Milwaukee County Needs an Independent Building Safety Investigation
MILWAUKEE – Three county board supervisors called for an independent investigation at O’Donnell Park at an event organized by SEIU today. Citing County Executive Scott Walker’s pattern of blatant neglect of county facilities, the Supervisors asked the state of Wisconsin to conduct an independent building safety investigation for Milwaukee County.
A teenage boy was killed and two others were injured in a horrific accident last month, which supervisors say may have been prevented with more vigilant maintenance at O’Donnell, a building whose structural problems have been widely known since its construction.
In turning to the state for an independent investigation, supervisors point to Walker’s neglect at O’Donnell, and to false and misleading claims about building maintenance and inspections made by Walker in the days following the tragedy.
The supervisors are particularly stunned that Graef USA Inc., a contributor to Walker’s gubernatorial campaign and the engineer of record at O’Donnell, was awarded a $300,000 contract to conduct an emergency safety inspection of county facilities.
Calling the no bid contract to Graef “reckless and irresponsible in the face of tragedy” supervisors demand that Walker immediately return to Graef USA the $15,000 he has received from the engineering firm.
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