The reopening of the Social Development Commission, after months of disruption, has sparked mixed reactions from elected officials.
While some welcome its return, others anticipate challenges ahead, with Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson calling for greater transparency from the agency.
The Social Development Commission, or SDC, reopened its main office at 1730 W. North Ave. earlier this month. It’s now focusing on resuming its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, career services, child care and housing programs.
The agency provided programs and services that helped Milwaukee County residents living in poverty before it stopped services and laid off employees in late April because of its inability to meet payroll and other financial concerns.
Mayor calls for more transparency
At the SDC board’s meeting where leadership announced plans to reopen, Jackie Q. Carter, the board’s commissioner appointed by the mayor, voted against executive board nominations and asked for more community involvement, a formalized process and public transparency in the board’s decisions.
“The vote accurately reflected the mayor’s concerns about the lack of transparency in the latest moves,” said Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for Johnson.
The mayor would like SDC to follow requirements of Wisconsin open meetings law, which includes publicly posting notice of its board meetings and providing agendas with information regarding the matters of discussion, Fleming said.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson would like to see more transparency from the Social Development Commission’s board. (Sue Vliet / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service file photo)
Since SDC suspended operations, the board has only been meeting part of the law’s notice requirements. SDC has notified individuals and members of the press of upcoming meetings, but it has not been posting meeting notices in public places or online.
“The mayor is hopeful SDC will, once again, be a leading provider of help to low-income residents of the region,” Fleming said. “It is essential that SDC regain trust before it can resume the important work it previously undertook. The services are needed, and well-run organizations are key to serving those who deserve assistance.”
Other officials weigh in
Before the reopening announcement in November, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in an interview that the county wants to continue working with the Social Development Commission.
He said many of the services SDC provided have been picked up by other agencies, and his office has not received any constituent calls related to service issues.
“But we also know that as a CAP (community action program) agency, there are dollars that are probably on the table at the state and federal level that we haven’t been able to take advantage of because they aren’t open,” Crowley said.
Following the reopening announcement, Jonathan Fera, the communications director for the county executive’s office, said the state and the federal Office of Community Services are working with SDC to determine how to move forward, and Crowley is ready to collaborate with them when needed.
“It’s encouraging that people are back at the table working on a solution to the challenges that have impacted public services provided by SDC,” Fera said.
Another official interested in SDC restarting services is U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.
When SDC abruptly shuttered in April, Moore wrote letters to SDC’s board and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, calling for a federal investigation.
“The Social Development Commission’s closure was a loss that was deeply felt in the community,” Moore said. “While I am grateful that the Social Development Commission is resuming some of its services, I know it still faces many challenges ahead.”
County Supervisor Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones, who represents the 13th District on Milwaukee’s Near North Side and is the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors’ second vice chair, called the reopening a “critical step toward restoring vital services for Milwaukee County residents.”
“The SDC has been a cornerstone of community support for years, and its relaunch reaffirms our commitment to uplifting people in need,” she said.
State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, who represents the 6th Senate District, said the reopening is great news for Milwaukee County.
“The commission’s ability to provide housing assistance and child care food services has been a lifeline for families who need a little support,” Johnson said. “I’m glad to have them back in our community, and I encourage those who need help to take advantage of their services.”
Devin Blake, PrincessSafiya Byers and Edgar Mendez contributed reporting to this story.
A Volkswagen ID.4 owner says the automaker and his local dealer are letting him down.
After buying the car, it’s sat in a service repair shop for over seven months.
The dealer claims that VW itself hasn’t supplied the tools needed to change the gearbox.
From an observer’s perspective, it’s clear that the Volkswagen ID.4 is far from perfect as it’s had several issues since its launch. At times, the problems are relatively trivial. However, some of them are more serious, such as when the doors open on their own because they can’t handle water on them. What we don’t often get is an inside look at life with such a car. Now, one man in Florida is telling his troubled story with an ID.4.
Josh Cowan is a die-hard Volkswagen fan. He’s owned three Jettas, a Tiguan, and an Atlas. His wife’s very first car was a Volkswagen. It made sense to him to get an ID.4 when it came time to buy a new car for his family. What he didn’t know was that he’d end up right back in a loaner Tiguan for over seven months.
Not long after taking delivery of his low-mileage but used ID.4 from Carmax, he noticed an airbag light on. He took it to the dealer and mentioned to them that he also heard a strange noise periodically. “There was a clunking sound that happened every time you kind of turned a corner and accelerated,” Cowan said to WFTV.
First, the dealer thought the issue was a motor mount. When that didn’t work, they told him that the ID.4 needed a new transmission. Now, over seven months later, the ID.4 is still sitting at the shop. What’s taking so long? According to the dealer, Volkswagen itself hasn’t supplied it with the tools it needs to swap the gearbox out.
“So, there it sits. Now it’s been seven and a half months. There are two additional recalls on that car that have happened in the meantime that they don’t have fixes for,” Cowan said. Interestingly, Volkswagen seems poised to wipe its hands of all liability as they offered the Cowans $3,000.
Josh believes that if he accepts it, he’ll release VW from future claims. With that in mind, Josh says “It’s frustrating, and we feel really let down by Volkswagen.” The only thing he can do at this point is wait on the dealer and the automaker to make things right.
However, William Sulton, SDC’s attorney, said that staff doing new work is precisely how former employees are going to get paid.
“I would say … the way that those folks are going to get paid is by the organization reopening and submitting the required reporting documentation to get paid on grants,” Sulton said.
Who does SDC owe?
As of last week, 45 people have unresolved claims concerning pay from SDC, according to a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the state agency that handles employment and labor-related disputes.
Sulton also said that among these 45 employees are highly paid employees like George Hinton, SDC’s former CEO who resigned at the request of SDC’s Board of Commissioners.
The Department of Workforce Development did not provide a clear timeline for when it will make a decision about people’s claims, but the investigator assigned to these claims is actively working on them, the department’s spokesperson said.
Sulton said he believes there is a path for how former employees will be paid: new, or rehired, employees providing services.
If SDC hadn’t brought in employees to do new work, grant money couldn’t be accessed to resolve Department of Workforce Development claims, Sulton said.
The quasi-governmental community action agency provides a variety of programs and services to meet the needs of low-income residents in Milwaukee County.
Case-by-case basis
But making a claim with the Department of Workforce Development does not guarantee that person will get the full amount they say they’re owed.
Each claim is being evaluated individually, and there are some disputes, Sulton said.
“For example, there’s one employee whose time we’re unable to confirm. There’s one employee who claims that she had a conversation with their supervisor and the former supervisor promised her an increase in pay,” Sulton said.
A common theme among claims is about getting paid out for unused paid time off, Sulton said.
Department of Workforce Development staff are assisting former employees with supplying the right documentation, which can include pay stubs, records they kept or other communications, according to the spokesperson.
Woods thought ahead in this regard.
“On the last day, I just was taking screenshots and printing whatever I needed and emailing to myself,” she said.
Some progress
Since the April layoffs, SDC has paid $51,000 toward what it owes people, Sulton said.
Electric power lines. (Scott Olson | Getty Images)
The Sierra Club of Wisconsin says that the decision to delay the retirement of a Columbia County coal power plant until 2029 to consider converting it to a natural gas plant will harm the environment and expose nearby residents to harmful emissions.
The Columbia Energy Center was initially set to be closed this year, but two years ago the plant’s retirement was delayed until 2026. In a statement on Wednesday, the co-owners of the plant, Alliant Energy, Madison Gas and Electric and Wisconsin Public Service, said keeping the plant open another three years will allow them to “explore converting at least one of Columbia’s units to natural gas.” The companies added that the decision will allow them to maintain the reliability and affordability of energy.
Utility companies have said that using natural gas allows them to keep providing power while moving away from more harmful fuels such as coal.
“Natural gas plays an important role in enabling the ongoing transition toward greater use of renewable resources by providing a flexible, dispatchable resource to serve customers reliably and affordably when necessary,” the companies said in the statement.
But environmental advocates lamented the decision, which will keep coal burning at the plant south of Portage for three more years than previously expected. On Friday, the Sierra Club criticized the use of natural gas at all.
The environmental group said that gas plants are vulnerable to failure, especially in places that experience harsh winters. The environmental group accused the companies of making the decision to boost their own profits.
The group also said that emissions from methane gas-burning plants are more harmful to the environment than coal plants and pose health risks to neighbors.
“We are enraged that Alliant, MG&E, and WPS have once again kicked the can on the Columbia Energy Center’s retirement date, and further exasperated with their considerations to convert the station to deadly methane gas,” the Sierra Club’s Cassie Steiner said in a statement. “Make no mistake: methane gas is not a ‘transition fuel’; it’s a way for utilities to keep exploiting captive customers for an even greater corporate profit while polluting those same communities they are supposed to serve.”
“Clean energy sources can reliably meet customers’ needs at a far cheaper cost and at no risk to their health,” Steiner continued. “Utilities like Alliant have continued to backpedal on their clean energy commitments and then hold their customers hostage to pay for their poor decisions. We simply cannot afford to extend our dependency on costly, polluting fossil fuels like coal and methane gas.”
Gun violence homicides dropped by nearly 17% in Wisconsin over the first eight months of 2024 compared to the same time period in 2023, according to a report by the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy institute.
The report, released in September, also found that gun violence victimizations, defined as all firearm-related injuries and deaths, dropped in Milwaukee nearly 20% over that same time period.
“I think this decrease is happening for a number of reasons, but one is due to community violence intervention measures that are working,” said Nicholas Matuszewski, executive director of Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, a statewide grassroots organization.
Local violence intervention efforts include 414 Life, a violence interruption program; and Project Ujima, which provides services to families and children who’ve been impacted by violence.
In addition, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley announced in late October the launch of the national gun violence program “Advance Peace.”
“Advance Peace is an investment in solutions to decreasing gun violence that will help ensure Milwaukee County is a safe and healthy community where families and children can thrive,” Crowley said in a news release announcing the program.
