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.

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. 

The county administration is encouraging residents who can no longer access services through the SDC to reach out to the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services. 

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.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Milwaukee leaders weigh in on reopening of Social Development Commission is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

While some are celebrating the reopening of the Social Development Commission in Milwaukee, not everyone is joining in. 

“SDC stands for ‘Still Didn’t Compensate,’” said Sarah Woods, a former youth and family services supervisor for SDC. 

Last week, the Social Development Commission resumed providing tax assistance, career services, housing-related services and child care food services after being closed for seven months.

But Woods thinks SDC should not be paying staff for new work if former employees, including her, have not been paid for work done before SDC suspended operations and laid off its entire staff.

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. 

Most of this money came from a contribution from Unite WI.  

The SDC was quite deliberate in the way it used that money, said Sulton. 

“We started with employees that earned the least amount and we paid from the bottom up. So that’s what happened,” he said.

‘Scared to go back’

Sulton said new employees have been hired and some former employees have been rehired as part of SDC’s reopening. 

Woods said someone from SDC asked her to come back to work, but she didn’t take the person up on the offer.  

She is not confident in SDC’s financial stability.  

“I loved SDC when I worked there, don’t get me wrong. But I would be scared to go back,” Woods said. 

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Former Social Development Commission employees still waiting to be paid is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Living in a net-zero home is often a luxury for those who can afford solar panels, state-of-the-art HVAC and other innovations and renovations.

But lower-income people are those who could benefit most from energy cost savings, and those who suffer most from extreme climate. Milwaukee is trying to address this disconnect by building net-zero homes for low-income buyers in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, a marquee project of the city’s 2023 Climate and Equity Plan.

In September, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $3.4 million grant that will go toward Milwaukee’s construction of 35 homes on vacant lots in disadvantaged neighborhoods and the opening of a factory to make wall panels for net-zero manufactured homes.

City leaders have found the undertaking more challenging than expected, especially on the factory front. But they hope overcoming roadblocks will help create a new local and regional market for energy-efficient, affordable prefabricated homes, while also training a new generation of architects in the sector through partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

“It remains an ambitious project,” said Milwaukee environmental sustainability director Erick Shambarger. “We’re trying to support equity, climate, new technology, manufacturing. It takes some time, but we’re excited about it and looking forward to making it a success.”

Panelized, prefabricated homes can be built relatively cheaply, but making them highly energy efficient is a different story. A handful of small companies nationwide make the wall panels used in such construction to highly energy-efficient standards, but transporting the panels is expensive and creates greenhouse gas emissions. 

The city sought a local manufacturer, but an initial request for proposals yielded no viable candidates. Now the city and UWM professors are working with the Rocky Mountain Institute to convince a qualified company to open a site in Milwaukee to make energy-efficient panelized home components at commercial scale, for both the city and private customers.

“It’s such a great fit for Milwaukee,” said Lucas Toffoli, a principal in RMI’s carbon-free buildings program. “It’s a city that has a very strong blue-collar tradition, so the idea of bringing back some manufacturing, and leveling up the home-building capacity of the city feels very congruent with the spirit of Milwaukee.”

And panelized homes could be a cornerstone of affordable, energy-efficient housing nationwide if the sector was better organized and incentivized, RMI argues — a goal that Milwaukee could help further. 

“Local action always drives a message in a way that federal action doesn’t,” Toffoli said. “It will be even more important under the incoming presidential administration and Congress. Having this project getting started at the local level in an important Midwestern city is a way to help ensure that progress continues at some level, even if it’s less of a priority at the federal level.” 

Panel problems

Habitat for Humanity builds its own panels in its Milwaukee warehouse, and is working on an energy-efficient panelized design that it hope will yield the first net-zero affordable homes in 2025. Milwaukee has yet to select a developer for the DOE-funded program, but Milwaukee Habitat was a partner in the DOE grant and CEO Brian Sonderman said the organization is hopeful it will be chosen during an RFP process.

Single-family homes are typically “stick built” from the ground up, with 2×4 or similar boards forming a skeleton and then, one by one, walls. Panelized homes involve walls transported intact to the site. 

Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity often uses a hybrid method wherein walls are “stick built” laying on their side in the Habitat warehouse, and then brought to the site where volunteers help assemble the new house.

There are various other methods of making panels that don’t involve lumber, UWM Associate Professor Alexander Timmer explained, and making these models highly energy efficient is still an emerging and decentralized field.

