On March 20th.

We will now begin the finance and personnel committee.

I'm Alder Woman Marina Dmitrievich, the chairwoman.

I'm joined by Vice Chairperson Alderman Peter Bergellis.

Virtually, we have Alderman Scott Spiker, Alder Woman Melee Lake Hoggs, and we're also joined by Alderwoman Charlotte Moore.

That provides us a quorum we need to move forward today.

Today's kind of a unique scheduling day.

We had zoning at 9 and this committee a little bit later on a Friday when also there's no Milwaukee public schools, so it's all kinds of fun stuff at once.

And I say that to remind us all that we're going to try to get through what is a pretty lengthy agenda as best as we can and as fast as we can, but still doing the people's business.

We'll start with item number one.

And we do have some excuse me, some time slots that we'll really try very hard to abide by.

So what I'm saying is please work with me, people here.

Item number one 25002 substitute resolution to ratify and confirm the final agreement between the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Police Supervisors organization.

It looks like we do need to go into closed session.

We do not not unless questions would lead us there.

Otherwise, we do not.

Okay, and I understand Department of Employee Relations.

We have Ms.

Fleck here.

Maybe your name one more time.

I know I spoke to you on the phone too.

Oh, yeah.

Bob Sanders here from Department of Employee Relations as well.

Right.

You got that for your notes.

Um assistant city attorney's office.

Assistant of City Attorney.

I was thinking that, but I said the other thing.

Um thank you.

So yes.

So we have the city attorney's office and department of employee relations and labor.

Ms.

Fleck, I think you were able to brief everyone on the committee.

Is that I was able to catch up with everyone but Alder Women Cogs.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, I guess the question is if I mean if we need to go into closed session, we have it.

Um I'd want to see what the body thinks.

Um it is okay.

So remind me, if we're at this point where we're gonna ratify and confirm, what do you feel comfortable sharing in public now?

Um so I will basically go over the summary of wage infringed benefits.

Um, and then if you all have any questions, we'll address those questions and then if it needs to go into closed session based on those questions, that's yeah, questions or strategy.

Okay.

Okay, let's do that then.

I'm sorry, I just needed a little refresher myself because I felt that I had the briefing.

So why don't you go ahead, Ms.

Fleck, and give us the update here?

Sure.

Um, so this would be a three-year term, and that would cover January 1st of 2025 through December 31st of 2027.

Um for base salary, there would be um pay period one of 2025, a two percent increase, pay period 14 of 2025, a 2% increase.

That will include retro pay.

I want to make that clear.

In pay period one of 2026, there would be a 3.25% increase.

And then there would also be the implementation of a 1% residency incentive that would be a prospective implementation.

There would be no retro on the 1%.

Okay.

And then in pay period one of 2027, there is a three percent increase.

Um, there is a change to Article 7, which is a contract enforcement procedure.

It adds a um time frame that a meeting with the chief needs to be scheduled within for overtime.

It will reduce the court overtime minimum of 2.5 hours at time and a half to two hours at time and a half for funeral leave.

Um, again, this is a prospective implementation.

It increases the leave from three to four days, um, and then it allows the use of those days in a different way than it had previously.

So you can use it immediately following the date of death proceeding or following the services, memorial funeral, um, or split between either one of those things.

Um equipment effective for this calendar year.

It would increase from uh $375 to $500.

Tuition and textbook reimbursement.

There is a limit on a 150 dollar limit on what the members can use for membership dues.

Now that is not union dues, it's membership dues in professional organizations.

We are going to be eliminating that cap.

Um, and then contract administration is that police liaison officer.

Um is being added that says that they will get an MPD ID badge that will give them also building access that may be be required and then allow them to uh attend the in service that is required to maintain their LESB certification.

Um which they already do.

The union just asked to have that codified.

Uh and then there's a new article for longevity pay.

This would uh be for this calendar year, and it would start with um 15 years of service but less than 20.

Employees would get a 550 dollar uh payment, 20 years of service but less than 25 would be a 900 payment, and then 25 plus tiers of service would be a $1,500 payment.

Um then we have one other piece tied into this agreement, which is um a settlement of a wage reopener that we had with this group in their 2324 contract.

Um what that would be is for current members in active service who um were represented by the union upon implementation of this agreement would receive uh a retroactive lump sum payment, uh which would be for 2023 of 1.875 percent in pay period one of pay period one.

That would be so it would be for pay period one of 13 213 in 2023, and then they would receive a 1.875 percent lump sum for pay periods 14 through 26 of 2023.

So overall it's an increase of 3.75, and I shouldn't say increase, it's a lump sum payment, it's not an increase.

Um, and it wouldn't so it would not apply though to anyone who has retired who um has left the union either through resignation or promotion into a higher rank that is outside the union, um, and then it would also not apply to a subset of of members who supervise detectives who have their current rates of pay um determined based off of the detective rank, um, and therefore they've already received a retro because of the MPA settlement previously.

So for those three groups of people, they're not part of this settlement.

Um that that concludes the summary.

Okay.

Do you know off top of your head what is the average salary of a police supervisor?

I just want for the public listening that this is like a very different set of people with a different set of experience.

Um, you know, not necessarily the one on like a proactive patrol, it's a little bit different.

Correct.

Um roughly, what would that be?

I do not, Brian.

Or how many people okay?

Well, while you're in that same spreadsheet, the reason I'm asking that is also like all the member Gauss was mentioning how many people, but furthermore, I'm specifically um questioning about the 3.75% per the wage opener on the Milwaukee Police Association contract.

Um, I wanted to know the fiscal note on that because that's weighing heavily on my own decision, and uh while you're looking for that, um I was not able to support the Milwaukee Police Association contract.

And this is because of 12,000 712,000.

Yeah, that's to settle to close the reopener language from the prior contract to match the retro pay MPA got.

Yeah, but it's oh, but with the restrictions, Nicole outlined.

Right, so thank you.

So my point is I was not able to support the Milwaukee Police Association contract, this last one, and this is directly related to that that they had the opener, and then were able to obtain the 3.75% retro, which is now from 2023, and we're in 2026, costing the taxpayers 712,000 dollars.

Um it's a fact.

So, like for me, if I didn't like one, it's kind of hard for me to support the opener that's part of that for this group.

How many individuals does this impact?

Like roughly.

So there's about 269 members in the MPSO.

There's about between 30 and 40 that this would the reopener would not apply to okay.

So to give 3.75% to about 200 people, is what I'm understanding.

It's gonna cost us three quarters of a million dollars.

Potentially, yes.

If we if we played this out and ended up in arbitration over this, and we're the arbitrator awarded the full 4% that was in the MPSO agreement for 2023, that would bring the cost up to about 1.4 million.

So it's about half the our total risk.

And now this raises with this wage opener, wouldn't it raise the floor for the future negotiations?

Because this is again it's a sum payment, it's not a base building increase.

What Ms.

Fleck in this agreement did the MPSO not get that they wanted.

Um that goes back a long way.

Um just a big ticket item, I just want to know something you know, I get that it's a product of a lot of negotiations, but like what would be the one large thing that they wanted that was modified.

Uh-huh.

Or do you not is that more of a closed session question?

Yeah.

Okay.

We do have an answer to your this is for all union members base wage, no overtime, not fringe up is 114,000.

Average member of the of this union and Milwaukee Police Supervisors organization.

Okay.

So let me say that again.

Roughly 200 people that do not mostly live in the city of Milwaukee per the data.

I only speak the data here.

Um the average salary average is a six-figure over a hundred thousand dollars.

For those couple hundred people, majority not city of Milwaukee, that would be a three quarter roughly three quarters of a million dollar on top of everything else we talked about, retro um lump sum.

Okay.

My last thing, and then I want to pass it is um remind me of this process.

Did they already ratify this?

They did, they ratified, I believe, last week Wednesday.

Okay, letters.

Okay, yeah.

I just wanted to make sure because I think we talked before that happened.

Okay, great.

All right, let me open it up for any other questions.

Um chair.

Um something unique in this contract that we haven't seen, I don't think, um, is the residency incentive one percent.

Correct.

Um what's the fiscal impact of that?

How many people does it impact?

Um is residency a problem for the police supervisors.

There are 81 individuals that this would impact that live within the city of that are members of the MPSO.

Out of 269?

Correct.

So not even a third so not even a third of the police supervisors in the city of Milwaukee live in the city of Milwaukee.

Correct.

Um sounds like uh one percent is a nice start, but um why wasn't a a bigger um why was it more attention given to residency?

One percent I guess the the fiscal note might say something around 155,000 a year, but um why wasn't more considered I think since this was our first soiree into doing any type of residency incentive with the union.

For any kind of union contract.

Correct.

Um we thought it was just a good place to start and that we could build off of that, as well as looking at other incentives that may not be uh a base building payment.

Okay, um, Madam Chair, just for clarification, the finance committee doesn't have a line item veto, correct?

We can't pick and choose what we want to support and what we don't want to support.

It's either a yes or a no on the entire agreement.

Well, um right.

I don't think we have the ability to amend these, but the essence of rejection has it going back to the the drawing table, right?

Yes.

Okay, from what I understand.

And and to be fair, um this impacts 269 people out of 1,569 sworn um police officers.

Yes, this contract only affects the 269.

Okay.

Um does the one percent residency then start a precedent for other union contracts, 215 or whatever else is coming up next.

I am assuming it will certainly open the door to bigger discussions on residency with both of the other unions.

Yes.

But those other unions don't have abysmal residency numbers like the police supervisors do.

Not great.

Their resident their residency numbers are are not great, but they're better than MPSO.

I mean, yes, but they're also larger unions.

So the impact would be more money.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, with all the respect to solve for that, you look at a proportional percentage.

So like also I think what's challenging about this is the it's a unique set of people because it's such a high income.

There's no one else in the organization.

I get it only you only get there from many, many years of experience, so I totally recognize that.

But I think what the allerman's trying to say is is that, and I'm trying to remember these slides from budget time.

We did ask that, we're going to ask it again this year, and we looked at it.

Um it it does seem it did seem that MPSO is percentage-wise on the least residency side.

Percent, and I'm gonna talk about people percentage.

Like this is look sounds like off the top of my napkin, it's like 26% or something.

Yeah, it could be.

I actually sent the you said it was 80 people, right?

Because I'm sure you're sure you did the map to figure out what the one percent would cost.

Yeah, we didn't so 80 of 27.

And then I mean, I don't have it in front of me, but I even think that the city of Milwaukee police officers may have had a better percentage than that.

I know that all three unions are under 50.

I don't know.

Right.

I mean, I guess the question is what is the sliding scale of abysmal?

MP MPA is uh 38 percent.

And uh MPSO is 30.

Okay.

And you still have the floor, Alder Member Gallus.

Thank you.

Just briefly, I um uh kudos uh to you, Ms.

Fleck for for doing this.

I think I would be a terrible budget or uh a terror, I think I would be a terrible labor negotiator because I would not add any increase that was not residency dependent.

So um uh although I may not agree with everything in this package, I think there's a strong start for a new precedent in the city.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Um Alder Woman Moore did not have anything.

I'm gonna go to our two members that are on virtually in case they need anything.

Um Alderman Scott Spiker or Alder Woman Melee Lake Hogs.

Anything on item one, the contract of MPSO.

No.

Okay.

Thank you, Alderwoman.

Alderman Spiker, anything?

Uh yes, thank you, madam chair.

So uh with respect to the residency that had been, I guess, talked about in the past.

What you know, if if giving somebody a one percent residency made them move into the city, that would be one thing.

Giving it to those as a reward who stayed put is a different matter.

Is there any indication that this would make people who are advanced in their career suddenly move into Milwaukee?

Well, we haven't implemented it yet, so I guess that we don't have any data.

Um, I think in intuitively I could say probably not, but I do think the whole the my whole thought process was it's it's a start to get to something that will encourage um people to potentially move back, or I think it's also a start to get to the new hires to get them to move in, even though they're not members of this union.

I think it's uh it's a place to start.

Is there any interest, which I would hope there would be in testing intuitions with reality and seeing if this has any sort of impact on the percent that end up living in the city because of course the numbers may keep getting more abysmal.

Um right now I think 70% of captains live outside the city.

Yes, I think we'll you don't know that excuse me, we're implementing this, we can begin to to track and see what if any changes um may happen.

So what I'm so the amount of money that we're talking about for the what was it 80 that live in the city?

81.

Yes.

Um we just saw with the retro pay issue with MPSO, wanting what MPA got um for 23.

Um that uh it's a copycat league and MPA, you know.

If one percent residency is offered for MPSO, uh you can bet the MPA will be looking for it.

Um so and there you get into some pretty serious money.

So before we get, I guess I would urge um before we get too adventurous with the residency pay, it'd be real nice to have some idea that it would take effect as opposed to just be um a herald we throw into the air saying we really love residency, but unless it makes people more likely to become residents, and we see that data, um we're we're as it were putting money in folks' hands without achieving the intended effect.

So I'm not entirely cured by the one percent residency bit in that I don't see at all how it makes a seasoned um management level sworn movement to the city.

I I doubt very much we'll see that um but even prospectively if you look as I have as chair of public safety in the past it at the uh the police satisfaction surveys that pertain to the sworn themselves, their reasons for not living in the city um pay isn't as I recall, even in the top five.

Um so I would just counsel, and I know Ms.

Fleck, you heard the love of residency, which I share as one of the two donor districts uh to the burbs when residency was lifted.

Um I know you hear the love for residency, but I would counsel and urge that we not just do it to do it, that we actually have some data to back up what we hope will happen, especially um given that the impact on MPA uh should that come to pass, uh would be very financially significant.

So all right, thank you, madam chair.

Okay, thank you so much.

Any other discussion by committee members on item one, the MPSO Milwaukee Police Supervisor Organization contract before us.

Any other um council members that are present that would like to speak on this matter?

Let's see, anyone else online?

Okay, and then what is the pleasure of the body?

What would be before us?

Yeah, it would be adoption to move this forward.

Adoption has been moved by Alderman Peter Bergellis on item one discussion of adoption of item one questions on adoption.

Okay, hearing none, Mr.

Clerk, please call the roll on the motion for adoption, Audible Memoir.

Aye.

Honorman Spiker.

Aye.

Auto Roman Cox.

Hi.

No.

Prevails four to one.

Four to one, four to one, and the contract now goes forward to Tuesday's council meeting.

Okay.

Thank you so much for your work on that.

Thank you.

We're now in item two, two three one six one seven, an ordinance relating to employee wages, benefits, and regulations.

Okay.

Oh, that goes along with item three, so I'll read that in as well.

Sorry.

25123.

Communication from the Department of Employee Relations, amending the salary ordinance relating to the rates of pay for battalion chief, fire deputy chief, fire, and assistant fire chief.

Ums fleck, are you speaking on that one too?

I agree.

Yes.

Please mean thank you.

Um, so the salary uh, or I'm sorry, the code changes in front of you are for um those three ranks, battalion chief, deputy chief, and assistant chief in the um fire department.

And the changes to the code are in um, I guess reflection of the last local 215 firefighters contract where some uh benefits were modified, and now I want to say that the changes proposed before you are for those um individuals that are still working a 53-hour work week um and who are promoted out of the rank and file um to take on these leadership roles.

So with that said, um there are three changes to the code of ordinances.

Um one is effective for calendar year 2026, um, for uh pay time off in lieu of holiday, the um hours that they would receive would increase to 96 hours off per calendar year.

Um, and then it would be earned at eight hours per month.

Um and if someone is off of uh payroll, then that amount is prorated based on time uh off payroll.

Um second is for sick leave control incentive uh pay, they receive again this is for 53 hour employees.

Um they currently have there's a bank of hours that they can use for sick leave control incentive, that bank will be increased um to 144 hours, and they will earn that at 24 hour increments.

Um then what I do want to point out with that is that if they have a bank at time of retirement, that bank is not paid out.

Um it has to be used or it is lost.

Um the other and final change is a change to uh vacation accrual.

Um and what it does is it changes the max accrual rate is earned a year sooner than it is currently earned.

So it's earned at uh 18 years or more of service instead of 19.

So those are the three changes to the code of ordinances.

Um and then the change to the salary ordinance is to footnotes associated with those titles, and it's in reference to the um EMT two pay for their paramedic license.

Um currently the footnote is a lump sum annual payment that is non-pensionable.

Um this would make that payment pensionable.

So again, it's not a base building payment, it's a lump sum payment, but now it would be pensionable instead of non-pensionable.

Okay.

And why do we need to make all these changes?

Um again, it it was brought to my attention through the chief officers association, um, which is a meet and confer group we have with these ranks.

And it was brought to our attention because of the changes that were made to the local 215 contract for the same um same items to bring them in line with those those employees since they are being promoted out of that group.

Um it disincentivizes people to some extent to take those promotions because they will be losing um to some extent some of their benefits.

Okay, so what let me just see here.

What um here, let me just pull this up.

The fiscal impact.

So is that is that the fiscal impact is sixty-three thousand dollars?

I'm looking at the fiscal impact note correct.

Okay.

Okay.

Hello there.

Okay.

So we're on items two and three.

Um, should we also take those together, by the way?

Chris?

I could just say we could do different actions.

Okay, we took them together because they're related, but they're separate.

Both would need an oh, I'm saying one item two needs passage, item three needs place on file.

So just want to make sure we understand what's going forward.

I looked at the fiscal note of about approximately sixty-three thousand dollars seven seventy-nine.

Um we're on item two.

Any questions on two?

Um, spiker.

Uh, any of these changes relate to pensionable compensation?

