(H/Ts – Brian Fraley and JSOnline’s Daywatch)
Peg Lautenschlager issued today a preliminary, informal opinion that, despite Milwaukee County corporation counsel William Domina’s informal opinion to the contrary, the Milwaukee County board could proceed with a special session to elect a replacement for county board chair Lee “Thug” Holloway (side note; he decided that discretion was the better part of valor and didn’t remove the 6 members of the Group of 10 that still had committee chairmanships/vice-chairmanships). The full opinion from WisPolitics is here. A few notes:
- She bases her opinion on the facts that because the vote would be to remove Holloway from his board chairmanship rather than from the board itself and that the chair is elected by the board rather than appointed by anyone or elected by the voters, neither statute that says that a “for cause” 2/3rds vote is required to remove certain officials applies. Rather, she states that the statute that says that the board chair serves until the board elects a successor applies.
- Her opinion is counter to a 1923 formal Attorney General’s office opinion on this subject, but that 1923 opinion “…inexplicably ignored the plain language of the statue providing for the election of the chairperson as well as its own recognition that the chairperson is elected.”
- Due to the conflict in opinions, she will undertake a formal review to either clarify or reverse the 1923 AG’s opinion.
I thought I would never say this, but Peg is right.
