| Posted: Tuesday, February 8, 2011 8:00 pm
Steve Fitzgerald, the father of the top two Republican lawmakers in state government, will lead the Wisconsin State Patrol, Gov. Scott Walker's administration announced Tuesday.Fitzgerald beat out five other candidates for the appointment, which carries an annual salary of $105,678. He is scheduled to start Monday.
Fitzgerald said his sons, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, had nothing to do with him getting the job. "I have my own focus and my own agenda and they have theirs," Fitzgerald said.
His new position leading the 638-member State Patrol deepens the growing power of the Fitzgerald family. His two sons began their new leadership roles in January after sweeping victories in the November elections gave Republicans control of the Senate and Assembly.
Scott Fitzgerald said he wasn't consulted "in any way" about his dad's application and didn't ask to be. "Frankly, this doesn't change anything for me," he said. "I'm still going to drive the speed limit and buckle up, same as I've always done."
But the Democratic Party of Wisconsin questioned whether cronyism played a role in the decision and accused Walker of showing preferential treatment to friends in the past.
"We question whether best practices were followed," party spokesman Graeme Zielinski said. "There's just a lot of power concentrated with very few people."
In the announcement, new Department of Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb, a former Republican lawmaker, praised Steve Fitzgerald for his "outstanding credentials and broad range of experiences that make him uniquely qualified to lead" the patrol.
Fitzgerald, 68, started out as a Chicago police officer before becoming police chief in Hustisford in 1974. He was Dodge County sheriff from 1989 to 2002, when he was appointed U.S. marshal for western Wisconsin. After that term expired last year, he again ran for Dodge County sheriff but lost in the primary.
"Fitzgerald has a long history of honorably serving Wisconsin residents as sheriff and U.S. marshal, which will continue when he assumes this new law enforcement leadership position," Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said.
Steve Fitzgerald said his interview, which included a meeting with Walker and Gottlieb, focused on his law enforcement background, the state's budget problems and what he could do to help the patrol work with other law enforcement agencies to avoid duplicating services.
No comments:
Post a Comment