Um not for the code changes, the um code of ordinance changes.

The salary ordinance change does make something pensionable that was not previously.

And what is that again?

The five percent lump sum pay that they received for maintaining uh their paramedic license.

Um is there any indication that they would use that paramedic license to do paramedic things given their supervisory role?

Um I would throw that one to the fire department.

Sure, shears your walking fire department.

Sorry about that.

Oh, she puts it here.

Apologies are I would tell you uh thank you, uh Erin Lipsky Fire Chief Walkiefer.

I would say no, they're not going to be uh typically kneeling out in the street.

Providing paramedic services, but uh they have to supervise uh and manage and provide quality assurance and uh in some cases provide training and direction for the people that do.

Uh and it is an extremely arduous uh set of uh training courses and certifications you have to go through to get this.

So it's not something you can just walk walk in off the street and just speak the language.

Right.

And so would you right now are there any folks who have that paramedic training who acquired it once they reach supervisory rank as opposed to having it when they were as it were a regular member?

I can think of nobody that fits that.

Right.

So I would imagine that you would have the paramedic certification prior to ascending to the management rank.

And so I guess the question is um given that no new knowledge would be obtained by ascending, um, why there would be felt again it's probably small potatoes in the grand um financial scheme, but just wondering why there was felt the need to uh compensate for that when maybe the market wouldn't demand it.

Um again, it was to allow for these members not to lose out on a benefit they had when they were represented by local 215 when they moved into management.

Okay, and in general, um just for members' edification, the viewing audience when you say there is the meet and confer um requirement given um by the class here.

Uh how does that differ if at all from what MPSO is able to demand via their collective bargaining rights?

Right.

So with a meeting confer group, you know, it's not as formal for one, there aren't actual contract negotiations, it's it's conversations, it's you know, requests and so forth, and so the city takes those um requests and conversations under advisement, and depending on what comes out of it, you will see these things come in front of you.

So is there a concern on the administration's part that people will not promote unless they're treated on uh par as it were with respect to some of these things that are looking to be changed from what they had when they were non-management?

There is some concern to that.

I also think there's um a fairness that comes with it uh that we were looking at as well.

Um I would ask, you know, if Chief Lipske or Assistant Chief Parish want to weigh in as far as um how they feel the incentivizing or disincentive.

I guess before we do kick it off to them just for the administration, is the belief rooted in this is um something we need from uh point of view of we want to make sure people aren't reticent to promote when that opportunity arises, or is it a fairness concern?

Because those are two different ones we've just have discussed them ad nauseum at this committee.

Um so just wondering what the administration's stance was on that.

I believe it's both.

There's a concern of fairness, and there's a concern that we won't get um you know top-notch applicants or people interested in moving out of the represented ranks.

Okay, my last attempt at sharpening the point.

If the fairness were not a strong the wind were not something you were considering at all because you didn't care about fairness, um, then would you say, oh, uh alders here on the finance and personnel committee, we gotta make this change to ensure that people will promote because they're just not gonna do it unless you do that.

That's a hard hard one to answer because I we weren't looking at it like that, so I don't know.

I don't really know.

Okay, just trying to figure out again with the MPSO, um, just trying to poke and pull a little bit at the decision making that's going into this because this will affect you know potentially things in other contexts that are a little more financially weighty.

So thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions on item two?

Questions on item two.

So two would need passage is moved by Alderman Bergellis.

Item two is passage, discussion of passage, objections to passage.

Hearing none so ordered, and then item three that we took up as well, and discuss this in combination.

Um Alderman Virgelis moves to place it on file.

That is the appropriate appropriate motion to move it forward.

Discussion of placing item three on file.

Objections.

Hearing none so ordered.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

We're on our two o'clock agenda.

212, doing pretty good.

Item 4, 25176.

Resolution approving an agreement between the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee World Festival Incorporated regarding extra duty police services.

We are joined uh virtually, I see, by um Ms.

Heather Huff.

Okay.

Hello.

Hi there.

And I have you as the person to speak about that.

Is that right?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, do you want to take a minute or two to just give us an update on this item, Ms.

Huff?

Um, sure.

So this is our annual um world festival file that comes before the council, and it is the extra duty agreement for officers to sign up to work over time to cover uh the traffic control and stuff related to Summerfest.

Um so it is not us paying out money, it is instead us receiving monies, and um by ordinance, anything over $50,000 uh needs to come before the council for approval.

This particular contract agreement will be in excess of 176,834 for this SummerFest season.

And I can answer any questions you might have.

Okay, thank you.

So is this budgeted overtime?

It's compensated over time.

It's in the ads.

It's listed in the budget.

Okay.

So we do plan for this to cost overtime.

Right, but it has the revenue source to a couple of years.

Right.

Okay, so it matches it pretty pretty significantly.

Um yes, Alderman Virgelis.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And we held this last cycle uh to have a little have more discussions about the unreimbursed pension obligations that would be a result of uh officers getting overtime uh that are now part of the WRS system.

We've had a couple classes uh of newer officers, the most recent 180 or so uh officers are now part of WRS as time moves moves forward, more and more of those officers will have pensionable overtime uh that in this contract at least is not reimbursed uh by uh Summerfest or any other similar smaller scale contract does not have a pension uh supplement uh or surcharge to it.

Um I will introduce a file in new business in the for our next cycle uh asking for further definitions and uh some possible calculations for contracts moving forward.

I'm told now that um although yes there is some there will be some sort of long-term pension obligation uh that the city doesn't have to pay out right now, right?

We're we're not paying anything now, but long term these wages will be will have some sort of pension impact uh for those particular officers uh that are in the WRS system, not the old police pension system.

Okay.

Um I have another question, or you guys have questions too?

Go ahead.

Okay, we can spread it around.

I'll do a woman more.

Thank you so much.

Um Madam Chair, just in regards to um Alder Member Gallus's question around the pensionable overtime.

Does does our system allow us to um dissect the the amount?

So for example, if we said you know what, yes, you can have the overtime, but it's not pensionable.

Um, does our um system allow for oh this is overtime, but it's not pen, you know what I mean?

It's not pensionable.

Would our do we have an infrastructure that can dissect that sort of information?

Yeah, it has to because we have we have most of our employees are on the city of Milwaukee employers retirement system, but every employee had you know hired as of January 1st, 2023, I believe.

Or is it for?

24, sorry.

And 23 is made the made switch.

January 1st, 20%.

Anyone hired in the last two or two two years and change is now on the WRS system.

Correct.

So in order to comply with the requirements of that system, we have to pay total salary, including overtime percentage of that to the Wisconsin retirement system.

Got it.

Now, in terms of do we have the infrastructure to bill SummerFest for that as we go, that would be trickier, but we can we can explore the mechanism there.

Got it, thank you.

And just for direct answer, the uh it's it's it would be administratively um not worth our worth our while to track which particular officers are working this particular contract and this other particular contract for this particular shift today, but not tomorrow and over here the next day.

It's um uh administratively burdensome to do that now, but uh so my new file uh asks for a uh average or a roundabout pension calculator that we could uh add to future contracts moving forward as this becomes more and more of an impact to this to the city's long-term pension obligations.

And would this be with every entity that wants to request our officers to do overtime work?

Yes, so it's not just SummerFest.

So uh Chief of Staff Huff can uh kind of explain why we have a 10% administrative surcharge on top of the maximum overtime rate in these obligations.

Yeah, so we currently all of our extra duty agreements citywide uh are at max rate.

Um, so that's the maximum dollar amount um for officers, and because they're a range, right?

So depending on your qualifications and uh longevity, uh you could be at the low end or the high end for extra duty agreements.

We already automatically charge the max rate, and then uh we had added a 10% administrative fee to cover some of the overhead costs, vehicle expenses, etc.

Um, so that's the what's in place now.

Um, and we're happy to have, and we think it'll be a helpful discussion to see um, you know, some type of calculation on what it could look like to contemplate those pension costs as well.

Because currently nothing in the contract is a direct uh payment or a supplemental payment to the pension fund.

So what I I will be looking for is to have uh an enhancement to the contracts moving forward at some certain date with an increasing um uh dollar amount as time goes on uh to be to not go to the police department's uh general fund or to an administrative overhead calculation, but directly to the pension fund for those long-term liability costs that'll be borne by taxpayers in the future.

Thank you.

Okay.

Alderin's Miker?

Um, yeah, thank you.

Uh so again, I I think I said it before, but I want to say it again on commend Alder Burgellis for this insight because it hadn't struck me until he said it.

So before, didn't really care under the and budget office feel free to correct me if I go astray, but you didn't really care if you know Summerfest was willing to pay the extra overtime at the highest overtime rate and then tech on a 10% administrative fee.

Well, that's your business if you want to pay it, and if those officers want to work it.

But what Alder Burg Ellis's insight points out is you know, over time, number of folks in Seamers is gonna go down, number of folks in WRS is gonna go up, and pretty soon it'll be exactly opposite as it is now, and it'll keep going.

And it's uh cold comfort for future councils to be told, hey, back then it didn't cost uh the current council really anything, uh, because we signed you up for future budgetary hardship.

Um, because uh, you know, someday if things stayed the way they were, uh the way they are right now, um, we would be subsidizing that uh the folks who are working overtime in terms of their future pension benefits would accrue to us at the city, but they would not be that cost would not be um relieved by those like Summerfest who would be benefiting from that overtime.

So super important to flag, just wondering if the budget office, now that they're aware of this, maybe all were before and were thinking deeply about it, but if you're in the process of developing a plan or developing a plan to develop a plan for as this progresses on, you know, maybe we can safely ignore for the moment, but surely I think what Alder and Burgellis is revealed to all of us is we're not gonna be able to ignore it anywhere near forever.

So is there is this top of mind for you all?

Is it something you're gonna work with the police department on?

What what's the plan?

Yeah, no, I think you summarized it well.

We appreciate the question.

It's a valid concern that we'll grow in fiscal importance every year.

And so we certainly think it's worth what you know, discussion and negotiation with the with the or not necessarily negotiation.

I suppose it is a negotiation in the sense that they could just not sign the contract, not you know, if we if we asked for terms that were truly egregious, so or in their opinion.

So I mean there did I think there needs to be discussion with the stakeholders.

Um, make sure that they're that they're gonna have safe public events and the and they'll pay the bill, and it affects the three big ones, you know, Bucks Brewers and SummerFest, but lots of other smaller entities as well.

So um certainly the the more employees that are on WRS versus seamers, and I mean it fluctuates year to year on normal cost, but it's 18.5% in 26.

So that's what we're you know, that's how much multiply that by the payroll of what of what someone salary at overtime is getting, and that's what we're paying.

Now, the nice thing with WRS is we pay that and we're done with it, and the state's on the hook for any future unfunded liability.

Seamers, it's much more complicated calculation.

But it didn't matter in the case since since overtime wasn't pensionable for it in the context of these contracts, it didn't matter.

Now it does.

So we're certainly happy to begin the exploration of what the appropriate adjustment in these contracts should be for, you know.

I mean, I I don't think we want to go through administratively and track each COP and what which system are they in, but as I think all as Vice Chair Bergellis said, I'm sure there's a way to estimate it in a reasonable way.

Right.

Yep.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um let's see, I had a couple of questions.

So um Ms.

Huff, I guess what I'm wondering is why does it why does it always have to be overtime?

Like, um, I'm trying to understand the strategic decision.

I mean, we have the school resource officers that during that time aren't in schools.

Like I'm just I know that's a an amendment, you know, chief in your decision, but like is there a way that with each one of these contracts it could be more civilianized?

I'm also still struggling with the fact that we need you know fully sworn officers at a festival.

Like, is there a way we could each time we negotiate this modify it so there's a percentage and a metric being met that it's you know less overtime, less sworn officers?

Um, I I don't necessarily know that they can be staffed with civilians.

Um, just given the nature of traffic control and I I I wouldn't, I don't think we have any qualified civilians on staff to do those tasks.

In terms of the overtime, um, historically for these types of events, uh, we don't want to utilize the regular time officers who are policing than the rest of the city.

So we our preference is that it is staffed with officers who volunteer to sign up uh for these events outside of their normal working hours, so there's no shortages throughout the city in terms of coverage for anything else that's going on, and typically the summer is busier um for us.

Um so you know, I I don't know off the top of my head um to what extent it's supplemented by our officers who are on regular time, but that that's why we utilize the or time model because so we have volunteers sign up outside of their normal shifts.

And when the volunteers sign up for the shifts, are you selecting perhaps maybe a newer officer that's on a lower pay that would then bring down less overtime pay?

I don't believe that's the selection process, it's a first come first serve.

Um you know, if you oh it's truly first come first serve.

If you sign up um for different overtime events, yes.

But wouldn't we want as an organization?

The first come first serve sounds polite, but wouldn't we trying like would we be more benefited by actually like selecting those that cost less?

Just wondering if I'm the only one thinking that I don't know if we could do that.

Um, I think that may have legal implications, and then other I'm not sure if you know there's a there's a way to parcel them out.

Um, and I I would need to explore that further and wouldn't want to give you any response um here.

I guess I'm just saying I don't, you know, the the way we've been doing things for many many many years in the city, whether it be a brewers game, um, this, many other, you know, festivals, which we are the city of festivals, even SummerFest itself has changed.

It's now not even 11 or 12 consecutive days, it's like they've changed their model.

Like, I just think that the the days of having overtime some sometimes expensive um fully sworn officers, um, you know, is something we might want to reevaluate.

Like, is that what we need for every festival?

Do we need that level of escalation?

Um, is this a way where we could have people being trained, like those community service officers?

Um, and I still want to go back to my original question that wouldn't this be an opportune um patrolling decision or uh deployment, excuse me, for the school resource officers, Ms.

Huff?

They're not in school at that time.

Yeah, um, we actually have a plan for the utilization of those officers during the summer.

Um, and and that is uh also inclusive of uh youth engagement, um community engagement pieces, but uh inclusive of patrol.

Um so going and supplementing the work of the districts uh to some extent uh still focusing on that youth engagement piece.

Um I'm happy to share that plan with the council, um, but uh they are already uh the uh counted for for those summer months.

Okay.

I guess I'm just saying I see a lot of young people at some of these festivals too.

Um but okay.

Um, and then lastly, more of a technical thing.

What was the percentage increase from their last contract to this one that they're paying us now?

Maybe knows that I apologize.

I don't have that amount, but I'm happy to look back and let you know okay um what that cost is and get back to you.

Okay.

Any other questions on item four the resolution approving the agreement between the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee World Festival regarding extra duty police services?

Any other alders?

Okay motion for adoption.

Sure.

Oh, the member Gallus moves adoption of item four.

Any discussion of that adoption?

Any objections?

Hearing none so ordered.

Thank you.

Item number five, two five one eight seven six resolution authorizing the Department of Employee Relations to extend the current three-year contract with Met Life for the administration of the city's voluntary benefits for short-term disability, accident, and critical illness insurance for one additional year.

And from our Department of Employee Relations, we have Ms.

Molly King.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Finance Committee members, Molly King, benefits director.

Well, this resolution is just um asking us to ask you to allow us to extend a contract for one additional year.

Um this contract would med life as far as voluntary benefits such as uh short-term disability, critical ill illness, and accident insurance.

And so this will give us no disruption this year on that.

Uh keeping the same vendor traudest process, especially with having uh war day um deploying this year, too many changes happening at once.

But more importantly, what we're hoping to do is aligning this benefit with the other voluntary benefits we have uh with Sun Life such as long-term disability, life insurance, and make it hope the goal is to have a more intentional one big RFB package so we can be more competitive and have a more cohesive um benefit plan for our employees going forward.

So that is the goal why we're hoping to align all of these benefits together with the intent so we can have a more competitive RFP in 2027.

Okay, Alder Member Gallus.

Um I mean, I get it's easier to have one vendor for all of these, but I'm not convinced ever that uh having a uh large one size fits all um option for all of these different benefits is going to be um fiscally the best option.

Um so I I'd caution against um packaging everything up uh across the board.

But uh one year extension, uh I get it, uh move adoption.

Questions on this item, madam chair.

Yes, Alder Woman Moore.

Yes, thank you um so much, Ms.

King.

Um, does the so I hear what my colleague is, you know, stating.

Um, does it provide us um, you know, it's like when you bundle right?

Does the does the same sort of thing apply in this in this case?

It does, it really does sometimes because you're leveraging one for the other.

And for example, um, the other contract we have is with Sun Live and historically um I went back further, and it I can see that we either choose Sun Life one when one contract is up or they want the bid one year, or the other time uh MetLive won the bid, and so it seems to go back and forth a little bit, but as it relates to MetL um Sun Life, uh in 2026 this year, our our life insurance was supposed to go up six percent because of us having our long-term disability insurance with Sun Life, we were able to negotiate it and be able to pay zero premium on that.

So there are some opportunities, not all the time, but there are opportunities when we're able to use leverage these different agreements to work in our favor.

Awesome.

And I'm now I I mean, I think all the jelly is correct.

Not all the time, it may be a fiscal prudent, but this gives us the opportunity enough time to do those due diligence, have a thoughtful RFP.

And if it works, it works.

If it doesn't, I'll be split about back up.

Yeah.

And I would love to ask my colleague Alderman or Gallis.

I would love to move this approval if you can unapprove your approval.

I remove my motion.

Okay.

See?

Good fights to have here.

Okay.

Adoption is moved then by Alder Woman Moore.

Any other discussion of adoption on item five?

Any objection to adoption?

Hearing none so ordered.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Item six, two five one nine six two.

Communication from the Department of Public Works relating to revenue received from the towing of vehicles owned by habitual parking violators.

