Alderman Denies Allegations in Open Meetings Complaint

In a sharply worded disagreement over the Wauwatosa Common Council's special meeting tomorrow night to reconsider a vote on ratifying public union contracts, Ald. Don Birschel denied Monday that he ever made comments included in an open meetings complaint filed by resident Stan Zurawski Sr.

In his complaint, Zurawski wrote that Birschel had told him in a private conversation, "I've got 11 aldermen on board who are going to rescind," a statement Zurawski claims constitutes an illegal "walking quorum" – any meeting outside a declared open meeting of more than five Common Council members.

"That is absolutely untrue," Birschel said of the statement. "I don't have 11 people lined up to vote one way or another. I don't know how many will vote for or against. I only know of the five who signed the petition."

Aldermen Birschel, Linda Nikcevich, Dennis McBride, Bobby Pantuso and Jeff Roznowski signed a petition last week to call for a new vote on the contracts. That is the minimum number necessary to bring about another vote, and also the maximum number of aldermen who can gather to discuss any city policy outside of an open meeting.

The issue is with a special meeting called for Tuesday night to vote on contracts with the city union. A salary freeze was negotiated into those contracts — which were never approved due to uncertainty over the budget repair bill. Those aldermen, based on conversations with City Administrator Jim Archambo, say failure to approve those contracts is costing the city about $20,000 per week.

"I know where (Zurawski) got the number 11," Birschel said, "but I never said it to him. I had a conversation with the mayor (Jill Didier), and she said, 'If it passes, I'm going to veto it, and you'll need 11 votes to override it.' But I never made that comment to him."

Zurawski filed his complaint Monday, first with the Government Accountability Board, which forwarded it to the attorney general's office. He then copied it to the city clerk.

"I'm old school," Zurawski said. "If I see somebody's doing wrong and I don't say anything, I'm guilty too.

"They're violating the open meetings law in a walking quorum. The other thing is the spirit of the law; you're not supposed to do things in secret."

Zurawski is adamantly opposed to ratification of the city's union contracts, especially since the council voted March 15 to deny the contracts.

"Do you think if the vote had gone the other way they'd be asking for a do-over?" Zurawski said. "They couldn't. Once the contracts were signed there would have been no going back.

"But they heard us then, we said 'No,' and now they're trying to deny the voice of the people."

Zurawski said that the claims of more savings to taxpayers with the new contracts was just "political spin."

"They can do whatever they want once the budget repair bill is in place," he said.

Birschel disputed that as well. Because city employees except firefighters and police officers are not part of the state pension system, he said, the city would actually lose control over further discussions of larger health care contributions.

"We're trying to get these employees in line before the budget repair bill goes into effect," he said. "Once it's in effect we can never negotiate with them again about anything but their salaries."