Right out of the box at tonight’s (Tuesday’s) meeting of the Franklin Common Council there was an agenda item to direct the Mayor and Staff to Work with Milwaukee County to Obtain Land or Access to Land for Storm Water Purposes In/Near the New Corporate Business Park.

Lots of inside baseball and wonky policy stuff here. This is from the information packet submitted to each council member before tonight’s meeting. From a December 27, 2022, letter to members of the Franklin Common Council. Read carefully:

I  would assist getting approval of the Milwaukee County Board Here are the terms

• Easement to build stormwater basin would cost $700,000 ($70,000/acre)

• Half ($350,000) would be spent in City of Franklin to enhance Milwaukee County Parkland (Grobschmidt, Park, Fitzsimmons Woods, and Franklin Savannah)

• Half ($350,000) would be spent in a Milwaukee County Park located in Supervisor Martin’s District

Franklin Alderwoman Shari Hanneman objected to Taylor’s proposal $700,000 for an easement, calling it “Not ready for prime time discussion.”

Hanneman had a discussion with Taylor in October and pointed out Taylor initially told folks at that meeting, “You’re not going to like this deal.”

Hanneman also said the plan was a “take it leave it deal with no room for negotiations. We would not even own that property,” that the idea didn’t provide much value for Franklin but did for Milwaukee County) and amounted to a development tax.

Not surprisingly outgoing (not soon enough) Franklin Alderwoman Kristin Wilhelm who has never met  a tax or spending increase she didn’t fall in love with disagreed with Hanneman, having no problem with the expenditure saying it was a “great use for the citizens of Franklin.” Mayor Steve Olson nailed it when he told Taylor directly the supervisor is trying to make an impact with his colleagues as a new member of the Milwaukee County Board.

The Franklin Common Council took no action and requested further study on the matter by city staff.

Let’s look at the bigger picture at what happened at tonight’s meeting and connect the dots.

Franklin Alderman John Nelson asked that Supervisor Taylor be allowed to discuss his plan before the council.

Taylor doesn’t like Mayor Olson.

Neither does Nelson.

Nelson is running for mayor. His main motivation since he has no concrete plans or vision is that he dislikes the mayor.

Nelson is being pushed by Taylor. It’s just a fact. To that end Nelson supports Taylor’s plan discussed tonight.

Taylor in my view too often plays footsie with the liberals on the county board. I did not support his election and vote for him to propose spending $350,000 to support park land on the NW side of Milwaukee in another supervisor’s district, no matter if the plan is to secure future help for future projects here. Normally the liberals are nowhere to be found when a conservative board member needs a break. And this supervisor, Felecia Martin, practically called Taylor (as I blogged in the past) a racist at a public meeting.

More to come in the months ahead.

But the truth is Taylor is backing the do-nothing Nelson for mayor. Taylor makes no bones about his disdain. From tonight, where Taylor and Olson go at it….