A former Franklin mayor has filed an ethics complaint against controversial Milwaukee County Supervisor Steve Taylor, accusing him of what he called “logrolling” or “pay to play.”
Stephen R. Olson, Franklin’s former mayor, is accusing Taylor of violating state law by allegedly requiring a payment from Franklin to Milwaukee County for $700,000. Half of that would go to Milwaukee County Supervisor Felicia Martin in return for her support and alleged influenced votes.
The dictionary definition of logrolling is “the practice of exchanging favors, especially in politics by reciprocal voting for each other’s proposed legislation.”
“Extracting the additional money essentially ‘double tax’ the citizens of Franklin,” the complaint alleges.
“The logroll or pay-to-play would force County Board Supervisors to give Taylor authority he is not legally entitled to. (Acting as the sole decision maker, professional staff, appraiser),” it says.
Taylor is adamantly denying the latest accusations being levied by Olson. “I write in response to Ethics Complaint 2023-ETH-54. In short, I do not understand the claimed ethical violation,” Taylor told WRN. “Nonetheless, I will try to respond by providing important facts for context. To be blunt, elected officials often strike compromises and negotiate across various axis for the betterment of the jurisdiction overall and the specific legislative district they represent. What has occurred here is no more than typical government business.” You can read his statement in full at the end of this article.
According to Olson’s complaint, “The City of Franklin is currently developing a major corporate business park in the vicinity of S. 27 St. and Oakwood Road. This park features direct access to I-94 and approximately 500 acres of land, most of which is developable in large tracts. The City has been planning this development since 2000. It currently has developed or is in construction of almost one million square feet of manufacturing and flex buildings valued at more than $100 million. The park is still being developed and includes roadways and other infrastructure.”
Olson claims that for a “period of time, Taylor held the elected position of Alderman for the City of Franklin for this district. He had involvement in the planning of infrastructure and target markets. In April of 2022, he was elected Supervisor for the newly formed 17th supervisory district which includes this area. He is no longer an alderman for the City of Franklin but remains politically active with several current members including the Mayor.”
Taylor was recently in the news when he appeared before the Franklin Common Council to help address residents’ noise complaints about the Rock sports and entertainment complex. He works for the Roc’s Foundation. In a closed-door meeting on the noise issues, Milwaukee County Supervisor Steve Taylor called fellow county supervisors “terrorists,” Wisconsin Right Now has learned. He has long been controversial in Franklin, a city riven by personality conflicts and disputes.
Taylor even called concerned neighbors “idiots” and “f*ckers” at one point, the sources show.
According to Olson’s complaint:
Sometime around 2019, during the development, requirements changed concerning the management of stormwater on the site for public roads. Planned ponds were relocated to maximize the tax benefits to the district and subsequently, the taxpayers, the complaint says.
Olson says that while acting as Mayor he entered into conversations with the Milwaukee County Executives (Chris Abele and David Crowley) and key members of their staffs as well as current supervisor Patty Logsdon for a lease agreement for varying sizes of land owned by the Milwaukee County Parks Department for use as a detention basin.
“Franklin currently leases at no cost a small portion of nearby land, on the same parcel, for a stormwater basin. These talks, although positive, lead nowhere,” he wrote.
In 2021 talks between Olson, Taylor, Logsdon, and Crowley restarted to secure the land, the complaint says.
A proposal was created for the no-charge lease of the land outlining the cost and benefit to Milwaukee County. Olson says nothing happened with that proposal.
In 2022, Taylor was elected Supervisor for the District and Olson initiated talks with him although his perspective had changed to the “you’re going to have to pay for the land,” the complaint alleges.
On October 20, 2022, Taylor made a presentation of a proposal to then Franklin Alderwoman Shari Hanneman, Director of Administration Peggy Steeno, and Director of Economic Development John Regetz to the Common Council. It discussed terms for Taylor’s support and the $700,000 price and half needing to go to Supervisor Martin’s district to secure her support, the complaint claims.
On January 3, 2023, Taylor appeared before the Franklin Common Council and re-iterated the terms. “At all times. he represents himself as an elected Milwaukee County Supervisor,” the complaint says.
He proposed that the City (actually, the TIF district) pay Milwaukee County a one-time payment of $700,000 for a 99-year lease for a certain amount of acreage, the complaint says, adding, that he would “get the votes.” His proposal was to “return” $350,000 to County projects in the City of Franklin and in order to get the votes that she controls, he would give the other $350,000 to Supervisor Felicia Martin for parks projects in her district, according to the complaint. Taylor confirms this arrangement in a letter to the Franklin Common Council dated 12/27/22, the complaint continues.
19.59 (1) b reads: No person may offer or give to a local public official, directly or indirectly, and no local public official may solicit or accept from any person, directly or indirectly, anything of value if it could reasonably be expected to influence the local public official’s vote, official actions or judgment, or could reasonably be considered as a reward for any official action or inaction on the part of the local public official.
