Last week, Marina Dimitrijevic was sworn in as the new chair of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. The longtime Fourth District supervisor is only the second woman to hold this positionand also the youngest. I spoke to her on Friday, the day before her 31st birthday, to discuss her new position and vision of the future. Dimitrijevic was her usual energetic but confident self, eager to get down to business after meeting with 17 other supervisors in four short days. Here\'s an excerpt of our conversation:<br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>You decided to run for chair quite a while ago. How did you go about laying the groundwork for your election?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic: </strong>I was thinking about it for a while. You may remember that four years ago, I did run against Chairman Holloway and I was unsuccessful. That was my first consideration of that. Along the way, these past four years, I was building a lot of relationships, close relationships with my colleagues, and coalitions for domestic partnership [benefits], sustainability, things on technology, and redistricting. I\'ve always played a role in budgets. <br /><br />So I became closer and closer to my colleagues. We had such a huge turnover with five new supervisors, so with the turnover I also became more experienced than half the board. I have been here for eight years. So a year or two ago I decided I would be really focused on [running for chair]. I announced very early because I wanted to be transparent. That\'s something I want to promote around here. So slowly but surely I got the support that I needed. <br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>So what have you done this week? <br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic: </strong>I hired a chief of staff [former assistant director of Intergovernmental Relations Kelly Bablitch]. That was exciting. I got out the official county board schedule, which is extremely important. It tells you all of our meetings through the end of the year. I launched my <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.facebook.com/ChairwomanMarinaDimitrijevic\">official chairwoman\'s Facebook</a> and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://twitter.com/#!/BoardChairwoman\">Twitter page</a>, which hasn\'t existed for this office. But the thing that has been taking up most of my time is that at the end of the day I will have met with every single supervisor. And that, obviously, is regarding the most decision facing mecommittee chairmanships and assignments. <br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>What is your agenda as chair?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic: </strong>I think I\'ve been really clear that while I have items that I want to work on as a supervisor and as the head of this policy making body, I don\'t have a particular agenda. My agenda is what is formulated in these conversations with the supervisors. It will be our combined agenda. <br /><br />I see myself as a facilitator. In my statement of candidacy I didn\'t talk about heavy policy items. I talked about how the process would be, how I would communicate, what type of leader I would be. I have some ideas. For example, the Chat with the Chair [in which Dimitrijevic will hold town hall meetings in each municipality]. I talked more about those things. The agenda will be developed with my leadership team. That\'s what I\'m doing with these committee chairs. Since they would be the head of each policy-making committee, we together as a team will develop our agenda. That\'s the best way to execute an agenda, I believe. <br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>The board now has five new supervisors. How will you get so many new elected officials up to speed?<br /><strong><br />Dimitrijevic: </strong>We have an orientation on Wednesday. I think a couple of them have already sought out mentors, which is important. I had some of that help when I was first elected. The nice thing is that when I\'m dealing with the new supervisors, even though it was eight years ago, I can easily put myself in those shoes. I know one of their most pressing needs is getting an office, getting an assistant, getting used to parliamentary procedure. They, just like me, just came off of a campaign, so there\'s a little bit of exhaustion. I think we\'ve got some really bright talent around here and I plan on capitalizing on some of the uniqueness and diversity. It\'s a really interesting group of people.<br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>Who are your mentors?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic:</strong> I\'m not really going to say names because I want to keep them private, but I have a very close inner circle. It\'s a good mixture of people in the private sector, and labor people, and a few friends. <br /><br />One name I don\'t mind releasing is my mother. I go to her. She is your average citizen. She votes every time. She lives in St. Francis. She reads the paper and knows what\'s going on. When you take away all of the special interests and politics, she is what most people are like. When I say, “I\'m thinking about doing this,” I will go to her. She is able to say, “That\'s a good idea,” or “I don\'t know why you said that.” She\'s someone who is very important to me. She has no political background. She is just an active citizen.<br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>Where do you see the board as an institution or organization now and in the future? It\'s taken such hits in recent years. <br /><strong><br />Dimitrijevic: </strong>We have some work to do. I\'ve said that I\'m very tired, and my colleagues are, of defending our jobs. It\'s time for us to start focusing on doing them well. I hope that we have effectively moved past that. I am constantly promoting open government participation. I\'ve created some technology initiatives, which I hope will help us succeed. How can we get the public\'s trust when they can\'t even really participate? We are improving that every single day. <br /><br />The Chat with the Chair is designed to focus on all municipalities, 19 municipalities, but with an eye on suburbs. The city of Milwaukee is our biggest municipality, but the suburbs are where we need to do a little work. They do live in Milwaukee County and they use our services. I will be reaching out to them to see how we can improve our relationship. <br /><strong><br />Shepherd: </strong>A lot of them voted to downsize the board in an advisory referendum.<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic:</strong> I do disagree with you on that. I don\'t think it was a lot of them. I think that when you look at the percentage83% of the people living in Milwaukee County didn\'t even opine on it. Just a fraction even voted on it. I realize that the votes were high but I don\'t think it was a true representation of countywide opinion. <br /><br />I just want to remind you that there were similar countywide referenda that had high participation, like dedicated funding for transit and parks [in November 2008], which have been completely ignored. At the end of the day I\'m still focused on that because it was a countywide referendum.<br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>How would you characterize your relationship with the county executive?