Watchdog Milwaukee has learned that Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has been using victims of Hurricane Katrina to his own political advantage.

Walker sounded like he was being a good humanitarian when he announced that County facilities would have collection places for bottled water & canned goods for Katrina victims. But these collected items sat in the Courthouse Annex and were only moved out as recently as January 5th. They have now been moved and sit in another county warehouse.

It’s bad enough that they were victimized by the Hurricane but to be used to score political points adds to their injury.

When is Walker planning on getting this to a food pantry or to Hurricane survivors? Isn’t it a little late? Even the shelters down south that sprung up to accomodate Katrina victims have been closed for months as victims work to piece their lives back together.

Putting out barrels in the courthouse to collect for victims was a noble thing but only if the premise was genuine and the collector, in this case Walker, was genuinely going to follow through by assuring that those donations made it to Katrina victims.

Walker sent out emails through the county network luring people to donate to the Katrina effort. County employees collected enough product to fill half of a uhaul truck full. They collected diapers, bottled water, canned goods, clothes & blankets but their donations sat idle and were only moved out of the Courthouse annex because it is being demolished as part of the Marquette interchange freeway project.