Democratic state legislators challenged the Republican administration Thursday with two bills, one questioning the legitimacy of Gov. Scott Walker's new appointment policy and the other aiming to change legislative rules on open meetings laws.
State Reps. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, and Donna Seidel, D-Wausau, and state Sen. Mark Miller, D-Madison, co-sponsored legislation criticizing Walker for changing 39 government civil service jobs into appointed positions.
The budget repair bill, which passed this spring, made the 39 positions, attorneys, communications personnel and legislative liaisons into appointed positions, increasing the total number in state government from 70 to 109.
Barca's spokesperson Melanie Conklin said civil servant or classified positions are merit-based and require a competitive examination before hire, whereas ""unclassified"" positions require an just an appointment.
Conklin mentioned two previous ""questionable"" appointments, including former Walker administrator Cynthia Archer, who quit this week.
Archer received a 61 percent pay increase from the previous person who held her position. The FBI raided her home Wednesday, after allegations that Walker's staffers used public money for campaigning purposes in Milwaukee County.
While some lawmakers called for changes in the executive branch, state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, and state Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, proposed legislation they said would ""close the legislative loophole"" in defining Open Meetings Laws in the Legislature.
The state Supreme Court ruled in June the Senate's passage of the collective bargaining law did not violate Open Meetings Laws in the state constitution, because legislative rules supersede them.
Specifically, the new bill would require the legislature give reasonable notice and public access to meetings while making lawmakers subject to citations if the law is violated.
Vinehout said in an e-mail to coworkers the amendment would ""close that loophole and hold the legislature to the same standards of openness and transparency as … all other government agencies.""
