March 19, 2008

County cancels meeting on Superior Linens

The issue of Superior Linens' contract with Racine County continues to simmer.

The contract was set to be discussed on Monday during the Ridgewood Board of Trustee's regular meeting. Supervisor Joseph Bellante, chairman of the Ridgewood board, confirmed the agenda item during the County Board's March 11 meeting (you can hear the audio here - it's around 35:00.)

That meeting has since been canceled. County Executive Bill McReynolds decided he wanted to attend the meeting, but couldn't make the March 24 date. The meeting will now be pushed back to April - after the County Board's April 1 elections.

Bellante said the postponed meeting had more to do with Easter than the elections.

"The County Executive wanted to be there, and we didn't realize Easter came early this year," Bellante said in an interview Tuesday night. "Some other personnel wanted to be there and couldn't make it."

He added that after the election, there's a chance he won't be involved with Ridgewood anymore. The County Board is going to choose a chairman and vice chairman, and then members of the board are going to designate three choices for the committees they want to serve on.

"I might not wind up on health and human services" committee, he said. "That one is probably going to confront the Superior issue."

When I called to asked Bellante questions, he immediately raised Supervisor Diane Lange's name as the instigator behind the Superior Linens issue. "I plan to talk with Supervisor Lange when I get ahold of her in the next week," he said, somewhat cryptically.

Holding off the Superior discussion makes sense for the county executive. Lange is being challenged for her board seat and could lose on April 1. That would likely take pressure off the issue.

It also keeps Lange's name out of The Journal Times, on the chance that they would have covered the Ridgewood meeting.

It's clear Lange is irritating top officials in the county. During the March 11 board meeting, a handful of residents spoke in defense of Lange and against Corporation Counsel Jonathan Lehman, who took her to task at the February meeting, during the public comment period. Racine County Sheriff Bob Carlson spoke in favor of Lehman, citing the corporation counsel's "professionalism and integrity."

Click HERE and HERE for background on this story.

8 comments:

  1. leadership would have meant raising the issue before the County signed a contract Supervisor Lange...

    She is doing nothing other than pushing for another expensive contract for her union pals.

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  2. Something smells here besides dirty linens.

    I don't think union has anything to do with this, look at their track record. I will say, that it seems if any group of works need a union, it appears they sure need protection.

    Superior Linen has alot of problems and why Racine chose them to service Racine[besides the low bid] seems to be buried somewhere in a do nothing Board.

    Leadership would have meant that the TOTAL BOARD wouldn't have even considered Superior Linen.

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  3. There appears to be some national interest based on the disgusting display of outburst by the attorney. Who knows when reality tv swoops down and digs in the dirty laundry. The County Board may be in for more than they want.

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  4. Hey hey hey, you wonder what Joe Bellante got from Superior Linens for giving them the contract. Something isn't right here and they are trying to bury Lange to cover something up.

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  5. I am not a fan of Ms Lange, I am a BIG FAN OF ETHICAL GOVERNMENT.
    This contact should not have been signed how dare we do business with this company who it seams can not pay their employees right.
    Go get Em Ms Lange

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  6. Here's the real story:

    http://www.lou4racine.com/blog/2008/3/14/linens-n-things-follow-the-money.html

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  7. Here goes Dustin fronting for Diane Lange again! Like always Dustin has only a small amount of the facts.This is nothing more than an extension of the Progessive Majority blog. Which Diane Lange is being supported by, people be careful.

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  8. Remmber Diane Lange is the woman that thinks 17 yearold gangbangers shouldn't be held for serious crimes in the county jail. Diane lets just keep letting them shoot up the town.

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