This is a communication file that I had asked for, as you can see.

I'm so glad to have you all up here.

Thank you for answering a lot of my questions.

And I'll just start it off because I want to get some updates from you all.

Let me look at my notes.

Um, when I first um put this file together, I had it really focused on the habitual parking violators, but I've since then wanted to expand a little bit just um within the way that it's noticed as well of towing of vehicles.

Um Mr.

Knox, first of all, thank you so much for being patient with my many inquiries and always getting back to me, honestly, within 24 hours.

Um I don't know about you all, but my district, um, including moments ago, got another email from another person who um I feel I I'm getting these anecdotal, that's why I'm trying to get some data too, that there seems to be a bit more of an aggressive towing lately, not just on habitual parking violators.

Um, but it seems to me anecdotally, I want to preface that.

Um, and perhaps it's because some of the emails that I get are so um emotional that it feels strong too.

Um, because when your car is towed, it is very life uprooting um and very costly, and it's that it seems to be a theme of um folks that have some lack of re-registration, which I understand that we don't want cars driving around on City of Milwaukee streets um that are not registered, let alone parking there.

What I've been asking for though is is there a way we could have a little bit of a waiting period?

So this is where it's a little different from the habitual parking violator, and I will I'll have you go.

Um and I'm I'm having a learning moment too.

I don't really want to learn about all this stuff to be honest.

Um I wish it wasn't um the way that it is, but I get that a habitual parking violator, we discussed that gets the numerous letters, and then there's that municipal court situation.

I'm additionally talking about um that it appears that there is a citation given and soon after a private tow company comes and you have to pay for the removal of the car from the tow lot, and then that citation.

And I do want to talk about it in terms of a revenue as well, and I have asked about the possibility I'm doing a communication file because I didn't want to just do the legislation about a little bit of a 24-hour waiting period.

And before you start, um I'm going to summarize.

Hold on, please, the um email that I just got that I can't even believe from a gentleman named Ryan.

Um I'm not gonna say the whole thing.

Um he says he's a proud Milwaukee native.

This was an hour and a half ago.

I had no idea that he was gonna send this to me.

And this is probably my 11th one in eight days.

So I'm not sure if there's like a zone going on in my district.

Um, but he spent 11 years in the United States Army and he came home back and forth.

Um he found it difficult to to live here, he has some disability income.

I'm summarizing.

He struggled, and he admits that he's had a little trouble paying his vehicle registration.

He had to choose at times between 17 dollars um to eat or buy a sticker for his car.

And the actual problem is is that it's true.

His registration has been expired, and he's still trying to get to work to get ahead and pay the bills.

He was so close to saving the money for his re-registration.

However, uh it appears last night he's on Herman Street that he had his car towed.

So instead of the 170 for registration, he's up to 420 dollars that he had to borrow from a family member.

His children were late for school, and if he would have just had um the original 45 dollar ticket, he thinks he could have gotten things taken care of.

Um, you know, he's mentioning that he understands that there were some mistakes made.

Um, but he feels, and I'm sure I'm I will forward this to you as I have been doing, he has uh a 10-year-old son that then was late to school and couldn't make it to baseball practice, um, etc.

etc.

It seems to me that the punishment is not quite fitting the crime here.

This is different than reckless driving where you're endangering people on the streets.

Um, but I think parking in particular, there needs to be what I'm asking for, a time period where people can rectify their situation.

They should be registered, they can pay that amount to be registered to avoid whether it's you know, depending on their situation, something over a hundred dollars is a lot better than four hundred and twenty dollars that they're speaking of.

I've brought this up, I've sent the emails.

I'm they're not I'm I don't think they're calling you.

I don't think they're calling the commissioner, they're calling us.

And in the last two weeks, I am now up to 10 or 11.

This is a this one's very sad.

Um I I just want to move forward, and I'm considering, I'm telling my colleagues, adding an ex an extra waiting period here.

Um so with that being said, that's the nature of me bringing this file up to have the discussion in public so that people know that we're talking about it.

I asked for the data.

I've also asked for the Office of Equity and Inclusion, um, which I believe is changing their names.

I'm not going to be able to support a name change, so I'm probably going to be calling it this the same thing, um, to Sorry Nose.

Um because I don't believe in changing that name.

Um and there's ways that we all resist, and that's that's the way it's gonna be.

So with that, that's gonna be going on.

I'm trying to look at the data, but I now want to turn it over to you all, and I appreciate you for have considering this item.

So, commissioner, yes.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Committee members.

Um so just to go to your point, have we been more aggressive on unregistered vehicles?

The answer is yes.

Okay.

I'll be very clear.

Um by Wisconsin State Statute three uh 34104.

It is basically against the law to have an unregistered vehicle within the public right of way.

With that being said, um, we don't tow like on day one, like if you have an a registration that's expired.

Um we do have a 31-day grace period before we will even start towing a vehicle.

So we talk about an extra day.

This is where we get a little uneduched because we're giving folks that didn't register a car another month or more.

Um and even at that 31 days, we do not just go and tow someone.

We're not out there trying to find unregistered vehicles.

Our folks, our PEOs are just trying to do their job.

They're they have LPR which is reading, and that will trigger in the system.

Um, let's say, for example, that you have a expired uh registration right now and it's under 30 days.

We will place a warning on there saying, hey, just as an FYI, you should probably register.

So we're trying to do as much as we can, at least related to unregistered vehicles.

Um and we are empathetic to situations like the one you had read.

I mean, it does happen.

Um, although, like, when does it stop?

So a majority of our reckless drivers are unregistered vehicles, unfortunately.

And so how we've been trying to tie this in um is into that reckless driving vision zero mentality, and it's not everyone by any means.

We have situations like you have mentioned now.

Um, but we're we're trying to stick with one sort of set of rules.

And unfortunately, we have a lot of people that have unregistered vehicles.

A lot.

Some with the license plates, and some in situations maybe it's only a month or two that they've had expired.

But if we keep on extending this out, then why does anybody register a vehicle?

Um, there's money that goes to the state tied to a registration vehicle, there's real tax implications besides operating or parking in the right of way, that which you're not supposed to.

It's it's basically a state statute that exists.

So uh to start off, that's just a little background, at least when we come to unregistered vehicles.

I mean, we do see some of the the unfortunate situations that have occurred, and it just happens that some of them are majority of them are there in your district, uh, all our woman.

Um but um it's it's it's not we don't get a million of them that come in.

I mean, there has been a few more that have come in just lately because we have been more aggressive this year.

Uh and I'll kind of hand it off to Peter to kind of go through some of the the the real statistics here.

Um but I just want to be frank.

We we have increased this year, but there's a reason for it.

Yeah, good next.

Are you waiting sorry, Peter?

Are you increasing immediately in all spots at once?

Or did you start in my district?

Because it's everywhere.

Okay.

It's everywhere.

I mean, I gotta ask us there.

It's everywhere.

Okay.

Well, okay.

Yeah, so good afternoon, everyone, Peter Knox, parking services manager.

Um, so just to kind of um Peter put this a little closer.

Okay, thank you.

Just gonna give a little bit more information.

So we do understand the hardships, you know.

And at the toll lot, we you know, we try our our goal ultimately is not to tow vehicles, and I've always said that I've spoken in front of all of you saying that, and we are very adamant about that.

Um there's a couple things about unregistered vehicles.

Yes, there are the cases like you've just mentioned, and that you know it is tough.

Um I will say just so we are everybody's aware as well, though, is um the DOT also does give notification, you know.

Good 10 weeks before, you know, via mail, they also can set up for the e-notify.

Um, yes, we can tow 31.

It's not really happening at 31, but it's you know, but you get much past that it will.

Um of the things that I I I you know I I like to say is that we do a good job, I feel, of educating people when they do get towed to give them the appropriate resources.

Um there's a lot of people that don't even know how to register a vehicle, or it's complicated, they have a jump title, you know, they bought it on Craigslist so forth.

And if they do get towed for it, they come to tell it.

We do work with them, you know, we do it with them hand in hand.

The other component of unregistered, and this is the majority, and this is unfortunate for the people that you know are you know trying to try to make their way, is there's a lot of you know, and I I don't track this.

I will just say this my experience being at the toll up for 13 years prior to this.

There's probably about 30 to 40 percent of Edwards of vehicles that come in that are not even in the person's name, they're not registered to that person.

Okay, um you ask about the citations, um, that's required to be paid, you know, by statute, but also if we don't require it to be paid, it's never gonna be paid because these cars are street and um they're not gonna pay because it's not in their name.

Vehicles not in your name that can be very problematic on the city streets.

Um you also see a lot of vehicles that you know might have um you know you know not legit plates, you know, duplicate plates, stolen plates, eventually those will get tracked down for unregistered.

So it's a wide range, but it is an issue with unregistered vehicles.

Um to answer just kind of like you know, um, you know, some of the things that you know I you know when it comes to towing, we we we send every somebody out to every single district.

We are pretty uniform, we do have data on that.

I'll be happy to provide you with some of that stuff.

Um I know we're working on that.

Um so we're not targeting areas whatsoever.

Um we have you know, we are very efficient.

One of the things I brought in is using technology to guide things, the guide ultimately to help, you know, help the situation.

This file is noticeed for revenue pertaining to this.

This sounds like a public safety file, which we've already so to the extent it's gonna be germane to the extent we'll be following open rec open meeting law.

We can't talk about things that aren't noticed.

So I mean, Commissioner, I don't know.

This sounds like a public safety discussion we've had, which is fine.

I'm happy if if the chair of this committee would like to hear that file before my committee, happy to do it.

But given that it's noticed for revenue, what is any of this have to do with the subject of what we've been noticed for?

Isn't this whole thing about revenue?

But I mean, my whole nature of my questions are about revenue.

The charge of the citation.

Yeah, so you need you to operations.

Oh, okay.

So I guess just stick in order to revenue.

So ultimately it's about compliance, but if we if you go back to the original file, I've been prepared to speak to all the updates on the HPV you know revenue and so forth.

I can speak to some of the registration revenue as well.

And you know, I think that's a good thing.

Yeah, I have specific questions on that.

Okay, yeah.

So I just want to just kind of just give a I'm gonna switch gears a little bit.

Okay, so I'm gonna do a little backdrop just um just to kind of a quick refresher on the pitch parking violator ordinance, um, which would um was adopted November 1st, 2025.

During that time, we did um issue a 60-day moratorium.

The intent of this was try to um encourage citizens to make arrangements for their citations by either paying them on you know, paying on the lines of payment plans and of a court date during that time frame.

Yes, um, we had 455 individuals um pay a total of 1,872 citations, totaling um 102, 558,000 dollars.

This is before you say that number again, I'm sorry.

Sorry, 102,558 dollars.

Okay, that's what's collected during our moratorium phase.

Okay.

Okay.

We are first towed January 1st, um, went into effect that we actively towed for habitual parking violators.

Um our first so is January 3rd.

As of this data from revenue is gonna be going to March 17th.

So a few days ago, we have towed a total of 1,313 vehicles.

Okay.

Um so when an individual is towed, they do have an option.

They have an option to either pay citations at the toll lot or they can um set up a court date and be heard that way.

Um so there are scenarios.

Um so far to as of March 17th, we've had 667 people elect to pay citations at the toll lot.

A total of 5,470 citations were paid, totaling 285,382 dollars.

So those are the the ones that elected to pay at the toll lot.

We've had 502 individuals representing 6,306 citations for a total amount of 345,300 elected to schedule a court date.

Okay, so that's kind of the numbers on that part.

Now, as we've gotten farther in, I'm able to provide more data.

We've kind of worked with our vendor so we can kind of track stuff better.

So, what I've also was able to get a hold of was taking anybody that has five or more citations that is identified as a habitual parking violator who is elected not getting towed, just go online, go to a kiosk, and just make pay pay their tickets.

And uh out of that, we've had a total of 660 people or plates um make those payments for a total of 2,693 citations for an amount of 151,000 dollars, uh 32 302 dollars.

Um additionally, um the tax season trip, our tax intercept program did intercept a total of 116,463 dollars for Mitchell parking violators.

What was that last number?

Um I'll be happy to share this with you as well.

So 116, 463,000 that you took from people's incomes.

Yeah, oh well for tax interception.

So if you want to look at collected revenue for March 17th, this is what we physically have you know has been paid.

You're a little over half a million dollars.

Now, there is uh I think a bright spot in all of this is like If we go back to go back to um my goal of educating people and trying to get people to be proactive and have assistance for that.

Um we have seen since January 1st 285 people over 2,446 citations, they have elected a set of payment plans to avoid the whole toll process.

So I think that is positive.

One more time.

Um we've had 285 individual set of payment plans, so so they wouldn't get towed, and they address their citations through that.

Okay.

I mean, yeah, and how many people went to municipal court to um have an alternative payment?

Uh 500 and two.

Five hundred and two people went to municipal court.

Yeah.

Um in total, but how many of those five hundred and two are doing something like community service or something other than payment?

So that data we a lot of the cases are scheduled.

I not all been heard yet.

Now that is a great question, and the longer we go, you'll have well some very good value data from the courts to see what was what was decided.

So, but that we are I I meet weekly on the toll lot leadership seat myself.

We meet with uh all the leaders at the court and we could be having weekly meetings and discuss things, which things are going well, but we will be able to provide that data you know more thoroughly in the future.

Um if you look at the breakdown, right now we have about 57.1% of citizens elect to pay their citations um right off the bat versus 42.9% um elected to schedule a court case.

Okay.

So that's kind of where we're gonna pause you there.

Yep.

So this is the very reason I wanted this item, and we'll probably have it more often, maybe quarterly or whatnot.

Um, this is outstanding information, uh whether I like it or not, it's still data.

We're gonna be we're gonna add it to the file.

It's a lot of revenue, a lot of money.

Um certainly people can see things differently.

Some people will see, oh wow, this is exactly how we wanted it to go.

We wanted to get behavioral change and we wanted to have some new revenue.

So um I'm personally not convinced that, but I'm still looking at the data.

The data will be added to the file.

On the data, though, I'm also interested in a data point that I think would be very important, which is the address of many of these people.

And I know it's tough because of registration, but like we certainly, if they're being towed, we know where we told them from, but the registration could say it, etc.

And I I would like those addresses and possibly sorted by aldermanic district.

Yeah, I do have for the Mitchell parking providers, I do have a broken down by Aldermanic district.

Oh, fantastic.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, let's have that.

Um I guess I want to get back to my other um question about revenue.

The revenue that's created by the citation that someone gets right before they're towed.

That is the part that I think is a bit of a misuse of revenue.

I'm keeping it revenue centric, because I that's the case that I sent to you, and something's not adding up right for me.

Like you're having to pay not a HPV, but it's in the category of parking violators for towing, is and that's the one that I sent you with the um mother with the newborn children uh situation where she had to actually hire child care to go get her own car out of towing.

She had to pay to remove the tow, but then also like why are we why is there even a citation before an hour before the tow?

So any time a vehicle is towed, a citation is required.

Um certain um citations are required to be paid when a vehicle is towed.

An unregistered vehicle citation is one of those.

There are other ones as well.

If you are um, you know, no parking, blocking an alley, um, no emergency.

So there's a there's a list of citations that ought, you know, that will generate toll right away, and there's a list of citations that need to be paid.

So I'm sorry, those will get told as get paid.

But so the hundred dollar citation for unregistered is required by statute ordinance to be paid upon release of the vehicle.

Ah if you don't, as I mentioned before, another caveat is if you were to say, hey, you shouldn't have to pay that citation.

As I mentioned, there's a lot of vehicles out there that are being driven by people that are not the owners.

That citation will never get paid, and that's significant loss of revenue to the city.

If you look at last year, we towed a little over 8,000 um unregistered vehicles, or 100 of citation, that's you know about over three quarters of a million dollars, right?

So there's a revenue stream with it that goes with that.

I also just want to just add, and I know when I say the finances, but you know, the data is shown historically when individuals get towed, they're not likely to be repeat offenders of getting towed again.

And the reason for that is I think we do a good job of educating.

So, you know, and I'd be happy to dive in that information in a little bit deeper on that because I think you know towing's not fun.

It isn't, and that's why we we do put other things, but are the is there uh compliance need to do so?

Yes.

Is there you know, does it generate revenue?

Yes, that is associated with it as well.

But it does come down to public safety.

It does come down to that we have to have places to park, um, and we just can't have people just doing whatever they want.

And yes, we want our hard hearts of cases.

We do, we work a lot closely, we we do help when we can.

There's certain things we can do, certain things we can't do, unfortunately.

I yeah, and some of this we'll have to save for public safety too, because I I almost feel like we're adding to the hardship.

Um, and when it's somebody who is not a hub habitual parking violator, who their error is that it's unregistered, and the per the woman that I'm talking about with the newborn children was 44 days registered, so she had to pay the hundred dollar citation and then whatever the hundreds of dollars were to remove it from tow.

Um, I still think there needs to be a point in between there where we're allowing for a slight waiting period and the revenue collection.

I guess what you're saying is that would possibly disrupt the hundred dollar citation um revenue for um unregistered vehicles.

Another thing I want to make sure I say is you made a good point that many uh reckless drivers are unregistered.

I don't know that the data goes back that many unregistered drivers are reckless drivers.

That the numbers you're telling me don't even make like this this woman was not a reckless driver.

This uh veteran that I just read into the file would be.

We are strictly in violation of open meetings because we're talking about something that does not relate to revenue.

This is a public safety discussion, which I'm happy to have in public safety, it does not relate to revenue.

I feel like all we've been talking about is revenue, and this entire system is based on revenue, and the commissioner himself has said that and the and Peter Knox has said that they're aggressively doing it to meet revenue numbers, and that I thought you told me that if I thought you well, hang on.

I thought uh if he's gonna say it twice now, I'm gonna say my thing twice, is is that if you told me you just told me that if I was to change the item, it would negatively impact revenue on the citations.

So I'm trying to do things right, not have a one-on-one private meeting.

I'm trying to have it in the open, so everybody knows what I'm talking about.

So I'm not withholding data in the light of the day.

So maybe next time I should just do the legislation and and not even have a communication file and do it at finance.

So go ahead, Commissioner.

Yeah, so uh just just to be clear, this is not a money grab.

Um this is nothing, all we're trying to do is really go through is making people accountable for violations they have made previously.

So HPV is a habitual parking violator file, which means if you have five citations or more, these folks are the ones that continually are not following parking regulations, and so it's the only teeth that the parking operations have is to recoup the dollars of people that are continuing to do this.

Um we just had an individual that we had finally um towed that has over 169 violations.

These are the these folks are basically just breaking the law, and this is not providing access or turnover to these parking spots for residents or businesses.

So I mean, there's 14 million dollars sitting there in these every uh majority of our folks pay their tickets and they pay them on time.

And so these folks that don't, I mean, this is where this comes from.

It's not a money grab.

We're not doing anything different.

It's just we're trying to make people accountable for the that the actions that had occurred previously.

Who gets the revenue?

Asking about revenue when the citation comes in an hour after the citation, uh because you all document your data very good.

We had the screenshots and everything.

Isn't it a private toll company that gets that immediate revenue from that?

We have a city tow contractor that you know is contract by the private contractor.

Yeah, private towing.

But they don't they don't they get a they uh obviously negotiate a rate on what they get per tow, but so that's how that works.

The citation goes to the city, the tow fee goes to the tow company.

Do you know how much revenue we got from the site revenue we got from the citation of the unregistered vehicles?

That's the one that I I'm still having an issue with that one.

Is it a hundred?

Yeah, the hundred dollars an hour before they got towed.

Yeah, so you you obviously have the citation revenue.

Um if your vehicle is towed, um right now don't quote me on dispensable 117 dollars we pay the toll contractor, which leaves about 33 dollars.

The toll fees 150 dollars to get your vehicle out.

Um storage fees are 25 dollars, and there's a relocation fee of 50 dollars if the individual does not have insurance.

So it uh depends on that.

Yeah.

I I I just I want to add this is still kind of revenue related, but just you know we're just what the commissioner was saying is that we look at citation remittance rates, and one of the things that we've seen is a trend, you know, is that they've gotten lower and lower, right?

So we have seen that you know, back in 2023, we were about 71% of citations were paid.

Okay.

2024, it was 70.3%.

Now, in the in the basically in the 10 weeks we've had, we're seeing those numbers go up because we're we are collecting old debts.

We've gone from 71.1% to 72.2 percent for two 2023 past through citations.

2024, we've gone from 70.3% remittance rates up to 72.9%.

And this is kind of some change of behaviors a little bit for those you know that you know, you know, don't you know don't address our citations.

Okay.

Any other revenue questions on item six?

Items Alderman Spiker.

Please leave it to revenue, please.

Yeah, okay.

Um so the city gets the money.

Uh that money goes where?

Transportation fund.

The transportation fund.

So what is the transportation fund fund?

So transportation funds, all parking operations, parking structures, surface parking lots, streetcar, it's all conglomerate in that group.

Okay.

So a portion, so if we were not to be so much in the hole with the streetcar, it would be to our advantage to have more money of this sort in our coffers.

If we were not so inclined to go deeply red and just go, you know.

There are some operational costs that go into this fund, correct?

Okay.

So um I guess uh if one is a fan of the streetcar uh for free, which I am not, um, one needs money for it, and I guess then uh one should be uh very cheered by the extra revenue brought in here.

Um and to what at the extent one is not, it appears there might be some harboring some sort of inconsistency.

But thank you for that clarification on the revenue question.

Any other questions or comments on item six?

Uh Madam Chair.

All the woman more.

Um just really quick.

Revenue related.

When a citation is written, um for does that trigger a vehicle to then be towed?

So because uh I'm sure um our vendors aren't roaming the city looking for vehicles to pick up, right?

Um uh a citation is written by one of our parking enforcement officers, they then call it in.

How does that work really quick?

So um so no, our the toll company's not driving around.

Um it is our POs doing just general patrols.

Um we took a passive approach to towing, and we talked about HPV, we're not towing them if they're legally parked, it's a general patrol run across it.

Sure.

Um no, uh not every citation um will result in a tow.

So you could be uh but the ones that do.

So the ones that do are gonna be if you are a habitual parking violator, so you know so that would do it, and then an under unregistered would require a tow.

Um I do have a list.

Um if you are a snow emergency third offense.

So if you're we we give citations, if you're not moving for snow emergencies, third offense would uh would be eligible for a toll right away, tollway zones, blocking driveways, blocking traffic, you know, when you you um right away um street sweeping, if you know we've you know signing up for street sweeping.

Um if you're on private property, um snowbound vehicles can be automatically towed.

So there is some that um yes would trigger toll because it needs to move.

Yes.

Um if you are receiving a citation just for you know being on the wrong side of the street or no permits, you're not gonna get towed, you know, unless you become a Mitchell parking violator.

And if you're illegally parked, you know, so that that would take a while.

So it kind of depends, it varies.

Thank you.

Um and Madam Chair, based on some of the um notion that my colleague referenced, it do you think that it would be important to move this back to public safety safety to have a deeper discussion about because I know that you know you're really thinking I mean my heart breaks for those constituents, right?

Um and as we look at the at as we look at the list, I think you're four percent, and just like myself.

Um hey, we're twinning um that are impacted um by the HPV.

Um would you find it necessary to move, you know, some of this more intense conversation back to uh public safety?

Um possibly, and this is why this is like good to have these communication files, because I actually started this discussion thinking the folks that were being towed were HPV.

And I'm finding out that it seems again anecdotally that they're not even HPV, they're unregistered folks that are not HPV, but they're still getting a citation and towed.

So I'm like trying the but that's something that we've always done though, right?

We I don't think that's a good thing.

Oh, but he just started his entire presentation saying they're being more aggressive about it.

So we've always done it.

She's correct.

We have always done it.

We were just being more aggressive in catching more people that have unregistered vehicles, that is true.

Yes, and and I and again, you know, I used to get a lot of emails and calls and were in reference to the reckless driving and um trying to figure out how to curtail a lot of um the behavior, right?

Uh when we um and I'll try to stick to this uh, you know, the more we reduced our sworn officers, you know, people, you know, with no license plate and just it just run amok, right?

And so there's so behavior shifted because there was no oversight because I remember back in the day I would get pulled over for just about anything.

Um you know, because there was that oversight, right?

So I'm trying to f you know, I want us to be able to figure out that that thin li and it's hard to do that with legislation because you can't pull out those nuances like, oh yeah, we know that this person is you know what I mean.

We i it's hard to pull out those sort of nuances.

So it's hard to make legisl draft legislation that isn't going to, you know, benefit everyone.

So that so I would love to have a deeper converse c I would love to just have a deeper conversation if if the time, if you choose for the time to come to that.

I think that the uh what I'm gonna continue to discuss is and figure out is does the city of Milwaukee I'm not even I'll take a second like off of the HPV thing.

I still I'm still waiting for the data and I'm really glad that we got it.

And it's having these conversations and putting them on the agenda where you sometimes get more information and people are able to talk about it publicly and you sharpen your pencil a little bit.

Um and that I think that's the wise way to do to make policy.

I don't want to just think I'm the only one with an idea or overly respond.

I get that, or overcorrect.

But I think the city needs to come to terms with um there's something going on where the behavioral changes, why aren't people able or why are they forgetting to pay the registration or why are they unable?

Like I think I had one that forgot and one that could not pay.

And I don't know that either one should have ended up in the toll lot, and they're not HPV.

So like we I just want to figure out what the right size situation is.

I mean, there's a big difference between one hundred dollars of revenue and five costing almost five hundred dollars for like at four hundred and some dollars.

So I all I'm saying, and I will conclude now is is that I want us we're gonna have to figure out what the right fit is.

So and can I and Madam Chair, if I can just say really quick, you know, I'm just gonna oust myself because you know, I was in that um that boat with unregistered vehicles, and not because I didn't have the funds to pay for it.

It was a stupid emissions test.

Every time I went to the list, they were like, and then I go would you know, call the place, they were like, well, you don't do emission testing anymore.

And so we get that's another piece that we really have to figure out because if folks are not open on the weekends, if they're not woke open to the evenings, you know, there's a small amount, then oh, you gotta make an appointment.

Like it was so difficult that it's not that I didn't want to pay it.

I did every time I went, I was like, Oh yeah, I got you know, the error sign would come up.

You know, you gotta get an emissions test done.

And and every time I started looking, it it was just like no, we don't do it anymore.

Places I used to go to back in the day, we don't do it anymore.

We don't do it anymore.

So we have to figure out that piece to be able to provide accurate information to residents, so that that's another education piece to what it is that we're talking about.

So we we do see it, I know Peter's got something.

We do see the emissions.

I mean, that's why I think the DOT puts this out like 10 weeks before, and then they also give a 30-day grace period afterwards.

So it's basically giving folks that own cars three months to try to figure out and that's it.

Sometimes there's challenges, but there is three months where they can actually try to get an emissions test, and it it happens.

It's happening to my family as well.

Yeah, it happens every yeah.

FYI, my vehicle is registered.

All right.

Anything else that hasn't been discussed.

I do have a finance this pretend finance, but just answer your question.

They do have kiosk now, 24 hours that you could just you don't need to pick an appointment, you just go to plug it in.

There's one up at 27th Street, which I used.

Yes, so they they do exist.

Yeah, um, so just that we know that.

Yes.

Um you can also get an extension from DOT for you for emissions if you're having admission issues on your registration.

Um I want to go back just to what you said, and just you know, I know because it would be right when you when you mentioned like a pause or you know, whether it's a warning process and holding off towing, that does have revenue implications.

Right, that's why I made this revenue file.

Yeah, so if you were to say, hey, um you know, this car is we towed, don't tow it for 24 hours.

The reality is we would not be able to tow that car.

We have no idea of knowing where vehicles are parked, where they're at, we don't target vehicles, we can't I couldn't find your car right now if I had to.

So if you have an unregistered vehicle and we say, okay, here's your citation, we don't tow it.

The reality is we wouldn't tow any unregistered vehicles because we never find them.

Or if we said you have to give a warning first, because it's just luck of the draw, a city this size, all these vehicles that we'll actually happen to come across it.

So if you go to that standpoint, if I'm looking at the toll lot, if you look at revenue, yeah.

So now it's a it's a it's it's it's twofolds.

Would not be able to tow because we wouldn't be able to find the cars.

We already if you if you get a citation, you're gonna get towed and you move your car, we don't tow it, but we wouldn't be able to find them first off.

Then the other where it would uh trickle down is that when you lose those compliance measures like towing, then people why should I pay my citations?

Why should I follow the rules?

Why should I, you know, why should I not park in front of this person's driveway?

So it it it it it just goes down a very dark path.

Yes, other people I agree sometimes that yeah, there's hardships and we do what we can.

We try to, we try to educate, there's some we make exceptions on stuff in the toll lot.

But when it just if you were to say, hey, we want to put a pause and towing delay it, it doesn't it's not a feasible thing.

Nor do we have the technology to do it, which would actually be a developmental cost as well because we have multiple vendors that are you know, technology is involved into into the the tone of of a vehicle.

So just want to just kind of just share that as you don't you guys are having conversations, but that would be Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, that's helpful.

Anything else?

I just want to make an informational request so that it's formal and everybody the same.

This is very helpful.

We have the same thing year to date on the unregistered, so not a HPV, an unregistered vehicle tow, the one that I seem to be having a lot of lately.

Um that would be helpful to see, and I bet all thers would like to know that.

Um especially because of the new um more aggressive nature, it'd be good to know where we're at.

I would hope that you all would be doing that too, just to kind of know that would be really helpful.

Anything else on item six, Almer Spiker?

Um, I guess on on the revenue question, so you indicated that if there were the 24 hour delay, then folks would, you know, they're not gonna park necessarily in the same spot, and so they're lost to the Arma justice or what have you.

Um could this council direct you?

I think we probably can, uh just to not enforce uh the parking laws in a district or a particular number of the parking laws.

Like don't tow unregistered folks in my district.

Not saying we should, but could I don't know if that's possible?

I thought Alderman Bauman had less less parking restrictions in his district.

That's a different so what we're doing from an enforcement standpoint, an exception of street, which you're talking about, two different topics here.

So I don't know.

But you're certainly collecting less revenue from Alderman Bauman's district.

Not necessarily.

If there's less restrictions, there's probably less than that.

Yes, we we lose the alternate site parking.

No.

That that's one avenue where we're talking about citations.

That's the one that's lost there, but all the other things are still into effect.

Under certain vehicles they treat all that still is existing.

I mean, as one of the people who pushed that when I was on that side of the table.

That was the conversation I had with public works.

Are you going to oppose this because it'll lose you revenue?

And the answer I got at the time, that the answer you're still getting is no, because we'll just be busy writing other tickets.

You know what I mean?

It's a question.

That's true.

How many checkers you have?

And I guess to Alder Moore's question, there is an open file, which three of the members here have heard before on habitual parking violators, which we heard what was it, January.

Um happy to hear that again.

That focus on habitual parking violators.

Somebody could submit another file that's focused on what seems to have been uh a lot of the discussion today, which was not relating to habitual parking violators per se, but those um who have unregistered vehicles and our towing practices there, that would be a public safety file, I assume.

All right, thanks.

Any okay.

Anything else on item six?

This is a great amount of information.

Thank you.

Just checking.

Is Alderman oh, is Alderman Cogs on here still?

I don't think so.

No.

Okay, she can be excused then for the rest of the meeting if need be, unless she's told us something different.

Okay.

Um Alder Woman Moore would then move to place this on file, which leaves it on file for further discussion if needed.

No, it does not, but that's fine.

Any other discussion objections to placing it on file?

Hearing none, so ordered.

Item seven, two five one eight one nine communication from the department of administration.

We're joined by Mr.

David Hankey, and this is sponsored by Alderman Scott Spiker.

I'll go to Alderman Scott Spiker first.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So this relates to a resolution we passed basically directing um the department, and correct my memory, Mr.

Hankey, if I if I stray, but we directed the department to basically uh you know come up with a plan and implement it for cybersecurity training.

Um this kind of came out of a discussion we had at CIMC uh City Information Management Committee, which I chair um where it was felt like uh unless folks are gonna have their um email privileges and such or their access privileges denied, they don't necessarily get with the program until very late, and then there's quite a bit of work ITMD has to do with respect to catch up.

But there was also um a feeling I had that I would like to know from the department to department who's complying and how much.

Um so this is was intended at least to be kind of a catch-up, how we doing.

Uh are there any departments that are lagging?

Are there any ones that are excelling?

Um, so that then we as a committee can you know pursue those conversations with department heads and say, hey, what's going on?

Everybody's all else is at 75 percent with the next many days.

Y'all are are way down.

Do you are you not taking this seriously?

And although um as um a cabinet level member of the department of administration, Mr.

Henkey has pulled, there's also understandably a desired uh, you know, get along with everybody.

Um, but then that's where our role is more important uh to make sure that the things we say we want to have done and cybersecurity training is something very important to the city, um, as we've seen.

Uh to make sure that things we say we want to have done are actually carried out by the department heads.

So anyway, that's a long way of saying this is um the first in a report and a series of reports to show how well we've been doing with implementing the training that we say we all want.

Thanks.

Okay.

Um Director Hankey, did you wish to speak to that then?

Um yes, thank you.

Uh David Henke, the uh chief information officer with the Department of Administration, uh information and technology management division.

Uh I think Alderman Spiker um described well the background of of this uh this program.

Um at the CIMC meetings last fall uh it was discussed also that um what other agencies were doing and how other areas held this, and one of the topics was that uh we should be doing more frequent um trainings on different topics, more frequent uh fishing simulations that would have uh potentially a better impact on participation, better impact on um ultimately the results of those fishing um fishing simulations should be improving over time.

And so we've just started that.

The plan is is in place uh attached to this file.

There's a list of like monthly trainings on a variety of topics fishing, malware, physical security, the ID and deep fake social engineering, multi-factor authentication, ransomware, removable media insider threats, data privacy and security, business email compromise and password security.

Um that was one per month.

We did start one month um late as we worked through this plan, but we do have uh a one-year plan to put this put this into action.

Um I there are some tentative sorry before I continue with tentative results.

Uh we do have quarterly simulation fishing simulations planned for March, June, September, and December of this year.

So first one will be upcoming shortly.

Um in terms of the training, we do have results from the February um fishing training and partial results for the malware training in March, since that's still open, we're still in March.

Um I will I will say that I have results from for ITMD as well as the entire city um results for each department.

Uh I don't have at the moment.

Uh or our information security manager is currently on uh an extended leave.

I hope that that she'll be back very soon so we can get some of those more detailed results and hopefully see over time how how those are improving.

Um for February, the Madam Chair.

Yes, Alderman Spiker.

Um so those department level results are not in the file.

Why did we bother wanting to come to the table to present it if it's not answering the intents of the resolution, which is to find out how we're doing, not just as a city as a whole, but to see any outliers.

