more than half of his or her financial support from the appointee. His rule would also bar appointees who are financially dependent on family members receiving a county pension.
Lipscomb said he wasn’t trying to do anything underhanded with the change, noting he borrowed his language from the county ethics code. He said he was dealing with the issue in a “straight-forward, head-on way.”
“This is not the pension scandal,” he said.
After many fits and starts, the committee finally sided with Lipscomb.
Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman suggested Lipscomb was “changing the rules midstream.” He suggested the proposal would open the board to some bad publicity in the local media.
But committee Chairman James “Luigi” Schmitt said he didn’t think the issue was that big of a deal, despite all the time his committee was spending on it. He said he “very personally resented” any comparison between this proposal and the pension scandal.
The committee approved the plan on a 4-2 vote. It now goes to the full board for final approval.