A Milwaukee Common Council panel recommended paying former Water Works employee Amy Purvis $67,000 after Purvis filed a sex discrimination suit against the city alleging she was retaliated against for complaining about sexual harassment at the water works facilities.

The city Water Works has long been considered a bastion of testosterone-laden bigotry, including a well-publicized case earlier this century where male workers repeatedly wrote derogatory statements about a female co-worker on walls at one of the plants.

City Attorney Grant Langley recommended that the city go for the pay-off even though, "Water Works denies that Ms. Purvis was subjected to any discrimination or retaliation."

Michael Murphy was the only alderman to oppose the settlement.

Givens Getting Cold Feet: While some prominent local attorneys want to be associated with the defense of Ald. Michael McGee, a most important one does not.

That happens to be his defense attorney, Glenn Givens Jr.

It could be viewed as a tactic to avoid justice, since Givens' latest request to bail out of McGee's defense would delay the trial past election day, but Givens has tried to get out of this case before.

Givens says he has a conflict with McGee, something he claimed last year in trying to get out of the case. That conflict has not prevented Givens from acting as a private investigator for McGee on certain liquor license issues while the alderman sits in jail awaiting trial.

Local immigration and criminal defense attorney Art Heitzer sent out an invitation for a McGee fundraiser slated for this week, noting, "Ald. McGee has been incarcerated without bail since Memorial Day 2007, while those accused of violent offenses with seriously injured alleged victims are often given bail. Meanwhile, his constituents continue to be denied representation."

Airport Anachronism: Putting another runway at Mitchell Field is part of the plan to replace the 440th Airwing, but not everybody is happy. A neighborhood group next to the airport wants to move a private airline service from the northern edge of the airport. Second Harvest, Milwaukee Area Technical College and other groups are interested in using some of the buildings left over by the Airwing.

"Move the fixed base operator and aircraft maintenance facilities out of our back yards and over to a place that was actually designed to handle aircraft. Consider it a land swap that would improve the quality of life for a lot of people," says neighbor Jim Baker.

"People around here usually aren't complainers, but this is nothing more than poorly planned insanity. ... Positive steps must be taken to reduce the environmental burden being placed on adjacent homeowners. City of Milwaukee noise and noxious fumes ordinances are being violated on a regular basis with seeming impunity."

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