http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/57666737.html

Dawn Sass, the current Wisconsin state treasurer, is not very professional, what with the (1) hiring of relatives on the state payroll, (2) not coming to work to mow the lawn, and (3) not reporting travel funded by others.

There’s a big backlog of unclaimed property held by the state (which is the primary job of the state treasurer to fix).   Dawn doesn’t know when it’s going to be fixed, because she was in California last week:

As the state treasurer’s office tried to eliminate the biggest backlog of unclaimed property requests in at least a decade, state Treasurer Dawn Marie Sass headed to California.

Sass spent much of last week at the posh St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point, Calif., for the National Association of State Treasurers annual meeting. In addition to attending informational sessions and giving a talk on Wisconsin’s unclaimed property program, Sass went on a two-hour sea-life cruise.

Sass did not disclose on her state ethics statements that she attended similar corporate-funded conferences in 2007 and 2008. The state’s ethics enforcement agency said it was unclear whether the travel needed to be disclosed, although such disclosure is generally required under state law.

The trip comes at a time when Sass’ office is rife with tension over the hiring of her niece and other family members for temporary jobs, as well as a wave of job vacancies for permanent positions. The niece spent some of her five-week stint on the job traveling with the treasurer, even though she was supposed to be processing claims and working at the office’s front desk.

There’s more in the article; the jist of it is that Dawn is kind of an embarrassment to the state.  Good thing CYPers can meet the next Wisconsin state treasurer Jason Punzel at our September 29th happy hour (stay tuned for details).  Jason is a real professional who is going to clean up the property backlog and allow Wisconsin families to have more ways to save and invest for college.