November
2006
Endorsement: Don Holt for Sheriff
“I think we can cooperate better as law enforcement agencies,” Holt said in a telephone interview days before the Nov. 7 election. “That’s what I mean when I say I’m a uniter not a divider. I don’t believe in pointing fingers. I believe in taking care of what my responsibilities are.”
That kind of talk leads us to enthusiastically endorse Holt against incumbent Sheriff David Clarke, and to encourage county Democrats to cross party lines and cast their votes for the candidate with the “R” next to his name. Holt, 66, a retired State Patrol district commander, has the experience, qualifications and mature management style to transform Clarke’s helter skelter department into the competent law enforcement agency it once was.
Holt, a 30-year Milwaukee County resident, served five years on the city of Greenfield fire and police commission after retiring from the state patrol in 1996. Now in real estate, Holt was appointed to the city of Greenfield Board of Review in 2005. He is an active member of the Milwaukee County Law Enforcement Executive’s Association.
As commander of state patrol District 2 (Wisconsin’s six southeastern Wisconsin counties), Holt gained over a decade of experience coordinating efforts with local law enforcement, a key part of the sheriff's job. Under Clarke, sheriff’s deputies have been removed from their traditional parks and freeway jurisdictions as Clarke has tried unsuccessfully to assert gun control and tactical units in the city of Milwaukee.
Some of the fixes for the department are just plain common sense.
“Just to cite one example,” Holt says, “(Clarke) had people trained in motor carrier enforcement (regulations against large vehicles). Without regard for their training he has reassigned them to the jail. It’s a total waste.”
Other Clarke initiatives, such as the effort to hand freeway patrol duties over to the state patrol and the mobile jail unit leave Holt scratching his head. He calls the state patrol proposal “a political wish list” that will require the county board and state Legislature to change the law in the face of staunch opposition. He doesn’t offer a comment on the mobile jail, which has been parked in Ozaukee County for more than three months, according to sheriff’s deputies.
Under the watch of Clarke and County Executive Scott Walker, few functions of the sheriff’s department are running smoothly. The courts are dangerously understaffed; 16,000 violations were cited in the county jail; and the morale of deputies has hit bottom due to Clarke’s knee-jerk management style. Clarke is at war with the sheriff’s deputies union.
Holt sees a pattern of “bad judgment” that has marked Clarke throughout his career, from his firing in 1983 when he was a Milwaukee cop (Clarke was reinstated), to his decision to pour beers in uniform this year at a fundraiser (a potential liability issue), to the time he strolled into the jail holstering a loaded gun (an extremely dangerous regulations violation).
“It’s important to have someone who has the maturity and judgment to run the department, and the ability to work with people, not only within the department but with the chiefs of police and other law enforcement agencies,” Holt says.
We think so too. Vote Donald Holt on Tuesday Nov. 7.
John-david Morgan
Clarke Watch, Endorsements, John-David Morgan, Watchdogging Criminal Justice
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The Morgan-McGuigan rule of not having time to hash out again the case that Clarke has been incompetent and has nothing to show for his five years as Sheriff except a war with the union, a useless mobile jail and an illegal county jail. Those discussions we had in full in ClarkeWatch:
http://watchdogmilwaukee.com/blog/category/clarke-watch/
We can’t justify voting for Clarke. Nor should you.
JDM -
The bottome line is that those of us who are voting for Clarke, don’t have to justify it to anyone, especially people who are just plain haters. Everyone has their own reasons for voting the way they feel. You can’t keep trying to verbally intimidate people into agreeing with your philosophy. Re- Elect Clarke for Sheriff!
We have asked repeatedly for Clarke supporters to name one good thing he has done for Milwaukee, to name one successful initiative. In five years there was nothing to speak of. You have it turned around — for us to give the endorsement, we have to be able to justify it. How would one even begin to write a Clarke endorsement story?
Clarke even dragged his feet getting sheriff\’s deputies onto buses, a proposal that James White and the bus drivers union were waiting for nearly a year for him to get behind. The bus drivers want Wackenhut off the buses for their own safety. Clarke could not deign to care about it until something deadly happened and it made the papers.
I will say that County Executive Scott Walker shares the blame for much of what is occuring in the sheriffs department.
TO say he is hasn’t done anything is not truthful, S.A.D.D., Target Enforcement Unit, working with Operation Locate Our Children, Sex Offender Registry, Internet Crimes Against Kids, Explorer Program award, Express news column, identity theft. He tried GRIP and after much opposition tried to re-vamp it to people’s liking. He is on the board of directors for Boys and Girls Club (that organization has helped the community marvelously). He is willing to beef up the squads during bad weather, and in the good weather the patrols down by the beach kept things in check. There are results that maybe you don’t agree with, but if you go door-to-door, citizens of the county see the efforts with limited funds and are appreciative. I am involved with 8 good-sized churches, and 3 entertainment organizations in the county and have not heard more than 1 person state they are unhappy with his performance.
The voters of Milwaukee County just killed the oldest, largest, and most (at one time) respected department in the state of Wisconsin. I hope you all remember this when all the litigation begins. I wash my hands of you all. May God have mercy on you for you do not know what you have done.
M.Toole 10-42
Bill, many of those are programs in place before Clarke took office. Using sexual predators on Halloween to get headlines the week before an election may be good campaigning, but it’s not necessarily good sheriffing.
Many of the programs, we talked about in depth on other posts. Here’s a comment that came in today from “gottagonow” that addresses good and bad weather patrols and use of the TEUs.
http://watchdogmilwaukee.com/blog/jim/2006/clarke-brought-on-cut-to-his-department-justified-walkers-cuts/#comment-6887
Clarke’s record gets tough criticism on this site, but you find a lot of people who know the sheriffs department and the county criminal justice system here.
Clarke won by the about the same margin as in 2002, a bit of a surprise but when you have the D by your name in Milwaukee County, you’re not going to lose a sheriff’s race.
This just in today from gottagonow, commenting on a previous post:
“Bill,
When all is said in done that is great but I will tell you now. TEU Will not be out there when the snow is flying. That isn’t what the TEU is for. They simply patrol high crime area’s. And lets put it this way the TEU only works 8 hours a day. They don’t work all 3 shifts. Hope you don’t get stuck on your way home from work at 5 pm. Because TEU won’t even be at work yet.”
gottagonow - you are OUT of the loop, the squads will be there in the bad weather.
Funny, I didn’t hear of many issues when we got dumped on with 13+ inches of snow…seems that the deputies decided to show up for work that day and do their job.