This weekend it was discovered candidate for State Assembly and County Supervisor Bill Kramer had voted on an issue before the Waukesha County Board in which he had a severe conflict of interest.County Supervisor Bill Kramer responded today by stating,
On May 23rd, 2006, the Waukesha County Board considered pay raises for elected officials (Ordinance 161-O-011), including County Treasurer Pam Reeves. County Supervisor Bill Kramer voted to approve the raise of the County Treasurer despite Pam Reeves being County Supervisor Bill Kramer’s campaign treasurer. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter has also brought to our attention that Pam Reeves is County Supervisor Bill Kramer’s girlfriend, that this is widely known, making Kramer’s vote an even more serious breech of ethical conduct.
1) the ethics rules refer to family members, not girlfriendsLet's set aside for the moment that she's his campaign treasurer, and was his campaign treasurer when he ran for county supervisor. After all, Kramer does, and he does not address that issue anywhere in his response.
2) the pay raise is for the office, not the person
3) it's a personal attack
Kramer needs a rule to tell him whether or not it's okay to vote on his girlfriend's pay raise? I mean, he's supposedly a smart guy, but he has to have had an ethical lobotomy to not know that's wrong.
But she's also his campaign treasurer, and was his campaign treasurer before the vote took place. How can he say there's no impropriety? It's not the Office of Treasurer that gets to buy a few extra groceries with that pay raise, it's his campaign treasurer.
As for the silliness that this is a personal attack, nobody is attacking the County Treasurer for any wrong doing. Instead, this is solely about County Supervisor Bill Kramer's vote and Bill Kramer's ethical choice and Bill Kramer's conduct as a public official.
The voters of the 97th assembly district, and his county supervisor district, deserve a better answer than what they got today.
