***Update Posted July 6, 2022 @ 5:01pm. Billingsley’s official start date with the County is August 1, 2022. She will be working with the City Until July 28, 2022. KCE was provided with an updated Executive order that lists the correct start date.***
Shelly Billingsley was hired by the Kenosha Public Works department in 2003 where she worked as an engineer for 7 years. She was promoted to the position of Assistant City Engineer in 2010 and City Engineer in 2012. Mayor John Antaramian has a close friendship with Billingsley while he was a private citizen and promised Billingsley he would promote her to Director of Public Works if he was elected mayor in 2016. He was and he did.
Since 2016, Billingsley has been criticized by Aldermen and other City Officials for botching many serious public works projects.
For example, Billingsley oversaw the brand new velodrome construction and cracks starting forming almost immediately. The City and contractor worked out a deal to split the cost of the fix. Taxpayers were on the hook for her mistakes.
Billingsley’s public works department oversaw the building of the Dream Playground Project where the floor began to fail weeks after installation and the City had to battle the contractor, Magill Construction, and the City taxpayers were on the hook for some of the cost to redo the floor.
Billingsley’s public works department oversaw the downtown sidewalks and road projects that tore down beautiful trees and had sidewalks crack and deteriorate soon after construction. One City official told KCE, “Shelly is good for at least one major mistake per month.” Still, her relationship with the mayor kept her in place. Billingsley seemingly had a hard time with minor tasks also. She had trouble getting a “no parking” sign installed at the senior center. She only had one erected after an Alderman drafted an ordinance forcing her to act. She also got tired of requests from Aldermen (which is her job) and tried to complain about a “hostile work environment.”
23 Responses
More of the same, Kenosha needs new blood not retreads they are failures! Its ashamed that tax payers are always stuck paying for incompetence because of nepotism.
Thats because we have that AMC union mentality still here. Too many people think that the democrats are for the workingman.
They couldnt be more wrong.
If these imbeciles dont change their voting ways it will never change. There is A LOT of stupid voting in Kenosha and it is only getting worse.
Also, get your kids out of KUSD. These people are all communist idiots.
I must be missing something. Isn’t Samantha Kirkman the new county executive? Isn’t she part of the new red wave that is supposed to change things? It seems that Republicans can be same as Democrats in perpetuating and maintaining corruption and nepotism. She needs to be criticized with the same zeal as the mayor. This is a Kenosha thing: The absurdly of competing for an incompetent employee. Only in Kenosha!
Samantha Kirkman has been in office for about 2.7 months, since April 19. She has barely had time to get read in on her job. But you make a great point: after all, it only took Sniffy Biden one day after inauguration to totally destroy US energy independence and the US economy.
You guys (like most of America) have started to get too caught up in red versus blue. This is happening on gun control, local politics, etc.
The bottom line is vote EVERYONE out who is in government now…red or blue. They are not getting the job done. End of story. They either suck at their job or don’t suck at their job but spend all of their time turning every issue into a political issue instead of fixing it. Either way, they aren’t fixing anything and are useless.
Totally True, the root of the problem is with the Communist who repeatedly utters “vote blue, no matter who” and the useful idiots that do.
Not grinding out your own agenda are we.
How about just hire qualified people. Your comments towards teachers is a bit trumpian, but you want arm those communists to protect your groomed spawn.
She’s horrible. She screwed me on my house. We had occupancy in 2008, everything was fine. Suddenly in 2013 the yard wasn’t graded correctly, and we had to regrade it at a cost of 5,000.00, or be fined by the city daily until fixed. I was home from giving birth the day she started in with me, I sat outside nursing a newborn to get them to stop destroying my yard with a bobcat. City employees are dead from tbt neck up
She effed with me in a similar way. I had a preferred city contractor do grading and concrete at my house. I was upgrading and beautifying my home (not to mention fixing some janky pre-existing haphazard DIY job). While I was out of town at a work conference, she started “investigating” the work because my neighbor (with weeds 3 feet tall, a cracked foundation and one violation away from living in a condemned house) complained that the grade was ruined and water was leaking into her basement. Thankfully, my contractor had dealt with her before and showed her all the necessary data from that laser detailed measurements he had done. At any rate, someone shouldn’t be messed with because they are trying to make things better. Why don’t you focus on the shitty looking houses/properties and fuck with those owners!