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic: </strong>We are working on our communication. We met this week. We specifically laid out a plan for how our offices will be communicating. I will be meeting with the county executive personally at least once a month. Our chiefs of staff will be meeting weekly. We decided that communication is our priority and that this is how we\'ll communicate. We didn\'t get to issues. But I believe that before you can get to issues you have to establish how you\'re going to communicate. <br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>You\'ve represented Bay View and the south shore for eight years, but now as board chair you have a broader outlook. How are you going to manage the two?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic: </strong>It\'s interesting. I think that the Chat with the Chair will help. I\'ll admit itI\'m a South Sider. I like the Bay View bubble. I shop at the Outpost and I like a good beer at the Sugar Maple. <br /><br />But now I have a reason to put extra miles on the car. That\'s why I\'m over extending myself with the Chat with the Chair. I\'m going specifically to meet with officials [in other suburbs] to have listening sessions. As county supervisor, I\'ve done over 140 listening sessions. That\'s the same trait I\'m bringing here. I\'m still going to have listening sessions in my own district but I\'m taking that concept [countywide] because I can see the value of it. I think that\'s going to give me the information I need. When I go to Glendale or Franklin, I can already guess that it\'s not going to be like my Bay View or south side town hall meeting. <br /><br />Also, my district has changed significantly. Not so much in land, but in racial makeup. I now have a minority-majority district. I think that\'s what will make me a good leader here. <br /><br />We have a very diverse county. I\'ve been talking a lot about unity on the board but I will be incredibly focused on the diversity that we have. I\'ll be reflecting that in my staff, reflecting that in leadership and in how we deliver services. I can tell you I\'m already working on making sure that we have one staff person who is committed to Spanish-speaking needs. That hits home with me. My husband just became a citizen, so diversity is all around me.<br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>So much of the county\'s business is determined by state business. How are you going to build a better relationship with lawmakers who frequently shaft Milwaukee?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic:</strong> That\'s true. It\'s hard to keep up with it because it\'s constantly changing. I\'m hoping that any change that happens at the state is pro-Milwaukee County, because it has not been that way. <br /><br />We have a unique asset in that we now have a new supervisor, David Cullen, who has over 20 years [experience at the state]. This gentleman brings such a wealth of knowledge. Already he\'s had me thinking of things. <br /><br />And our Intergovernmental Relations Committee is going to have a new focus. It\'s going to work vertically but it\'s also going to work horizontally. By that I mean working with all municipalities and further uniting Milwaukee County so it\'s not just Milwaukee. So that when we do go to the state to lobby for things we are stronger. It\'s not just Milwaukee that uses the bus. It\'s Milwaukee County. <br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>Speaking of the bus systemwhat are we going to do?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic: </strong>This is probably one of my most pressing issues. It\'s come up in almost all of my conversations with supervisors and in our campaigns. We have what I like to refer to as a Band-Aid. That\'s the CMAQCongestion Mitigation and Air Quality [Improvement program] Band-Aid. Which is great. I can tell you that people in my district are loving the express routes. We have the Green Line. It\'s amazing. It\'s wonderful to go to the airport on it. We\'re trying to get luggage racks on it. I took it from the airport to Bayshore and it was amazingyou could get there in 45 minutes. It was insane. <br /><br />That\'s all good, but what is the future ahead of us? I think we\'ve got a good year or so in the budget but we need to focus on long-term sustainability. I\'m ready and willing to renew the effort of the referendum. The results have been ignored. It\'s time to have a new spirited, united approach. I really believe that one of the only solutions facing us regarding transit is dedicated funding. Where that comes fromwell, the voters said they were OK with it coming from a sales tax. But without dedicated funding I don\'t know what our future is. That\'s our only option at this point. <br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>Is regional transit completely dead?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic:</strong> It appears to be at the state. We don\'t control that, obviously. We can\'t say if we\'re pro or against regional transit. My number one concern is Milwaukee County. I\'m much less concerned with regional projects. I just want to make sure that our buses are running and moving every day. I know that we\'re at a crossroads, but I have to mention that we also have other exciting things. The bike racks are being used. We have new clean diesel buses. They\'re nice and clean and quiet. We used federal stimulus money for that. We have a good infrastructure but we have to find a way to fund it long term. <br /><br /><strong>Shepherd: </strong>What about the mental health redesign?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic: </strong>I sat on that committee; it was chaired at that time by Supervisor Sanfelippo. That\'s a lingering issue. In this last budget, the county board agreed with the county executive. He put $3 million into community-based services. We supported that because we believe that no matter what you do at the Mental Health Complexdownsizing is the way that the report was leaning towardbut I will not and the members of this board will not downsize until we simultaneously build up the community. It has to be a simultaneous exchange. <br /><br />The building up is going on. We have a $3 million investment. But even if we downsize, what are we going to do with our current building? And if we choose to build a newer downsized facility on the county grounds, where does that money come from? We\'ve talked about selling the other one. This is an issue that I care about but it\'s an issue that the Health and Human Needs and the Finance committees will deal with. It\'s something I will discuss with my leadership team. But it\'s out there. It needs to be dealt with this year. <br /><br /><strong>Shepherd:</strong> Did you ask your predecessor, Lee Holloway, for advice?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic: </strong>I\'ve wished him well on his retirement. A lot of different people have sat in this chair. I\'m very different. I\'m the second woman and the youngest ever. Honestly, I\'m just focused on the future. I\'m naturally different. I\'m going to be different. People selected me because I\'m different. But it\'s not that I\'m different than him. I\'m different from any other predecessor. Instead of putting so much focus on him, I\'d like to focus on the future. But I do wish him well in his retirement. <br /><br /><strong>Shepherd:</strong> Do you think you will ever not be the youngest person to do something?<br /><br /><strong>Dimitrijevic: </strong>Well, I was the youngest supervisor [at 22]. Then Eyon Biddle came in and he was slightly younger than me. If I\'m not mistaken, we now have two supervisors who are currently younger than me, David Bowen and Deanna Alexander. I still hold the record of being the youngest woman elected and the youngest chair. I used to be the second youngest, now I\'m the third. <br /><br />
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