“It’s the chicken-or-the-egg problem in some sense,” Timmer said, since component manufacturers don’t know if there’s a market for energy-efficient panelized homes, and developers don’t build the homes because few component suppliers exist.

Wall panels can involve two sheets of plywood with insulation in between, or a steel interior surrounded by rigid insulation, among other models.

“With 2x4s, any small crew can build a home,” said Timmer. “With panelized, you need a factory, specialized tools, specialized knowledge. The hope is we are graduating architects into the market who know these technologies and techniques, and can design them to high energy efficiency standards. The city needs architects and builders who want to do these things and feel comfortable doing them.”

Toffoli touted the benefits of net-zero homes beyond the carbon emissions and utility bill savings.

“There’s less draftiness, greater comfort throughout the whole home,” said Toffoli. “In addition to making the heater run less to warm the air, there’s a big comfort benefit and acoustic benefit,” with little noise or pollutants filtering into the well-sealed home.

“In the middle of a severe Wisconsin winter storm, [if] power goes out for everyone, you have a home that can basically ride through harsh conditions passively much better,” Toffoli added. 

Toffoli said examples in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts show panelized, highly energy-efficient homes can be built at costs not much greater than standard market panelized homes. A different design, including thinner studs and more insulation, means less heat or cold is transported from the outside in. Insulation and highly efficient windows cost more than market rate, but smaller appliances can be used because of the efficiency, helping to mitigate the cost increase. 

He said mass production of net-zero panelized homes is much more efficient and cost-effective than stick-built energy-efficient homes. 

“You don’t need to, every time, find a contractor who understands the proper sequence of control layers for a very high-performance wall,” Toffoli said. “It’s been done in part in a factory where they’re plugging and chugging on a design that’s been validated and repeated.”

The DOE grant includes $1 million for Milwaukee to incentivize construction of the panel factory, $40,000 each toward 25 homes, plus funds for administration and other costs. Shambarger said $40,000 per home will cover the construction cost difference between an affordable home that merely complies with building codes, and one that is net-zero – meeting federal standards with a highly efficient envelope, an electric heat pump and solar panels.

Shambarger noted that the city funding and business will not be enough to motivate a company to build a new factory in Milwaukee.  

“Any company is going to have to have a customer base” beyond the city orders, Shambarger said. “We’ll have to make sure other housing developers like the product that companies have, that it’s cost effective. One of the things we learned the first time around is most of the developers really didn’t understand how to do net-zero energy. We want to make sure the product we select fits within Milwaukee neighborhoods, will work in our climate, has buy-in from the community.”

Local jobs would be created by the factory, which is slated to be in Century City, the neighborhood with the most vacant manufacturing space.

“Overall with the climate and equity plan, we are trying to create good-paying jobs that people want,” Shambarger said. “That often means the trades. One of the things attractive about building housing components in a factory is it offers steady year-round employment, rather than having to go on unemployment for the winter,” as many building tradespeople do.

Creating Habitat

Sonderman said that in the past, Milwaukee Habitat has put solar on some homes, but little else specifically to lower energy costs.

“Clearly if there was a really substantial market for developers who were interested and willing to do this work, the reality is Habitat wouldn’t be the first call,” he said. “It’s something new. One of the things we’re looking forward to is sharing with our Habitat network in the state and other developers and builders, so we build some confidence this can be done efficiently and cost-effectively.”

Net-zero homes are not only a way to fight climate change, but an environmental and economic justice issue in predominantly Black neighborhoods scarred by redlining and disinvestment, where the majority of residents are renters, Sonderman added.

“Even for the individuals who don’t live in that home but live in the neighborhood, it breathes hope, it says that our neighborhood is being invested in,” Sonderman said. “That matters deeply for the residents of Lindsay Heights, Harambee, Midtown and elsewhere. To take a project like this and see it come to fruition has tremendous ripple effect in a positive way.”

Several other Habitat chapters nationwide are building net-zero homes, including in Colorado, Illinois and Oregon.

Milwaukee Habitat is planning to build 34 homes in 2025 and up to 60 homes annually by 2028. Sonderman said they will make as many as possible net-zero.

“We’re not in a capacity to be the full-scale factory [Shambarger] was envisioning,” he said. “But we believe we’ll be able to supply the walls we need to build dozens and dozens of net-zero homes in the future.”

Milwaukee plans to build net-zero modular homes for lower-income residents — but it’s not easy is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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.

