Deschane

LITTLE EXPERIENCE =BIG PAY, (Daniel Bice, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

No degree, little experience pay off big is the headline leading into the story of how, (according to Bice) Brian Deschane was first pointed out as a potential candidate for a $64,728 job, was eventually interviewed and hired for a position in the environmental and regulatory section of the Department of Commerce.

Not only was Deschane hired by the state of Wisconsin, he was put in charge of overseeing dozens of employees and within two months got a 26% raise to an annual salary of $81,500, WOW. Reason for the raise, lawmakers approved the Governor's plan to convert the Department of Commerce to a public/private hybird in charge of attracting and retaining businesses, with the regulatory and environmental functions being moved to other agencies.

The sky-rocketing career of the unknown aspiring executive is a true piece of the American dream. In the true sense of the phrase, "anything can happen in America if you keep your nose clean and attached to the grindstone," good things will happen. (I just made that phrase up.)  Just think, a young guy picked off the streets at random and given the chance of a life-time. We here at Chronicle headquarters can only say, "go Brian go, good luck."

But wait, sadly there seems to be more to the story.....much more. Turns out that Brian Deschane, or more actually  the Deschane name is not a stranger to Wisconsin politics. As Daniel Bice points out, the father of Brian Deschane, Jerry,  is a lobbyist for the Madison based Wisconsin Builders Association which gave a total donation of more then $121,000 to the elect Scott Walker for governor drive last year.

During the course of informal conversations with Walker's campaign manager, Keith Gilkes, the elder Deschane pointed out the fact that his son, Brian would be available for whatever.  As Jerry stated, "I put in good words for every one of my children in their jobs, but that was the extent of it."

Gee I don't see anything wrong with that, you know, spreading the word,  hell I have three kids, a son 43 and two daughters aged 30 and 28 and they're available. I'm all for nepotism and $80,000 starting pay, in fact I'm available, as is my wife.

Lets get one thing straight right here and now, Scott Walker and his cronys are no different then Jim Doyle and his buddies were. It's called "pay-back" and it's been going on forever in our system of government and most of those who complain are just made because they didn't get appointed to those (plum) jobs.

I guess I have just one complaint with regards to this appointment, the poor guy doesn't have any experience in business, let alone government. His age, 27 points to a total lack of experience in anything, let alone being put in a supervisory position, God the guy could get killed, DUCK.

With no educational background, experience is necessary, anyways it has always been that way in  my life. Drunken-driving convictions don't count, most of us have just been lucky. Education is a valid complaint, but to my way of thinking, not a deterent to hiring. Maybe the kid made a good impression, maybe he's as articulate as hell, I don't know.

Another issue I guess we ALL should have is why a seeming unqualified person would be hired into an $81,500 a year job with less then a sterling resume. I mean Governor Scott "Sleepy" Walker has said the state is busted and we need to cut back. Hey I got an idea, (fire and re-hire this kid at, say $10 an hour for the same job and give him raises as he gains experience.) That way, by the time he's 50 he would be in that $80,000 bracket. Does that make sense?