Franklin Mayor's race: Let the flinging-o-feces begin

I don't get press releases from local candidates for office; this one was forwarded to me by someone who guessed, correctly, that I'd get a kick out of it.

I knew Ryan would push this particular hot button -- I just didn't know he'd do it with such panache.

I note, however, that - - unless Ryan made a transcription error - - he didn't bother to criticize Mayor Taylor's grammatical slip ("... based on my almost 30 years of service I currently receive a annual pension of about $61,000.”). Do we want a Mayor who isn't comfortable with Strunk and White's Elements of Style? (Recall Mayor Giuliani's campaign rallying cry: "I performed well under fire on 9/11, and I use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption, and to announce a long appositive or summary.")

Basil - if they're all going to be this exciting, start sending me press releases!

FRANKLIN MAYOR BRINGS UP HIS LAVISH COUNTY PENSION IN BIZARRE NOTE
Mayor tries to frivolously kick challenger off the ballot

FRANKLIN – Mayoral Challenger Basil Ryan called on Mayor Tom Taylor Thursday to explain his role in the Milwaukee County pension scandal, including the improper pension-boosting buybacks, after Taylor sent a bizarre note to the City Clerk bringing up Taylor’s own lavish Milwaukee County pension.

Ryan also has retained former Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher (see attached letter) to respond to a frivolous challenge that Taylor filed this week to Ryan’s nomination papers. Taylor is challenging just 69 of Ryan’s 400 signatures. 200 are needed to run. “The fact that Mayor Taylor is frantically trying to prevent Franklin voters from having a choice for mayor speaks volumes,” Ryan said. “Perhaps he doesn't want to explain the tax levy and spending increases that he proposed a few months ago, or the fact he has raised taxes and increased spending every single year in office – by double digit percentages overall since becoming mayor. The taxpayers can no longer afford Tom Taylor as mayor. Then, again, they can’t afford the lavish county pensions, either.”

In a Wednesday letter to City Clerk Sandra Wesolowski, Bucher stated that Thomas’ challenge to the signatures is “ineffective and contrary to existing case law, as well as election board administrative rules.” Bucher stated that Ryan’s signatures are “clearly valid signatures.” Bucher also noted that Taylor ’s letter to the City Clerk contains “rhetoric” and is a “form of a news release improperly filed with the City Clerk.”

In that rhetoric, Taylor oddly brought up his lavish Milwaukee County pension in his letter to the City Clerk, stating: “I made approximately $104,000 per year in my last year of service (with Milwaukee County), and based on my almost 30 years of service I currently receive a annual pension of about $61,000.” Taylor then made negative comments about Ryan’s self-employment as a businessman. “It’s bizarre that the mayor apparently thinks getting a big paycheck from the county taxpayers is a positive but being a self-employed businessman is not. Milwaukee County taxpayers, including those in Franklin, are still paying a big price for the pension scandal,” stated Ryan.

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article dated Aug. 3 revealed how pension officials had “routinely granted pension-boosting buybacks in violation of county ordinances and IRS rules.” The buybacks could cost taxpayers $50 million. The newspaper stated that Taylor received such a county buyback . Taylor was a top county labor relations’ official and served on the Pension Board in 1991-1992, around the time “the buyback program was expanded by pension officials to include many former seasonal workers,” said the newspaper. Taylor “had argued while a union activist that many seasonal workers had not been properly informed of their right to join the pension system,” the article noted. Taylor was also a county labor leader at the time of the other excessive pension enhancements.

Authorized and paid for by Basil Ryan for Mayor, Basil Ryan treasurer.

Comments

[Bryan Maersch]

It is very sad that both candidates for Mayor are touting these as election issues when Franklin has much bigger issues to discuss.

What will happen next, they both release statements on what they found going through each others garbage cans?

[John Michlig]

I'd like to see the entire text of the Mayor's letter (and have a request in for it).

I can't imagine under what context he would include a statement like “I made approximately $104,000 per year in my last year of service (with Milwaukee County), and based on my almost 30 years of service I currently receive a annual pension of about $61,000.”

Very odd. And tough to reconcile with fiscal conservatives who want to support Mayor Taylor.

[Bryan Maersch]

Considering the alternative, a businessman who has a history of making bad decisions, suing everyone, then using the city to pay his expenses. On top of that, a man who was publicly rude to constituents at council meetings. I will take Mayor Taylor any day.

A simple Google search provides more than enough reason not to vote for Basil Ryan.