We're not gonna be able to go in and play any sort of oversight function if we don't know the even somewhat more granular level data than that half the city is not finishing their malware training in a month.

Okay.

Were you getting to that in your presentation?

Um I can I can I can address that now.

Absolutely.

Um so I have some basic information.

It's what has been able to be teased out uh in the absence of our information security manager.

Um I wanted to be able to provide as much as I've got held so we can have that this gives us virtually no information then without that granular stuff, which was the whole point of the resolution.

Well, okay.

I I can understand that as frustrating as a sponsor.

Why don't you at least finish your attempt at the question and then I want you to be able to finish your sentence, but I understand the sponsor's frustration.

So could you finish your sentence, please?

Okay.

Um yes, so we have have numbers from the general city for February, which was approximately 70 percent overall.

I did include ITMDs because I have visibility into my own department.

Um that's listed as 90 approximately 95 percent.

That's has to do with some staff that have retired.

It's essentially 100 percent.

Obviously, I'm very self-interested and aware.

Hopefully, other departments will be too as we present this at a future date on the individual departments.

Okay.

So does it seem clear what what the sponsors asking for maybe for the next time then?

Yes.

Okay, okay.

And that can that can be provided and will be provided.

Okay.

Final warning for stuff done.

Hold to the call the chair, then has been offered by Alderman Spiker.

Any discussion of hold to the call to chair?

Any objection hearing on so ordered, and then we'll see you next time with a little bit more information there.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, thank you.

Um, I need to take a small break, so I'm gonna have you handle eight and nine if they go fast, then they can see as number 10.

Chambers here.

Um, I'm not sure.

You see Alder Woman Taylor on the board is Alderman Chambers here.

I thought it takes one minute.

I guess we can read in um moving on.

Item eight um item eight on our agenda today.

Item file 251, 444 resolution directing the comp controller's office to provide a quarterly expenditure report for all departmental accounts, including special funds and special purpose accounts to the common council by Alderman Chambers.

Alderman Chambers will uh defer to the comp controller for the report.

Is that in?

Or this oh, this is a resolution asking for the report.

Is that something that the comp controller can prepare?

Yeah, I mean I I think it's uh it's a good idea, it's a best practice to provide such reports.

Um I think there's a lot of given the the language of the resolution, there's a couple of different ways we can approach it.

So it might be a um, you know, we'll we'll try a few different things, see if it meets the needs of the sponsor and uh the rest of the council.

Uh I guess the the question that I had, and it might be for for the sponsor or the chair is whether the the expectation is that the results are presented to this committee uh each cycle, or if I'm just going to be sending it to you, emailing it to you, um, you know, or or both.

So um Mr.

Chair, that's typically why we don't hear files without the sponsor present, because we can't get their intents if they're not.

Yes, and just reading the title, prepare a quarterly expenditure report uh to the common council.

That could be an email, it could be uh to the uh a binder.

Yeah, so I think we can we can start by sending an email and if if the chair wants to schedule um a file, I'd be happy to let's let's stay efficient with our meeting today.

Um my only question for you right now would be is there a benefit to knowing what your year-to-day budget's going to be in March or how how you're what your budget performance is in March after the first quarter.

I I think it's pretty early to draw conclusions about how things are going to be looking year-end based on just first quarter results.

What about at this halfway point?

I think halfway point is it starts becoming more.

That's June.

So when would you have the June report ready?

Uh I I would say before August?

Mid-July.

Mid-July.

You know, maybe let's call it third week of July just to be safe.

And when's our finance committee meeting in July?

Just to for a quick calendar.

Someone else is there's one on the 28th.

Okay.

So 29th, I'm sorry.

So conceivably we could have a relevant report before the August recess.

I would think so.

All right.

Um any discussion on this item?

Mr.

Chair, I'd move that we hold this to the call to the chair.

If the sponsor has communications with the compontroller's office, he can always pull it out at that council, but we're not feel comfortable passing something without the sponsor saying what he was looking for.

All right.

And um any other discussion on the motion?

No.

Alderman Spiker moves to hold, hearing no objections, so ordered.

Thank you very much.

Moving on to item number nine, file two five one eight four five substitute resolution relative to the acceptance and funding of the 2026 STD infertility prevention grant from the state of Wisconsin Department of Health Services from the Health Department.

Do we have Deputy Commissioner?

Nope.

anybody?

There we someone like that.

I can't see your name.

I'm sorry.

Please introduce yourself.

Lindsay O'Connor, HR administrator.

I'm pinch hitting for Aaron Chapinski R budget director.

Thank you, uh, Ms.

Lindsay.

Um would you like to give a summary um see?

This is accepting a grant.

The infertility budget or the STD infertility prevention grant from the state of Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Okay, hold on one second.

Aaron didn't think you'd have questions on this one.

If I'm being totally transparent, can you just tell us what it is?

Um I cannot.

All right, any discussion.

I think it was referred by public safety.

So move approval.

So um Alderman Spiker moves adoption of item nine.

Hearing no objections, so ordered.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for the pitching in.

Item 10, file 251 891.

Communication from the Department of Administration, budget and management analysis division regarding vacancy requests, fund transfers, and equipment requests.

Welcome, Director Kovac.

Good afternoon.

Um we have no schedule B.

Correct.

Uh so appreciate that efficiency.

Um but schedule A.

We'll just read down the list starting with tax levy supported positions, department of ad.

And if there are any questions, concerns, please speak up during the list.

Department of Administration Information Technology Management Division Systems Analyst Senior.

Assessor's Office, Commercial Property Appraiser 3.

City Clerk, Business Outreach Specialist that's in licensing.

I asked about that earlier.

Mr.

Chair.

Alderman Spyker.

Uh the comp controller isn't here, but I did want to acknowledge that the audit manager position is vacant because I understand Ms.

Molina is leaving, so just wanted to commend her on our service.

She was always terrific to work with, and we'll be sad to see her go.

So thank you.

And she will be presenting uh shortly.

Okay.

Oh, so I have to.

You can tell her.

That's right.

We have an moving on.

Anything else?

Alderman Spiker.

That's fine for Comptroller.

Fire Department, EMS technical resource specialist, EMS supervisor, Milwaukee overdose response lead assistant.

Uh we'll say that's assistant Milwaukee overdose response practitioner and firefighter.

Mr.

Chair.

Alderman Spiker.

Uh, with respect to the EMS technical resource specialist and the EMS supervisor, I guess, for the department.

Um, are those just general EMS leadership managerial um positions or do they relate to the Mori program?

I see someone with a hand raised, but I can't see your name.

Chief Parish Mockey Fire Department.

Parish, please.

Absolutely.

Yep, so uh these are both specialist positions.

The technical resource specialist is the person that um manages a lot of our control drugs, all of our order, all of our inventory, um, and then they also do the maintenance and repair on our configurators and so on and so forth.

And then the uh in the supervisor.

Sure.

Yep, they do um the continuing maintenance and preventing the maintenance on of all of our defibrillators, so our EKG machines, all that ordering.

So we actually send them out for specialized training to be able to uh maintain FDA approved and licensed equipment.

Got it.

Um and then the EMS supervisor is our uh 24 hour staff person uh that supports the uh EMS supervision for the entire of the field.

Uh most notably uh they are one of our responders that also um deploy uh whole blood if we have uh penetrating traumas uh in the community.

Very good.

Um I guess Mr.

Chair, I'd ask that we hold the two MORE positions.

There's a meeting I'm supposed to be having with Health and Fire.

Um there's a big discussion about uh plans for the future to the tune of multi- and multi-million dollars.

So I'd like to have that discussion before we move on.

Uh Alderman Spiker asks to hold the two Morey positions that's Milwaukee overdose response lead assistant, Milwaukee overdose response practitioner.

Uh Chief Parish, what kind of an impact would that kind of a hold?

Is is something here time sensitive, or can it wait three weeks?

Mr.

Chair?

Chief, uh uh welcome.

Yeah, sorry, I'll jump in here.

Um so there is no intent to uh foundationally change uh the format with which we are delivering the life-saving services through the Mori program.

Uh and the meeting on Monday is uh simply uh representative of a greater coordination between the health department and the fire department as we both function in separate areas of attempting to push back on the opioid scourge.

Um this comes up nearly every time a MORI position uh comes before this body.

Uh and we we simply have people that have moved around or promoted out or have retired.

We simply need to fill the spot so that we can continue working.

And I would ask uh I would ask that it it not be held and that we continue to do the work.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for that insight, Chief Um Lipske.

On the motion.

And uh Alderman Spike.

Yeah, so I I mean part of why it keeps getting discussed is there's the discussion to be had.

So um, with respect to the positions in the fire department that are now funded by the opioid settlement, those are funds that you know back when Alder Murphy um, you know, advocated for a funding source uh given the discussions that happened then, it was intended for um, you know, before the settlement funds, we had grant funding for it.

So now that we've switched to um uh the opioid settlement funds, uh it's a a reasonable discussion to have even when we're talking about I think it's 18 million dollars over years.

Um whether the results we're getting warrants uh deepening and continuing of that structure because there's also a supervisory structure that's in place over over the folks on the ground, and it's in a department where we have uh funding source due to Act 12 that can only be spent on basically pensions and public safety.

Um so just want to make sure that that before we spend funds that can't be spent on other opioid uh related items.

Chair chief we're gonna we're gonna call the role on this um and move on with our agenda but thank you very much for um having continued offline conversation so that we're ready in committee um oh please call the roll on the motion to hold um the more positions uh honorable more no spiker aye honor member gallis no motion fells one to two vote and to excuse all right anything else on the fire department all right moving on to department of neighborhood services program assistant three commercial code enforcement inspector four office assistant two police department captain of police inspector of police crime scene supervisor DPW infrastructure division bridge operator DOT projects inspector three positions DPW operations division sanitation supervisor vehicle service writer urban forestry district manager landscape and irrigation specialist anything else on property tax levy supported positions moving on non-property tax levy supported positions employees retirement system benefits services specialist health department program assistant three WIC client services assistant three scales neighborhood nursing program manager program assistant three public health assistant lab director community health administration specialist three emergency response planning coordinator police department intelligence analyst transportation fund marketing and communications officer those are our Mr Chair yes on the marketing and communications officer what are they marketing and communicating about morning Mr.

Chair Committee members Chuck Schumacher Operations Administration Manager the Transportation Funds Marketing Communation Officer will be um part of the uh broader communications team within DPW um this person will be um focused on um you know communications with alders and political and um and the public relative to things like uh snow operations um you know other DPW operations specific communications um this position will also be uh working on soliciting streetcar sponsorships um you know so it's it's a mix of uh communications and um you know sponsorship uh grant seeking for the street car and who was in this role this is a new position in the 2026 budget okay I'd like to be recorded as a no on that one Alderman Spiker asks we uh recorder as a no for marketing communications officer in the non-property tax levy supported position one two two five one okay uh any other comments on this item alder woman more moves approval of file two five one eight nine one hearing no objections so ordered thank you all very much uh moving on to our agenda item number 11 file 251790 an ordinance related to city wage requirements for service contracts welcome our purchasing director Rhonda Kelsey good afternoon vice chair committee members Rhonda Kelsey city purchasing director the file before you um is in regard to um approving the current uh wage rate for service contracts that are executed by the department of administration purchasing division um this particular wage rate applies to um non professional service contracts such as oil change services lead abatement services HVAC repairs and things of that nature um just as a way of background um the wage rate was increased to $15 per hour um back in 2022 it was around a little over $12 or so um to be consistent with the city's minimum wage rate um which was increased in 2021 to $15 per hour um so through this particular file I am seeking to continue to um hold our contractors accountable by requiring them to also pay a minimum wage to its employees that mirrors the city's um minimum wage $15 an hour doesn't seem like very much anymore and it was changed in 2022 right have there been any has there been any change to the minimum wage of the city since 2022 according to information that I received from DR the minimum is still $15 per hour that doesn't include of course across the board

According to information that I received from DR, the minimum is still $15 per hour.

That doesn't include, of course, across the board increases.

So obviously there are employees that would like a residency.

And that and the the minimum now 16 something, 1640 an hour would it also, if it that's a full-time employee, that includes benefits, right?

I can't speak to that.

DER speak to that.

So this is so this is just so this item in front of us right now is just for DA DOA service contracts.

It uh DPW does their own service contracts.

Correct.

Um and the city clerk calculation is a formula that's an ordinance.

Which is lower than $15 per hour.

Okay.

So the thinking was you may recall I was before this body in the fall of last year.

Um similar conversations were had.

Um and the thought was, you know, at some point there may be some value and just making city ordinances uh the well that there's one city ordinance, but making the wage rates consistent across the board at some point.

Okay.

Um any discussion on this item.

Um we did have a discussion uh previously about changing the minimum wage rate uh to 18 an hour earlier today, but that would um functionally this ordinance right now takes effect uh a couple weeks ago, right?

So March 1st, so we can't really change something in the past.

And it would um it would likely be difficult to negotiate or to have to change your wage rate for contracts that are coming up in April or May or June.

Right, right.

Um departments have budgeted for this $15 an hour uh wage rate already.

Um is the right time of the year so that there's enough time for proper budgeting to correct this.

Um pretty soon we'll be getting the 2027 budget process.

Um so through that process, you we could consider it making a new wage rate change effective March of 2027 or in Q4 of I would say 2027, frankly, right?

Uh I think it would be cleaner and smoother to make a change in the subsequent year so that contractors could plan accordingly, as well as you know, city departments could account for any increases in their respective budgets.

Why was March chosen as the effective date back in 2022?

It's it's codified in city ordinance.

Right, but what do they think March and not January 1st?

Uh it's been that way for as long as I can remember, frankly, and I know that um the analysis that the city clerk uh city clerk's office conducts annually is tied to um federal poverty guidelines, so it may be tied to the timing or release of that data.

And year and that is available.

All right.

Um so this may just be a short exercise, but I'll move to um put proposed a proposed substitute in front of us that has been circulated.

Um I don't know if Alderman Moore still wanted her name on it, but my substitute would uh or this substitute would change the effective date for an increase to $18 an hour starting November 1st, 2026, so that the last quarter of this contract, uh last four months of this contract of this of this ordinances period would be increased to 18.

Um discussion on that motion to put that sub before us?

Mr.

Chair.

I'll do one more.

Thank you so much.

I know and Rhonda, thank you so much for um connecting with us earlier today to just get some details um around this for me to continue to uh co um co-sign this um is really centered around more information and so um the information that we received today in regards to the percentage um of individuals that we we will be impacted or even the contractors that will be impacted.

I wanted to sort of get a little bit more information to hear from them just to make sure that we're not making it unjustly impossible or just difficult for some of our small, you know, this is our sm more so probably our smaller contracts, truck contractors.

continue to uh co um co-sign this um is really centered around more information and so um the information that we received today in regards to the percentage um of individuals that we we will be impacted or even the contractors that will be impacted I wanted to sort of get a little bit more information to hear from them um just to make sure that we're not making it unjustly impossible um or just difficult um for some of our small you know this is our sm more so probably our smaller contracts truck contractors um so I just want to put a pause for me um to be able to gather some information that we talked about um at our meeting um earlier um earlier this morning so do you want this up before us I I would recommend I would recommend that we hold it until we are able to get provide get provided a little bit more information but that would hold it a cycle in front of us or hold the entire the original file so I we have to put this up before us first well parliamentary question go ahead if we put the sub before us it's defeated can we roll back or it's a um so far um the sub is um not before us yet there needs to be a motion by um a non-chair member to put the uh sub before us okay and then if and then it replaces the original so uh if uh the and if subsequently the file is uh fails then it fails then there's no retrieving the original that was it was a sub for unless you reverb back yeah so I th I think what we what we so um so we're still on the motion to put the sub before us um question for um this call see um does this ordinance need so this ordinance last year passed in September's made the motion do we need to pass it today Mr.

Chair there's no motion for the sub to be before us well I was asking for a motion and it's we didn't have one no oh you were asking for a motion okay I'm sorry but i is the is it imperative that this file be approved dispensed with today yes to yes it is important that um the original file before you is approved so that we can codify that $15 an hour wage rate the this this wasn't even brought up in 2023 it wasn't brought up in 2024 it wasn't brought up in 2025 until September Mr.

Chair so yes um actually there has been an ordinance that has come before the body every year um every year since the fifteen dollar uh rate was put into effect because the the original rate it's sunseted and so we have done it every year last year the file was did come before this body late and that was an oversight um but it really should it really does need to go so now so I I looked for it in legislature I did not find it in 2324 the files are all listed um under if you look at the the proposed sub the reference files those are all of the the uncodified ordinances that were put before the body right and I'm just saying I I looked for them in 23 and 24 there was nothing led to start for them um so uh so we have a proposed sub that we could consider or is there any other discussion amongst the members remaining so just so that I'm clear the sub would override what you're requesting Miss Kelsey as far as just codifying the 15 dollars that's correct would this proclude us from revisiting we could we can always come back and revisit the $15.

Can we come back and amend it yes I would my answer to that question would yes I hope we could I hope that can't be yes no I'm sorry that yes yes okay it sounded like a JMO question I was like all right um sorry I I would make a motion to move forward with the original more moves forward for $15 an hour for now I guess for now um certainly more discussion uh to be had uh and I think we can also encapsulate other um service contract minimum rates elsewhere in the city moving forward absolutely um any further discussion on alder woman more's motion hearing none um let's do a roll call please passage of the file honor woman more aye on spiker aye mr chair no prevails two ayes one no and two excuse uh prevails two one two thank you very much for that um moving on to item number twelve file two five one eight nine two communication from the department of administration relating to approval of changes to certain single or sole source contracts or contract amendments welcome back thank you there are three contracts that uh require your approval this morning one for this afternoon I'm sorry it is evening adjusting to the change to the PM change um three contracts one for the police department one for the department of employee relations and one contract for the fire department um all

Communication from the Department of Administration relating to approval of changes to certain single or sole source contracts or contract amendments.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

There are three contracts that uh require your approval this morning, one for this afternoon.

