The Finance and Personnel Committee, chaired by Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, met on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 9:27 AM in Room 301-B of City Hall. The committee considered 22 agenda items, including a substitute ordinance on elected official salaries, the city's five-year fiscal forecast, labor negotiations in closed session, employee wage adjustments, audits of the city's financial statements and Milwaukee Water Works, a proposal to implement a new health plan (held), the semi-annual innovation report, and several administrative resolutions. Key votes included a split 3-2 approval of the salary ordinance for elected officials for the 2028-2032 term, and unanimous approval or placement on file of most other items.
I'm Chairwoman Marina Dmitrievich, joined by our Vice Chairperson Alderman Peter Bergelis. Alderman Scott Spiker is president. Present. There you go. That's not a nice Alder Woman Malele Cogs is here. And Alder Woman Charlotte Moore. That provides us a quorum to conduct our business today on Wednesday, September 16th, 2026. We will begin with item number one. 251 682, a substitute ordinance relating to salaries for certain elected officials. Okay. Come on up, city attorney. Okay. And the clerk would like us to read item two in as well, because they do correspond when you take one action, you have to then reflect it in the accompanying salary file. So item two is 260726 communication relating to the salaries of certain elected officials. I did want to bring Jim. Do you mind coming up? This is kind of a three-part fix. All right. And so there also may be a mixture of feelings on a mixture of items. So Jim, would you mind on item one and two, we'll start? Actually, why don't we start with the city attorney and then go to Jim? That'd be a little bit easier. So thank you, City Attorney. I'll note in the file there are three items I'd like to bring your attention to. Um a um really uh clear memo from the city attorney's office on kind of how we got here and the fix they recommend, as well as then um kind of a side-by-side chart because we've we've had to kind of play some catch-up here. And then the third part was kind of an older analysis from 2023. Um you kind of do have to roll back the tape and think into when this council had a lengthy deliberation kind of back then on the executive pay plan to get here. So go ahead, city attorney, then just briefly um your recommendation. I'll have Jim explain it and then we'll take the vote. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just uh Evan Goike, City Attorney to my right is Deputy Uh City Attorney Robin Peterson, and to my to my left is uh assistant city attorney Alex Foundos. Uh as you mentioned, there are com there are materials that we produced in the file that lays out uh as clear as we could um uh provide a brief history and and our recommendations, just so that everybody is clear. Um at the beginning of 2024, but before the election, and the new current cohort of alder persons were elected, uh we advised the council that uh an ordinance was lawful and enforceable that would tie aldermanic and mayoral salary increases capped at uh no greater than three percent, but with uh if a raise to general city employees was initiated, that that would apply to the council and the mayor as well. Uh that actually was uh finally or for for the first time enacted in the budget in the fall of 2025 for the current year, 2026, as those mechanics were um actually you know sought to be placed into action and we saw how it was working. We uh reviewed and revised and frankly reversed our advice about whether the council and the mayor could receive that 3 percent increase in 2026, and ultimately I advised the council that they could not receive that benefit, otherwise it would be in violation of a state statute that prohibits the members of the legislative body and and the mayor of local governments around the state from basically voting on their own increase and giving themselves an increase during their term. So we have advised that this cohort, the 2024 to 2028 cohort of the Milwaukee Common Council, should you elect to um i increase the position of alder person that that be prospective beginning April of 2028 for the cohort of 15 alders from 2028 to 2032. I would note that it's very important here. No alder person, the mayor or elected officials, including myself, received any not one penny increase of that three percent. Uh and so a debate will ensue. It's you know the legislative prerogative to set these numbers, but the position of alder person and mayor in the city of Milwaukee is effectively frozen and not receiving uh salary increases that general city employees would receive, and it would be our opinion that this same mechanics would play out should the 2027 budget include an additional raise for general city employees. So in essence, you're frozen uh until April of 2028, and there is uh uh in the substitute in the file today would uh unfreeze the position of Alder and Mayor, but starting in April of 2028 and moving forward. We've also included in the memo that in uh January uh no elected uh position, including the Comptroller, the treasurer, the uh the city attorney, and the three branches of municipal court received a raise. Uh the state law bars those individuals in in a position to vote on their own salaries, and because those other elected officials do not have a vote on their salaries, they should have received the three percent raise in starting in January, with two exceptions. One, there isn't a unique state law related to municipal court judges where they may not receive a raise during the first year of their term. So branch one was elected in April of 2025, and so should not be eligible for the three percent until April of 2026. And then the city attorney, the position of city attorney cannot exceed the salary of the mayor, and I'm pretty close to the mayor, and so I cannot receive the three percent myself because I cannot exceed the mayor. So uh we've outlined those uh actions that we would recommend the council take in amending the salary ordinance. Um I think that kind of covers where we where we're at, and happy to answer any questions. Okay, and before I go to Jim, um, our city clerk is just I think three additional takeaways if we haven't made it totally clear in the file and discussion here is is that this is something that was already deliberated. Um this is doing what we said we would do, which is attach things to city employee increases if and when they were, and this is not for this term, it is for next term.