The Wisconsin Community Safety Fund grants provided 10 organizations, including the Alma Center in Milwaukee, with $10.4 million in funding to reduce violence stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After the pandemic, we had a huge increase in gun ownership and gun purchases which naturally led to more gun violence,” Matuszewski said. “Those numbers are dropping now.”
While many cities cited in the report have seen gun violence return or drop to pre-pandemic levels, Milwaukee is still on pace to experience more shootings this year than in 2019, the year before the pandemic.
According to data from the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission dashboard, there were 442 nonfatal shootings in 2019. Those numbers rose to more than 750 each year from 2020 to 2023. So far this year, the city has experienced 471 shootings, according to information on the dashboard.
‘Too many shootings’
Travis Hope, a community activist who conducts street outreach on Milwaukee’s South Side, said gun violence still occurs at an alarming rate in the city.
“Too many shootings are still happening and impacting families, communities and especially young people,” Hope said.
According to data from the Milwaukee Police Department, there have been 119 homicides in the city so far this year, compared to 153 during the same time period in 2023 and 192 in 2022.
The number of nonfatal shootings in Milwaukee also is down significantly, with 471 so far this year, compared to 769 at this time in 2023 and 788 in 2022.
Officials address drop in gun violence in Milwaukee
During a news conference discussing the reduction in shootings, among other crimes in the city, Mayor Cavalier Johnson cited the work of the Milwaukee Police Department as one reason for the drop in shootings and other crime this year.
“The work that they do is a big factor, a huge factor, in making Milwaukee safer,” he said.
Johnson said that in addition to law enforcement, intervention efforts have also been key in reducing crime.
“When we prevent a crime through intervention, that makes each and every one of us safer,” he said.
Ashanti Hamilton, director of the Office of Community Safety and Wellness, said that while the decrease in homicides and nonfatal shootings is promising, more work needs to be done.
“Reducing violence is an ongoing process,” he said. “Sustainable change requires addressing the root causes of crime, and this means looking beyond the immediate crime reduction strategies and focusing on broader social, economic and systemic changes that contribute to violence.”
The Milwaukee Police Department has a hiring problem.
It can’t find enough recruits to offset retirements and the departure of others.
Ald. Lamont Westmoreland, who represents the 5th District on the city’s Northwest Side, said residents are feeling the impact.
“Lack of police presence, long wait times on calls, all tied back to the lack of sworn officers that MPD has,” Westmoreland said.
Leon Todd, executive director of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, which has primary responsibility in the city for recruiting, testing and hiring new officers, agrees.
“Having more officers and growing the size of MPD will do a host of things to improve public safety,” he said. “Shorter response times, higher clearance rates, more proactive time for officers to do follow-up or investigative work and have greater visibility and engagement opportunities in the community all drive down crime in various ways.”
In 2023, the Milwaukee Fire and Police Academy graduated 101 new police officers, while the Milwaukee Police Department lost 112 officers to retirement, resignation or termination, Westmoreland said.
The pace of recruitment is slow again this year, with departures of officers once again outpacing new police cadets.
The city also risks missing mandates that require beefing up the number of police officers in the city as part of the Act 12 Wisconsin funding law or face millions in fines. Act 12 created avenues to implement local sales taxes as a way to pump more money into the budget and offset spiraling costs.
“I have no issue with the mandate because I do think that we need more officers on the streets,” Westmoreland said. “At the same time, you can’t force people to apply for the job.”
Recruitment challenges and efforts
Westmoreland said Milwaukee is among a number of urban cities that are facing similar hiring challenges, including competition from better-paying suburban police departments with less dangerous work environments.
“We can’t use that as a crutch,” Westmoreland said. “We’ve got to be creative with the approach of recruitment.”
Todd said the Fire and Police Commission has made several adjustments over the past few years to find new police, including hiring two staff members dedicated to recruitment, participating in more community events and job fairs and ramping up marketing efforts to city residents.
“One of the things we’ve tried to do is highlight the stories of officers to let residents know that they are people that care about the community and want to help make it safer,” Todd said.
The commission also now accepts applications year-round instead of shorter windows of a few months. It also changed the testing process to allow for online entrance exams, eliminating additional barriers for applicants.
Changes since pandemic and civil unrest
Kristine Rodriguez, a deputy for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office who also supports recruitment efforts, said her organization faces similar challenges as MPD, especially since COVID and the George Floyd protests.
“Some of the things that happened during that time still resonate with people,” she said.
She said pay is also an issue, with suburban departments offering hiring bonuses and higher starting pays. They also work fewer hours sometimes, she said, as staffing shortages can result in mandatory overtime and fewer days off.
The current starting salary for recruits at MPD is $47,673.69 and increases to $63,564.75 upon graduation from the academy. Police officers can earn up to $84,743.87 while supervisors and other specialists can earn more.
‘Under a microscope’
Another possible deterrent, Rodriguez said, is the scrutiny officers face nowadays.
“You’re under a microscope 24/7 and that might scare some candidates away,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said that her department places a heavy emphasis on community engagement, cultural competency and mental health training and that its relationship with the community has improved. She said the job itself is extremely fulfilling.
“We know that our heart is in the right place, and that’s what makes the job the most rewarding is doing good for the community,” she said.
Others weigh in
Gregory Barachy, who’s worked for the Milwaukee Fire Department for 29 years, said he thinks that being a police officer is probably less desirable now because of the danger and the lack of accountability for those who commit crimes.
“Crime is insane here, car theft is an epidemic along with the driving that goes with it,” Barachy said. “And then if you happen to arrest someone, they are released without penalty to do it again. Why would someone want to risk their lives for that?”
Barachy, who recently began a position with the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative, said the fire department has also experienced a huge reduction in applicants.
“We only had a list of 250 this time, while 20 years ago the list was 10,000,” he said.
Carla Jones, whose partner was mistaken as a suspect and arrested by Brookfield police in November 2023, said she believes fewer people want to become police officers because of a lack of support they receive.
“Some of the main reasons people are joining law enforcement less and less is the lack of morale or real support officers are given,” Jones said. “They’re not doing that because they’re working on a reactive mentality.”
A call to disinvest
Devin Anderson is membership and campaign director for the African American Roundtable, which launched the Liberate MKE campaign in 2019 to push for divestment in law enforcement and more investment in community programming.
“In order to build a more just Milwaukee, we have to be moving money away from police and policing,” Anderson said. “We’d rather see fully funded libraries.”
Anderson said that residents want more safety and that some view policing as the only way to achieve that. But, he said, creating a safer city requires addressing root causes of crime, which the police department doesn’t do.
“They respond after something happens,” Anderson said. “What people actually want is more investments in their neighborhood.”
Testing a challenge
Two years ago, Eddie Juarez-Perez saw an ad seeking new cadets for the Milwaukee Police Department.
“I decided to answer the call for service,” he said.
Juarez-Perez applied and passed the background check and written and physical exam. But he failed a psychological exam taken by all potential recruits.
“They said I was deemed not suitable for the position,” Juarez-Perez said.
He isn’t giving up.
“I look at being a police officer as being a public servant,” Juarez-Perez said. “I love my city and want to help people have a good quality of life here.”
Rodriguez said she’s been working to recruit more women involved in law enforcement. But some she said are unable to meet the physical requirements needed to join.
“I think that definitely is a barrier for a lot of women who don’t have upper body strength or have time to train,” she said.
MPD hosts fit camps and other support to help potential cadets meet physical and testing requirements to become an officer.
“We’re trying to give people the best opportunity to prepare and succeed,” Todd said.
The Tesla Model 3 Performance is a seriously fast sports sedan.
Now, buyers are finding it with deep discounts on the second-hand market.
One crossed the auction block at $12k under MSRP and another is up for grabs.
Love them or hate them, electric vehicles can deliver mind-bending performance. We’re talking supercar levels of acceleration here, at least for 0-60 mph (96 km/h) and quarter-mile sprints. Take the Tesla Model 3 Performance, for instance.
Priced from $54,990 or $47,490 if you choose the no-cost Stealth Grey option and meet the requirements for the $7,500 federal tax credit (the only color that qualifies without adding the $8,000 FSD package, which unlocks eligibility for all colors and also nets you the tax credit), it might just be the best value in the EV sports sedan segment. That is, as long as you can stomach the depreciation that comes with it, especially compared to something like a BMW M3, which holds its value far better.
Not only does the Model 3 Performance outrun a BMW M3, but it also costs tens of thousands less than the German contender. For context, the base rear-wheel-drive M3 starts at $76,000, offering 473hp and a 0-60 time of 4.1 seconds. Step up to the M3 Competition xDrive, with its 523hp and a quicker 3.4-second sprint to 60 mph, and you’re looking at $85,300. And that’s without touching BMW’s extensive options list.
Meanwhile, the Model 3 Performance hits 60 mph in a blistering 2.8 seconds (albeit with a roll-out, so think around 3 seconds flat without) and rockets through the quarter-mile in about 11 seconds , all while offering just over 300 miles (488 km / EPA estimate) of range. Oh, and did we mention buyers are snapping up these Teslas for bargains on the second-hand market?
Second-Hand Steals
Photos Cars&Bids
For example, a Model 3 Performance in Ultra Red recently sold on Cars & Bids for just $46,250. It had only 2,200 miles on the odometer having been purchased new in June of 2024. To put that into perspective, that’s Lexus ES money for a car that delivers supercar acceleration. Apparently, 2,200 miles is all it takes for some buyers to lose interest in owning such a car.
As with all Model Performance variants, the car in question featured a panoramic glass roof, a premium interior, heated and ventilated front sport seats, and 20-inch wheels. The sale also included the Tesla Mobile Connector kit, compatible with both 120V outlets and NEMA 14-50 240V outlets for Level 2 charging.
The seller had the windows tinted and much of the body covered in SunTek paint protection film (PPF), which was applied to the front bumper, headlamps, hood, fenders, and mirror caps. Keep in mind that all of this came from Tesla with an MSRP of $58,380. Even at that price, it’s nothing short of a performance bargain.