‘Numbers are dropping’

Matuszewski said Milwaukee and the state are national leaders in community violence intervention efforts, citing the work of the City of Milwaukee Office of Community Wellness and Safety and also programs supported statewide through Wisconsin Community Safety Fund grants.

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.”

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Report: Gun violence down across Wisconsin, including Milwaukee is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Students gather outside the meeting Thursday of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. (Photo | CodePink)

On Thursday protesters disrupted a meeting of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, holding signs and chanting slogans including “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” and “Free, free Palestine!” Numerous groups participated in the demonstration including CODEPINK, UW-Milwaukee Popular University for Palestine, Wisconsin for Palestine, Wisconsin Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) UW-Madison, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Wisconsin, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)-UWM. 

Protesters gathered both inside and outside the room where the Board held its meeting. With chanting and speeches the protesters interrupted the meeting with one demonstrator at one point saying that protesters “will not be allowing” the Board to conduct business during the meeting, followed by loud chants from the group as officers flowed into the room to begin arrests. Activists say that 19 people were arrested during the demonstration. 

According to a CODEPINK press release, the demonstration stemmed from questions student activists sent the Board of Regents about the University of Wisconsin’s response after students joined a wave of encampment protests on college campuses. Students pitched tents on the grounds of college campuses nationwide last spring calling for institutions to sever their ties with the government of Israel. With U.S. support, Israel launched retaliatory strikes into the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which killed around 1,200 Israeli civilians and resulted in hundreds being taken hostage. Since then the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed over 44,000 Palestinians, with a United Nations Special Committee recently finding the IDF’s warfare tactics are “consistent with genocide”. Both Hamas and Israel have been accused of war crimes in the ongoing conflict. 

University of Wisconsin students involved in protests against the war in Gaza say they continue to face hands-on law enforcement responses. Arrests during demonstrations and threats of academic punishment targeting student activists are increasing tensions with school administration, activists say, after negotiations in May quelled the college encampment protests. 

UW students have demanded that the university divest from Israel, and disclose all of the investments made in the country to date. At UW-Madison, campus police and Dane County Sheriffs broke up the encampments last spring, arresting 34 people in May. Injuries were reported both among people in and around the encampments, and among law enforcement. No arrests were ever made at the UW-Milwaukee encampments, though police monitored the protests closely.  

By May, administrators at both UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee reached separate agreements with students to end the encampment protests. In September, CODEPINK said in its press release, the Board of Regents met with student activists, who had questions about the university’s handling of the encampment protests. Activists say that the Board deferred responsibility for the protest responses to university administration, prompting the demonstration on Thursday morning. 

The Board of Regents did not respond to a request for comment on the protests Thursday. Relaying a statement to Wisconsin Examiner on behalf of the protest group, a spokesperson for CODEPINK’s branch in Madison said that the Board’s use of police against student activists “reflects a troubling disregard for dialogue or transparency.” The spokesperson added that “instead of engaging in a one-minute statement from peaceful protesters, they chose to shut off the recording and summon a heavy police presence. This response escalated to harassment by university police and arbitrary arrests of individuals who were peacefully exercising their right to participate in a public meeting.”

CODEPINK questioned why the Board won’t engage with student activists, and said that the Board is responsible for “a significant portion of the UW-Madison endowment money” and should explain how it can use that money to support Israel when the Board’s own guidelines prohibit it from knowingly providing gifts, grants, etc, to “any company, corporation or subsidiary, or affiliate” that practices or condones discrimination against particular groups. 

“The police’s use of force against peaceful protestors underscores a disturbing trend of prioritizing secrecy over public trust,” reads CODEPINK’s emailed statement to Wisconsin Examiner. “Transparency and accountability should not be met with violence, especially in spaces meant to serve the public and promote education.”

Such sentiments aren’t exclusive to UW-Madison. In late October, UW-Milwaukee student members of SDS-UWM held a press conference claiming to have faced continued intimidation by campus police. UW-Milwaukee student Robby Knapp recounted being awoken to someone banging on his door one June night at 2:30 a.m. Initially, he thought that the police car parked outside was from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), but the officers were actually from UW-Milwaukee. They’d driven over 20 minutes from campus to Knapp’s home in Milwaukee’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Addressing him by name, they asked about an alleged vandalism incident near campus. Knapp said he didn’t know anything about it, stepped outside, and was immediately arrested. 

Knapp told Wisconsin Examiner that the officers took him back “the long way,” taking side streets instead of the freeway. When they got to the campus, “they photographed me, booked me, the whole nine yards with that,” Knapp said in the October press conference. “They gave me a letter saying the DA [District Attorney] might give you a call, which I haven’t gotten a call from the DA since that night.” Knapp was never taken to the county jail, but was released after an hour, he recalled. 

After Knapp was taken in, officers visited the homes of SDS members Audari Tamayo and Kayla Patterson. “They went to my house at least twice,” said Tamayo. “And we found this out through the police report that they went to my house twice, but I didn’t open the door. They needed to get to the third floor, they needed to get through three different hallways.” Tamayo said that after the officers failed to get into the apartment, “they started calling me repeatedly saying that I had to come down for an interview or else.” 

A spokesperson for UW-Milwaukee was unable to comment on any aspect Knapp’s arrest due to federal laws protecting student records. The spokesperson also said that UW-Milwaukee cannot comment on the ongoing investigation related to the alleged vandalism incident, nor comment on what exactly the vandalism was. “SDS recognition as a UWM student organization is suspended due to student organization misconduct, and only officially recognized student organizations are permitted to use UWM’s name in their organization’s name,” spokeswoman Angelica Duria said. 

A Milwaukee PD spokesperson told Wisconsin Examiner that the department is, “aware that Students for a Democratic Society UWM have engaged in protest activity in Milwaukee. We monitored the tent city situation at UWM to ensure there was no impact to emergency services in the City of Milwaukee. We do not have requests from UWM to conduct any investigations related to the group. We do share when we are aware of a planned protest for the sake of public safety.”

SDS says that its members have also faced academic sanctions, directly related to their protests. Besides Knapp, whom SDS says is facing academic sanctions due to protest activity, Patricia Fish is also facing sanctions due to an occupation protest in February. Additionally, both Patterson and Tamayo were unable to enroll in time for the fall 2024 semester after holds were placed on their student accounts. 

The stress has  affected Knapp’s academic performance. “Since then I’ve been behind … I have to kind of  go to school, and go to class every day understanding that  any work, any midterms, any quizzes, any papers, any exams, any credit, as soon as that suspension becomes effective, then all of that is out the window,” said Knapp. “I have about four courses left until I graduate. I was going to take two this semester, and two that semester. So not only is my education up in the air, but my ability to graduate is now up in the air … It’s the energy, it’s the money, it’s the time, it’s the effort that I’ve put into getting this close to graduating and just this semester in general after having to deal with them holding me back to be able to take these classes in the first place.”

Duria said that “no student is subject to the misconduct process based on considerations other than their own behavior.” Duria said that the Dean of Students Office assesses “reports it receives to determine whether there are potential nonacademic misconduct violations.” Duria went on to say in a statement to Wisconsin Examiner that “UWM has communicated protest guidelines and behavior expectations in several previous emails sent to faculty, staff and students. UWM has also updated its free speech website to make behavior expectations and expressive activity policies easily visible. Protests and expressive activity must abide by state law and university policy and UWM will take appropriate action to enforce the law, and its policies and codes of conduct.”

Patterson feels negotiations between students and the administration were mainly “to save face,” and to also learn more about student activist groups in preparation for more crackdowns. She told Wisconsin Examiner, “It’s very heavy monitoring. They’re going both at the organizational level, and the individual level, in order to crack down.” 

This article has been edited to correct the last name of Robby Knapp, not “Napp”. 

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.

For more information

The Fire and Police Commission is recruiting for its next academy cohort.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Help wanted: Can the Milwaukee Police Department fix its hiring problem? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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. 

After a group of residents met with the city’s Environmental Collaboration Office for a year to work on climate solutions and sustainability, Lindsay Heights was designated as Milwaukee’s First Eco Neighborhood in 2018.

“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. 

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. 

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.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

In Milwaukee’s Lindsay Heights neighborhood, residents advocate for community through photo research is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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.

It was the first public meeting in the building since the anti-poverty agency suspended operations and laid off employees in April. 

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.” 

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. 

Boswell did not attend Thursday’s meeting.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Milwaukee’s SDC plans to reopen key programs in December is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

In the early morning following Election Day in 2020, Claire Woodall, then Milwaukee’s elections chief, mistakenly left behind a USB stick carrying vote totals at the city’s central absentee ballot counting facility. Election conspiracy theorists quickly seized on the mistake, accusing Woodall of rigging the election. 

Their claims were baseless, but the mistake increased scrutiny on the city’s election staff and led Woodall to create a checklist to make sure workers at central count didn’t overlook any critical steps in the future.

This year, despite the checklist, Milwaukee election staff at central count made another procedural mistake — and once again left the door open to conspiracy theorists. 

Somebody — city officials haven’t said who — overlooked the second step outlined on the checklist and failed to lock and seal the hatch covers on the facility’s 13 tabulators before workers began tabulating ballots. For hours, while counting proceeded, the machines’ on-off switches and USB ports were left exposed. 

After election officials discovered the lapse, city officials decided to count 31,000 absentee ballots all over again, a choice that led to delays in reporting results.  

Results from the large and heavily Democratic city ultimately came in at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, only a few hours later than expected, but a time that conspiracy theorists implied was a suspicious hour for vote totals to change. Their posts echoed claims from 2020 that used sensationalized language like “late-night ballot dumps” to describe the reality that in big cities, absentee ballots take time — yes, sometimes late into the night — to collect, deliver, verify and count accurately.

In fact, the results in Milwaukee couldn’t have arrived much sooner. Under state law, election officials can’t start processing the hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots until the morning of Election Day. This year, they got a late start because of delays in getting workers settled, but were still expecting to be done around 2 or 3 a.m. Then it became clear the midday decision to redo the count would add more time to the process. 

But those explanations have done little to curb the false conspiracy theories that have been proliferating on the right, including from losing U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde.

Election officials have for years known that the slightest mistakes, or even perceived errors, can trigger false claims. In this instance, the failure to follow a critical security step occurred in the state’s most scrutinized election facility, despite new procedures meant to reduce such errors.

For people with a conspiratorial mindset, such an oversight can’t be explained away as just a mistake, said Mert Bayar, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. The errors can provide conspiracy theorists a feeling of validation because those errors make a “conspiracy theory more realistic … more believable.”

For those people, he said, election errors are instead perceived as “part of a plot to steal an election.” 

Instead of considering the 2024 Milwaukee mistake a simple oversight, Bayar said, conspiracy theorists may think that the tabulator doors “cannot be left unlocked unless they’re trying something tricky, something stealth.”

Genya Coulter, senior director of stakeholder relations at the Open Source Election Technology Institute, said Milwaukee can still fine-tune its processes and checklists. 

“I don’t think anybody needs to be demonized,” she said, “but I do think that there needs to be some retraining. That would be helpful.”

Milwaukee error initially drew complaints, but not suspicion 

It was an election observer who first noticed the open tabulator doors and alerted election officials. Around 2 p.m., Milwaukee’s current election chief, Paulina Gutiérrez, went from tabulator to tabulator, monitored by Democratic and Republican representatives, to lock all of the doors. Two hours later, she made the call to rerun all ballots through the tabulators.

The tabulators had been in full view of partisan observers and the media, but behind a barrier that only election officials and some designated observers, like representatives for both political parties who accompany election officials during some election processes, can enter. Any tampering would have been evident, Gutiérrez said, and there was no sign of that.

For that reason, some Republicans at central count opposed recounting all the ballots and risking a delay. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who went to central count on Election Day to learn more about the error, said he didn’t think anything nefarious happened, though he said the election operation there was “grossly incompetent.”

Coulter said the decision to start the counting over again was “the right call for transparency’s sake.”

Hovde, who lost his Senate race in a state that Donald Trump carried, invoked conspiratorial language to describe what happened. 

“The results from election night were disappointing, particularly in light of the last minute absentee ballots that were dropped in Milwaukee at 4 a.m. flipping the outcome,” he said Monday in his concession speech. “There are many troubling issues around these absentee ballots.”

In an earlier video, Hovde criticized Milwaukee’s election operation and spread false claims about the proportion of votes that his opponent, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, received from absentee ballots. That led to a skyrocketing number of posts baselessly alleging election fraud in Wisconsin.

One prominent conservative social media account questioned whether the tabulator doors being left open was a case of sabotage. 

In a statement, the Milwaukee Election Commission said it “unequivocally refutes Eric Hovde’s baseless claims regarding the integrity of our election process.”

Why Milwaukee’s results were late

There’s no proof of fraud or malfeasance in Milwaukee or anywhere else in Wisconsin on Election Day. But a few key factors combined to delay Milwaukee’s results until 4 a.m.

First, Milwaukee central count workers started processing and tabulating ballots around 9 a.m., long after the 7 a.m. start time allowed under state law. The delay was a matter of getting dozens of central count workers organized and at the right station in the large facility.

