Vincent to Resign As President of Greendale School Board - Vincent, Taylor and Nicholsons Financial Disclosures NOT Correct
Vincent to RESIGN as PRESIDENT at Monday, October 7, 2024, Greendale School Board Meeting. Not enough. Vincent should resign from the board!
The Monday, October 7, 2024 meeting agenda indicates in item 3.1 Resignation of President from Officer Position. The President of the Greendale Board of Education is Kathleen Vincent. The same Kathleen Vincent who is Milwaukee County Supervisor for Greendale, Greenfield, and parts of Milwaukee. The same Kathleen Vincent was reprimanded and written up by her full-time job as an Educator at the Kenosha Unified School District for "double dipping".
The Kenosha County Eye published a story, indicating from an undated letter in Kathleen Vincent’s Personnel file, she was found to have committed serious misconduct, including “Theft of Time”. Essentially conducting Greendale School Board and Milwaukee County Board Business on the dime of the Kenosha Taxpayers and at the expense of the students in her class(es) "double dipping".
article and gave Vincent a 15-minute grilling. Belling calls Vincent a “Triple Dipper”.
On September 13, 2024, Franklin Community News reported Allegations Supervisors Taylor & Vincent defrauded Milwaukee County Taxpayers. The article alleges that Taylor, with Vincent's knowledge and support, sent their shared legislative aide to multiple Milwaukee County Circuit Court Proceedings to take notes and return to them with the information. These proceedings had nothing to do with Milwaukee County or Milwaukee County Board Business. Both Taylor and Vincent have a personal interest in the proceedings. There is additional proof that Vincent and Taylor also used their positions as county supervisors to access the Milwaukee County DA's office to build a case against the same individual they were sending the aide to take notes on.
If that was not enough, there is also proof that Vincent, in the middle of sending her aide to take notes and intervening with the DA's office using her position as County Supervisor in a case of interest to her, on August 12, 2024, also met with the very judge who is handling the case two days after a hearing and 10 days before a hearing. This issue has yet to be concluded. Surely Vincent knows what a conflict of interest is unless she is purposefully trying to interfere with the legal process? There is also proof that Vincent was brazen enough to meet with this judge and post it on her Facebook page. Vincent posted "
Vincent has shown that she is not about serving the residents or her students she is about serving herself and is all about self-promotion. Vincent is not trustworthy and lacks morals, ethics, and integrity. You cannot continue to lie expecting you will not get caught. It does not help by the company you keep like County Supervisor Steve Taylor.
FCN Files Corrections to Vincent, Taylor, and Nicholsons' Most Recent Financial Disclosures
On September 23, Franklin Community News (FCN) requested the most recent Statement of Economic Interest filing submission for County Supervisors Steve Taylor, Kathleen Vincent, and Marcielia Nicholson County Board Chair. The filings were requested from the Milwaukee County Ethics Board.
In a review of the disclosures (you can access the disclosures here), FCN reported the following violations to the Milwaukee County Ethics Board:
Violation of 9.04(1)(a
The person filing a statement of economic interests, as required under this chapter, shall file the statement on a form prescribed by the ethics board, with the concurrence of corporation counsel and the office of the comptroller, and shall include the following information applicable as of the 15th day of the month preceding the month in which the statement is required to be filed:
(a)
The identity of every significant fiduciary relationship, organization associated with and the offices and directorships held by him/her or his/her spouse;
Milwaukee County Supervisor Steve Taylor (Franklin and Oak Creek) - On his most recently filed disclosure of December 25, 2023, he failed to disclose his previously documented relationship as an Ex-Officio nonvoting member of Engage Franklin.
The deal included the establishment of a DMO required by state statutes to spend a certain percentage of Franklin Hotel Room tax. Engage Franklin is a board containing mainly allies of County Supervisor Steve Taylor and Mike Zimmerman that essentially allow Engage Franklin to have a checkbook for Ballpark Commons. Text messages provided to FCN show Taylors' role in the development of Engage Franklin as a "non-voting member". Taylor failed to disclose his relationship on his ethics disclosure.
