Two committees of the Dane County Board of Supervisors are meeting tonight to gather information on the performance of the Dane County 911 Communications Center in the wake of the murder of Brittany Zimmermann.

Board Chair Scott McDonell and others have called for an audit of the Center focusing on its procedures and whether its procedures are being followed.

It is suggested that such an audit be conducted by an outside firm, free of political considerations.

Good idea.

To complement this reasonable course of action, Dane County needs the establishment of a paid citizens' committee composed of broad communities of interests, devoid of elected officials, and certainly free of civil servants in Dane County, including those serving in the County Executive's office.

Such a committee ought to have as its deliverables:

- The establishment of specific directives to improve the performance of the 911 Communications Center

Amid the discordant political backdrop, recriminations abound about whether the murder of a 21-year-old UW-Madison woman could have been prevented.

Aside from proposed audits and spirited defenses of the Dane County 911 Communications Center and other Dane County officials, it's worth noting the priorities and policies of local law enforcement agencies here. [I hope not to read the word 'leadership' again; it doesn't exist on this matter.]

As the routine break-up of house parties and the pursuit by police of other frequent illegal college recreational pastimes continues apace here, one wonders if police officers foot-patrolling neighborhoods at night with the objective of protecting property and persons might be a better use of limited police resources vis-a-vis busting a 19-year-old for having a beer or smoking a joint on campus.

And one less parking meter boy (like that pathetic guy who wears the floppy safari hat), and one more officer walking on the street looking out for a female student walking home at night from the library would certainly do.

Progressives are holding Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk’s feet to the fire on the Brittany Zimmerman tragedy.

If Falk decides to run for reelection as Dane County executive in the spring of 2009, she will surely face opponents in a politically charged race, and one gets the impression Falk is abundantly aware of this fact.

From the Capital Times (aggressively on the Zimmerman story now and catching up to the first-rate reporting and insights by Isthmus, the Wisconsin State Journal and the Madison blogosphere):

A former dispatcher that answered a 911 call from Brittany Zimmermann's cell phone before she was allegedly stabbed to death in her West Doty Street apartment committed two different procedural errors in handling the call, according to Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.

Falk’s statement on the 911 call, "I do not believe, had the (911) errors not occurred, that her murder could've been prevented," amounts to a Bushian I-can’t-tell-you-anything-but-trust-me assurance.

Did you miss this story in Sunday's WSJ?

"County officials were warned in 2004 to increase staffing, change procedures and put in place a stronger oversight board.

"At worst Dane County faces possible liability and the potential for a catastrophic event," according to the 145-page "strategic plan" from MTG Management Consultants of Seattle."

And here's the money quote from a republican who's advocating more support for important social services!

Mark Hazelbaker, a Republican lawyer who represents the Dane County Towns Association, said solving the issues in the 911 center boils down to a matter of political will.

"I don't know if I blame Kathy Falk so much as I blame a climate in which people are afraid to spend money on vital services," Hazelbaker said.""

via MAL Contends - Update: Cap Times back on it: See - Falk apologizes to Zimmermann's family, fiance (Capital Times, May 6) and County Board chair wants answers on 911 problems (Cap Times, May 6). 

Expert calls Dane County 911 staffing inadequate (WSJ, May 6) 

I was sorry to see the Capital Times hard copy newspaper go, but I told a friend its online iteration was an innovation that would see it stay on the bleeding edge of technology in bringing Dane County residents the news.

It's bad enough that the dispatcher who received Brittany Zimmermann's call for help soon before her untimely death last month has NOT been disciplined (her name isn't available for public consumption either, although she's a public employee).

Bad enough. But in today's Wisconsin State Journal, reporters Matthew DeFour and Patricia Simms crack open the story further in contribution to Isthmus journalist Jason Shepard's prize-worthy reporting about developments in Zimmermann's last moments of life.

The WSJ crew detail the sheer incompetence of Dane County's 911 Call Center Director Joe Norwick.

How does this guy - Joe Norwick - have a job come Mon., May 5, 2008?

Updated: WI State Journal Edit (May 2, 2008), No apology? You better find one. WI State Journal (p.1) (May 4, 2008) 2004 report warned of 911 Center problems; Co officials warned to increase staffing, change procedures

The first rule in crisis management for public servants is not Save your ass.

It's serve the public.

So when the public clamors for answers about why a 21-year-old UW-Madison student was murdered in early April, and asks what could have been done to prevent her death, the response ought to be openness, transparency and honesty.

Unfortunately, the Dane County 911 Center doesn't see it that way, and the stonewalling has begun.

Jason Shepard writing for the Madison weekly, Isthmus, has run into a brickwall in his reporting on the death of Brittany Zimmermann.

Update: See also Obammunists.

While still beaming from the historic win, Wisconsin Obama voters may not know that Joe McCarthy is alive and well in the National Review Online, and digging up Obama dirt (he's not fooling anyone).

Obama's parents of different ethnicities fell in love in the late 1950's, so they must be communist and, gasp!!, Jewish, argues lisa.msm [at] gmail [dot] com.

Right. No wonder Obama did so well at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with all those Jews and communists there (though this does not explain how he took Fond du Lac county).

'Setting the stage, poised for a knockout ... a fading, faltering, broken Hillary Clinton campaign': Everyone has read the ledes reporting on Barack Obama’s landslide win in Wisconsin Tuesday.

One aspect has been overlooked: In a critical dimension, it’s not Clinton or Obama who won or lost.

The people spoke and thus won. And one fact that bears noting is that Hillary Clinton supporters are more idealistic than she is.

In speaking to Clinton supporters the last week, the take-away is that Hillary has the requisite mettle and wisdom to successfully lead this country to social justice.

But Hillary did not speak for these people in her relentlessly negative (and false) ads and mailers that sought merely to stave off the 17-point defeat that she suffered here.

Hillary found out just how repugnant the politics of fear and distortion is among voters, including many of her supporters, who see the democratic process as a means of their deciding their government's policies.

Does Hillary believe that her supporters wish her campaign to assassinate Obama’s character, abilities and commitment? Noone I know was consulted.

The UW-Madison is looking for a new Chancellor, and some people mistakenly think that salary of nearly one-third of a million bucks a year, plus a house and a car, is not enough to find a new "CEO."

One key UW-Madison booster called the compensation package "an embarrassment."

No wonder fiscal conservatives find the UW an easy target.

Details here.