Milwaukee County's Board of Supervisors: You could not make us up!

If someone bent on reducing the size, compensation or powers of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors had installed Manchurian Supervisors - sleeper agents primed to act like a pack of idiots at a time calculated to hurt the Board politically - she could not have done better than the current - and presumably authentic - crew of Dimitrijevic and company.

I don't believe in conspiracy theories, but, if I did, we'd be through the looking glass with this bunch. You have to want to look bad to bad to foul up so thoroughly.

Let's assume that you are an ardent opponent of Act 10 and an active supporter of decertified county unions. You could do one of two things.

You might recognize that, while these unions are no longer certified collective bargaining agents, they are still associations of the county employees who choose to belong to them and that they are free to advocate for certain working conditions. You could meet with them. You could listen to them. You might even vote for the terms and conditions that they want.

But you'd have to be upfront about it. What you could not do is violate the open meetings law. You could not enter - or propose to enter into - agreements with these associations as bargaining agents of the employees. You'd want to acknowledge what you were doing.

I wouldn't advise it but you could even go a step beyond. You might persuade yourself - although you'd be wrong - that Act 10 is unconstitutional and that you are really entitled to collectively bargain with those unions that have been decertified under its terms.

Of course, you'd have to ignore the advice of your own lawyers. This is something that serious people tend not to do, but at least you'd be an honest fool.

But, once again, you could not violate the open meetings law. You should not skulk in the corners to hide what's happening and you should definitely not misrepresent  what you were up to.

In either scenario, you would not want to do these ill advised things while there were serious legislative proposals to restructure the board.

You would not resort to that last refuge of the scoundrel and the clueless and imply that those advancing those proposals are racist.

You would not do any of these things.

But here's the thing.

If you knew better, you would probably not be a member of the board majority. Because, up there, it looks like Manchurian Supervisors - each and every one.

Cross posted at Purple Wisconsin.