The complaint claims that Taylor’s statements on video “are blatant, obvious and unambiguous. They are repeated in his letter and again in a similar presentation on 9/5/23 to the Franklin Common Council.
Based on Taylor’s comments, the Franklin Common Council “authorized expenditure of $47,000 to Rueckert-Mielke consulting engineers to prepare a formal cost estimate and feasibility recommendation on 1/17/23. Those funds would not have been expended without Taylor’s comments and veiled assurances that he’d get the necessary votes,” the complaint claims.
The complaint further alleges that Taylor “was instrumental in the election of John Nelson as Mayor of the City of Franklin on April 4, 2023.”
“Negotiations are currently being held with Milwaukee County to bring this violation to reality,” it alleges, adding, “The adverse financial impact of the attempt by Supervisor Taylor to extract an exorbitant amount of money for a lease on useless property without any unbiased appraisal and authority to enter into an agreement is huge.”
Milwaukee County Supervisor Steve Taylor’s Response
WRN asked Taylor for comment regarding the allegations. Taylor sent us this response. We are reprinting it in full.
“I write in response to Ethics Complaint 2023-ETH-54. In short, I do not understand the claimed ethical violation. Nonetheless, I will try to respond by providing important facts for context. To be blunt, elected officials often strike compromises and negotiate across various axis for the betterment of the jurisdiction overall and the specific legislative district they represent. What has occurred here is no more than typical government business. I hesitate to add that there is no love lost among myself and the complainant here. But I cannot comment as to this individual’s motivation for filing this complaint.
On August 25th, 2022, I was emailed a stormwater management proposal from City of Franklin Economic Development Director John Regetz. The proposal requested 10 acres of Milwaukee County land for free. In my judgment, this proposal was a nonstarter for numerous reasons, but most basically because the County has stopped giving away land for free unless there is some clear and unequivocal higher order economic or social benefit to the County/district. I did not see such a benefit here.
That said, given the importance of stormwater management to Franklin, I reviewed the stormwater proposal to identify other alternatives to the no-cost County land giveaway. One possible solution was 5 acres of privately owned land. The acquisition of that land was valued at $600,000 or $120,000 per acre. That valuation implied a value of the County land sought by Franklin at no-cost at somewhere in the ballpark of $700,000 or $70,000 per acre.
In my judgment, some kind of deal with Franklin was possible if Franklin would agree to something close to fair market value for the requested 10 acres. In my view, were that to happen, two things would be important deal features: (1) half of the revenues should stay in the City of Franklin and be spent on Milwaukee County parkland or other maintenance or improvements; and (2) the other half of revenues should be directed, based on the County’s mission (to become the healthiest county in Wisconsin by achieving racial equity), to other less well-off County communities for parkland or Parks improvements and the like, using the administration’s equity matrix that helps prioritize projects, as well as community input and Board input.
Based on the above assessment, I reached out Supervisor Felisia Martin, one of my colleagues on the Parks Committee, to see if she would be interested in working with me on this approach. As you know, this is standard fare and is nothing more than day-to-day business of elected officials, equivalent in every meaningful way to Supervisors who author legislation asking colleagues if they would like to co-sponsor, except this was at the inception stage of a proposal.
I met with Supervisor Martin, we toured Franklin, and I showed her the three areas that for possible investment of the proceeds. Two of the Milwaukee County areas were in my district, one of which is adversely affected by the above-mentioned development which needs the stormwater management solution. Supervisor Martin said she was interested in working with me and that she would talk with Parks Administration to determine what Parks needed current improvements.
I met with City of Franklin staff and Council President in October 2022, sent a letter to the Franklin Common Council in December 2022, recapping that October meeting. Subsequently, I was asked by Alderman John Nelson to attend a Common Council meeting in January 2023 to discuss the letter I sent. This meeting was publicly noticed and opened to the public. I made clear that I was appearing in my capacity as a County Supervisor. Whatever next steps were taken by the City of Franklin after this meeting was up to their elected officials.
On August 8th, 2023, I was emailed a stormwater feasibility study by City of Franklin Engineer Glenn Morrow. Based on that study and multiple follow-ups by the City of Franklin, a meeting was scheduled between County and City officials on October 27th.
Prior to that meeting I spoke with Supervisor Martin who was still in support of the agreement outline that I shared with her in 2022. However, she wanted the other $350,000 to be put towards needed improvements in the Mitchell Park neighborhood, which is in Supervisor Miguel Martinez’s district.
No deal has been reached and at no time have I done anything except attempt to secure fair market value for County land in order to benefit my constituents and to help achieve the County’s mission.
In conclusion, it is my longstanding and very public viewpoint that giving away land to make developers more money is not good government. Getting fair value of publicly owned land and using it to improve the quality of life of County and district residents is good government. There is no violation of Wisconsin Statute section 19.59(1)(b) and I ask you to swiftly dismiss this complaint and to provide guidance, in your best judgment, to the complainant that the ethics complaint and review process should not be weaponized to attempt to settle longstanding political or personal grudges.”
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