County Board Chairman Lee Holloway has emerged from his battle with the ethics board with a $3,000 slap on the wrist and admitting only to sloppy bookeeping.

Some will surely talk about a travesty of justice and feign shock at the decision, but in the end it was a financial one. Supervisors saw that the ethics case against Holloway could end up taking years and a huge amount of tax dollars that could otherwise be used for other County needs. The end result, had he been found guilty of the charges, could have resulted in Holloway’s removal from office or at least, as some supervisors hoped, from the chairman position.

Now it looks like Holloway will retain that position until at least April 2008.

Holloway has not been able to do much leading down at the County Board because of the charges. Whenever leadership was needed, Holloway was nowhere to be seen.  This isn’t surprising because when Holloway wanted to talk about issues, reporters wanted to talk about ethics charges.  It was a case of lazy reporting — the ethics charges represented low hanging fruit, the Geraldo Rivera style of tabloid journalism which says that if you continue to hound the same story, someone will notice and mistake what you’re doing for reporting.

Now that the charges have been dismissed, Holloway has an opportunity to step up and show leadership on key budget areas. His raw ability and talent to get resolutions and legislation passed contributed to his being elected Chairman. With the upcoming budgets that are sure to adversely affect Holloway’s own constituency, the question remains as to whether Holloway will now stand against some of the draconian cuts that County Executive Scott Walker is expected to make.

Holloway must recognize that he has won this battle and he must step up to take his leadership responsibilities seriously. He is the leader of the County Board and whether some on the board like him or not is not the issue. He has a responsibility to be the spokesman for the board as a whole.

Whether Holloway now steps up to speak to issues of importance to Milwaukee County or not will become apparent in the coming weeks and months. Holloway must say it like it is. And when Walker proposes cuts to fill the gaps that the faux revenues assumed in the budget were supposed to fill, Holloway must reiterate and explain to the public why the cuts are needed in the first place. He must not leave those decisions only to Walker but must respond to Walker’s decisions if those decisions would hurt county residents.

Holloway could choose the clever approach in these discussions. It is not Holloway’s responsibility to craft a solution to Walker’s problems.  When Walker attempts to gut programs and sell off land, Holloway needs only to say no and send the errant cut proposals back to Walker.  Budget time is another story, as supervisors are responsible for analyzing the executive’s proposed budget and must return to the exec a balanced budget.
Now that Holloway has emerged victorious from his fight with the Ethics Board, he has the opportunity to show true leadership … here’s hoping he doesn’t squander the opportunity.