January
2007
Former Sheriff’s Candidate Don Holt’s Secret Letter to Scott Walker
Why couldn’t this have come out before the election? Here’s an excerpt from the letter:
I cannot understand your support of the current sheriff’s request to have the State Patrol take over the Milwaukee County expressways. I have personally dealt with this problem no less than 3 times during my 30 year career with the Wisconsin State Patrol. It seems this comes up every time Milwaukee County has a fiscal crisis. The reason this is not politically possible is because it would require changes in 2 state laws: first, the law
says that Milwaukee County Sheriff shall patrol the Milwaukee County expressways and second; the state patrol is limited in the number of troopers they may employ.
Any change in the statutes would be aggressively opposed by the Milwaukee County Deputy Sheriff’s Association and an increase of state troopers would be vehemently opposed by all of the other sheriffs in the state. We need to look at ways to improve current department operations and effectiveness.
The current sheriff has a history of making unilateral decisions instead of cooperating with the Chief of Police of Milwaukee as well as the suburban chiefs. I would unite the law enforcement community instead of using lone ranger tactics that have proven to be ineffective.
The present sheriff has touted the fact that he has returned $1,000,000 per year in his budget. What about the $4,600,000+ in less revenue that has been realized by the sheriff’s department in the last 2 years? Much of this has been due to a loss of state and federal funding and fees and fines levied by the sheriff’s department. Is this what you deem acceptable? As a long time resident of Milwaukee County I don’t.
Jim McGuigan
Uncategorized
This is just more of Don Holt trying to remain relevant despite getting clobbered in the November election. The fact is that every other county’s freeways are patrolled by the State Patrol. Getting the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department off the freeways and having them focus on crime reduction in the county should be a goal. Unfortunately some people are just too focused on their hatred of Clarke to see what he’s trying to do. It’s sad really.
Just because Holt made some promises, doesn’t mean he was the better candidate. The people have spoken.
Move on.
Actually, I checked with the county executive’s office and this “letter” which was actually an email was sent to Walker last summer…so it wasn’t sent after the election.
I didn’t say it was sent after the election. I said it came out, as in I found out about it and no one else said “boo” about it, until after the election.
Well then its Holt’s fault for only sending it to Walker, why not send it to the media as well for more traction?