Violation of 9.04(1)(a)
The person filing a statement of economic interests, as required under this chapter, shall file the statement on a form prescribed by the ethics board, with the concurrence of corporation counsel and the office of the comptroller, and shall include the following information applicable as of the 15th day of the month preceding the month in which the statement is required to be filed:
(a)
The identity of every significant fiduciary relationship, organization associated with and the offices and directorships held by him/her or his/her spouse;
(2)
(a)
No financial gain or anything of substantial value: Except as otherwise provided or approved by the county board, no county public official or employee shall use his/her public position or office to obtain financial gain or anything of substantial value for the private benefit of himself/herself or his/her immediate family, or for an organization with which he/she is associated. This paragraph does not prohibit a county elected official from using the title or prestige of his/her office to obtain campaign contributions that are permitted by and reported as required by ch. 11, Wis. Stats.
"Anything of value" means any money or property, favor, service, payment, advance, forbearance, loan, or promise of future employment, business, or other consideration having a value greater than fifty dollars ($50.00).
On March 22, 2024, Vanessa Swales from the Milwaukee Journal reported that"
"An ethics complaint against Nicholson — along with Supervisors Steve F. Taylor and Kathleen Vincent — was filed with the Milwaukee County Ethics Board earlier this year alleging that Nicholson, Taylor, and Vincent had failed to disclose gifts on their statements of economic interests."
"In December, Taylor updated his ethics filings, not once but twice, after the Journal Sentinel reported he had failed to list two of his jobs — one of which was financial ties to the popular yet controversial, Franklin-based golf and entertainment facility, The Rock."
Taylor's two unreported jobs were Executive Director of the ROC Foundation and Steve Taylor Consulting, LLC. On December 23, 2023, FCN reported about Taylors Ethics Statements not being correct and the conflict of interest with Engage Franklin.
"Between April 2022 and December 2023, a relative newcomer to the board, Vincent expensed roughly $700 in clothing. While some of the apparel is noted as county- or district-embossed, some pieces of clothing also include brand names, such as Adidas polos and a cap as well as a Columbia jacket. She also expensed $40 headphones to use for meetings over Teams.
Vincent said that some of the clothing was for her legislative aides who help in her district.
She explained that she had received very little instruction from board staff about what should and should not be expensed.
"I ordered apparel because other supervisors were ordering apparel," Vincent said. "We were told that is for office expenditures."
But Vincent explained her logic for the purchases: "With purchases to get my office started up, I don't think that they are that big of a deal. I want to represent myself as a worker of a county so that people can easily see that when I go to events."
"In 2023, Nicholson expensed more than $2,600 to pay for her membership at downtown's social and sports club, the Milwaukee Athletic Club."
According to the Journal/Sentinel Records show, other expenses Nicholson filed include:
- Nearly $4,000 on supplies and accessories as well as decorations to spruce up the County Board room and her office, such as rollerblades, a booster seat because her board chair was too low, $653 in Women’s History Month tumblers, polo shirts, new office chairs, flowers, petals, streamers, butterflies and tinsel. She also spent more than $500 on county tote bags and $290 for purple District 10 pens.
- Roughly $360 on stickers to label books brought in for “Marci's Reads” for the purpose of distinguishing county books in the chairwoman's community library. Marci's Reads is described as a community library intended to "educate and connect its readers to one another and their community."
- $3,600 on hotels, travel, food and tickets to conferences and events, including trips to D.C. and the White House, as well as an overnight stay in Madison for Gov. Tony Evers’ State of State address on Jan. 24, 2023. Nicholson’s calendar shows that the governor’s reception ended at 9:30 p.m. Some of the tickets were expensed for county board staff.
It does not make a difference who your friends are or who friend's are not. You are public officials responsible to the residents who elected you, not beholden to your personal or special interests. We are not going away and will continue to expose the corruption and how infectious you all are to our City of Franklin and the surrounding community. You can do whatever you want, but the one thing you will not do is silence the 1st amendment rights of this watchdog citizen.
This is for the Greater Good!
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