May 17, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Tunisia: Politics: State Government: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gov. Jim Doyle, a Harvard-educated lawyer, must be tired of the hassles that come from dealing with scores of state lawyers and their department bosses, all of whom enjoy civil service protection.

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Tunisia: Special Report: RPCV Jim Doyle, Governor of Wisconsin: Special Report: Governor and Tunisa RPCV Jim Doyle: May 17, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Tunisia: Politics: State Government: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gov. Jim Doyle, a Harvard-educated lawyer, must be tired of the hassles that come from dealing with scores of state lawyers and their department bosses, all of whom enjoy civil service protection.

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-245-37.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.245.37) on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 5:11 pm: Edit Post

Gov. Jim Doyle, a Harvard-educated lawyer, must be tired of the hassles that come from dealing with scores of state lawyers and their department bosses, all of whom enjoy civil service protection.

Gov. Jim Doyle, a Harvard-educated lawyer, must be tired of the hassles that come from dealing with scores of state lawyers and their department bosses, all of whom enjoy civil service protection.

Gov. Jim Doyle, a Harvard-educated lawyer, must be tired of the hassles that come from dealing with scores of state lawyers and their department bosses, all of whom enjoy civil service protection.

Doyle takes firm hand with state lawyers
Posted: May 17, 2005
Spivak & Bice

Cary Spivak &
Dan Bice

It sounds like a gubernatorial daydream - launching your own in-house state law firm.

Gov. Jim Doyle, a Harvard-educated lawyer, must be tired of the hassles that come from dealing with scores of state lawyers and their department bosses, all of whom enjoy civil service protection. And, he's obviously none too pleased with the legal eagles in the office of Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, a fellow Dem but no political friend.

So why not just create a new firm? It could be dubbed Doyle & Associates. Or, maybe Doyle & Marotta - Secretary of Administration Marc Marotta knows a thing or two about running a big firm, he was a partner at Foley & Lardner before joining the cabinet.

Actually, this isn't a dream - creating an in-house firm is in Doyle's budget bill.
53659Archive Coverage

Click to enlarge
Section: State Politics
Advertisement
Wisconsin's Largest Lighting Showroom!

The governor is recommending moving about 120 lawyers to a new division in the Department of Administration. The suggested operation has an organizational chart that looks very much like the ones used by silk stocking firms. Just like the big boys, it would be overseen by a managing partner and the lawyers would track billable hours, since state agencies would be charged for their services.

Dan Leistikow, Doyle's chief of flacks, said the proposal would save taxpayers money by cutting 13 lawyer jobs and making the state's army of lawyers more efficient.

"Now we have a situation where we have groups of lawyers at different agencies arguing with each other on state time," Leistikow said. "It makes more sense to take those lawyers and put them together under one roof."

That's the good government reason.

But there's also a couple subtle political benefits to launching Doyle & Marotta.

For one thing, Team Doyle would get some satisfaction by yanking two jobs out of Lautenschlager's shop and placing them under Marotta.

Those jobs just happen to be in the Justice Department's tax section, which had urged the state to lick its wounds and not appeal a complex tax case.

Doyle overruled Justice, hired the law firm of Axley Brynelson, where one of his closest pals is a partner, and paid it more than 80 grand to press forward. The bottom line, as we reported Sunday, is the state lost the appeal.

Despite getting whacked in court, Doyle's guys still blame Lautenschlager for not taking the case. In fact, that's one reasons Doyle wants the tax attorney jobs under his wing.

"There have been some difficulties in getting them to take up these very important cases," Leistikow said.

But the icing on the cake, however, is the idea to strip 12 of the general counsel positions in various state agencies of their civil service protection.

The result: They would become political employees who could be fired at will.

"Secretaries and governors come and go, but lots of these people tend to stay," one Madison insider said of general counsels. "You want somebody with an unbiased opinion."

Worried state lawyers who oppose Doyle's plan point to the case of Jim Thiel, who had been the general counsel for Department of Transportation.

Thiel was demoted in December, after he released a memo to the Journal Sentinel that showed a report on consulting costs was finished seven months earlier than department officials had claimed.

Providing the media with the means to contradict the administration was not good for Thiel's career. The 31-year veteran was demoted and has since filed a claim against the state. And all this for following the state's Open Records Law.

"There is a real danger that with the loss of civil service protection for general counsels, legal service and legal advice would be subject to politics and political pressure, said Bill Gansner, head of the state lawyers union, which is fighting Doyle's proposal.

Leistikow said removing the civil service protection is not related to Thiel's demotion. The protection would be removed because the job of general counsel would change.

"This was all in the works well before that situation developed," Leistikow said, taking pains not to mention Thiel by name. "The problem being addressed is about state lawyers spending a lot of time arguing with each other across the departments."

Not to mention sometimes annoying the governor.





When this story was posted in May 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:


Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
The Peace Corps Library Date: March 27 2005 No: 536 The Peace Corps Library
Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

Top Stories and Breaking News PCOL Magazine Peace Corps Library RPCV Directory Sign Up

May 7, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Date: May 7 2005 No: 583 May 7, 2005: This Week's Top Stories
"Peace Corps Online" on recess until May 21 7 May
Carol Bellamy taking the reins at World Learning 7 May
Gopal Khanna appointed White House CFO 7 May
Clare Bastable named Conservationist of the Year 7 May
Director Gaddi Vasquez visits PCVs in Bulgaria 5 May
Abe Pena sets up scholarship fund 5 May
Peace Corps closes recruiting sites 4 May
Hill pessimistic over Korean nuclear program 4 May
Leslie Hawke says PC should split into two organizations 4 May
Peace Corps helps students find themselves 3 May
Kevin Griffith's Tsunami Assistance Project collects 50k 3 May
Tim Wright studied Quechua at UCLA 2 May
Doyle not worried about competition 2 May
Dodd discusses President's Social Security plan 1 May
Randy Mager works in Blue Moon Safaris 1 May
PCVs safe in Togo after disputed elections 30 Apr
Michael Sells teaches Islamic History and Literature 28 Apr

May 7, 2005:  Special Events Date: May 7 2005 No: 582 May 7, 2005: Special Events
"Iowa in Ghana" on exhibit in Waterloo through June 30
"American Taboo" author Phil Weiss in Maryland on June 18
Leland Foerster opens photo exhibition at Cal State
RPCV Writers scholarship in Baltimore - deadline June 1
Gary Edwards' music performed in Idaho on May 24
RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000  strong Date: April 2 2005 No: 543 Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong
170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.


Read the stories and leave your comments.






Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Tunisia; Politics; State Government

PCOL20310
19

.


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: