The Community and Economic Development Committee of the Milwaukee Common Council met on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, from 1:35 PM to 2:01 PM in City Hall, Room 301-B. Chair Alderman Russell W. Stamper II presided, with all five members present (Stamper, Dimitrijevic, Jackson, Chambers Jr., and Moore). The committee considered nine agenda items, including an ordinance to add youth members to an advisory council, appointments to Business Improvement District #51 and the Milwaukee Arts Board, and a resolution accepting a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for regional food systems. All votes were unanimous (5-0).
Economic development committee. I'm your chairman Alderman Stanford to my right. Further's right is Alderman Chambers to his left is Order Woman Dimitri Avis. We've just been joined by Order Woman Moore. Welcome. And uh we are here with Alderman Jackson and our trusted assistant, Miss Carmen. We're gonna get started with number one, two five zero six five nine. This is a substitute ordinance relating to the membership of the emerging youth achievement advisory council. We are here joined by the chief of staff for the president, Mr. Clifton Crump. Cliff, you want to tell us about this membership. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Committee members, uh Clifton Crump, Policy and Administration Director for President Perez. I'm gonna read a brief statement uh that he prepared um in relation to this item. Uh I'm a firm believer that youth must be at the table when they are being discussed to that end on April 21st. The council approved a partnership with Milwaukee Succeeds that will, amongst other things assist in identifying youth that are interested in seeking board task force or council memberships via Milwaukee Succeeds youth training model for board readiness. Uh, this legislation proposed is proposed in concert with that resolution as we seek to add two youth members, likely high school graduates, uh, to the emerging youth achievement advisory council. Uh big picture wise, we collectively need to engage youth uh to hopefully stay in Milwaukee and become more civically engaged. This is one method to do so. So we've been talking about doing this for quite some time. Um had various iterations of it. Uh we shortened the term to two years just because of the uh young young people tend to move around. Um, and so that's one of the most recent changes we've made to it. Um we'll be flexible with the times as well as we uh make future agendas, but again, the purpose is to have uh younger people at the table when we're making decisions about the future. Excellent. Yeah, this conversation derived from the few meetings that we've had at the council, and one of the biggest concerns was uh adults not engaging youth for what the youth want or what the youth want to see. So I support this. Thank you for your leadership on this, Cliff. And uh, you've been right with us from the beginning with the emerging uh youth council. So I'll open it up to my colleagues for any questions or comments. Yes. Okay, Alderman uh chambers moves for approval, but we do have comments by Alder Woman Moore. Right? Uh yes, yes. I just had a um comments. I just want to echo your sentiments as well, Mr. Chair. Of course. Um, this obviously, you know, I love what you said, Cliff. We cannot have um opportunities for young people without young people being at the table. Right. And so um I am hoping that you know, so when we say that, and I hope that we don't say that just as a the just as buzzwords, but it also has to go into action by number one uh making sure that those young people there's some sort of small stipend um that they receive um in addition to making sure that the meetings are convenient, you know, for them depending on the age group or population, you know, um that you're looking to serve, whether it's high school or college age. Uh, but that you all, you know, that the group really push themselves to make sure that they um um structure you know the the meetings to support um young people's input. But thank you all so much for moving forward on this. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I was just gonna comment and I deal well, and I know all the woman more is very uh involved with the youth council, and I deal well. This is a this is the next step for them. That's as they begin to learn more about Roberts' rules and procedures and budgets.