| 10 years. While you can look back and see how things have changed for the better, there is still so much to do. There's never a day where you can just say that we finished that because the work is never finished. There is always more that we can do to have a better human services system or reform the criminal justice system or make better land use decisions. There's always more to be done." Falk was a newcomer to politics -- except for the local races on which she worked stuffing envelopes and dropping off literature at people's homes -- when she ran for county executive. For over 20 years, she had been an environmental advocate, primarily as the public intervener, in the Wis. Dept. of Justice before Governor Tommy Thompson axed the position because it had been too effective. Falk recognized the foundation that others laid for her to become county executive. "Everything is evolutionary," Falk reflected. "I would not have been elected had not fabulous women before me paved the way, whether it was Chief Justice Abrahamson or Mary Lou Munts in the legislature. Historically, this is the spot that we inherit, knowing and hoping that in the few short years that there will be equal opportunity for everyone. Rosa Parks said, 'We're not where we want to be, we're not where we going to be, but at least we aren't where we were."' That's how I view it. I would like to have not been the first. But I'm grateful that I now have the opportunity I have. I would hope that grows and there won't have to be firsts. I hope that day comes soon." While Falk had made her name on environmental issues, it was human service issues that compelled her to run. She had raised her son in the Williamson Street area and volunteered in the Luke House soup kitchen. She had a up close and personal view of the needs of struggling women and children. We were always surrounded by lots and lots of families who unlike us had very little opportunity," Falk recalled. "Over the years, I was very frustrated by my inability to make a more profound difference in their lives. We had children live with us on and off many times as situations arose. I wanted to do something on a more macro level given the sea of kids in our county, 11,000 alone who live below the poverty line." Falk beat out a field of six men, some of them seasoned politicians, to become Dane County's first female county executive. And it was her gender that was a major part of the measuring stick that was used to evaluate her first year in office. "I spent that whole campaign facing lots of questions about whether a woman could do the job," Falk said. "And the first year in office, I felt those eyes upon me for everything you do and go through that first year: your first budget, your first flood, your first everything. People are watching. After the first year, that cloud goes away and you are past that." Today, gender isn't used to talk about Falk's 10 years in office. She has just been an effective county executive. Through the years, Falk has been able to implement programs and services that benefit struggling women, children and families with the tools that we within her control. Half of the county's budget is spent on human services. "There was always more that we could do better or different in that world," Falk said. "So we started youth resource centers. We invested in home visitation models from the day kids are born, really trying to be better at government and how we help families succeed." But what Falk didn't have full control of was the impact that the criminal justice system had on women, children and families. "What I had to learn fast was that so many of our families don't succeed because of the criminal justice end of the system," Falk said. "Drug and alcohol and other problems plague most families, but for many they end up in the criminal justice system and it means that many moms and dads never have the chance to reintegrate into a community and have their kids succeed." Falk shared governance of this system with the elected district attorney and circuit court judges. And at the time, there was statewide momentum to build more prisons and jails as the solution to public safety issues. But Falk was determined not to build more jails in Dane County. "When I was first elected, the jail population was growing significantly and so, I was faced right away with a county board decision to add three more floors to the jail at about $40 million cost," Falk said. "I vetoed that and I have vetoed jail building three times. But that meant I had to find ways to improve public safety without building more jail beds. That job became mine given I was the one doing the vetoing." Falk and her staff set out to reduce the jail population while still securing the public's safety. Any rise in the crime rate would be attributed to her jail construction vetoes. They interviewed people in the jails to find out why they were there and then set out to develop prevention and intervention programs that would help solve or ameliorate some of the underlying problems that were causing people to land in jail. "About 20 percent of the people in our jails -- no different than any other place -- are there because of mental illness," Falk said. "If you ask the deputies if this was the right place for them, they would say 'No.' So starting there, we had to determine what we could do that was different and smarter so they would not end up in jail. We've done a whole variety of things including putting more dollars into the community based programs that keep people on their medication and give them mental health services so that they don't act out in a criminal fashion. We provided more dollars for the Madison Police Department so that when someone is doing bizarre behavior, instead of automatically sending them through the criminal justice system, they're sent back to the Mental Health Center of Dane County and put back on their medications." Language barriers were causing a disproportionate number of members from the Latino community to wind up in jail. "What would be a simple civil violation became, due to the language barrier, a bench warrant because someone didn't pay their ticket on time," Falk said. "And then that is a problem we should be able to solve. So we hired Centro Hispano, provided $50,000 per year, and they have virtually solved that problem by being the mediator and translating for that population so they don't end up with bench warrants." One of the hardest nuts to crack was the number of people in jail due to alcohol and other drug problems. ";While treatment doesn't work for everyone, it's the only chance for people to change their behavior and overcome a problem," Falk emphasized. "So providing both accountability and treatment are key if we really want to improve public safety. Not only did we start a program three years ago targeted at this population that is called Pathfinders for repeat drunk drivers or other repeat alcohol and other drug offenders and it works. It's nine months of treatment. Having this ten years of experience, which was very homework driven with intensive pilot programs, we're now ready as we build capacity in the system to have 100 beds for alcohol and drug treatment." In order to make room for more human service programming and preserving the existing programming during a austere financial period, Falk is looking at the possibility of eliminating the Huber Center as a cost saving measure in the same manner that LaCrosse County did last year. "The judges there said if we trust someone to be out 12 hours per day working or going to appointments, why do we have them come back to sleep at night given the extensive cost," Falk said. "So they shut down their Huber Center completely and placed people on electronic bracelets. We have some people in Dane County on electronic bracelets, but the majority of our Huber population comes back to a facility to sleep at night. So we're now looking at whether that LaCrosse model makes sense for Dane County. But it will also take the sheriff, the courts and the district attorney to embrace it in order to make it happen here. And that's the stage we are in right now." Falk credits the foresight of people running Dane County 30 years ago for creating a juvenile justice system that keeps the Juvenile Retention Center population down to approximately 15-18 youth per day in a county with a population of 500,000 people. Yet she is determined to create more programs like Replay that give juvenile offenders some options. "This is a very integrated, hands-on program for about a dozen middle schoolers during any given semester where we have a social worker and teacher focused entirely on this small group of young people with the goal of reintegrating them into the public school system," Falk said. "Meanwhile, they are here living at home. It's intensive with check-ins at 10 p.m. and all those sorts of things. And it works. We have a community here that is willing to try better or different ideas than simply the same old thing, which is to send somebody to an institution and hope that when they get out, the world is better." Falk firmly believes that investing in human services is the right thing and the smartest thing to do to ensure the public's safety. Next issue: Budget priorities, land use issues and mass transportation. |
| Kathleen Falk is Dane County's Longest Serving Executive Last County Executive Standing By Jonathan Gramling Part 1 of 2 |
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| Kathleen Falk, the first woman elected as Dane County Executive, set a different historical milestone in the recent past. She became the longest-standing county executive in Dane County history. This milestone was reached without a lot of fanfare, perhaps because Falk ran unopposed in her 2005 reelection bid, something else that had never occurred before in Dane County. There just hasn't been the forum to showcase it. As Falk enters her 10th year in office, it seems as if she was just elected yesterday. "It's a 24/7 job," Falk reflected during an interview in her fourth floor office in the City-County Building. "But when you have meaningful work, every day really flies by. And so, it doesn't seem like |
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