The more high-profile one was the failure to close the tabulators, which prompted the decision to count 31,000 absentee ballots all over again. 

But both of those slowdowns could have been less consequential had Wisconsin election officials been able to process absentee ballots on the Monday before Election Day, as some other states allow. Such a change could have allowed election officials to review absentee ballot envelopes, verify and check in absentee voters but not count votes. An effort to allow election officials to do so stalled in the state Senate this year.

Checklist change could ‘improve transparency’

Milwaukee election officials may have avoided the situation entirely — and could avoid similar situations in the future — by modifying their central count checklist, said Coulter, from the Open Source Election Technology Institute.

Currently, the checklist states that at the start of Election Day, the tabulator doors should be locked and sealed. It’s not clear why that step was skipped. Gutiérrez didn’t respond to questions for comment about who was in charge of the process or whether that person faced disciplinary action. 

But the step likely wouldn’t have been overlooked, Coulter said, if the checklist required the official in charge of locking the tabulators to be accompanied by a representative from each major political party.

“That’s a relatively painless change that … I think it would improve transparency,” Coulter said.

“There needs to be an emphasis on having two people from different political affiliations performing all duties that involve the tabulator,” she said.

Another pre-processing step on the checklist calls for people working at the tabulators to make sure the numbered seals pasted over the tabulator doors are intact. It doesn’t call for checking that the tabulator doors are locked.

To avoid a repeat situation, Coulter said, “they should also check to make sure that the door to the power button is properly locked, and what to do if it isn’t.”

Election officials recognize the scrutiny they face over errors, Coulter said, and they sometimes focus more on avoiding mistakes than running election operations.

“It’s like a racecar driver … If you focus on the wall, you’re going to wind up hitting that wall,” she said. “You have to train your mind to think about the curve and not the wall, but unfortunately, it’s really hard for election officials to do that, especially in high-pressure jurisdictions.”

Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Shur at ashur@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.

How Milwaukee’s Election Day mistake left the door open to more misinformation is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

No.

Milwaukee counts absentee ballots at a central location and reports the totals only when they are finished.

Those results were delayed a few hours this year because election officials in Milwaukee recounted about 30,000 absentee ballots during the night of Nov. 3 into Nov. 4 because doors on the ballot tabulators were not properly sealed. 

In a Nov. 11 social media post, user End Wokeness claimed a 3:30 a.m. “ballot dump” lost candidate Eric Hovde the Senate race in Wisconsin. The chart in the post shows no evidence of fraud, just Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s vote total increasing when Milwaukee reported its absentee ballot results.

Baldwin received 82% of votes from the city’s absentee ballots and 78% overall, the Milwaukee Election Commission reported.

Wisconsin law requires clerks to post the number of total outstanding absentee ballots by the close of polls.

Baldwin won with 49.4% of the vote to Hovde’s 48.5% statewide, according to unofficial results. 

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• Milwaukee Election Commission: Latest unofficial election results
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Editorial: Hovde's election claims are false. He's blaming Milwaukee – without evidence.
• PBS News: ‘Human error’ forces recount of 30,000 absentee ballots in Milwaukee
• The New York Times: Election officials say Wisconsin Republican's claims 'lack any merit'
• USA Today: Nothing improper or surprising in Wisconsin 'ballot dump' | Fact check
• The New York Times: Wisconsin U.S. Senate Election Results

Did a late night ‘ballot dump’ in Milwaukee cost Eric Hovde the US Senate election? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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. 

In September, SD Properties Inc., the tax-exempt corporation that owns SDC’s buildings, listed two SDC properties on North Avenue for sale  at a combined price of $3.2 million. Kimberly Njoroge, a Realtor with Ogden & Company Inc., is advertised as the listing agent. 

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.

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.

Wyman Winston, a former director of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, or WHEDA, said he does not understand how SD Properties could retain a former board member for the sale.

“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.

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.

Conflict of interest? Milwaukee SDC property sale would benefit former board member is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

The UW-Madison Police Department. (Corey Coyle photo)

University of Wisconsin-Madison campus police made a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday regarding racist text messages being sent to students. “UWPD is aware of reports that Black UW-Madison students have received racist text messages as part of a nationwide wave of messages that began on Thursday,” the department posted.

Racist text messages were sent to Black Americans across the country following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory. Many of the text messages told  recipients they had been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation, and that they should be prepared to be collected by a van to be taken there.. The texts were sent to people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Alabama, Virginia, and elsewhere.

