Glimmer of Hope for Holloway Investigation

This could be an encouraging sign.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is continuing to cover the daily developments.

Lower cost could restart Holloway case
Ethics prosecution can be finished for about $50,000, committee told
The ethics prosecution of Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway could be completed for as little as an additional $50,000 - or one-third of the sum Holloway supporters held up in committee last week, according to a new estimate by county Corporation Counsel William Domina.

Those who favor finishing the ethics case hope that the lower cost will help persuade at least one member of the county's Finance Committee to change his or her vote and advance the measure that would authorize the extra funding. The committee voted 4-3 last week to hold off on approving $150,000 to continue to prosecute the civil ethics case.

A new, detailed accounting by Domina of how $75,000 in legal costs already has been spent also could help change some opinions on the committee.

Supporters of completing the Holloway probe also said Tuesday that they were investigating various alternative methods of getting the case done, if a renewed effort to get extra funding from the County Board fails Thursday.

Suggestions include recruiting a new lawyer to prosecute the case for free or tapping other pots of county money that might not require action by the County Board's Finance Committee.

Last week's committee vote to delay action on authorizing more money for the case effectively squelched the probe, at least temporarily. The vote also prompted two county Ethics Board members and the county's hired prosecutor to quit.

In a six-page memo released Tuesday, Domina wrote that continued prosecution of Holloway could cost $50,000 to $75,000, with about half of that going for costs of a hearing in June on the remaining 30 non-criminal ethics charges Holloway faces. Sixty other less serious counts were dismissed by a hearing examiner Monday as too old to pursue.

The Ethics Board accused Holloway of concealing his business relationship with Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee, which paid him $165,000 in connection with a building at 2100 W. Atkinson Ave. The board also charged Holloway with an ethical conflict for voting on $1.8 million in county funding to OIC during a time the agency made payments to him.

Those counts are among the 30 not dismissed.

Holloway has denied having a conflict and said the payments were for rent and purchase of the building. OIC never took possession of the building and the sale was never consummated. He didn't return calls Tuesday.

Domina's memo to Supervisor Richard Nyklewicz, the Finance Committee chairman, detailed payments to John Fiorenza, the hired ethics prosecutor in the Holloway case. Fiorenza has been paid the full $75,000 the County Board has authorized so far for the case. The county owes him an additional $3,800 for work already done, Domina wrote.

Fiorenza quit because of the funding impasse. He said that he had been directed to do so by former Ethics Board Chairman John Carter before Carter resigned in protest on Friday.

Domina warned county supervisors that failing to finish the Holloway case "could be argued to be the worst possible outcome for Milwaukee County" and may discourage future ethics prosecutions.

I've said earlier that continued press coverage and continued cooperation within board factions are two of the four crucial components I believe are necessary to ensure taxpayers and the accused, Chairman Lee Holloway, are afforded due process in this ethics case.

The other two components are 1) people continuing to call their supervisors at 414-278-4222, and, 2) County Executive Scott Walker using his bully pulpit and stepping up his involvement.

I have no idea if taxpayers in Milwaukee County have or are continuing to call their supervisor.
--by the way do you know whether all your family, friends and colleagues who live in Milwaukee County have taken 45 seconds out of their day to make a call?

However, I do have reason to believe we will see Scott Walker do more to encourage his supporters to make their views known.

Check back here later for developments.