A supervisor on the Milwaukee County Board confirmed contracts and illegal negotiations were ongoing between the board and Milwaukee’s largest union Monday.

Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Deanna Alexander confirmed closed session contract negotiation occurred with Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Alexander, who said she has served on the Milwaukee County Board’s finance committee for at least a year, said closed session contract negotiation occurs during every monthly board meeting.

Starting in April, Alexander said Dimitrijevic prohibited the board from going into closed session due to recent news reports accusing the board of illicit union talks. Alexander explained contract negotiations have been kept in closed session to keep them secret from the public.

“If we were negotiating a contract, we could not have that with the public because then the entity which we were negotiating with would know what our plans were,” Alexander said.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele’s spokesperson Brendan Conway some members of the Milwaukee County Board, including Chair Marina Dimitrijevic, claim they never directed the labor negotiator to come to terms with the union.

Still, Conway also confirmed collective bargaining negotiations between the two groups took place.

“It’s pretty clear from all the facts on the table that they did authorize negotiations,” Conway said, noting he cannot say what agreements occurred because they all happened in closed session.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele emailed the Milwaukee County Board March 22 expressing distress over the board’s March 14 meeting actions, according to Conway.

“What the county executive is concerned with is we should not be talking to, meeting with, negotiating with… a decertified union,” Conway said. “Post-Act 10, there aren’t unions, except for police and fire unions and all employees should be treated the same.”

While Abele’s criticism of the board’s negotiation with AFSCME is unrelated to the Assembly’s vote next month to restrict the board’s budget, power and salary of supervisors, Conway said that is not the case for Senate President Mike Ellis, R-Neenah.

According to Conway, Ellis said on conservative talk show host Mark Belling’s radio program Dimitrijevic’s inability to come clean on the Milwaukee County Board’s decision to disregard state laws and negotiate with unions drove him to support the county board overhaul.

While Alexander said she would like to see a few amendments to the bill, she said she supports the legislative measure overall.

“Assembly Bill 85 and Senate Bill 95 really, at their heart, just restore powers to the county executive that he or she was originally intended to have,” Alexander said.

AFSCME Council 48 Executive Director Rich Abelson acknowledged the union has been in communication with the county board, but he denied allegations these talks were about contract negotiations. However, Conway said a contract administrator of that union, David Eisner, confirmed contract negotiations occurred.

Abelson said his union is currently moving forward with proceedings for four lawsuits regarding pensions and benefits to public employees against Milwaukee County. Only union members would receive the reimbursement or back pay from the settlements should the union win the cases, however, not all public workers would be affected.

Abele said in a statement he believes the county will win the lawsuit, but if not, the impact of the ruling will extend beyond only union members. He also said not to trust Abele’s promises to county workers.

“Any employee who trusts Chris Abele to take care of them is incredibly na?ve,” Abelson said.