Tuesday, May 11, 2010

County Supervisor blasts County Executive Walker on parks

The statement below was issued on April 26 by County Supervisor Gerry Broderick, who is the Chair of the Parks, Energy & Environment Committee. I meant to post it earlier, but as it is it's like dropping the other shoe, after yesterday's post celebrating Parks Director Sue Black.

MILWAUKEE COUNTY’S PARKS WELL-MANAGED, BUT. . .

County Executive misunderstands gold medal award, bleak future for County parks

Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee County Supervisor Gerry Broderick is responding to recent comments from County Executive Scott Walker regarding the Milwaukee County Parks system.

“Based on comments made last week to senior citizens and repeated in his weekly newsletter, Scott Walker continues to believe that we have the best parks system in the United States. In fact, the gold medal award was presented to Milwaukee County for its parks management, but this award does not mean that our Parks are in the best of shape,” Supervisor Broderick said. “If cutting dozens of County parks workers and deferring parks maintenance to a backlog of $276 million is his contribution, it’s not a positive one. The public needs to be made aware that his claims are fraudulent.”

Parks Director Sue Black and her team have done an amazing job in managing our parks system, and the Gold Medal award recognized their creativity. But, Supervisor Broderick believes that Scott Walker’s continued claims that Milwaukee County has the best park system indicate the County Executive’s clear misunderstanding of the nature of this award.

“Our parks are currently running on fumes rather than fuel, and the County Executive has opposed the sales tax, a dedicated funding stream endorsed by the public in a November 2008 referendum, which might have salvaged our parks. In its absence, our parks have a bleak future,” Supervisor Broderick added. “The quality of our parks is going to hell. Pretty soon, we’ll look like Gary, Indiana. Sure, Gary might have lower taxes, but who wants to live there?”

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