I'm sorry.

It is not adjusting to the change to the PM change.

Um three contracts, one for the police department, one for the department of employee relations, and one contract for the fire department.

Um all three of these contracts have I guess we're um in recess because we have no one we we lost our quorum.

Apology.

I don't know how long.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Chairbowman.

We were in the middle of item 11.

Okay.

In the middle of item 12.

Okay.

Do you want me to take it back?

Are you good?

Take it back.

Oh, okay.

Scooch somewhere.

All right.

Okay.

So we're still on 12, is that right?

Was 11?

Yeah, Ms.

Kelsey was in the middle of her presentation.

Okay.

All right.

Sorry that we had to break quorum there for a second.

We'll just continue where we left up.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Um, so I'll just quickly and briefly uh provide the description of the contracts that we have here.

So one for the police department, one for the department of employee relations, and one contract for the fire department.

Um, all three contracts have come before this body in the past, they're all contract amendments.

Uh the first contract is with first responders psychological services LLC to provide psychology services to um police officers.

Um an additional funding amount of roughly eight hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars has been added to the current contract amount, um, which is the same for a total contract amount of one point seven million dollars.

So this is really a correction.

They intended to add this amount last time around.

Um, so this is this is a fix uh here for that.

Uh the second contract is uh with care.com.

This is the uh unlimited access uh care.com services that city employees um can utilize.

Um we uh are seeking to add 25,000 to the current contract amount of roughly 199,000 for a total contract amount of approximately 224,000, and we um are seeking to extend it through the end of uh this year, December 31st, 2026.

The third contract and final contract in this files for the fire department with WIS Hope uh Incorporated doing business as project with hope, a little bit of discussion about the Mori program, uh Milwaukee overdose response initiative program that the fire department administers.

Um so this uh funding will allow the department to continue to support funding for one peer support specialist.

So we have added uh approximately or we have or will be adding excuse me, 78,500 to the current contract amount of roughly 108,000 dollars for a total contract amount of roughly 187,000 dollars and extending the contract through uh May of 2027.

Okay, Madam Chair, okay.

I'll memore really quick, Miss Kelsey.

Um, in regards to the first um contract for psychological services, um that the date where it begins or the original begin date, I'm assuming that's typically um on here.

I'm just trying to get a sense of what you know is the the original sort of contra I'm assuming that line item is for maybe the original contract begin date.

The original start date of this contract was January 2024.

Um so if you look at that that that chart in the body of that document, yeah.

It has the the detail perfect.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Any other questions then any other questions?

Did you get you got through everything or am I missing one?

Okay.

Okay, that's one came in kind of mid thing on item 11, right?

Yes.

Okay.

Well, then Alderwoman Moore moves passage of 11.

We're on 12.

Am I saying that one?

12.

Oh, sorry.

We're on 12, yeah.

Yep.

Okay, we're on 12.

And any, then that's approval actually.

So Alder Woman Moore is moving approval.

Discussion of approval.

Any objections to approval?

Hearing none so ordered.

Okay.

And you did complete everything before 12?

Okay.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

We'll move on to item 13, 251759.

Communication from the Department of Administration informing the finance and personnel committee of waivers granted for certain single or sole source contracts or contract amendments.

Ms.

Kelsey.

Okay, so there are five contracts in this file.

So these are all waivers, and these contracts are processed.

So I'm presenting these contracts to you today.

Um, the first contract is uh for the common council city clerk's office.

This contract is with community advocates.

Um this is one of the CLTF uh council led transfer funded contracts to provide housing stabilization um services to city residents in the amount of ninety thousand dollars.

So that's the only new contract in this file.

Um the next four contracts have come before this body um in the past.

Uh the second contract is for the police department with TEFRA security LLC.

This is the police department's um card access maintenance support contract.

So we have added an additional 170,000 dollars to the current contract amount for a total contract amount of 774,000, and we have extended the contract through the end of this year.

The third contract is for the police department as well with IntelliNetics and Incorporated.

Um this is their IntelliCloud um expansion optimization software that is used to read fingerprint ID and various other sources of uh data that they need to access and analyze.

Um we have added additional $56,000 to the current contract amount for a total contract amount of roughly $460,000, and um the contract has been extended through the end of October 2026.

The fourth contract is for the environmental collaboration office of the Department of Administration with Kiramita, uh Environmental Incorporated.

This is uh the uh software platform, the climate uh view monitoring tool that is utilized by the ECO.

Uh we have added approximately $54,000 to the current contract amount of $65,000 for current contract amount of roughly $119,000, and we've extended this contract through the end of December 2026.

And then the last contract is for the health department with live technologies.

This is their um providative maintenance laboratory equipment.

Um added an additional 200,000 dollars to the current contract amount for a total contract amount of roughly $598,000, and we have extended this contract uh through December 31st, 2029.

So that covers a longer term, three-year term.

Okay, any questions or comments on item 13 or any of the items that were discussed here?

Questions or comments?

Alder Person Burgelis then places on file item 13.

Discussion of placement on file, objections to placing it on file.

Hearing none so ordered.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for your patience.

A little break there.

Item 14, 251655, communication from the Department of Employee Relations relating to classification studies scheduled for city service commission action.

And we would have department of employee relations, Ms.

Knickerpocker.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

And I would ask in the interest of time, would you like me to summarize these or move directly to questions?

I think we'll probably move directly to questions unless anyone has any specific items they need addressed.

Anything specific, otherwise, we'll go questions based on item 14, which are the classification studies for the city service commission.

Any questions on 14?

Okay, thank you, Miss Knickerbacher.

Alderwoman Moore moves to place item 14 on file.

Any questions about placing it on file?

Any objections?

Hearing none so ordered.

Thank you so much.

Item 15.

Uh let's you this needs to be held to the call of the chair.

Okay, I'll read it in, but then I'll hold it.

15 is 251760 communication from the department of employee relations.

Amending the salary and positions ordinances relating to clerical or administrative corrections, and there was a request from the department to hold it for the for a cycle.

Request from the Department of Employee Relations to hold to the call of the chair.

Alder Woman Moore moves hold to the call the chair of item 15 and hearing no objections so ordered.

Item 16, 251895, an ordinance to further amend the 2026 rates of pay of offices and positions in the city service.

This reflects the action we take we have taken in earlier files.

Any discussion of 16.

Any objections?

Passage is ordered and approved.

Item 17, 251896, an ordinance to further amend the 2026 offices and positions in the city service.

Also reflects the action we've taken in earlier files.

Uh Alderman Bergellis moves passage of 17 discussion of passage, objections to passage, hearing none so ordered.

Okay.

We're now on number 18, 25182.

Communication from the Comptroller's Office relating to an audit of the Department of Neighborhood Services Financial Information.

From the Comptroller's Office, we have Adeana Molina.

Hi.

And Tanzraum, Finance and Administration Manager for DNS.

Oh, great.

Nice to see you.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll let you begin your presentation.

Perfect.

And just as a note, item 19.

Is ready also.

Yes.

19 is ready.

Yep, never mind.

We'll start with the DNS one.

So for the record, Adriana Molina, I'm the internal audit manager here.

Okay.

City.

Great.

All right.

So I'm presenting the audit of the DNS Financial Administration.

Similar to other times, overview of DNS, our scope of objectives of the audit, our procedures, our conclusions, and any findings and recommendations that we had.

High level overview.

It protects neighborhood stability and property values through enforcement of billing zoning, fire, environmental, and property maintenance codes.

Annually, the department receives over 35,000 complaints.

The 2024 budget does not include the ARPA funding, hence why the difference.

While if you low risk control deficiencies were identified, they did not significantly impact the integrity or reliability of financial administration processes.

All right.

Finding number one in relation to petty cash.

There were inconsistencies and weaknesses in control environments noted with there was only one single transaction that exceeded the hundred hundred dollar limit per the policy.

Petty cash was not properly safeguarded and transmitted through secured mail channels at one of the locations that had petty cash.

All locations should be subject to proper custody controls through secured mail channels, including safeguarding of a locked vault or cash box and a prop an update cash petty petty cash authorization forms.

And then finally, we noted that one travel expense mileage was calculated using the outdated mileage of mileage of 2024 versus the 2025 rate per mile.

Risk rating is low.

And we noted that the this the potential may result in potential fraud due to unauthorized inaccurate travel expenses.

A recommendation is to ensure all employees from familiarize themselves with the most um policies and procedures, included required documentation to validate expense and be informed on cur on current federal mileage and per DM rates, and implement a notification systems to remind employees of the 15-day submission deadline so that they can submit the reimbursements timely.

And that was it.

Okay.

Any questions?

Um we are on item 18 and on the Department of Neighborhood Services Financial Administration.

Any questions or comments on that audit?

Questions or comments on that audit and the findings.

Okay, seeing and hearing none, uh, Alderman Speckeral move to place it on file.

Objections to placing on file.

Hearing none so ordered.

We'll move on to 19.

And just so I see the notes here.

Do must we go into closed session or only if some of the questions need to?

Only if the questions um make lead to that.

Okay, so we'll try to just all monitor that.

If someone feels that we're going that route, um let me know.

Alderman 9, or oh my gosh, item 19, 251949.

Communication relating to the report of audit finding follow-up for the year ended 1231 2025.

And seems like we'll be led by you, Ms.

Molina again.

Okay, and then introduce anyone else.

Yeah, you have your other colleagues here too, so we get everybody right in.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Um Liz, do you want to introduce me?

Yeah, please.

Hi, um, my name is Elizabeth DeMay.

Nice to see you.

Thank you.

Nice to see you again.

Thank you.

All right.

All right.

Well get going.

So we will be reporting on the audit finding follow-up for the year ending 1231, 2025.

Okay.

All right.

Overview and purpose of our follow-up process.

We'll go through an executive summary, our status of all the audit findings, findings closed by department, and our risk ratings of open findings and next steps.

Very high level, I won't read every item, but um part of our internal audit um processes is to follow up on all findings that are open for the city.

So we um follow up on all of them typically around the November, December time frame.

We start doing that, and we finalize that process in January, February.

We'll put all the reporting together, um, and then we present to this committee.

Um we go through the um the implementation status of all those different findings that was provided to by management, which also includes um verifying evidence and support that they provided to close any of our findings.

Our executive summary.

There were 62 findings issued between 2019 and 2025, and those were the ones that we followed up on.

Fifteen of those remain in open status.

When we compare those to last year, 20 last year there were 27 that remain in open status versus this year.

Um 87% of those were either full implement fully implemented or in progress to be closed by the end of 20 at the end of 2025 when we reviewed them.

Um sorry, I'll keep going.

Here we have a chart of all of our audit recommendations at the year end thirty December 31st, 2025.

Um you'll see the different status um divided up between fully implemented and progress, management accepts risk and no progress.

Um the no progress the uh ones the two percent the two percent is just for one of the findings, and more of the detail for all of these is at the in the uh appendices that I provided it.

I provided to the FMP um last week.

Our status of all the uh findings by department.

Um the only comment that I did want to make here the very first one says DOA that in particular is related to the audit of the viol uh audit of the Office of Violence Prevention.

Um the rest of them it's typically one audit that we reviewed.

If you need further um details on each of those audits, that's in the packet or the um separate uh Excel spreadsheet that I provided.

Okay, and findings closed by department.

These were the actions taking place in 2025.

So you could see the blue uh columns are all the findings that were closed in comparison to the red columns are the findings that are open.

So um very grateful that the different divisions that we followed up on, they um really took in uh the responsibility and went through and provided the information that we needed so that we can close those findings out.

Risk rating is on open findings.

Um there's 15 findings open, like I mentioned before, four of them are rated high, six are medium, and five are low.

One of the four open findings is related to IT.

The other one is related to um the inventory audit, and two of them are related to the Milwaukee water plant safety audits that we did last year.

Um next steps, we will follow up on all open findings again for anything that is open, as well as any find any audits issued this year at the end of this year.

Um, and then we'll report to those to the finding um to the FMP.

And that is it.

Any questions?

Uh any questions by committee members?

Madam Chair?

Yes, Alleron Spiker.

Um so for the open audit audit finding categories and risks.

There's some at the end where it says management accepts risk.

If that's um, you know, a low risk rating, that's one thing.

If it's a high risk rating, um might be good to know why we're accepting that level of risk if that cost is so prohibitive that there's no other choice.

And then I guess um for those where risk has not been accept uh accepted by the department, there's a couple in a category I'm not sure I've seen before, which is serious extreme.

Um is that something that uh we can uh so you don't have all the departments here waiting to discuss all this, so this would require separate cases.

So I did call I did reach out to um the departments that had open findings that were high and they were gonna try and be available.

ITMD was gonna try and make themselves available.

Um the extreme ones, the Milwaukee Waterwork Safety Audits, um, the critical ones, those were closed.

Um it's the other ones that are high that they're still working on.

Okay, so when those were closed, the risk was dealt.

When those were closed, the risk was mitigated from the Yes.

Okay.

Yep.

Yep.

Anything, however, any of the ones that management accepts risk, so the and and maybe that's where I misunderstood.

The ones that were either they accepted the risk, and I believe those are the bottom two in the document that I sent in relation to DPW badge access review and the audit of Milwaukee Fire Department payroll calculations.

Those were um low and they accepted the risk.

The ones above that related to IT audits, um, those were deemed closed because after four years, if they don't do anything about them, then per our policy we would consider the management accept risk.

So is there a process or procedure in place from the comp trolers our office to afford that as it were to uh the committee at the council that has some degree of oversight function or can make life difficult for people if if need be, because otherwise the incentive would be just to wait out.

So I guess the oversight would be our follow-up process that we do annually.

We would we follow up on all of these, and we have been for the last since they were open.

So some of these were open since 2019, prior to my time, but we do have support um validating that we did follow up and there was no update or they did not, um, the particular division did not uh provide any evidence of either progress or that they were gonna remediate it.

Okay, so I guess what I'm looking for from the controller's office's uh um communication to us so that we can do something about that instead of just allowing that if you wait long enough and you don't respond to the follow-ups from the auditors, then it goes away.

Because that that would seem to be a problematic policy.

Am I misunderstanding something here?

So I I think what you could do as you know the the audit committee uh as the oversight body is on any finding where management accepts risk, you could choose to proactively um call that department and have a have them respond to a communication file as to what they're doing about that, why they accept the risk, um, provide further detail.

I think that's that's one avenue that's that's available to you.

So I guess for the LRB, I I would put in that request, and if it's resolved without a communication file actually being heard at committee, that's that's fabulous.

Um but if if the risk is found to be severe enough and there is no good reason why it hasn't been dealt with.

And we can provide you with um what the departments have provided to us, like what was their response or if there was anything that they did, we could put that in a s a different column in the spreadsheet that I provided so you could see what the communications were, if that helps.

Yeah, that would be helpful, especially with some of the files that were heard quite some time ago.

So maybe I was around then, but maybe I don't remember what uh the contents of that discussion.

So without reviewing the report then.

Um yeah, that would be extremely helpful actually.

Thank you.

Yep.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Can I ask a question about the Milwaukee waterworks in open session?

Um yeah, that one, yes.

So that one, um yes, yes, we can.

Probably like a ITMD or something, maybe not.

But I guess I am concerned because um not sure what slide this is.

Looks like seven or so.

In the three areas where uh Milwaukee Wadi Waterworks um is discussed here, it it has pretty kind of higher than normal um activity.

I guess the majority of it's closed, but it's still like a lot.

Any anything we can take away from that?

Is it just a lot of work like any you know, I mean any trend, anything we should be aware of?

Uh good afternoon, Jane Isle, a waterworks administration manager with waterworks.

Um I don't know that there would be any trend or any um you know messaging to take away from it, other than this was a very comprehensive audit which identified a number of improvements that we could make, the majority of which we have completed and then two that are still outstanding, both related to electrical safety, one at each plant.

Okay.

Um and I actually reached out uh today for an update.

Um they are making very good progress to getting those remediated by the end of this year.

Um they've they're about two-thirds of the way through data gathering, about a fifth of the way through analysis, and they've already gotten about 10% of the facilities labeled appropriately.

So um we're taking it very seriously moving forward.

Okay.

Um if that answered your question.

I hope it did.

But that's helpful.

I wanna yeah, no, I appreciate it.

Um I mean it seems like people are taking care of the issues, which is great, which is why we do this stuff.

Um anything else on waterworks?

Because I have a different question.

Um necessarily to water works.

I can wait.

Oh, okay.

No, well, I was gonna move off of waterworks to something else.

I just wanted to ask, um, is it customary that um um that the recommendations are adhered to typically by the end of the calendar, the fiscal year?

Is that typically customary or where how do you all decide like, oh, you know, you have three months or six months, or is it a limited time to resolve the issue?

So typically we leave that up to the department to let us know okay, we can get it done within a year.

And then we do ask by the time we close our audit that they tell it, they give us a date, because sometimes there is no date.

However, during our follow-up process, things change and they'll ask, say we're gonna update our remediation day to 2027.

We'll update that and we'll continue to track it, and that's what we'll um follow up the next year on.

