January
2006
Walker Appointee to Head Ethics Board to go down for Lying to Supervisors
You wouldn’t think he would be so brazen, but County Executive Scott Walker’s appointee to head the Ethics Board lied to County Supervisors about his past political activity.
Don Uebelacker, a founding member of the Republican shill group Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG), told several Milwaukee County Supervisors that he 
was once involved with CRG but omitted his more recent CRG work implying that it was long ago and it should just be bygones.
But in a non-partisan position such as head of the Ethics Board, impartiality is tantamount. Being forthcoming and honest is key to deciding whether county officials have done wrong should accusations come from the public and the ethics board is asked to look into them.
Uebelacker was neither forthcoming, nor honest with Supervisors. His intentional dodge of serious concerns that Supervisors had shows an ethical breach — hardly a qualification for the head of the Ethics Board.
Here’s just a smattering of some of Uebelacker’s ethical lapses. In 2004, Uebelacker wrote a mass-mailed letter sent to thousands of Brown Deer homes advocating the candidacy of CRG backed Joe Rice. Uebelacker also omitted the fact that he was the Treasurer for CRG lackey, former Supervisor Rob McDonald who did not run for re-election and left office under a cloud of incompetence. Uebelacker also omitted to tell Supervisors of his political campaign donations including a $50 donation to the CRG backed candidate who tried to unseat the sitting Chairman of the County Board, Lee Holloway.
Impartial? No, that’s not really possible for Uebelacker. But what Uebelacker has succeeded in doing is stumbling in his attempt to ascertain the Chairmanship of a Board that is supposed to police ethics.
Someone should remind Uebelacker that ethics are assumed to be a requirement of a member of the Ethics Board.
Someone should remind Walker that the board isn’t a rubber stamp to help him reward his political cronies.
Related Stories: Watchdog Milwaukee: Walker Nominates Uebelacker, a known CRG liar, to head ethics board
Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan, Watchdogging CRG, Watchdogging the Media
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Chairman Holloway’s ethics case is one of the more high stakes ethics fights in memory. What does Walker do when it’s time to fill a vacancy on the ethics board? He appoints a CRG operative who helped coordinate the recall effort against Holloway, in addition to playing major roles in recall campaigns in which the CRG crossed the ethics line repeatedly on behalf of Joe Rice and Rob McDonald. And Walker can’t claim he didn’t know or that he was lied to by Uebelacker — the county executive directed resources to and coordinated his own election campaign with the CRG’s 2004 campaigns.
Hold that thought. I can’t believe my eyes! - Walker actually did make that very claim to a Journal Sentinel reporter in the story today about the Uebelacker mess.
And, to complete the affront, to really stick it to Milwaukee County residents who take ethics in politics seriously, Uebelacker told the JS reporter that, yes, he believes he could be impartial on the Holloway case. Are we to believe that Uebelacker has changed his mind about Holloway, and is now disinterested in ending Holloway’s political career?
Apparently, Walker thinks so, Uebelacker too, and so does supervisor Joe Rice [according to JS], which is an insult to Milwaukee County voters. Or maybe Walker, Rice and Uebelacker just don’t think very much of Journal Sentinel readers.
Next thing you know, Walker will decide to run for governor and have his talk radio shills blame the “liberal” Milwaukee media for all of his troubles in Milwaukee County.
“Here’s just a smattering of some of Uebelacker’s ethical lapses. In 2004, Uebelacker wrote a mass-mailed letter sent to thousands of Brown Deer homes advocating the candidacy of CRG backed Joe Rice. Uebelacker also omitted the fact that he was the Treasurer for CRG lackey, former Supervisor Rob McDonald who did not run for re-election and left office under a cloud of incompetence.”
Your insinuation that advocating for Joe Rice and Rob McDonald is unethical is misleading. Just because you don’t like them, doesn’t mean supporting them is unethical - and you would do well to be able to tell the difference - unless the insinuation is intentional?
Furthermore, your vitriol for CRG aside, CRG’s support doesn’t mean the candidates they support are unethical, just as you would likewise contend that their opposition to a candidate doesn’t mean that that candidate is unethical as they might contend. Careful, Jim, the sword cuts both ways.
I’m no fan of CRG, but your application of guilt by association is no better than CRG’s efforts to paint you as though you were in cahoots with Ament.
That’s just it, Sue — the letter Uebelacker wrote in Brown Deer was an effort “to paint [Jim] as though he was in cahoots with Ament.” It was entirely unethical, realizing as we do that the CRG wouldn’t know ethics in a campaign if it filed campaign finance reports for the group.
The problem for Uebelacker with McDonald is not so much that he was a McDonald supporter but that, in presenting himself as the ethics appointee, he “ommitted the fact” that he was treasurer for McDonald. The ommission is an ethical lapse, as is being dodgy with the county board.
My point stands, though. Regardless of any rationalization you put forth, the insinuation remains in the original post.
The point that he Uebelacker was in cahoots was Rice and McDonald doesn’t make him unethical, nor did I say it did.
But his omission of those facts in both his letter to the county board as well as his omission of those facts in meetings with Supervisors does count as an ethical lapse.
Uebelacker claims he can be impartial yet omits the fact that he has donated to a campaign to help oust the chairman of the county board when items before the ethics board will be about the chairman?
Are you saying you don’t see the obvious inability for Uebelacker to be impartial? Do you think it was ethical for him to omit those facts?