Milwaukee County Board ties rejection of Abele choice of parks chief to pay-to-park plan

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A majority of the Milwaukee County Board on Thursday took the unprecedented step of rejecting County Executive Chris Abele's appointment of Jim Sullivan as parks director.

This was the first department head hired by Abele during his seven-year tenure to be rejected by the board, and a controversial plan to collect parking fees at county parks and parkways this year was at the heart of their opposition.

Several supervisors said Sullivan's expressed support for the pay-to-park plan during a Feb. 6 public meeting at the Mitchel Park Domes was one reason for their vote in opposition to Sullivan.

Patty Yunk and Bill Mollenhauer, who live near Juneau Park, point a thumbs down to plans presented for Milwaukee County to charge fees for parking at various parks and parkways. The county has since backed off that plan.

Abele recommended the parking fees in the 2018 county budget to help pay for parks maintenance costs. The $1.15 billion county budget for 2018 adopted by the County Board on Nov. 6 included $1.6 million in revenue from the fees.

In response to widespread public opposition to collecting parking fees beginning June 1, Abele and the board killed the pay-to-park plan after the meeting at the Domes. The board subsequently agreed to withdraw $1.6 million from a contingency fund for emergencies to fill the budget hole created by not collecting the fees this year.

The appointment was rejected on an 11-6 vote. Supervisors Deanna Alexander, David Sartori, Dan Sebring, Anthony Staskunas, Sheldon Wasserman and John Weishan Jr. voted to approve the appointment.

"Many supervisors we talked with said they like Jim and believed he would do a good job but that this was about getting back at Chris," Raisa Koltun, Abele's chief of staff, said Thursday. "Pure retaliation. At the expense of the county."

In addition to parking fees, some of the other issues that Abele and the board have disagreed on include the need to increase the county wheel tax and setting pay for appointees.

Each supervisor who spoke against Sullivan's appointment at Thursday's special board meeting applauded his work at his former job as director of child support services for the county.

Supervisor Jason Haas, chairman of the board's parks committee, urged Abele to reappoint Sullivan to that job "so we can keep his talent and leadership skills."

Supervisor Willie Johnson said Abele should appoint an experienced manager from within the Parks Department as the director or start a national search.

Abele appointed Sullivan to lead the Parks Department on Dec. 20 pending board approval. He started work there Jan. 2.

Now that his appointment has been rejected by the board, Sullivan can no longer work as parks director. Abele cannot simply resubmit Sullivan's nomination for the parks job. State law requires that he wait 90 days to do that, said county Corporation Counsel Margaret Daun.

Before his appointment, Sullivan had served as child support services director since 2011. He is a former Democratic state senator and a former member of the Wauwatosa City Council.

Sullivan was appointed to replace John Dargle Jr., who abruptly resigned Nov. 30 after leading the department for more than four years.

The Parks Department has a $39.6 million budget this year and 217 full-time employees.