Some progress on all fronts

In June 2011, a couple of months after Chris Abele was sworn in as the Milwaukee County executive, we gave him an In the Works rating on his campaign promise to freeze spending in the executive's office and to "cut perks like cars and cell phones.”

Now that the end of Abele's one-year term is days away, let's see whether he made more progress on this pledge. We checked with Abele spokesman Brendan Conway in late March 2012.

Freeze budget

In 2011, under the final county budget adopted before Scott Walker left the county executive's office to become governor, the budget for the executive office was $1.23 million.

The 2012 budget for the executive also rounds to $1.23 million (it went up by a fraction: $6,895).

So, Abele met his pledge on this part of the promise.

Cut cars and cells

As we previously noted, Abele sold a Chevrole Impala that was reserved for the county executive's use. But nine cars assigned to other county employees remain, Conway said.

As for cell phones, as we previously noted, the county had 755 cell phones -- some assigned to employees, some to departments -- on the day before Abele was sworn in. The number fell to 725 when we first evaluated this promise, though Abele's spokesman at the time, Jeff Bentoff, said the reduction was not due to any action Abele took. We also noted that Abele ordered that no one in his office be issued a county cell and that his staff is not allowed to seek reimbursements for county calls made on their personal cells.

The number of county cells is now 720, down five from when we last checked, according to Conway. He noted that the reduction occurred after Abele in September 2011 asked county managers to evaluate the need for cell phones among their employees, though it's not clear whether the five fewer cells are the result of the review or other factors, such as an employee retirement.

These days, whether cell phones qualify as a "perk” as opposed to an essential tool could be open to debate. But the number of cell phones is down under Abele"s watch.

Abele froze the budget for his office and, ever so slightly, reduced the number of county cars and cells.

We rate this a Promise Kept.