A Windshield Or Another Tesla?
Interestingly, we’re about to see if this trend continues as another Model 3 Performance is up for sale again over on Cars & Bids. It has even fewer miles, just 800 so far, and with one day left into the auction, the highest bid stands at $38,250 at the time of writing with a day left (the auction ends on December 2). That’s for a car that, according to the listing, cost $56,380 new.
But why is the seller parting ways with it after so little time? As it turns out, replacing a windshield was enough to drive them into another Tesla. After all, who needs a windshield when you can just buy an entirely new car? Now that’s forward thinking.
“When I had to replace the windshield, Tesla had difficulties getting a replacement. They kept arriving damaged. Then, there was a lack of availability. It was dragging on. I was impatient. I just bought another Tesla while waiting for this one to be repaired,” the seller explained.
And he’s not alone either. A little digging reveals that windshield replacement for Teslas can be a frustrating and costly ordeal. When parts do finally arrive, the cost can hit nearly $1,500. Despite these headaches, the Model 3 Performance remains a killer deal in the sports sedan market. Whether new or lightly used, it’s hard to argue with this level of speed and value.
A Cybertruck owner is facing a $7,655 bill for a new drive unit after discovering an oil leak.
The 9,000-mile EV’s motor housing was worn down by a rock trapped above the crossmember.
Owner claims the Tesla has never seen hard off-road use and his dealer won’t cover the cost of repair.
One of the benefits of owning an EV is that they consist of fewer moving parts so should be less expensive to service and maintain. But as one Tesla owner discovered, EV hardware isn’t invincible, and it’s still expensive when it breaks.
This reminder comes from Cybertruck owner Joey Arrowood, who is staring down the barrel of an $8k bill after finding an oil leak on his electric pickup. That’s right, an oil leak – EVs use oil, too. As he shared in a post on the FacebookCybertruck group, as he returned to his truck one day, he noticed a pool of oil under the rear motor, closer inspection revealing that a small, sharp rock had ground a hole in the motor housing.
“At some point a small rock bounced over the belly pans and covers and wedged itself between the rear subframe and gearbox wearing a small hole into the aluminum case,” Arrowood wrote on Facebook. “I find it absurd to comprehend that such a small rock can cause this kind of damage.”
The Tesla is coming up to 9,000 miles (14,500 km) and the owner says the little action its seen away from paved surfaces was restricted to some driving on local dirt roads. But Arrowood’s local service center in Clarkston, MI, claims the proper fix is a new drive unit at a cost of $7,660.55, and says it won’t cover the cost, and will only repair it if Arrowood pays up himself or files an insurance claim.
“I love the truck and driving it, but come on Tesla… a little help here is needed please,” the owner wrote.
Commenters on the thread don’t all agree on the correct course of action: some suggest fixing the hole with JB Weld; others claim a genuine aluminum welding job would be better. But none of them thinks Arrowood should shell out for a brand new motor and most believe this isn’t a warranty situation, just an unfortunate freak accident, possibly made worse by poor design and thin castings on Tesla’s part.
Who do you think should pay, and what kind of fix would you recommend? Leave a comment and let us know.
In Milwaukee’s Lindsay Heights, community gardens with fresh fruit and vegetables coexist with dumped hazardous waste, public art and historical landmarks.
These are among the images captured by nine Lindsay Heights community members in a unique research project.
From June 2023 into mid-2024, the residents worked with researcher Dulmini Jayawardana on a photovoice research project documenting the neighborhood’s environment.
Photovoice is a qualitative research method where participants take photographs around a topic and then discuss them as a group.
The project culminated in an exhibit called “See What We See: Stories of Environmental Stewardship in Lindsay Heights.” It showcased photographs residents took of efforts to take care of the neighborhood’s environment or of things that were hurting it, such as illegal dumping, litter and lead pipes.
“We feel it and we want better for our community, and being part of photovoice gave us that chance to open up everyone else’s eyes,” said Maria Beltran, a longtime Lindsay Heights resident.
Beltran participates in weekly street cleanups as a North Avenue community ambassador and is also a leader with the health-focused South Side walking group Lideres por la Salud.
The photovoice participants consisted of Beltran, Ramona Curry, Marie Gordon, Cheryl Ferrill, Christal West, Jarvis West, Teresa Thomas Boyd, Geneva Jones and Ammar Nsoroma, many of whom are neighborhood residents and meet regularly at Walnut Way Conservation Corp.
Researching Lindsay Heights
Jayawardana, a doctoral student in the geography program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, wanted to try community-based research in Lindsay Heights.
The Near North Side neighborhood faces challenges, such as poverty, vacant lots and aging housing stock.
“When coming into the Lindsay Heights neighborhood, what we wanted people to notice and appreciate was the move to make it more environmentally friendly,” said Christal West, a community activist who participated in the photovoice project.
A sign welcomes people to “See What We See: Stories of Environmental Stewardship in Lindsay Heights,” a neighborhood-led exhibit on display at Milwaukee’s Central Public Library, earlier this year. (Meredith Melland / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
Photovoice brings underrepresented groups to the table
Jayawardana offered training and facilitated sessions on photovoice, which brings people traditionally underrepresented in research and policy into the process by sharing their voices, emotions and experiences.
The participants regularly met until March to discuss their photos and findings, with Jayawardana taking notes on the discussion of the photos for use as captions.
She compensated the researchers for the initial research sessions, but they continued to collaborate beyond the planned timeline.
“I think the process was long and it was grueling at times. However, it was worth it,” said Curry, a community organizer and independent consultant who participated in the project.
WaterMarks, an initiative that helps people learn about Milwaukee’s water systems, is a community partner in Jayawardana’s research.
‘This was part of the Underground Railroad’
The group curated the photos for the exhibition by developing themes, such as neighborhood history, public art, toxic environments and healthy eating and living.
“I learned about the unique history, like this was part of the Underground Railroad,” said Yahyal Siddiqu, who visited the library exhibition.
He lives near Lindsay Heights and enjoyed learning more about the landmarks and churches he recognized as well as the neighborhood’s history.
A sign marking a stop on the Underground Railroad in Lindsay Heights is included on a poster in the “See What We See: Stories of Environmental Stewardship in Lindsay Heights” exhibit at Milwaukee’s Central Public Library, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave. The sign is on North 17th Street, south of the intersection with West Fond du Lac Avenue. (Meredith Melland / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
One of Curry’s favorite photos is an image of a neighbor’s hands picking yellow flowers of St. John’s wort, a type of plant that the neighbor had been growing for over 50 years and uses to treat chronic body pain.
“I thought that was really inspirational and worthy of presenting and showing more people what we have in our own backyards,” Curry said.
Spotlighting problems to fix
The group hosted two exhibitions, one at City Hall, 200 E. Wells St., in April and another at Milwaukee Central Library, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave., in July.
“We were able to take these things to the policymakers, the decision-makers in the city, so that they are aware of what’s happening and what needs to be changed,” Jayawardana said.
Some people who attended the exhibition, including elected officials, reacted with shock and anger to Beltran’s photos and stories of discovering lead pipes and paint in her home and the ongoing process of making it safe again.
“They’re like, ‘That happened to you? That happened to your family?’” Beltran said.
Observers also enjoyed seeing positive developments in the neighborhood.
“I learned about the possible solutions to the problems that need to be fixed,” Siddiqu said.
After months of disruption, the Social Development Commission will restart some key programs on Dec. 2 in what is considered a major step toward restoring vital services to Milwaukee’s neediest residents.
The agency plans to focus on offering the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or VITA, program; career services; child care; and housing programs at its main office at 1730 W. North Ave. and its location at 6850 N. Teutonia Ave., which operated SDC’s child and adult care food program.
SDC’s Board of Commissioners discussed the programs on Thursday during a meeting at SDC’s main office.
The closing of the quasi-governmental community action agency, which managed approximately 30 programs and employed 85 people, has left a major gap in services for many low-income Milwaukee residents.
“In my opinion, it must be opened immediately,” said Jorge Franco, an SDC commissioner and newly named interim CEO. “There’s things that can be done today that increase the likelihood of getting service back in, back to the people who are of lowest income in our community.”
Jorge Franco, who is the SDC’s newly appointed board chair and interim CEO, addresses the board at a meeting on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, at SDC’s main office, 1730 W. North Ave. in Milwaukee. (Meredith Melland / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
The Social Development Commission will use its existing funding to support the programs and hire staff and is also seeking private donations, according to William Sulton, SDC’s attorney.
“We know we have the ability to run these programs, and we are betting on ourselves that we will be able to secure state and federal funding in the future,” Sulton said.
A few of SDC’s former program managers were present at the meeting, including Diane Robinson, who was the manager of SDC’s VITA program and senior services.
In the months since SDC stopped its VITA services, Robinson said she has had numerous customers reach out to ask if SDC will reopen.
“They’re wanting to know when is SDC coming back online because they don’t trust anyone else outside of SDC to do their taxes and do them right,” she said.
Franco named board chair and interim CEO
The board voted to appoint Franco as chair and interim CEO, replacing Vincent Bobot, who was named interim CEO in September.
“The thing is I want to stay on as a commissioner, but I think everybody here is aware that I have a full-time law practice, and I have a couple other things going on,” said Bobot, an attorney who owns a general practice, Bobot Law Office.
Bobot is also on the board of SD Properties Inc., the tax-exempt corporation that owns SDC’s buildings. He will remain on the SDC’s board and was appointed to serve as its secretary.
Franco, who is also the CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, will not be compensated as interim CEO, according to Sulton.
Jackie Q. Carter was nominated to serve as board treasurer. She was appointed to the board by Mayor Cavalier Johnson in June.
Carter did not accept the nomination to be treasurer and voted against the executive nominations of Bobot and Franco, urging the board to wait until it gets more members.
New board member appointed
The board voted 2-1 to appoint Lucero Ayala, a licensed practical nurse and vice chair of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, to serve District 5 on the South Side. She has experience working with an assisted living facility and day care centers.
