Holloway Irony

The Milwaukee County Ethics Board wants an additional $150,000 to continue its prosecution of Chairman Lee Holloway.

Holloway's allies claim that's too much money to request from a cash-strapped county.

That's $15,000 LESS than Holloway admits took from OIC affiliates for the never-consummated rental and sale of properties to the anti-poverty agency.

Where did OIC come up with the $165,000 to give to Holloway anyway?

Well, as was reported today:

The Ethics Board in October accused Holloway of failure to disclose - on annual county ethics statements - his ownership interest in seven properties, including one for which he received $165,000 in payments in the 1990s from the now defunct Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee. The building never changed hands because the sale was not completed.

Holloway also was accused of having a conflict of interest in voting for $1.8 million in county contracts with OIC between 1995 and 1998 while he had a business relationship with the organization.

So do Supervisors Elizabeth Coggs-Jones, Michael Mayo, Willie Johnson Jr. and Peggy West (the four who voted to delay granting the Ethics Board request) think that $150,000 is a sum of money that merits close scrutiny, but $165,000 is NOT?