Steinbrink has issues to deal with but even people who don’t like him or his family say that he did a good job in Pleasant Prairie.
Kevin,
There’s a signature missing below on the Executive Order. Please post the entire, full length Executive Order.
Hey JimBob. This is all I was provided. I will try to get the entire document.
That is not true. A lot of village residents don’t like him and think he did a poor job and all the employees in parks, public works and highway know the corners Steinbrink cut. Residents just don’t know what a complete fraud he was, not to mention what a terrible person he is and how many stellar employees were lost because of how they were treated. If you think Steinbrink did right by the village you have no clue what has truly transpired. The piece of shit may get off due to the democrat DA in Racine but nobody can protect him from the state from falsifying DNR documents. You think stealing from village tax payers makes him a great guy and he did good? He had kickbacks everywhere. Where did all the money go from the scrap metal that would be turned in? Probably the same place as all the village Menard’s rebates…his pockets. He is a criminal and deserves to wear orange the rest of his life.
Compare Pleasant Prairie streets after a snow storm to the city’s. Whether Steinbrink, jr. is liked or not or did things he should not have done are separate issues and he should be held accountable if there’s evidence to prosecute. I don’t think he’s a great guy but you can sure tell in the winter where the village part of a road is clear and the city’s is snow covered. A lot of people thought Trump was a corrupt jerk but which president had the better economy and affordable gas? Don’t read more into it.
Just checked VPP website. Steinbrink’s job not posted but there are several Public Works jobs open. Who has been running that department in his absence?
The streets are cleared because public works employees were forced to stay in for every snow storm from the first flake to the last. Working upwards of 36 hours at a time. (Not an exaggeration) it might look nice for the residents who wake up in the morning with clear streets but think of the torment some of the PW crew go through both mentally and physically being awake and working for that long. Operating a 30,000 lb machine at that state of awareness is asking for disaster.
John abused his workers and made them work too many hours which is dangerous and against the law. Yeah the roads might have been clear compared to Kenosha but they appear to follow safety rules and care about their employees and the law – Jr. didn’t give a shit. Glad
Village resident support the abuse of employees just so their precious streets are cleaner than Kenosha’s.
We’ll that confirms why we can’t get 1 road fixed in this town. No I’m not talking about the highway 50 project. How about 30th, 39th, Sheridan and Green Bay? All major roads of travel and all horrible. Pot holes, asphalt/concrete mixed, water utility diggs a hole then patches by driving over it, never gets fixed correctly. 1 department point to another, nothing ever gets done. Exhausting.
Drive any road in Kenosha that is enough to not hire her!!
Does she have the votes?
People being hired into positions because they know someone, not because they are qualified for the job or have a proven track record of accomplishments in that area. How many of you Biden voters are willing to post today that you love Biden/Harris and proclaim that they and their administration are doing a great job for America. Steinbrink Jr was a bad hire 27 years ago and should have been let go several times for several different reasons, over his 27 years. John Jr. knew someone (MP) who was best friends with his daddy. Hiring people or electing people because they check a box is not good policy or good for any type of business public or private. Quality work means doing it right when no one is looking. Obviously, the city, and Village have not been looking at the overall quality of work from these individuals over the years. Sadly, we will all suffer because this individual was promoted to a bigger position that she is not qualified for because a box needed to be checked. Same situation with America, ask yourself how that is working out for you Biden/Harris voters, at the gas pump, at the grocery store, on the southern border etc.
Wasn’t she the one that was behind the digging out of Lincoln Park Lagoon that eventually ended up costing the taxpayers over $1.2 million dollars?
The city leadership is a complete clusterf*ck, with the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, while the right hand is busy helping the mayor jerk himself off. The county isn’t run the same way, so maybe give Mrs. Billingsley a fighting chance to succeed before writing her off as a failure…