Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Finance & Personnel Committee of the Milwaukee Common Council met on 2026-10-28. The agenda listed a 9:00 a.m. start; the committee convened at 9:27 a.m. and adjourned at 10:20 a.m. in Room 301-B, City Hall. All five members were present: Chair Marina Dimitrijevic, Vice-Chair Peter Burgelis, and Alders Scott P. Spiker, Milele A. Coggs, and Sharlen P. Moore. The committee advanced an ALPR contract oversight charter ordinance, acted on grant and contract files, and moved a series of 2027 budget items toward the Common Council.
We're expected to vote on budget amendments. But the budget amendments were only distributed after hours late last night. We're supposed to vote on them all tomorrow. Yeah. Is there any opportunity to delay that meeting so that we have time to read, investigate, ask questions, get answers prior to the meeting tomorrow. In terms of a timeline for budget. Because I'm asked to evaluate 11 budget amendments tomorrow that I won't be prepared for. There's no way that I can read and consider all of those amendments fairly. Okay. I'm just I'm I'm disappointed in the process where one delay cascades and rolls down the hill to another delay and another delay and another delay. We're now it's up to the finance committee to prepare in what four business hours before that hearing starts. Okay. It's it's it's it's um it's uh disappointing for me. I share that same disappointment. Um it was properly noticed. Um technically that way, to reschedule the budget amendment meeting would mean a lot of schedules changing, a lot of departments it would have us up against the wall where our other meetings. Um but I can take that feedback and speak with the president on it. All right, so thank you. Sorry for the interruption, but I that's fine. Yep, I share the frustration too. There'll be a letter coming out today too about the process and some changes that need to be made, but there was um many delays. So thank you very much. Okay. And that's why we're all a little tired here too, I hear you. But thanks for putting that on on the record. Item number one, um, again, today is our regular finance and personnel committee meeting. Item number one, 260809, a substitute charter ordinance relating to contracts for automated license plate reader technology. We and this is sponsored by myself, Brouwer, Bauman, Perez, and more. Um we also will be available for public testimony, and there's some public here that wish to speak for two minutes. We have the Department of Administration, Milwaukee Police Department is available as well. Um, but most importantly, we have a substitute that was the slight delay here was that there was a typo in substitute A. So we have substitute B. Alder Woman More will offer substitute B. There was a typo change in that it should come to the common council, not just a uh finance committee. Any objections to accepting proposed substitute B from Alder Woman More. Hearing none, substitute B is before us. Um because I'm the author, I'm going to pass this to my vice chairman. Um I'll speak and um I'd also ask the chair, of course. We're we have a couple people here that are gonna give two-minute um testimonies and uh we have e-comments as well. So I'd like to after council members speak, before we hear from anybody else, I'd really like to prioritize the public. What you have today in front of you is just that. Um it's kind of unique that we go ahead and um change the charter. It's only been a few times that I can remember since I've been here. And the reason we're looking to change the charter is is that we want maximum public transparency and discussion of any type of surveillance efforts. When everyone is being surveilled, whether you want to or not, everyone should have a voice, and it should be a democratic process. If you look at the memo that's in the file, um it outlines a history here that had very little common council participation. And it's not about me or the common council, it's about the collective nearly half a million people uh that we represent, and that's a half a million people whose license plates are being read uh almost the majority, or if not all the time.