But if they continue to keep moving, like for example, that 2019 audit, it's gonna be seven years.

Um, then it's kind of like they accepted the risk.

It's been seven years.

Or I guess, yeah, 2026.

Yeah.

Does that did that answer your question?

No, it does um answer my question.

Um, and I I think it my next follow-up would be would there are there any penalties, or it may depend on whether it's high, medium, low.

I mean, are there any penalties for dragging out that coming to a resolution?

No, I I I wouldn't say that there's any there's no built-in penalties.

I I think the the idea is we bring this information to you all as the audit committee, and then you all can take any action that uh you see fit um as a result.

Got it.

So the the power is essentially in in your hands as opposed to to the controller's office of the audit division.

Makes sense.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Okay.

Um just wanted a little more detail on the only, let's see, the only other one was waterworks, but the second most kind of cases or cases closed was um transportation parking.

What was can you just give us a little more detail on that one?

And then on first page.

Uh I was again looking at this bar graph on seven, I think.

Oh six.

Or is it yeah.

I I guess I'm looking at the closed status.

The next one.

Oh, here we go.

Yes.

Oh, seven.

So that other blue.

Ah, what's open in the general?

Yep.

Let me go to my findings here.

Like this one was like sound of like electrical issues, things like that.

Just looking for a little more if you can share in this one.

If you're able to, if not, it's okay.

Yeah, DPW transportation.

That was the financial administration audit, right, Adriana?

Or um, that was the when we the revenue one.

Revenue one.

But I don't see that.

Am I missing we no, I see it.

There is one, and it's in the the very last page.

Uh that one is in relation to procedures.

So yeah, that one's a medium one, and that one.

Oh, medium, okay.

Yep.

That was in um the documentation of procedures um of the daily operations that we mentioned.

Okay.

But the other findings that were in that audit that were higher um were closed.

Okay.

That were higher risk.

Okay.

What's all the questions I have?

Does anybody else have a question on 19?

Pretty comprehensive report there.

Any other questions on 19?

Any other things that need to be offered or discussed?

Okay.

Alder Woman More than moves to place 19 on file.

Discussion of placing 19 on file.

Objections.

Did you have something you want to add?

Uh I just wanted to thank Adriana for her uh for her service here as uh audit manager.

She is uh moving out of state.

So we'll be losing her unfortunately, but uh I just want to thank her and applaud for all the all the work that she's done here at this time.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, well, Nysia, thank you for all your great work.

And you missed um, I wanted to alderman um Spiker, you know, shared his sentiments earlier.

And I don't know if you want to repeat.

I don't know if you I don't want to get your head big if you heard it once already.

Um yeah, my experience has been you've been an excellent um asset to the city.

Uh you'll be sorry they missed.

You've always performed the job excellently and always been responsive after committee.

So just appreciate it.

Thank you.

Appreciate your work and that of your team.

Yeah, and congratulations.

We wish you all the best in your next endeavors.

If it doesn't work out, you can always come back.

You never know.

Somewhere warmer, don't lie.

It is technically much warmer.

It's in Arizona.

Yeah, you never know what cards will hold.

So we wish you well.

Yeah, thank you.

Um and there was no objections, heard to place 19 on file.

Okay, so you're gonna go remote, no problem.

Yeah, just gonna remote.

Okay, no problem.

Go ahead.

So we still have a quorum, and then I think Cogs was excused for the remainder of the meeting.

Okay's um remote.

I'm gonna go remote, and we're getting late here, so I'm starting to blur my words here.

Okay.

Then that was placed on file.

Hearing no objections, so ordered was 19.

And we're on our last item, item 20, 25183.

Appointment of Danielle Rodriguez to serve as the Department of Administration director by the mayor.

Please come on up.

And we're joined by Amber Danius from the mayor's office and then Danielle Rodriguez.

Okay, good evening.

No, afternoon.

Just getting good afternoon.

Oh, you did that joke?

Oh man.

Okay, sorry.

Good afternoon.

Uh Amber Daniels, Kelm Soliaison for Mayor Johnson.

Um here to introduce the mayor's nominee for director of the department of administration, Miss Danielle Ryrias.

So Madam Chair, I'll turn it over to you.

Okay.

Please in reintroduce yourself, of course, because we've known you for your many years of dedicated service.

And in your introduction, could you please discuss a little bit about why you want this position and what your vision is for it?

Sure, absolutely.

Uh Danielle Rodriguez, currently uh Department of Public Works, Director of Operations.

Um first I do want to thank you, uh, Chairwoman and the committee members, and obviously the mayor and his administration for their um faith in me and for the nomination.

Um I've had some things, but I also feel like I want to be really conscientious of your time and respectful.

Um I provided my resume through my 30 years on career here in the city of Milwaukee.

I've worked closely with a lot of departments, um, the initiatives and as well as the department of administration.

Um current uh leaders and uh directors that work in the department.

Um my professional background includes in uh Department of Public Works operations, uh oversight of over 900 employees and about a hundred and fifty million dollar but uh operating budget as well as oversight uh in uh enterprise fund budgeting.

Um I've done uh technology implementation throughout DPW that I'm particularly proud of.

uh leaders and uh directors that work in the department um my professional background includes in uh department of public works operations uh oversight of over 900 employees and about a hundred and fifty million dollar but uh uh operating budget as well as oversight uh in uh enterprise fund budgeting um I've done uh technology implementation throughout DPW that I'm particularly proud of um quite frankly I'm super excited about this position because I'm able to take that experience uh that I have been in Department of Public Works as well as uh prior in the Milwaukee Public Library and work directly with these department heads um and and quite frankly liaison and help uh lead a set of phenomenal leaders in their own right um and provide transparency uh support um and a vision and strategy for DOA and their various activities um a few more things so I do want to specifically talk about my vision I think that's really important um DOA obviously is the city of Milwaukee's central engine and operational hub for excellence um and I want to make sure that I'm supporting them and enabling all the city departments to perform to their highest uh level and empower each department to be strategic and specifically give them administrative support strengthening collaboration across the city of Milwaukee and drive innovation as well as particularly removing any operational barriers they may have to delivering efficient service to each other um my personal mission is uh to serve as a trusted strategic partner and to lead with authenticity that's really important to me I want to make sure that I'm fostering collaboration and ensuring that DOA um and the leaders there have the tools and the support they need and the systems in place uh to support and deliver results um again I'm thankful for this opportunity I'm happy to answer questions um before I turn it back over if it's okay I do in full transparency want to recognize that over my career I've learned quite a bit um particularly from my colleagues uh those who have mentored me and uh committee members um I've learned a lot about uh varying my communication style I want to specifically mention how important it is that I take responsibility for um whether it's a success in the department and and how we've improved but also responsibility for things where they didn't go perfectly and I want to make sure that all committee members here are present and and the rest of the council knows that I'm committed to number one transparent communication but also more than anything what I've learned uh is proactive communication that's really what's important to me more than anything.

So being proactive is very important and I want to make sure that I'm able to continue to form relationships with each and every one of you I think over the last year in particular I was able to um touch base and connect with alders in ways that I hadn't in the past and that actually I I feel strengthened my ability to lead.

Okay well thank you for saying that that's nice.

Thank you very much.

Okay well we'll begin um questioning um and thank you for your service and and thank you for the appointment I just want to make sure I note we have Alder Woman Larissa Taylor online and then of course Alderman Scott Spyker um who has some questions to begin for Ms.

Federus okay anyone um let me just open it up I can go for okay Alderman Bergellis.

Thank you.

Thank you Madam Chair thank you for being here um today when we met uh you mentioned that the uh and I like how you called it the hub of excellence uh for the department of administration but you saw DOAs really as a a resource and a um uh something to lead for other departments to lean on how do you anticipate coordinating with departments what kind of services or things can you provide is it just is it just helping those smaller departments though that have some of which have been recently created right um with their administrative tasks or does it go further than that?

So I think it it goes further than that because ultimately um you know the departments that are with within or the divisions that are within uh DOA you know they are the backbone they're the hub you're you're talking about budgeting procurement you know though those are the sort of things that support every single department and department head um when we met and we talked um one of my commitments and things that I'm you know eager to do first is talk again in a different light with every single department head and understand what's going well what are things they see as challenges you know it I have relationships with all of these people um from my past work but I think this is a new lens that I I want to have very specific questions to ask them you know how can we help support you more how can we further initiatives again are there things that we need to do better uh what are what are we doing well that we can keep it expanding on how can we have creative thinking um just open up the dialogue both internally and externally um you mentioned that uh you have a long list of uh accomplishments you're proud of um in your in your long career with the city is there anything that you weren't because this appointment wasn't I don't think a long term plan or maybe it's it wasn't um

How can we further initiatives again?

Are there things that we need to do better?

Uh what are what are we doing well that we can keep it expanding on?

How can we have creative thinking?

Um, just open up the dialogue both internally and externally.

Um you mentioned that uh you have a long list of uh accomplishments you're proud of in your in your long career with the city.

Is there anything that you weren't because this appointment wasn't, I don't think a long-term plan, or maybe it's it wasn't.

Um you know, it came about came about suddenly.

Is there something that's still unfinished at DPW uh that um isn't quite done yet?

Um, you know, there is because I think um to my earlier point, uh leadership managers, they're never stagnant.

You're always growing, you're always reflecting internally.

Uh while I was at DPW, we uh I specifically started a leadership mentorship program, um, training development for every single leader.

Uh it it was based on the premise of secession planning, but also leading a bunch of technical experts that come up through the ranks, which is fantastic and what we want.

Um sometimes the soft skills they're still learning and growing and developing in.

We what I would say, and I I say this a lot, we set the base of the pyramid.

We gave them a lot of um instruction, we gave a lot of training, development, we brought in outside trainers to give them management and leadership training because I look at that group of people not just as section managers, but leaders in their own right, and management and leadership are two completely different skill sets, and so we have that base of the pyramid.

I hope they will continue to grow that secession planning and that development and leadership.

I think myself personally, I'm constantly reflecting back on myself.

How can I grow?

How can I get better at what I'm doing?

How can I refine my craft?

I hope they continue that work.

Um I talk about in DPW, they're established on an extremely uh rich and historical legacy of um blue collar work, and I want them to take that strong, rich history um and grow the future of what the next 50, 80 years look like.

So, you know, we have some technology things I also put in place that was in the works, training, and I want them to take that all, they have that framework, and then take it to the next level and operationalize each one of those pieces so that now the next 50 years is set up instead of like right now, they're sort of in that transition, moving out of the pen and paper, moving out of the Excel sheets, moving into technology rich applications, moving into strong, you know, moving away from just soup being supervisors and managers, but into managers and true leaders in their own right.

Okay.

There was a joke about a 50-year-old snowplow in there somewhere, but I'll I'll um just a time out there.

It's too soon, too soon.

Late in day, actually.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll move it around to all their women more, and then I'll go to anybody on the board that uh any alder on the board who wanted to talk about this item.

All the women more.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, and congratulations on the appointment, Danielle.

Um couple questions that I have is um if you know the folks that you were currently, you know, in the position that you um that you're currently in, how would they describe you as a leader?

What would you say, you know, they would describe you as?

Um I I think they would describe me as so I'm gonna I'm gonna go pros and cons.

I am a firm believer that everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

And I think they would describe me as approachable.

I think they would describe me as leading with humility.

I I'm not very egocentric.

Um, but I also think they would describe me as someone who challenges them.

Um, that I challenge the status quo, that I challenge their ideas, and I also challenge uh what we think is the standard or the norm.

I see my role as a leader very much to take how we've always done it, or what we're doing right now, or what we think we can afford, or what we think we're doing, and push the operational bar further.

Um sometimes I say we're gonna push it to the brink because you want to see where saturation is and where it really cannot be absorbed or changed.

Um nothing great ever happens unless there's some pressure.

So I think they would probably describe me as putting on a lot of pressure and questioning them quite a bit.

Yeah, I love that.

Um so you know, the current structure um of DOA, the former director had one staffer that he was the director.

Um so you know, the current structure um of DOA, the um former director had one staffer that he was the director, then there's this one staffer.

Hey Steve.

Um, and then there was everybody else.

Um do you see yourself making any sort of structural changes or looking at where you could sort of best envision the functionality you know of the department um that it's just a little maybe more equitable, just sure just you know, structurally streamline a little bit better.

Do you see yourself looking to make any of those um changes?

You know, I do because I'm a different type of leader than the prior director, and everyone has to again I talk about authentic leadership.

Everyone has to lean into their authenticness, right?

And authentically who I am and who I am as a leader.

Um that would be very challenging for me to just have you know lean on Steve.

I mean, I'm gonna be this that's the guy there, right?

Um, but I am a leader who I really like that face-to-face time.

I value people's input um at every level, and quite frankly, I think as a leader, I am leading the group, the whole group, and I want to be open to each manager within the entire division that I'm there to um bounce ideas off, challenge, question, um, refine, help work through problems, and and I I think it and and maybe I'll feel different when I get in there, but I don't think so because I lead 900 now, and that's how I lead, and that's how I think I'm most effective and valuable.

Um, I find that when I really listen and be part of the solutions that allow Steve the time to get into you know, stay with the day-to-day rocking and rolling, and I can take some of those big picture, big vision items, get his feedback, but also get the feedback directly from the people who work that job and know it best.

So I see Steve and I more as partners than one employee.

I see myself having uh what a hundred and sixty point three employees.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anyone on the board, Alder Woman Taylor, Alderman Spiker, did you wish to be heard?

Yes, I I um thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Um I just wanted to um kind of piggyback off of the question that Alderwoman Moore just asked.

There was um a statement, Danielle, that you just made, and you said that you like to lead um in uh I think you said you wanted to encourage others, um, and that you listen to what they have to say.

Do you have any um examples in your current role where because you you spoke about the the managers and um of how they were leaders in their own right, and so how did you give a real example of how you actually um perform what you just said in in their current role?

Sure, absolutely.

Um I'll say specifically uh with our flood cleanup, our um current business operations manager in sanitation, he was new to the role.

I think maybe a just a little under a year, shy of a year when the floods uh took place, and we were implementing brand new technology.

Um and quite frankly, the technology wasn't completely ready to roll out yet.

If we would have gone status quo, we would have had each of the three areas uh manage and oversee their own area specific uh flood cleanup and respond to the requests that were coming in.

Um and I'll even shout him out.

Nick Taylor said to me, um, you know, we really need a central hub, you know, go like emergency command center style, and we should be having the very best of the best supervisors, managers, and staff staffing this flood cleanup and responding citywide, not just um north, central, south area.

That quite frankly was radical, you know, uh idea that the area managers in sanitation aren't typically accustomed to.

Um, but I think there was a lot of try I had a lot of trust in him.

Um, and I had a lot of trust in his idea, and quite frankly, I believed it as soon as he talked to me about it.

It made sense.

We need the best of the best managing this.

This is emergency management at this point.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, anything else, Alderman Taylor?

I'm a you for right now, other questions, but I'll wait for rating.

Oh, okay.

Alderman Spiker or any other Alders here on the committee.

Okay, well, while we're waiting for anybody else that has questions, um, my question was just about um communication and communication um specifically with the council.

Uh like I said, I've and I shared this with you in our meeting.

I've had an increase at the beginning of this year, um, with just a lot of a lot more calls for service, and um some fall under DOA, I think some some may or may not.

I'm trying to think what the um surveys have said, but you know, I'm really looking for a communicative problem solver who also you know equally prioritizes um council questions, council needs for like intervention when there's constituent issues.

So can you talk a little bit about um how you'll handle and we are well aware that we're 15 people that have a lot of you know people that make demands of us, but it's important to me, and I did find um your predecessor um to be very responsive, and you know, I I said I get this sometimes my own district that it's someone will say, Oh, you know, they didn't get back to me, but really what they're saying is is that I wasn't able to solve their issue.

So tell me, walk me through a little bit about some of these complex things, like I might have an issue in the eco office or the um legislative affairs, or and I've had like all of these actually.

Um when I say issue doesn't mean a problem, but just something we got to work on.

How would you kind of um communicate on it, prioritize it um and try to solve you know one of those issues?

No, I think this is this is a great question.

I appreciate you at asking it because over the last year, um, you know, I learned quite a bit about um, you know, large organizations, you know, operationally, my operations mind tells me there's processes for people to uh submit complaints or let us know, give us feedback, etc.

And and I think even uh various committees have heard me talk about those processes and and follow the process.

But I think uh what is really dynamic is that over the past year in particular, I was able to receive a lot of feedback from all of you, whether it was at committee or whether it was one-on-one, uh, to say, sure, but what about when that breaks down?

What about when um my office, your office is is seeing a pattern or a trend or something that's unique, what is the process for that and what and how do we resolve and get to resolution?

So, you know, for me it it was my ability to reflect on let's move out of the operation mind and let's move into the how do we listen and ask for feedback?

And so I think the ask for feedback is the is one of the keys because I don't always want to wait for you to alert me that there's a problem or a pattern happening in your office area in your in your areas.

Um I have learned to ask better questions so that I can get more information um from your offices, um, from you in particular, so that I know how to address themes that you're seeing.

I think I want to keep those lines of communication open and improve them more than ever.

Obviously, at this level, I'm moving away from that operational, you know, how do we serve a constituent, how do we report you know, something that's going on, and moving into higher level problem solving now.

Now it's about patterns, themes.

What is the policy mean?

What kind of policies are in place that we need to make sure we're looking at?

And and to your point, even if I don't have the solution, I I'm usually a solution-oriented person.

I really like to you bring me a problem, I want to give you the answer.

I want to give you the solution.