“I’ve been helping the community and I’ve seen the impact firsthand, being in child care, how a lot of the kids count on those meals that SDC was providing,” Ayala said.
Carter voted against Ayala’s appointment, saying that the board needs to go through a more thorough vetting process before voting.
“I think it’s important for the commissioners that are here to ensure that we are not doing things in a way that is same old business and doing the things that got us here in the first place,” Carter said.
“Nothing personal, but we’ve got to do the process in a way that makes sense, that’s transparent, that’s collaborative, and the community needs to be engaged,” she said.
In the meantime, Commissioner Matthew Boswell’s term expired on Nov. 18. Boswell was appointed by Milwaukee Public Schools.
A Milwaukee Public Schools representative said earlier this week that Boswell would remain on the board until the district finds a new appointment.
Sulton disagreed and said Boswell is no longer serving on the board.
“I will reach out to former Commissioner Boswell, but that’s not my understanding at all,” Sulton said.
Transfr, a New York company, seeks to put virtual reality technology in the hands of people who are incarcerated in Wisconsin, hoping they can overcome barriers to employment once released.
“It’s life-changing for an individual to be able to come out of incarceration with actual career pathways,” said Ruben Gaona, executive director of My Way Out, an organization that supports people who are leaving reincarceration and one of Transfr’s local collaborators.
“They’d be able to go out into the community and say, ‘OK, you know what: I’m not only here to get a job, I’m out here to get a career.’”
Avoiding reincarceration
Research has found that a criminal record leads to a 50% reduction in callbacks and job offers.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections, among others, reports that the more likely someone with a criminal record is employed, the less likely the person is to return to incarceration.
According to the department’s 2022 report, people who “completed vocational programming had lower rearrest, reconviction and reincarceration rates … compared to their peers who were identified as having a vocational programming need but who did not receive programming.”
“From a personal and professional standpoint, I can tell you that a good-paying, career-supporting job is very essential to someone staying out and keeping that recidivism rate down,” said Andre Brown, employment specialist with Project RETURN, a reentry nonprofit established nearly 50 years ago.
For all the talk about pipelines into prison, Brown and his colleagues are trying to create a pipeline out of prison.
“If one can support themselves, pay their bills, take care of their family and have some fulfillment, one has no time to think of crime,” Brown said.
Inside and outside
My Way Out provides six weeks of training and education to people inside Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center, a county-run correctional facility. This support is designed to help people with job searches, including résumé writing and interviewing skills.
With Transfr, Gaona and his team see an opportunity to expand their support by adding four weeks of virtual reality training for in-demand vocations, in fields such as construction, manufacturing, hospitality and health care.
My Way Out staff also want to bring these resources to state prisons overseen by the Department of Corrections.
“People will be able to come out (of incarceration) and take apprenticeship tests, so they’d start getting placement in apprenticeship programs and secure living-wage jobs,” said Gaona.
Funding obstacle
Funding is the main obstacle to getting this technology into the hands of people who are incarcerated.
The Department of Corrections does not have a budget for this type of technology but suggested that Transfr reach out to Wisconsin Workforce Development Boards, which partner with the department in reentry work, Beth Hardtke, director of communications for the Department of Corrections, said in an email.
Ryan Leonhardt, state workforce manager for Transfr, said the company has had conversations with these boards but, for the most part, has heard that funding is not currently available from them as well.
My Way Out applied for a grant that would help provide funding to work with Transfr, but its request was denied.
Opportunities
Transfr offers more than 350 trainings, all 12 to 20 minutes, which teach foundational skills within various fields, Leonhardt said.
“If somebody is learning how to use calipers, they pick up calipers in the virtual environment. They set the calipers using the controls. They actually do the measurements,” said Leonhardt, explaining how Transfr users learn about this measurement tool common in engineering, metalworking and woodworking. “And then the final thing is they get step-by-step instruction from a digital coach, who then turns around and gives them an assessment.”
Transfr also provides career explorations. Like the trainings, these are hands-on and guided by a coach but are five- to eight-minute experiences of a day in the life of a job “so people can get an idea of what it’s like,” Leonhardt said.
Better trained workers are beneficial not just for the people getting trained but for the wider economy as well because of nationwide workforce shortages, Leonhardt said.
“Right now, the labor markets are such a way that if someone can come in and they have foundational skills … they’re going to have better chances for employment because they’re going to be able to meet their (employers’) needs right away,” he said.
A former Social Development Commission board member is positioned to gain financially from the sale of two of the troubled agency’s buildings that are on the market, raising questions about a potential conflict of interest.
Although Njoroge previously held positions as a board member of SDC and SD Properties, SDC officials are uncertain about the agency’s conflict-of-interest policy for board members.
When contacted by NNS, Njoroge referred requests for comment to SDC attorney William Sulton and Vincent Bobot, SDC’s interim CEO and an elected commissioner as well as the only current SD Properties board member.
Extent of financial benefit unclear
It’s unclear to what extent Njoroge is financially benefiting because SD Properties declined to share the listing contract or disclose the rate of commission, though Sulton and Bobot said the fees Njoroge will collect are at a discounted rate.
“What I’m most concerned about is that we get the benefit of the bargain and then we get somebody that’s going to stay in the business to help people out of poverty in Milwaukee,” Bobot said. “So whether she gets the money or somebody else gets the money, that’s not my primary concern.”
Sulton and Bobot both said the situation does not present an actual conflict of interest because Njoroge’s term as a board member of SDC and SD Properties ended in June.
“I don’t think it’s a violation because she wasn’t on the board at the time,” Sulton said.
The SDC is an anti-poverty agency created by governments but functions outside of them. State, county and city statutes define the organization as an intergovernmental commission, with each government appointing board representatives. No government claims broader oversight authority.
Kimberly Njoroge, left, is the Realtor working with SD Properties to sell the North Avenue buildings, which are home to the Social Development Commission. As a former SDC commissioner and SD Properties board member, her past involvement with SDC raises questions about a possible conflict of interest. (Photo by Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Njoroge told SDC leadership in March that she would not seek reelection for her District 3 seat on the SDC Board of Commissioners, according to an email provided by SDC.
However, Njoroge continued to attend SDC board meetings and be counted in roll call as a commissioner after June, including being listed in minutes from an August meeting.
“That is unusual for nonprofits,” Winston said. “I’m not saying it doesn’t occur, but I’m saying it is not considered in any way to be the best practice.”
Differences between SDC and SD Properties
The Social Development Commission was established in 1963 by Wisconsin law to be an intergovernmental commission that fights poverty in Milwaukee County. The agency closed to the public and laid off its employees in late April.
As a 501(c)(25) title-holding company, SD Properties acquires properties consistent with the SDC’s mission and leases space to SDC and other anti-poverty organizations.
Unlike SDC, SD Properties is not considered subject to open meetings and records law, which is why it is not publicly disclosing the listing contract, its bylaws or conflict-of-interest policy.
What is required of SDC in dealing with a possible conflict of interest?
SDC is required to have a conflict-of-interest policy for employees and board members, according to its bylaws.
Sulton said he expects SDC has a conflict-of-interest policy for board members, but that he is unable to provide it because SDC does not have access to all of its files.
SDC lost access to such records after its technology services provider, Caspian Technologies, cut off the agency’s access to its website, emails and other electronic data.
Nonprofits like SD Properties are supposed to circulate conflict-of-interest policies annually and disclose any potential conflicts, according to Mary Beth Collins, executive director of the Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“And if a conflict actually comes up, then their person is supposed to disclose it, and they are to recuse themselves from the decision-making around that issue,” Collins said.
State law requires real estate agents to disclose who they are working for and any conflicts to anyone they are working with on a property sale, according to Scott Bush, vice president of operations for the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors.
“I don’t see how it wouldn’t be OK as long as their disclosures were being made,” Bush said. “Unless it violates their own rules, and it could.”
How was the decision made to list the properties?
Because SDC failed to pay rent to SD Properties for its leased spaces for several months, SD Properties could not keep up with payments for mortgages on both North Avenue properties, Sulton said.
“This was really about SD Properties trying to resolve outstanding mortgage debt, trying to avoid foreclosure and other things that it didn’t want,” Sulton said.
SD Properties board voted to sell the properties and list them with Njoroge and Ogden & Company, according to Sulton.
Bobot said SDC officials listed the properties, a responsibility that would normally be relegated to him as a representative of SD Properties.
“I wasn’t too involved in who they selected, but when they told me this was a good idea to select her and her firm with the thing and what it would sell for, it made sense to me,” Bobot said.
Njoroge was not on the properties board at the time and could not vote, Sulton said.
“Was she literally in the room? Yeah, I think so,” Sulton said.
Going forward, the SD Properties board will approve any property sales, Bobot said, not the SDC board.
The Social Development Commission’s main office in Milwaukee is shown on June 28, 2024. (Julius Shieh / Wisconsin Watch)
Real estate commission discounted
Collins said the conflict of interest would depend on Njoroge’s involvement in SD Properties’ decision to hire her and how much the commission is discounted.
“I could see that being a very plausible scenario where you’re in an emergency, you have someone who understands the situation, they’re going to get off the board so that they can change roles,” she said.
Sulton said Njoroge’s commission is under 6% and discounted to what he and Bobot believe is a favorable rate on the market.
There is not a standard rate of commission for commercial property transactions, according to Tom Larson, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Realtors Association.
Bobot said it wouldn’t be unusual for the commission to be lowered further during sale negotiations.
Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
A Cybertruck owner found a DIY answer to a problem Tesla service techs couldn’t seem to fix.
After a windshield replacement, his EV developed wind noise, and Tesla’s attempts to fix it failed.
A run of 9mm weather stripping eventually provided a solution at the low cost of $13.
A Cybertruck owner became so frustrated at Tesla’s inability to deal with a problem with his electric truck that he took matters into his own hands and fixed it with a $13 DIY part.
