Monday, November 29, 2010

When Is A Slum Lord Not A Slum Lord?

Lee Holloway, Chairman of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, has gotten himself once again into hot water for not maintaining his properties. His noncompliance with making necessary repairs has forced city building inspectors to bring him and his wife, Lynda, to court over the issue.

To make matters worse, many of these properties are involved with the housing program for people with mental health issues.

Pundits from the right and the left and even from somewhere in between have called him a slum lord. It would be hard to argue with any of them on this issue.

Even though the tenants of his properties are suffering from his neglect now, at least Holloway will be the one taking it in the wallet when he has to pay whatever penalties there may be, not to mention the cost of still having to fix the properties and bringing them up to code.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the county's other giant slum lord.

Scott Walker, who had the responsibility for the last eight years of being the landlord and caretaker of the properties owned by Milwaukee County has also been dropping the ball.

And the people, like Holloway's tenants have suffered. People needing treatment at the mental health complex have been living in "shoddy conditions." Parts of county buildings, from the Courthouse to the airport to O'Donnell Park have been falling off, sometimes with tragic results.

Yet, where Holloway is rightfully scorned and chastised for his failure, Walker gets elected governor. And to make it an even more bitter pill to swallow, it is the tax payers, not Walker, who will have to pay for the lawsuits and the repairs.

Go figure.

1 comment:

  1. He's been doing this for so long, it's embarrassing

    ReplyDelete