"We vote too red, we are too white and we are too green, meaning we vote too red, our skin is too white and we have too much green in our pockets," Schoemann. "We will not qualify for a nickel of that."
"It’s an embarrassing fact that apparently the kids in Washington County matter less somehow than the kids in every other place that have lead laterals," he added.
The Germantown Community Coalition (GCC) and Just Us of Washington County (JUWC) issued a joint statement Wednesday condemning the remarks.
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"We call on Mr. Schoemann to do better," the statement read. "As County Executive of Washington County, we believe Mr. Schoemann should represent all people of Washington County without bias. He can begin to repair the damage caused by his comments by issuing an apology and agreeing to attend the upcoming Unconscious Bias workshop with Derek Mosley being held in Germantown on November 13. We welcome him, his staff, and others with similar views to join us in learning and reflecting on ways in which learned stereotypes show up in our daily lives and how we can mitigate those biases.”
Schoemann, who recently announced his re-election campaign, defended his comments and insisted they were not racist.
“It’s no secret that the state of Wisconsin’s focus on replacing lead lateral lines has not been Washington County, and it’s not racist to call that out," he said, "so I will fight to put Washington County resources into fixing our lead lateral lines."
An official with the state's Department of Natural Resources Environmental told the newspaper that Washington County, a largely suburban area northwest of Milwaukee, did not qualify as disadvantaged under its criteria.
“The principal forgiveness (grant) portion of the funding can only be awarded to municipalities that qualify under our disadvantaged criteria, or to projects in targeted census tracts that qualify as disadvantaged,” said Becky Scott, the department's loan section manager. “West Bend as a whole does not qualify, so would only be eligible for low interest loan funding (0.25 percent for LSL replacements or inventory work) unless they submit a project in a disadvantaged census tract.”