Jay Larson, an Arizona-based podiatrist, posted on his MyCybertruckLife X account about how he was moved to act after being disappointed with a Tesla’s dealers attempts to fix a wind noise issue on his pickup. The truck, which has been perfectly quiet when he first bought it, began making a high-pitching whistling noise after its bulletproof windshield was replaced due to a factory defect.
Larson was adamant that the Cybertruck hadn’t been making the noise before the screen swap so went back to his dealer in Tempe, Arizona expecting the technicians to put it right. They made one attempt, telling Larson the problem was gone, but he disagreed, so asked them to take another look.
This time they told him that the noise was normal for a Cybertruck and that they couldn’t replicate the sound he was complaining about even at highway speeds. And for those reasons they said there was no available fix despite Larson insisting that it was fine with the original windshield. A classic case of “they all do that, sir.”
Not happy with that answer and still irritated by the wind whistle, Larson began casting around for his own solution. And he found it on Amazon, where he purchased a roll of 9 mm silicone weather stripping that perfectly fitted the gap at the top of the windshield. He removed some of the backing from the adhesive strip, but not all of it, saying that the weather seal was so snug it didn’t need much adhesive. He also had a hunch that it might have been trickier to fit if all of the adhesive surface had been exposed.
Larson says the truck is now whisper-quiet, even at 90 mph (145 km/h), and cost him only $12.99 to fix. But he shouldn’t have had to spend a penny.
Anyone else have a high pitching wind noise in their Cybertruck?? Tesla service center in Tempe AZ said it was normal but I didn’t have the noise before they replaced my windshield so after 2 trips to the service center with no improvement I fixed it myself. @elonmusk@Tesla… pic.twitter.com/1rMnoFXRqT
For Mariah Johnson, losing her brother to a speeding driver in 2021 is the hardest thing she’s ever endured in her life.
“The moment my brother died, I felt like my light turned out a little bit,” said Johnson, a 30-year-old mother of two girls. “But, I also think that I went through this so I can make a difference in my city, take my pain of the loss of my brother and turn it into something that helps other people.”
Johnson’s brother, Jerrold Wellinger, was driving back home with his friend, Davante Gaines, when both were killed by a driver who was racing another car down 60th Street and Hampton Avenue in Milwaukee.
A popular TikToker, who goes by the name MariahDaWeatherBookie, Johnson is sharing her brother’s story as part of an effort by the city of Milwaukee to prevent reckless driving.
“Speeding – We Can Live Without It” is a social media billboard and grassroots awareness campaign that aims to increase traffic safety and change driving habits in a city plagued by reckless driving.
“These are our streets,” Johnson said. “As a community we need to come together and stop (reckless driving). We can all slow down.”
Campaign resonates with residents
Slowing down, said Jessica Wineberg, director of the Vision Zero Initiative for the city of Milwaukee, is a surefire way to help prevent tragedies such as Johnson’s.
“You could be that person who hits someone and changes their life forever, or you can just slow down,” she said.
So far, according to Wineberg, the campaign is resonating with residents, with one video garnering more than 200,000 views on social media.
Billboards featuring the campaign have also been placed at city intersections that have experienced crash-related injuries.
Balloons hang at a memorial for Lashonda Jackson, 31, Bobbie Dyson, 28, and Ebony Johnson, 28, three friends who were killed by a driver who ran a red light in 2023 near West Florist Avenue and North Sherman Boulevard in Milwaukee. (Courtesy of Jessica Wineberg)
Community members share their stories
Milwaukee residents who have been impacted by speeding have been sharing their messages on a social wall created as part of the campaign.
One story was about Marcus Robinson, a father of four who was hit and killed by a speeding SUV in downtown Milwaukee on Aug. 11.
“Marcus never made it home to his family and the driver of that (sports utility vehicle) never stopped and still has not been arrested. Now his loved ones are forced to go on without him and without having justice,” read the post.
Another message was shared by Gloria Shaw, a woman who lost her only son, Xavier Davis, to a hit-and-run in 2022.
“He was an amazing young man with a very bright future ahead of him in TV video production,” Shaw wrote. “We are still looking for the truck and person who hit and killed my Sonshine.”
According to Wineberg, traffic deaths and injuries are down compared to last year.
“Where we have changed the built environment, we are seeing less crashes,” said Wineberg, referring to the wide-scale engineering changes that have been implemented as part of the Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic deaths in the city.
Jerrold’s story
Raised on Milwaukee’s North Side, Jerrold Wellinger was quite the character, said his sister. Sometimes, Johnson said, he was the next Tony Hawk and other times a wrestler.
“We grew up poor with a single mother, but we always rented ‘Wrestlemania,’” she said. “My brother would be flipping off the couch watching it.”
She described him as strong-willed and not afraid to speak his mind, but like her, he had a silly side.
“He was the one person in life that understood my personality because we both are goofy,” Johnson said.
Turning tragedy into action
Johnson said her brother’s death led her to community work, leading chats with kids about reckless driving and conducting other outreach on the issue. She currently works with teens as a program coordinator for the PEAK Initiative.
PEAK is a year-round program that promotes leadership development for kids from first grade through high school.
Through PEAK, Johnson has been able to help organize a block party and pop-ups, where she urges residents to think about how their driving can impact others.
“I tell them, it’s not just speeding, it’s driving while on your phone or even just driving 10 miles over the speed limit,” she said. “We all have to be honest with ourselves and realize that we are all part of the problem, but we’re also the solution.”
Reckless driving prevention information and resources
Marshall Jones and his wife, Jessica, have an expression they use when worries about the future threaten to overwhelm them.
“Here is holy,” they tell each other.
“We have to continue to be mindful of the steps that we have to take to build this life today,” Marshall Jones said.
As Marshall Jones, who grew up on Milwaukee’s North Side, serves two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, the way he and his wife build their today centers around faith in God and family.
‘A bond started to be built’
In 2019, Marshall was incarcerated at New Lisbon Correctional Institution in Dodge County, about 15 years into his sentence, when he met Jessica Christensen, the prison’s new recreational leader.
He was assigned to be one of her workers.
“Then, being a normal human being, I stuck my hand out to shake his hand … and he threw his hands up and said, ‘I can’t touch you,’” Jessica said.
Initially offended, she learned that he was looking out for her.
Had they touched, she would’ve been written up for inappropriate contact, which the Wisconsin Department of Corrections explicitly regulates.
“I just saw in that moment that a narrative can be painted about a simple handshake … ,” Marshall said. “From that point, a bond started to be built.”
From acquaintance to fellowship
At New Lisbon, Jessica oversaw recreation, including exercise programs and athletic tournaments.
“I did anything that was active to get them off their sedentary lifestyle,” Jessica said.
The effects on the men were not merely physical, she said.
“You’re in there and you’re constantly thinking, ‘What did I do? I’m worthless, and there’s nothing good about me,’” Jessica said. “But you know, these guys started to feel better about themselves. ”
Eventually, Marshall began working more directly within recreational programming.
“I noticed he was a leader,” Jessica said. “He was all about helping the men around him.”
The professional relationship had an extra element.
“We learned we were brother and sister in Christ. So, there was a different level of conversation that we would have,” Jessica said. “It wasn’t crossing boundaries, it was sharing what we were learning about our faith.”
After New Lisbon
After six months, Jessica was let go from New Lisbon for, she was told, not meeting probationary standards.
“I loved impacting the men that were incarcerated and humanizing them,” she said. “And I knew I couldn’t do that anymore.”
But something unexpected happened as she was leaving the prison.
“I remember walking away from the institution, and I audibly heard in my ear, ‘Write to him.’ And I believe with all my heart that it was the Holy Spirit telling me to write Marshall Jones,” Jessica said.
That same day, they began corresponding.
Jessica and Marshall Jones on their wedding day, Nov. 1, 2022. (Courtesy of Jessica Jones)
“And it just developed into this beautiful relationship,” Jessica said. “ It’s amazing because we’ve gotten to experience every level of relationship with each other – a professional relationship and then a friendship and then a relationship and, now, a marriage.”
Marshall said he was not expecting this transformation.
“I didn’t want to be in a relationship, to be honest with you,” he said. “I got crashed and burned so many times that I didn’t want no part of it.”
They cannot pinpoint a specific moment things changed because it all happened organically, said Jessica.
Marshall proposed three times – by letter, phone and, finally, in person.
Her family supports the marriage, she said, and her kids see Marshall as their stepfather.
“My mom has completely changed in this relationship,” said Falicia Jones, Jessica’s daughter.
“Marshall really knows how to just settle her down and bring a calmness over her life in a way that I’ve never seen,” she said.
‘The unseen of believing’
Marshall and Jessica married on Nov. 1, 2022, in commemoration of Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
“That truly is our marriage,” Jessica said. “You know, the unseen of believing that my husband is going to come home and that I’m going to share a life with him.”
“Based on his circumstances, his attitude and frame of mind are pretty amazing,” added Andrew Reavis, Jessica’s brother. “Just knowing that he may never get out, and just the positivity he has and the moving forward and the faith he has that he is going to get out despite what the state says.”
Marshall and Jessica still put their faith at the center of their thinking regarding a release date.
“God doesn’t make mistakes, and he doesn’t put people together for no reason whatsoever,” Marshall said.
“We’ve entrusted our faith to God that he’s going to absolutely free me from this. But no matter where we go, and what problems we address, we still deal with today,” he said.
Donald Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The threat of political violence will likely hang over the nation’s capital in the weeks following Election Day, security experts say, despite intensive preparations by law enforcement officials determined to avoid another Jan. 6 insurrection.
The 2,000-plus officers who make up the U.S. Capitol Police, as well as other federal law enforcement agencies like the Secret Service, have responded to a surge in threats against elected officials during the last few years, including two assassination attempts against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump just this year.
But the threats, attacks and shooting have led to questions about whether the two agencies are truly prepared for the presidential transition, especially after a report released this week said the Secret Service “requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission.”