That's sort of how I'm wired.

Um, over the last year in particular, I've been able to develop different skills and learn more about how do I look bigger at what this theme is and solve it for now, but also understand better about um high-level policies, what the impacts are of certain decisions, and and how do I garner that feedback, not just from one office, but also understand is it one office plus 14 other offices?

Is it one area of the city of Milwaukee that we need to look at?

And so again, that's where I reflect on how do I do better getting information that's not siloed.

Okay.

I hope that answered your question.

Um there's a number of um divisions in the department um offices that I think are almost in a daily way, if not weekly, being impacted by some of the choices being made by the federal government, specifically our president.

Um so it'd be like block grant, one could argue budget office, certainly eco um innovation in a way, but even our legislative affairs.

So, you know, how how would you handle um some decisions that even get at like the core work of the office, like how would this being an ever changing environment?

Um, you know, and I could just even pick one, but like, you know, eco, for example, but like walk me through a little bit about in leadership how it is that you would communicate out that there's a change.

Sure.

Because sometimes there's been a few times in the recent past where um we'll we'll especially in DOA implement a change and say, oh, that's because of the federal government's change, and I think we're missing a communication piece of it, and we are missing um some empathy um that I think is important, and I think it's actually important for our constituents to hear um well, I think there's moments to resist.

I think we can decide that as a governmental body, and there's other cities doing that, but also talking about what these impacts really do, and maybe not overcorrecting.

And I know it's a it's a hard question, but I think that your department's been um disproportionately impacted by this.

Even the changes to block the funding of block grant, I mean the changes of how we allocate funding for housing, it's it's it's been touching every part of it and harming our constituents.

So could you please share that with me, please?

Sure.

And do you want me to talk more about like how we manage it or just manage the communication?

I could do both.

I think both.

Sure, absolutely.

I think you know, managing that is ever juggling, which I feel uniquely aligned to do.

We do that in DPW operations constantly juggling and pivoting, um, but it's managing risk as well.

And um making sure that you all understand the risk involved in certain decisions, um, so that you know all sides of the argument and can make really informed decisions.

I also think it's being available by phone in person, so that those conversations can happen real time right when things are happening.

Obviously, um at our national level, things are changing, quite frankly, on the on a daily basis.

I mean, I work closely with Eric and Eco, um, particularly with our forestry grant, where we were, you know, every day we weren't sure whether to tell uh some of our contractors if they could even work and the contractors want an answer because they need to be able to pay people.

And you talk about empathy, you know, you've got a small business who is dependent on certain money and and employees, and that is one of the those things where you just get on a meeting immediately with you know, city attorney with the right stakeholders, and you just work through what's the risk and where do we make a decision point and accept risk, or say that risk is just too much to bear?

So that's just an example, but I think that is something that I uniquely will bring to all of these uh these areas because yeah, the federal level is very precarious right now.

And to put a fine point on that, and then I'll I'll move on is back to communication.

Um how do you see the council in that?

Because that's um, you know, I get asked by probably the number one question I get by most department heads is how do we communicate with uh council members?

And it's tough.

We're all unique, we all have different styles too, um, and different demands and different types of districts.

Um, but I think there really isn't a way to like over-communicate, and I'm a firm believer in those who want the information, we'll take it, those will let it pass by and just naturally sift through it.

Right.

Um, but what has happened sometimes recently is that we'll feel like we're later to know, or like we're reading about something in the paper.

I know Amber tries really hard to make sure that doesn't happen, but what do you see your role in communicating with us?

And then furthermore, it is a hard question, but how will you navigate when there is a natural disagreement, which happens in democracy?

Sure.

It's healthy.

We are checking balance on each other between the mayor's office, I should really say the executive branch and the legislative branch.

So those those two things, and those are my last questions.

Okay, sure, absolutely great questions.

I think um the first part is I'm really happy to hear you say, you know, you'd encourage over communication.

I think again, going back to what I've learned over the past year or two with some um failures in my own communication style, has taught me that I need to be uh quite frankly as aggressive as I can with my communication and then as poignant as I possibly can uh to the point where I'm like, well, I I hope I'm not bothering them, but I would rather um make sure I reach out multiple times um to give the opportunity that something isn't missed, you know, not the one time and oh well.

Um and so my approach coming into this it into this role is taking those lessons and what I learned and and overcommunicating multiple times um and making sure that uh at least I am as transparent with a multitude of styles of communication and whether that's email, uh face-to-face, calling, texting, uh, just to make sure I'm putting things on radars and sort of alerting what we're dealing with in real time.

And so um those lessons learned, you know, aren't lost on me, they're here, and um, you know, certainly I have to keep carrying them, and I w and and I'm glad I can because now I can be a better communicator.

I can be more effective.

I can I can actually serve better uh my in my role.

And then as far as the second part, you know, there's always gonna be disagreements between the administration and the council, obviously.

Um I think you'll find that I am extremely pragmatic.

I um like to get to solution, I get to I like to get to resolution, and even if there's not agreement, I want everyone to understand pros and cons.

I want people to understand the dynamics.

Um I enjoy healthy dialogue as well, whether that's with the administration, my colleagues, uh the mayor's office with council members, because I think going into something uninformed is the worst possible position for us to be in.

And so if that means I have to communicate tough topics that perhaps I'm not even sure that I believe in, I'm gonna communicate those things because if we go into something, a policy, let's say, and we make a decision on it, and I know I'm holding information that could have shaped a policy in a more dynamic way, that would probably really weigh on me.

Um that wouldn't feel that wouldn't feel good.

Okay.

Okay dokie.

That answers my questions for now.

Any other questions?

Yes.

Okay.

Alder Woman more?

Uh this is Taylor.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm so sorry, Alder Woman Taylor.

Pardon me.

Oh, that's okay.

Um so um I I appreciate all the answers that you gave.

Um it sounds like you'd be very conscientious um in your communication now.

Um you talked a little bit uh before about the gentleman who um had this great idea and um and that you thought that it was efficient and and you guys began to implement his idea of having a central location for information that you guys could kind of disseminate and address the needs of the city during the flood uh more efficiently.

Um you know, I guess I I look at um how the alders, I think all 15 of us really would like to be very efficient in how we address um the needs of our constituency.

But um, and so I think in your current role, um we had talked a great deal about um the use of cameras and did you think that that would make alders more efficient?

Um I know that there was a pilot study done with it, and you guys are kind of working on it.

Um I guess I'm just looking at um the urgency.

I I wasn't seeing urgency with helping alders be a little more efficient and how they were getting information to their constituency and how they were addressing concerns and and how those cameras could have made that a little easier, better communication.

Um how did you see that?

Okay.

Alder Woman, are you talking about cameras for dumping or for for the trucks for the trucks that she in her current position?

Oh, like a dashboard position.

I'm sorry, we were just trying to understand now it makes sense.

Okay, still in her current position.

But current position.

Okay, dash, because I know you're not in sanitation per se, but she's talking about dash cams, cameras on trucks.

And and the question is um I want to make sure I'm answering the right question.

And the the question was what efficiencies did I see for the council members in?

Yeah, how did you you you said that you wanted to be efficient and and that it was more efficient in listening to the new the ideas of this gentleman?

So I'm saying to you, um alders would like to be very efficient when we're dealing with our constituency.

And it when we talked about the cameras, um I wasn't sure that there was urgency to say, hey, you know what, this might be something that's could help the alders be a little more efficient.

Um did you not see an urgency for that to help alders be more efficient in their dealing with their constituency?

Or did you or or were you working towards that?

I mean, I I definitely think so.

Um in certain ways.

Um hopefully everyone got the email from our operations manager, Caitlin Jennick about the um it during the recent um snow and ice operation, uh blizzard conditions.

We are testing a uh front facing um public facing map that uses the technology of those cameras, GPS to locate um well, not locate, but essentially see when the last time a salt truck went down a street, whether it was uh, you know, I think I think it's like two hours, four hours, six hours.

Um that's something that's been in development the better part of a year.

Um when we did the pilot, I think the the camera system you're referring to when we did that pilot, we started in the snow and ice vehicles.

Um, and something that we knew right away we wanted to provide was uh this public facing map that allows uh whether it's uh the council members or the public to go directly to the map and see well when was the last time a truck went down this uh you know street.

And so I saw that as a real life example of a great efficiency that not only uh council members will be able to use, but a tool that the public can use.

Um we did we've been working on that and developing it all season.

Uh we just sort of gave a a brief snapshot in that email to garner feedback from your offices if you if you find it useful, what kind of things might be working or not?

We actually had intended on rolling it out earlier in the season, but there were some tech hiccups, so we wanted to go back and do some refinement.

Um so I think that's one example where I I thought that would be a really nice efficiency for both the public and and the council members.

And and we started there because snow and ice is the place where we I think well, at least our offices where we, you know, know people are really impacted, and then your offices are impacted with concerns.

Did that help?

It it does, thank you.

Okay.

No, good great questioning.

Um have you in your current role, do you feel that you had responsibility for leaf collection?

Well, yes, absolutely.

Um Do you think that went well?

Uh well, I think it went as well as it could have, considering such an early snowfall.

Um normally during leaf collection, and and and I'm gonna answer this with what we did, but also what I think the potential is to change in the future.

So first I'll say normally we have at the end of the season, right after, you know, Thanksgiving, you guys are all well aware we have, you know, the breakout period it ends, it's usually extended.

Um, but we know operationally, um Rick Myers, sanitation manager who oversees that uh firsthand knows he has his him and his team have six weeks to collect typically uh leaves before it really gets snowy, because usually it really gets snowy right after Christmas.

That did not turn out to be the case this this winter, and it absolutely impacted our ability to get to those leaves.

It impacted the residents of the city of Milwaukee.

Um part of what Rick and I have been talking about is how can we approach leaf collection without asking for more resources, right?

Because we're trying to be budget conscious.

Um how can we pivot quicker?

And how can we set up the plan so that we're more impactful in a narrower period of time?

Part of the challenges with that is Mother Nature is Mother Nature.

If the leaves don't come out of the trees, um, you know, uh like this last season, most of the leaves weren't even off before that snowstorm hit.

That's when they all kind of came off during a cold snap right before it.

Snow uh, you know, impacted the ability to collect.

Um and yeah, that was super challenging, super super challenging.

Do you think that was communicated out well to our constituents?

I think it could have been better, most definitely.

Because I had a uh um community meeting, it wasn't Rick, it was maybe Alan, I believe.

Um that you know he was just basically uh receiving a lot of complaints.

Um we did a style differently so people weren't like directly on the microphone, they were they were um whiteboarding.

But I I do think that the it's it like once you had a one-on-one with somebody, or which I had to do a lot, hundreds of them when they called me, because they don't they didn't call that likely didn't call you, um to talk about climate change and the things that you're talking about, but like that didn't seem to get out to the public.

Um and I think that is an opportunity, and that is a test case of I like that you're reevaluating it, but like innovation, like maybe we can't keep doing what we've been doing because unfortunately climate change is happening and things are changing.

Yes.

So like the fact that we're we keep telling our constituents this is gonna happen and when and break out, who would not be frustrated when you're painting yourself to rake out, you raked out, and then you're clogging when we get these, you know, torrential rains as well, and then you got flooding, like it's just something something is not working.

So I do think that that's an area um for improvement, innovation, but really what I wanna, and I'm not putting that all on you.

I did want to ask you though, because you're talking about leadership and taking responsibility, that the communication of it I I don't think was that great.

So like it's one thing that it had uh that the choices, you know, and and what we did, but like I would have liked to have seen somewhere there a repositioning.

Um, but I think what could have helped us was communication, and and I think that's gonna be really important in DOA.

Absolutely.

Because the Alders were kind of left to fend for ourselves.

Um we we were trying to communicate out, and we're still at this point now where most reasonable people will understand that the climate has not been helpful, but they're still again back to that empathy.

They're frustrated.

They they remind us that they're paying tax dollars, that they raked it out.

Now, not only did they rake it out by raking it out, they almost in inadvertently plug their own sewer and have flooding now.

So it's like I I can't listen to the you know, these phone calls, I can't respond.

I don't know what to say at that point.

So we've got to do better.

We've got to be more innovative.

Um, you know, I'd like I think that's in a way what Alderwoman Taylor was getting at a little bit different angle.

Um, but there are some spots in public works that could have used improvement, especially um in communication, and that's why I keep going back to communication.

So um, you know, how would you have communicated that differently?

So I think we would have been a lot more transparent uh on the upfront, right while we were still managing that snow and ice, and I think for me personally, that's always my uh, you know, we ebb and flow, right?

And I think you heard a file earlier um approving uh filling of our uh the uh streetcar communications manager.

Um although they're labeled as streetcar specifically, um, you know, I don't think I'm stepping out of bounds, talking about Gerald's vision for DPW and a better communication approach, and that each um division within uh DPW has its own communications person who can kind of help navigate those things, especially in operations when I'm knee deep in like we need to figure out snow and ice, then we need to start creating the plan for leaves.

Like it's really helpful to have someone who's a professional in like communication strategies um to say, all right, we need to get ahead of this, let's go.

Um here's the things that I think the public would want to do.

Looking back uh in hindsight, I would have wanted to start uh, you know, in tandem at the exact same time while we're in the operation, uh start developing a communication plan on what's this gonna look like over the winter, you know, because I think that was one of the things that I saw as uh difficult.

Most difficult is that people understand climate change, they understand it snowed, but they didn't understand, but now what for the rest of the winter?

Right, like the frozen leaf piles.

Right.

And so I think you know, there was some communication that went out, but I just don't think it was um as effective as it needed to be so that it could land so people knew and now what?

Will you have a communications person in DOA then?

I I am not sure that we have one.

Okay, so it might be BNU.

Who sends out the newsletter?

There is a DOA newsletter, is that that who?

Uh yes, okay, okay.

She's not the person.

That's a newsletter, but not a direct DIY.

Oh, gotcha.

Yeah.

I I do think that would be something that I would obviously look at because um, you know, I want to hear from the various departments from all of you as well as you know, internal.

Is that something that is is needed and desired?

Um I got one last question for you.

And as you oversee, and then it's and I see that um director Kovac had to leave.

Um it's so pertinent to this committee.

What um you're gonna be overseeing now the budget office.

What um you're gonna be overseeing now the budget office um do you think that we should start our budget discussion sooner than we have between I know the obviously the mayor does really early, but we're we're we are sliding it up every with every year that I've been chair, we're sliding it up.

But what would be your vision for a little better collaboration?

And again, I want to also preface that it is not supposed to be if we just came in here and 100% approved the budget, we wouldn't even be doing our due diligence.

Right.

So I'm not trying to seek out something that's not available, but like which I also don't think would be healthy, but in your many years, which we benefit from your decades of service, and now you overseeing that budget department.

What do you think could be something that we could do differently?

And like should should should the council maybe participate earlier in the budget process, or what would that look like to you?

Right, absolutely.

I mean, I think again, you know, all communication is good communication, even if it's disagreement because at least you're you're knowing where people stand.

Um I think earlier communication couldn't hurt.

Um I don't you know I apologize in advance if I'm stepping out of bounds with the budget because I do know that there is um you know uh state law that you know dictates you know, sort of the the periods of which you know we go through the process and and I don't have all the ins and outs, but as a department, you know, department uh division manager I think it is crucial that at least in my department I know we are talking about budgets long before we're actually developing the budget.

And you know, the hardest thing about that is is that as soon as the beginning of the new year starts and we start operating in that budget, we're not only trying to figure out the impact and make sure we're operationally um, you know, solvent if you will, but we're already right away starting that budget process.

And and quite frankly, all year long internally, we're talking about, you know, I I you know Chuck Schumacher.

I'm like, put that on your whiteboard, we have to talk about that during budget.

Um so I imagine it's very similar in every single department department and division as they're developing, you know, what their programming looks like, what they're gonna need.

Um so uh I think there's opportunity.

I don't necessarily have any specifics because I also don't want to talk outside the confines of what is legal and not legal with how we prepare and and execute the budget, but I think it's all up for negotiation.

I uh especially if it's discussion.

Yeah, there's a legal requirement of like when the council has to at the latest receive it.

But early conversations of desired alignment, shared goals, all of that and collaboration to me should be an ongoing process as always.

Um it's something that I think we need to improve upon collectively.

So and that works both ways, right?

Works both ways, so I get that.

Well, I've occupied a little bit of time here.

So any other well, it's just you're looking at it, so it's just us actually.

He didn't come back on.

Okay, okay.

So it's the three of us holding down okay, holding down the fort here.

You'll have something to say on Tuesday.

Alderman Burgelis.

I will I will move uh confirmation.

Okay.

Confirmation has been moved by Alderman Burgelis.

Any other discussion?

I want to go back to Alder Woman Taylor.

Confirmation has been moved.

Alder Woman, anything else to offer?

No, not at this time.

Thank you.

Okay.

It's just you know, we have one opportunity at committee and then it goes to the council where it could be discussed, but I want to make sure I'm covering all bases here.

Any discussion of confirmation?

Any objections to confirmation?

Hearing none, so ordered.

Congratulations.

You'll move on to Tuesdays uh next round on Tuesday to the common council.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And hearing no objections confirmed, as I said, and it goes forward to the councilman.

On Tuesday.

Yes.

I know Danielle had a recent birthday.

I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday.

Thank you.

It's a whole March holiday.

Hallmark.

Okay.

Oh man, I wanted to be out of here by five, but that's okay.

So um I guess I could ask less questions.

Hearing and seeing no other further business, right?

We covered everything.

Then this meeting stands adjourned and have a great weekend.