The agency is tasked with planning and coordinating security for Congress’ certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 6 —the first time it’s been designated a National Special Security Event — and Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
Experts interviewed by States Newsroom said there is a very real chance of political violence in the weeks and months ahead, though they said law enforcement agencies have learned from recent events. The unrest could build after what is expected to be a very close presidential election, with results possibly delayed for days or longer or even litigated in the courts.
“Unfortunately, you can never have 100% security,” said Javed Ali, associate professor of practice at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
“It’s nice to think that would exist. But, if you’re trying to consider all the different kinds of variables that you have to plan for, there’s always going to be a gap or vulnerability — now what you try to do is kind of minimize the big one and hope that the small ones don’t get exploited.”
Darrell M. West, the Douglas Dillon Chair in Governmental Studies at the Brookings Institution, said the risk of political violence could increase following Election Day if one or more political leaders object to the outcome.
“For months, we’ve been hearing extreme and sometimes violent rhetoric,” West said. “And rhetoric has consequences — it can encourage some people to take action.”
Trump has refused to accept the 2020 election results, and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, declined to say Trump lost the election. Vance on Oct. 12 said there was a “peaceful transfer of power” in January 2021.
Trump has repeatedly recycled false claims he made following his loss that the system is rigged — a talking point he’s likely to use to rile up supporters should he lose this year’s election. Trump has been charged by special counsel Jack Smith with four felony counts in connection with 2020 election interference, in a complex case that will continue after the election.
Threats against lawmakers
Members of Congress are more vulnerable than presidential candidates, in part because most lawmakers live in normal houses and don’t have security details anywhere close to the kind the Secret Service provides for high-ranking officials.
And unlike the presidency, which has a long line of succession to avoid gaps in authority following a death or a crisis, Congress has been criticized for not having better plans in place to address continuity of government following a mass casualty or similar event.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger testified in April the agency was looking for ways to bolster protection for lawmakers in the line of presidential succession, like the speaker of the House and Senate president pro tempore.
Manger told the panel that security for those two officials was substandard to that provided for the Secretary of State, who sits below them in the line of succession.
“We can’t just go back to the days when we said, ‘Well, we’ll just follow them around and we’ll make sure they’re well protected wherever they are,’ because their homes, their families are at risk,” he testified.
Members of Congress who haven’t risen to the ranks of leadership don’t get security details unless there are specific threats to their safety. And those aren’t permanent.
That could present challenges for lawmakers who have higher profiles or who regularly receive threats, especially if people respond violently to the election results and encourage their supporters to take matters into their own hands.
Trump assassination attempts
Making the situation more complicated, this year has shown that substantial levels of security aren’t a guarantee of safety.
Trump has some of the highest levels of protection in the country, if not the world, but that did not stop a man from shooting at the former president during a rally in Pennsylvania this summer. A separate would-be gunman was spotted and apprehended just off Trump’s Florida golf course with a semi-automatic weapon in September.
Both instances raised questions about the Secret Service’s ability to protect Trump as well as others, though agency leaders maintain they’re up to the task.
Trump’s experiences, as the subject of political violence, haven’t deterred him from spreading disinformation about Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as well as other lawmakers who disagree with him on policy issues.
Trump’s comments about immigrants have also led to threats against everyday people, including Haitian immigrants in Ohio, who are in the country legally.
During an interview with Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News earlier this month, Trump said he may use the National Guard or the military against his political opponents should he win reelection, calling them “the enemy from within.”
“We have some very bad people,” Trump said. “We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
The military and National Guard have significantly different training programs and missions than local, state, or federal law enforcement, making Trump’s comments somewhat darker than previous claims he’d try to put his political opponents in prison if reelected.
Trump hasn’t committed to respecting the results of the election or supporting a peaceful transition in power should he lose his bid for the White House.
Trump’s comments could indicate that violence is likely following the election, if he loses, or after he regains the powers of the presidency, if he wins.
Delayed election results predicted
West from the Brookings Institution said violence isn’t likely to take place in the days immediately following the end of voting on Nov. 5, since it’s unlikely anyone learns the results of the presidential election for a few days.
Mail-in ballots, which Democrats tend to submit in larger numbers than Republicans, could lead to confusion in swing states, especially if people don’t understand they tend to boost numbers for Democratic candidates over GOP politicians as they’re counted, he said.
“We could end up in a situation where on election night, Trump is ahead, because we know Republicans tend to vote in person on Election Day, and Democrats often vote via mail ballots,” West said. “And then as the mail ballots get counted on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the numbers may shift from Trump to Harris.
“And I think that’s a very bad combination, because it will look to some individuals like voter fraud, even though there’s a perfectly logical explanation for the change. But that’s a scenario that could lead to violence, because it’ll look like the election is being stolen from Trump.”
While the presidential candidates will play a significant role in stirring up or calming down their supporters, members of Congress, many of whom sought to legitimize misinformation and disinformation four years ago, have responsibilities as well.
“We need leaders who act responsibly, but unfortunately, in the last few months, we have not seen that,” West said. “We’ve seen members of Congress who have promoted misinformation. There’s been a lot of it surrounding the hurricane, and so the fear is that there will be blatant lies that then will incite people to take action.”
Learning from 2020
Ali, from the University of Michigan, said he expects federal law enforcement will be better prepared for post-election violence than they were four years ago, though there are still chances for violent people to slip through the cracks.
The most likely scenario, Ali said, is a single actor or “lone wolf” attack and not a mob marching to the Capitol, the way Trump supporters did on Jan. 6.
“I still think it’s relatively low,” Ali said of the likelihood of violence. “But as we’ve seen, all it takes is one person to really shake up the perception of security. And if they’re aiming at President Trump or Vice President Harris, well then, you know the stakes are even higher.”
Ali said he’s confident that the Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies in the Washington, D.C., area are preparing for various scenarios, though he’s less sure about what would happen if there’s violence at state capitals.
“There might be a little more vulnerability there,” Ali said. “But I still think, at least when we’re getting to the Electoral College (certification) day, that January 6th-type insurrection will be almost impossible to pull off.”
When it comes to spreading disinformation, Ali said, he expects there will be a combination of foreign adversaries, including Iran and Russia, as well as domestic actors.
“You’ll probably see a lot of disinformation, especially if Vice President Harris wins, sort of casting doubt on the integrity of the voting, the credibility of the process, maybe going after specific individuals and key swing states, or even counties,” Ali said.
“All those things that were happening in 2020. But there were also costs to doing that, as we’ve seen too, with the civil charges and some of the potential criminal ones as well,” he added. “So I think that’s also an area domestically, where people will have to tread very cautiously. That doesn’t mean that you won’t see it, but again, there might be a line that gets crossed where people will be held accountable for that.”
‘More prepared than ever before’
U.S. Capitol Police Inspector General David T. Harper said USCP leadership has implemented the 100-plus recommendations put forward by his predecessor following the Jan. 6 attack, closing gaps that existed that day.
“I think they’ve made a lot of improvements, and I think that they’re more prepared than ever before,” Harper said, though he later added he couldn’t “say for certain that they are prepared to handle anything that can come up” due to the unpredictable nature of domestic terrorism and political violence.
The OIG is also “prepared to be all hands on deck” in the event of another attack on the Capitol or lawmakers takes place, to analyze what went wrong and make recommendations for USCP to implement, he said.
Harper, whose tenure as inspector general began earlier this year, noted during the interview that much of what he can publicly discuss is restricted by national security concerns.
The U.S. Capitol Police declined an interview request from States Newsroom, but provided written information about changes that it’s implemented during the last few years.
Among those is a law approved by Congress that allows the USCP chief to request the National Guard without the approval of the three-member Capitol Police board.
USCP has also overhauled its intelligence-gathering activities and established partnerships with other law enforcement agencies to bolster its ranks ahead of major events.
Secret Service planning for Jan. 6
The Secret Service is one of those partners and it will take the lead this year planning security for major events during the presidential transition, even those undertaken by Congress inside the Capitol.
While Inauguration Day has traditionally been categorized as a National Special Security Event, the Department of Homeland Security has extended that classification for the first time for Congress certifying the winner of the presidential race on Jan. 6.
Nate Herring, spokesperson for the United States Secret Service, said part of the process includes planning with other law enforcement agencies for “various scenarios” that could take place, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Metropolitan Police Department.
“We work very closely with our partners throughout the whole planning process,” Herring said. “And D.C. is especially unique because National Special Security Events occur fairly frequently.”
But the Secret Service’s leadership and structure have come under scrutiny during the last few months.
The four-member panel tasked with investigating the Pennsylvania assassination attempt against Trump wrote in the 52-page report released in mid-October that the Secret Service “has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved.”
“This is a zero-fail mission, for any failure endangers not only the life of the protectee, but also the fundamentals of our government itself,” they wrote.
Without substantial changes to the Secret Service, the independent review panel wrote, it believes the type of deadly attack that took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, “can and will happen again.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas released a written statement after the report’s release, saying the department had begun “taking the actions needed to advance the Secret Service’s protection mission,” including addressing the “systemic and foundational issues” described by the review panel.
D.C. planning
District of Columbia Assistant City Administrator Chris Rodriguez said that city officials will be watching for any indications people intent on violence begin traveling or gathering inside the city following Election Day.
“We are obviously attuned to what happened last time. I mean, I don’t think we can ignore that, and we’re not,” Rodriguez said, referring to the Jan. 6 attack. “But we also are in a place where we have great relationships among our agencies within the region, with the federal government in terms of coordination, and we will be prepared to adapt our operational posture in any way that we need to.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser originally requested the NSSE designation for Jan. 6, which Rodriguez said has increased planning and coordination, in hopes of avoiding any violence.
Rodriguez also stressed D.C. officials and the city’s police department are used to planning for the large crowds and protests that tend to take place whenever there’s a presidential transition.
“We are a city that prides itself, as the nation’s capital, to ensuring that there is a peaceful transition of power,” he said. “And we will do our part to ensure that.”
Sebastian Florentino, 14, was shot and killed on Jan. 21, 2023.
Alijah S. Golden-Richmond, also 14, was shot and killed this year on Aug. 14.
The boys were the first and last of 40 homicide victims in Milwaukee County 17 years of age or younger since Jan. 1, 2023, according to data provided by Karen Domagalski, operations manager for the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Minors represent 13% of all homicide victims in Milwaukee County since 2023.
(Milwaukee County homicide data differs from city of Milwaukee homicide data. County data includes cases from Milwaukee suburbs such as West Allis and Cudahy and also homicides determined to be justified by the District Attorney’s Office, according to Domagalski.)
“It is a sad statistic to hear how many murders there are of the young people in our city, but it also isn’t surprising to me since Milwaukee doesn’t care about our youth,” said Kevin Sas-Perez, who has worked as a youth pastor and with youths through various organizations over the past 15 years.
“I believe the number one thing youth are looking for is to be loved and to belong, but we’re not doing a good job of meeting that or any other needs for our youth.”
Lennia Fields, a mother who lived and worked in Milwaukee but currently resides in Las Vegas, also believes youths need more support to prevent them from becoming victims of violence.
“Our youth need more positive role models and programs that can shield and protect them from their environment and themselves,” said Fields, who lost her mother to homicide in 2000. “Therapy for their traumas should be provided at the school or neighborhood centers.”
Keeping guns out of the hands of youths
Of the 40 youth homicide victims since 2023, all but three died from gun violence. Many were shot and killed by other teens.
Anneliese Dickman is a senior manager for Brady, an organization that advocates against and provides solutions to gun violence. She said the guns should never have gotten into a minor’s hands.
“Somewhere along the line there are adults who, mistakenly or purposely, allowed access to a gun, and that is 100% preventable,” Dickman said. “That’s where adults have failed.”
National trends in youth homicides
According to a 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, homicide is the leading cause of death of children in the U.S.
The study, which examined national data on child homicides from 1999 to 2020, found that the age-adjusted homicide rate for children from 0 to 17 years old was 2.8 per 100,000 children in 2020 and that males were disproportionately impacted.
In Milwaukee County, the population was estimated at around 916,000, with between 19.5% and 26% being under the age of 18, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Data.
That would place Milwaukee County’s age-adjusted homicide rate for 2023 at between 10.8 and 14.6 victims per 100,000 children, much higher than the national average; 85% of youth homicide victims in Milwaukee County were males.
What can the community do?
Tracey Anderson, a Milwaukee father of seven, said the community should focus on the parents of the teens who are committing violent crimes.
“The community needs more accountability from the parents who made these wayward juveniles,” Anderson said.
Unfortunately, he said, too many parents lack the skills to raise children or even live responsibly themselves.
“Some parents are even worse than their kids, so obviously we know what direction they’re headed,” Anderson said.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman recently issued a “call to action” to parents and others to become more involved in helping reduce youth violence.
“We need you at the table. Our youth need you at the table. Be a part of the solution,” he said. “What are you doing to help?”
“We can do all we want, but there has to be consequences that mean something,” said South Side mother Jamie Berta Gilane.
Investing in our youths
Sas-Perez, who has been involved with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, Milwaukee Recreation and other local programs that serve youths, said that for things to change in Milwaukee, there has to be much more investment in young people, both personally and financially.
“Spend more time talking to and listening to our youth, and when they are telling us what they want and need, we should take it seriously and then put our money into creatively meeting the wants and needs,” Sas-Perez said.
“Having more robust youth programming, increased investment in our schools and better pay for those working with youth is the start of helping decrease the number of youth murdered.”
What it does: Project Ujima is a community program that helps victims of violence and provides services at Children’s Wisconsin, your home and the community.
What it does: 414 Life is a violence interruption team based in Milwaukee. Its goals are to stop the spread of gun violence through de-escalation and mediation of conflicts and educating the public to change the norms around gun violence.
What it does: The goal of Credible Messenger’s transformative mentoring is to provide prevention and intervention with youth, keeping them from both entering the youth justice system and having deeper involvement with the youth justice system.
What it does: The organization helps abused and neglected children heal and thrive while also providing support to foster and kinship children to help prevent further child abuse.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Clint Swindall emphasized the power of mindset and positivity in driving engagement and success with a keynote at the National Association for Pupil Transportation’s Annual Conference and Trade Show.
Swindall is president and CEO of Verbalocity, Inc., a personal development company with a focus on leadership enhancement, and a certified speaking professional by National Speaker’s Association. He began his keynote, “Mindset Matters,” on Sunday by acknowledging the audience as heroes for choosing careers that benefit children. “I believe that anyone who has chosen in any way whatsoever, in their professional lives, to somehow benefit a child, I believe that makes you a hero,” said the nationally certified speaker.
However, Swindall noted that even heroes can struggle with disengagement, citing Gallup research showing that only 30 percent of employees are truly engaged, people he calls the “Oh, yeah’s.” Meanwhile, 53 percent are disengaged but show up every day and do their job. But they won’t go above and beyond. He calls this group the “Okay’s.” The remaining 17 percent are actively disengaged, the “Oh, no” employee.
“Research shows that when we don’t understand how what we do every day, how that ties into something more meaningful than just a job, it breeds mediocrity and it breeds disengagement,” he explained.
Clint Swindall
A given person could bounce back and forth between being an “Oh yeah, “Okay” and “Oh no” multiple times in the same day depending on their mood, he added.
The key to overcoming disengagement, according to Swindoll, lies in cultivating a positive mindset. He emphasized that “everything that happens in our life starts with mindset” and that inner dialogue determines a person’s efforts and, ultimately, successes. And this translates to one’s personal life as much as their work life, because everyone who is married or has children no matter their job title are leaders. They are actively trying to influence their spouse’s and childrens’ behaviors. They do the same thing at work.
“If I raced out of this room right now and I got to the person who knows you best in this world, and I asked them, when life happens to you, where is your focus? Do you go through a dreadful day and then just go down the laundry list of all the things that didn’t work when you walk in the door at the end of the day and you focus on all of that?”
Swindall shared personal anecdotes to illustrate his points. He recounted a story about a former employee who always focused on the negative or “bad stuff” that happened to her, or BS.
“What were you thinking that meant?” Swindall ribbed the audience.
Adding BS to constant complaining, or CC, plus excessive pessimism, or EP, equals N for negativity.
Each of us thinks about 48,000 negative thoughts a day, or 95 percent of the 60,000 total thoughts within the average human brain, he noted. That’s the negativity bias fostered by our environment growing up that affects all humans.
The centerpiece of Swindall’s message was the concept of “tell me something good,” which is also the name of one of his books. Instead of exchanging the common greeting of “How are you,” he instead asks people he encounters to tell him a good thing that happened to them recently. This forces the person to not focus on the negative but the positive. He described this as a culture-changing concept. By shifting conversations and organizational culture to focus on the positive, Swindoll believes leaders can foster greater engagement and success.
“If you want to be a better person that gets past some of the negativity in the world. Get past this need to be right all the time,” Swindall advised. “If you want to be a better leader of helping people become more engaged, to help them get past the negativity in their lives, challenge them with tell me something good. Make it a part of your culture.”
Swindall said he has trained himself, his employees and thousands of conference attendees worldwide to actively seek out the positive things happening and to celebrate wins. He has gone as far as stocking up on champagne at his company so that he and his employees can celebrate weekly.
“I live a life that assumes there’s going to be something worthy of celebration, and I want to be ready for it,” he said.
He also emphasized the importance of avoiding the need to always be right. “Every time you have to be right, there’s a good chance someone else has to be wrong.” He encouraged the audience to let go of this tendency, as it can breed negativity and make others feel like “losers.”
Swindall followed up on his message with a breakout session on Tuesday.
Kamin Samuel, Ph.D.
NAPT ACTS began on Friday with Professional Development Series courses for members and was followed Saturday by an opening keynote address from Kamin Samuel, a trailblazing former naval officer and acclaimed author. She encouraged the attendees to embrace their inner superpowers.
Drawing from her extensive background in positive psychology and personal experiences, which included being the first female African American U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, Samuel emphasized the importance of recognizing and leveraging individual strengths. The definition of a superhero, she said, is a benevolent fictional character with superhuman powers
“You are already superheroes,” she told the audience, foreshadowing Swindall’s greeting the following afternoon. “The fact that you dedicate your life to children and transportation of children and the safety of children is extraordinary.”
Samuel introduced the free VIA Character Strengths assessment, with scores relating to 24 different traits that she has used in her own life and for her upcoming documentary film “Courage to Thrive.” She explained how understanding one’s top strengths, such as her leading traits of honesty, gratitude and love of learning, can help individuals navigate challenges and find fulfillment.
“When we embrace those strengths as our unique superpowers, it’s important for us to realize that they’re already part of our innate nature and created nature,” Samuel said, noting that humans are not pervasively one trait over another but can pull from them as needed. “We’re already good at those things. We enjoy doing them.”
She shared personal anecdotes from her own life—her mother was a principal—and how she used her strengths to cope with her father’s passing, emphasizing the power of “strengths bundling” to regulate emotions and stay effective. She encouraged the audience to consciously apply their strengths throughout the conference and beyond.
The trade show portion of NAPT was held Sunday night and continued Monday morning. The conference concludes on Tuesday.
Milwaukee attorney William Sulton’s mission is to represent those considered to be the least, the last or the left behind.
Although he has been in the news for his work with the troubled Social Development Commission and as one of the attorneys representing the family of D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died after a confrontation at the downtown Hyatt Regency, Sulton serves in various legal and board leadership roles in Milwaukee.
“I just try to do what I can do that’s the right thing and use the legal tools that I have available to me,” he said. “But they’re often difficult problems.”
Sulton estimates that he spends a third of his time running his law practice, The Sulton Law Firm, 2745 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, which specializes in civil rights and public interest cases.
He devotes another third of his time to volunteering, which includes serving as the board president of the ACLU of Wisconsin. He is the legal redress chairof the NAACP Milwaukee Branch and director of the Honorable Lloyd A. Barbee Foundation, which is named for the late activist lawyer and state legislator who fought for school desegregation.
Sulton is also on the board of Convergence Resource Center, 2323 N. Mayfair Road, an anti-human trafficking nonprofit in Milwaukee.
How it all started
During his childhood, Sulton lived in Maryland, Wisconsin, Colorado and New Jersey.
His mother is from Racine and worked as a civil rights lawyer, which Sulton said had a huge impact on him and his siblings.
“All three of us (siblings) had a really strong sense of social justice and wanting to help people, particularly racial justice issues,” said Sulton’s sister Patrice Sulton, who also is an attorney.
She now runs DC Justice Lab, an organization focused on criminal justice reform policy.
Sulton remembers one case in which his mom was defending Gil Webb, a Black teenager who was charged in the death of a police officer after a car crash in Denver in 1997. People called their home and left racist and threatening messages on the answering machine.
“I remember being a little kid and riding my bike home so I could erase these messages because I didn’t want my mom to hear them,” he said.
Sulton studied political science as an undergraduate student at Michigan State University, where he started representing students in plagiarism cases.
While attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, Sulton met his wife, Stephanie, and later moved to her hometown of Milwaukee.
Public interest law
After finishing law school, Sulton noticed that many people in the courtroom were unrepresented because they believed lawyers were beyond their reach.
Wisconsin ranks low in lawyers per capita and has an even smaller number of civil rights lawyers, Sulton said.
Public interest lawyers usually represent poor, marginalized or underrepresented individuals or organizations not served by private sector law firms, including civil rights and social justice cases.
“These cases are important,” he said. “They mean something. It’s not just about how much money can you make on a case, right? It’s about, can you really change government policy? Can you really make things better, right?”
Sulton has gained a reputation for taking cases he says that few attorneys will take and demonstrating that they can be profitable.
“If I had a magic wand and I could do one thing, I would shift the way that we talk about public interest work,” Sulton said. “I think the number one reason that people don’t do public interest work is they don’t think that it’s profitable.”
Sulton also makes time to speak to law students at UW-Madison.
One law student asked him about the traumatic weight of his cases and if it impacts him, which Sulton said he had not thought about before.
“I think I’m just callous because it doesn’t,” Sulton said.
The ultimate volunteer
Through his volunteer work with the NAACP, Sulton has taken on equal employment opportunity cases and helps clients understand legal problems if they are considering filing complaints, said Clarence Nicholas, president of the NAACP Milwaukee Branch.
“He has a friendly personality and he’s personable,” Nicholas said.
Sulton started representing the Social Development Commission, also known as the SDC, in late 2022 on a volunteer basis when longtime attorney James Hall Jr. was getting ready to retire and brought him on. Hall died in early 2024.
Attorney William Sulton talks about the photo of Lloyd Barbee pictured in the office he works in at the NAACP Milwaukee Branch. (Meredith Melland / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
SDC suspended operations in April, halting a variety of programs and laying off employees. Sulton is working with the SDC board to find paths forward for the agency.
“I don’t know anybody else that would do what he has done, the amount of work that we have put on him, especially in the last four months,” said Barbara Toles, chair of the SDC Board of Commissioners.
Patrice Sulton said she doesn’t know anyone else in the legal field or elsewhere who holds as many time-consuming positions at the same time.
“I think it’s probably too much to juggle, but I also see how those things work together,” she said.
One of Milwaukee’s unsung heroes
Sulton said he tries to work early in the morning or late at night to spend the final third of his time with his wife and four kids, ages 13, 10, 8 and 5.
He said he likes the life he has built, and his main goal is to try to help people.
Debbie Lassiter, executive director of Convergence Resource Center, thinks Sulton is one of Milwaukee’s unsung heroes for his work in the community.
“He never makes you feel like: ‘Listen, I’m too busy to talk to you,’ ”she said.
“You don’t hear a lot about him getting awards or people thanking him for what he’s done, but we will be forever grateful for what he did for us,” Lassiter added.
An employee adds a stack of mail-in ballots to a machine that automatically places the ballots in envelopes at Runbeck Election Services on Sept. 25, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. The company prints mail-in ballots for 30 states and Washington D.C. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before Congress on Thursday that voters can “absolutely” trust their mail-in ballots will be secure and prioritized, though he emphasized they must be mailed at least a week ahead of the various state deadlines to be delivered on time.
DeJoy’s testimony to House lawmakers became heated at times, as members questioned whether delays in general mail delivery and previous issues with mail-in ballots in swing states could disenfranchise voters this year.
DeJoy also brought USPS’s facilities into question, calling them “ratty” twice during the hour-long hearing.
His various comments about the management of the USPS and how the agency plans to handle election mail appeared to frustrate some members of the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee.
For example, in response to a question from Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan about the pace of mail delivery in his home state, DeJoy responded that “the first rockets that went to the moon blew up, OK.”
Pocan then said: “Thanks for blowing up Wisconsin,” before DeJoy gave a lengthier answer.
“We’re going to do a series of transactional adjustments and service measurement adjustments and service metric adjustments as we move forward with this that are going to get your service to be 95% reliable,” DeJoy said.
Millions of ballots in the mail
The hearing came as state officials throughout the country are preparing to, or have already, sent out millions of mail-in ballots that could very well decide the results of elections for Congress and potentially even the presidency.
Mail-in voting surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as a central part of the 2020 presidential election and has remained a popular way for voters to decide who will represent their interests in government.
Voters can also cast ballots in person during early voting and on Election Day.
Lawmakers focused many of their questions during the hearing on how USPS keeps mail-in ballots secure and whether the agency can deliver them on time, though several members voiced frustration with DeJoy’s plans to change operations at USPS.
When asked specifically whether Americans could trust in USPS to handle their election mail, DeJoy said, “Absolutely.”
“I don’t know why you wouldn’t,” he testified. “We’ve delivered in the heightened part of a pandemic, in the most sensationalized political time of elections, and … we delivered it 99 point whatever percent, I mentioned earlier.”
DeJoy had previously said USPS delivered 99.89% of mail-in ballots within seven days during the 2020 election.
DeJoy wrote in testimony submitted to the committee ahead of the hearing that not all state laws consider the speed of the USPS when deciding when voters can request mail-in ballots and when those are sent out.
“For example, some jurisdictions allow voters to request a mail-in ballot very close to Election Day,” he wrote. “Depending on when that ballot is mailed to the voter, it may be physically impossible for that voter to receive the ballot mail, complete their ballot, and return their ballot by mail in time to meet the jurisdiction’s deadline, even with our extraordinary measures, and despite our best efforts.”
‘I see horror’
DeJoy brought up the state of USPS facilities on his own at several points during the hearing, implying that they aren’t clean or up to his standards as a work environment.
“I walk in our plants and facilities, I see horror. My employees see just another day at work,” DeJoy said.
Following a question about whether USPS employees had the appropriate training to handle and deliver mail-in ballots on time, DeJoy said leadership was “overwhelmingly enhancing our training,” before disparaging the facilities.
“We’re on a daily mission to train over 600,000 people across 31,000 ratty locations, I might say, on how to improve our operating practices across the board and at this time most specifically in the election mail area,” he testified. “We’re doing very well at this, just not perfect.”
No members of the panel asked DeJoy to clarify what he meant by “ratty” or followed up when he said separately that he was “sitting on about $20 billion in cash.”
A USPS spokesperson said they had nothing to add to DeJoy’s characterization when asked about the “ratty” comment by States Newsroom.
“If you are listening to the hearing, you just heard him describe the condition of postal facilities further,” Martha S. Johnson wrote in an email sent shortly after DeJoy made his “horror” comment. “I have nothing to add to that.”
Deliveries for rural Americans
Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright questioned DeJoy during the hearing about how plans to “consolidate resources around regions with higher population densities” under the so-called Delivering for America plan will affect delivery times overall for rural residents.
DeJoy disagreed with the premise of the question, saying he believed it was “an unfair accusation, considering the condition that the Postal Service has been allowed to get to.”
DeJoy said the USPS had committed to a six-day-a-week delivery schedule and pledged that it would not take longer than five days for mail to arrive.
“It will not go beyond five days, because I’ll put it up in the air and fly it if I have to,” DeJoy said.
Cartwright mentioned that 1.4 million Pennsylvania residents requested to vote by mail during the 2022 midterm elections, a number he expected to rise this year.
The commonwealth has numerous competitive U.S. House districts, a competitive U.S. Senate race and is considered a crucial swing state for the presidential election. Several of those races could be determined by mail-in ballots arriving on time.
Ohio Republican Rep. David Joyce, chairman of the subcommittee, asked DeJoy about issues with the Cleveland regional sort facility during the 2023 election. The secretary of state, Joyce said, found that some mail-in ballots sent as early as Oct. 24 didn’t arrive until Nov. 21.
“These voters are disenfranchised because of the USPS failures,” Joyce said. “How specifically have you enhanced the all clear procedures you referenced in response to the National Association of Secretaries of State? And can you assure us that these procedures will ensure that that doesn’t happen in this upcoming election?”
DeJoy responded that he would “need the specifics of Cleveland,” but said that USPS procedures are “extremely enhanced.”
Georgia primary problems
Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde, who isn’t on the panel, submitted a question for DeJoy about how a new regional processing and distribution center in Atlanta had “a negative impact” on mail delivery just weeks ahead of the GOP presidential primary earlier this year.
DeJoy said the USPS was investing more than $500 million into the region, but conceded “what went on in Georgia was an embarrassment to the organization, okay, and it should not have happened.”
“We are correcting for it aggressively,” DeJoy said. “Specifically with regard to the primary election, we got through that because I put a whole bunch of people down there and a whole bunch of double-checking processes in place.”
DeJoy added that “the performance was good on election mail for Georgia” and that USPS would deliver Georgia’s mail-in ballots in the weeks ahead “just fine.”
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