The police department post said the department  is “committed to the safety of the UW-Madison campus and community, and we take all reports seriously.” The department has encouraged anyone who feels unsafe or threatened to call (608) 264-2677. The department said callers should dial 911 in an emergency. 

Milwaukee Elections Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez addresses news media on election night. On Friday, the commission delayed certification canvassing until Monday after receiving a suspicious package. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

The Milwaukee Elections Commission put off certifying election results Friday after receiving a suspicious package that the commission said was later determined not to be hazardous.

Commission staff reported the package, a bubble-wrapped envelope wet with an unknown liquid that arrived at the commission’s City Hall office Friday morning.  The Milwaukee Fire Department responded to the report, sending a  hazardous materials team

According to a statement released by the elections commission, the envelope “emitted an unusual odor.” The statement said that firefighters were contacted “out of caution” and that, “after thorough testing, all results were clear, and [Milwaukee Fire Department] confirmed the area was safe.”

The Wisconsin Examiner contacted the Milwaukee Police Department for more information and was referred to the Milwaukee Fire Department, who said to contact the mayor’s office. The city’s spokesman, Jeff Flemming, could not be reached, but the mayor’s office referred the inquiry to the elections commission. 

The commission statement said the body rescheduled its certification of the election to Nov. 11, at 8 a.m. 

“Once certified by the City of Milwaukee Board of Election Commissioners, the results will be transferred to the county and continue through the process to the state,” said the commission’s statement. 

First responders gave the all clear to the commission to accept the curing of provisional ballots until 4 p.m. Friday.

The Wisconsin Election Commission website has details on the certification process. 

A portion of a racist text message received by several people across the country. (Wisconsin Examiner photo illustration)

Along with people in other communities across the nation, some Wisconsinites woke up Thursday morning to racist text messages ordering them to report to “the nearest plantation.” The texts came less than 48 hours after former President Donald Trump won the presidential race against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Lydia, a mother in Milwaukee who didn’t want her last name published, received the text just before 2:30 a.m. She saw it two hours later, when she woke up about 4:30 a.m. The message addressed her by name. 

“You have been selected to pick cutton [sic] at the nearest plantation,” the message reads. “Be ready at 12PM SHARP with your belongings. Our Executive Slaves will come get you in a Brown Van, be prepared to be searched down once you’ve entered the plantation. You are in Plantation Group S.”

After seeing the text, Lydia posted the text online and searched to see if they had appeared elsewhere. “The crazy thing about it is they spelled cotton wrong,” she told Wisconsin Examiner with a chuckle. Still, she found the text message startling and chilling. 

“I mean obviously, I knew the election was on the fence,” she said. “So, to have this happen right after the president is elected…” 

Lydia said that she understood “where we were at with everything, like I kind of knew it could go this way.” After receiving the text message, however, “slowly I felt violated, felt fearful because it’s like a lot of supporters are really, you know, wanting to go back to that…To that 1800’s vibe…I was very concerned.” The text made her, and others in her community, feel threatened and disgusted, she said. 

Similar text messages have been reported in Alabama, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, and elsewhere. Although not word-for-word copies, the text messages all say that the recipient has been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation, that a van — sometimes brown, sometimes white — driven by “our executive slaves” will be picking recipients up to take them to a plantation where they will be searched. 

All the text messages appear to assign the recipient to a different “plantation group” organized by letters. Some of the texts end with “sincerely, the Trump Administration.”

Wisconsin Examiner attempted to contact two of the numbers sending out the texts. One was no longer in service, and another led to a generic voicemail box.

Lydia said the text reminded her of the rally Trump held at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Oct. 27, nine days before Election Day. There, comedian Tony Hedgecliff called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean,” said that Puerto Ricans “love making babies” and made remarks involving Black people and watermelon before a crowd of laughing Trump supporters.

Trump, who will take office Jan. 20, 2025,  has continued to rail against immigration from across the southern border and has branded “left wing lunatics” as “the enemy within.” The rally was compared to a Nazi rally held in 1939 in Madison Square Garden. 

“There’s just certain things you just don’t say,” said Lydia. “It doesn’t feel safe being Black in America. But now that he is president, it’s really out there. And people are really concerned, and people are really scared.”

Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

No.

Milwaukee ballot tabulation machines are not connected to the internet.

“Tabulation machines are not connected to Wi-Fi and the idle speculation suggesting they are vulnerable is simply incorrect,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson posted on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024.

For years, the city has used flash drives — thumb-size data-storing devices — to transmit results.

Flash drives are cleared and reformatted before being put in sealed envelopes; the process is witnessed, and both a Democrat and a Republican are among the observers who certify the process. After all ballots are processed, voting results from the tabulation machines are exported to the flash drives. Witnesses also sign a document certifying the exports.

On Election Day afternoon, election officials restarted the absentee ballot count after an observer noticed panel doors on Milwaukee’s 13 tabulators weren’t properly closed.

City election officials said there was no indication any of the tabulators had been tampered with.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

X: Mayor Cavalier Johnson post

X: Alexander Shur post

Milwaukee Election Commission: Central Count Tabulator Results Procedure

Wisconsin Watch: Wisconsin election: Milwaukee to recount thousands of ballots

Are Milwaukee vote tabulation machines connected to the internet? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

This coverage is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.

Milwaukee election officials started counting the city’s absentee ballots all over again Tuesday afternoon after an observer noticed that the panel doors on the city’s 13 tabulators weren’t properly closed.

By the time city officials decided to restart the counting around 4 p.m., over 30,000 absentee ballots had already been fed into the tabulators, Milwaukee spokesperson Caroline Reinwald said. The city had more than 106,000 absentee ballots in total by mid-day Tuesday.

A Republican observer at the city’s central counting facility pointed out that the panel door that covers a tabulator’s on and off switch — and, in at least some cases, slots for inserting USB drives to export election results — was unlocked after workers had been using the tabulators for several hours. Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez then went from tabulator to tabulator, monitored by representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties, to secure each one between 2 and 2:30 p.m. 

City election officials said there was no indication any of the tabulators had been tampered with — and that it would have been clear if somebody had accessed them. The slots are used at the end of the night, when election officials insert USB drives to export election results before driving them to the county to submit the data.

If the off buttons were “tampered with, it would completely turn off,” Gutiérrez told Votebeat. “That would be very evident of tampering, so we just properly locked them and resealed them.”

There were no USB drives in any of the tabulators, she added.

The decision to restart the count, city spokesperson Jeff Fleming said, was “out of an abundance of caution.” 

“We have no reason to believe that there was any compromise to any of the machines,” he said. “But because they were not fully sealed — human error — … we are going to zero them all out again and rerun the ballots that had already been processed.”

Re-tabulating all of the ballots may take up to three hours, Fleming said. City officials initially said the count could go until 2 or 3 a.m. 

Votebeat spoke with multiple Republicans at central count who were aware of the oversight. None said they were concerned about any possibility of tampering.

Before the decision to restart the tabulation process, Republican Party of Milwaukee County Chair Hilario Deleon, who watched Gutiérrez reseal each machine, told Votebeat that he doesn’t think anything nefarious happened.

“I’m not worried about it, although it is a concerning thing when those things are supposed to be locked,” he said.

“Both observers were able to see whether or not there’s flash drives in any of the machines. There’s no flash drives in the machines, there should be no flash drives until the end of the night,” he said, adding that he appreciated Gutiérrez’s transparency.

But Deleon expressed frustration over the decision to restart counting and said local Democrats and city election officials disregarded his view on that matter.

“Let them continue doing their job,” he said. “So many more ballots still have to be counted. Why are we adding more time onto this?”

“It’s just going to be extra work for everyone, and any chance to get these numbers maybe by midnight or 1 a.m., that might have just been pushed back,” he said.

Jefferson Davis, a former Menomonee Falls village president and conservative election activist who has entertained and promoted conspiracy theories, similarly said he wasn’t concerned.

“We had observers at each station as they were taken, and we didn’t see anything that would cause us concern,” he said.

Davis told Votebeat that he welcomed the decision to restart the count as a transparency measure.

Milwaukee election officials typically follow a checklist at central count to ensure that the tabulators are secure, and that thumb drives carrying vote totals end up where they’re supposed to, aren’t tampered with, and remain tracked through a full chain-of-custody process. It appeared one of the earlier steps of closing the panels wasn’t done correctly.

Claire Woodall, formerly the Milwaukee election chief, said there are multiple layers of security to prevent tampering, of which the seal is “the most visible but superficial.”

“Rigorous cross checks exist in the election system, including audit logs that track every action on the tabulator,” she said. “I am confident that this was human error in how the doors (were) closed and seals placed, as no one present at Central Count has presented any concerns of tampering.”

Ann Jacobs, a Democratic commissioner on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, also watched Gutiérrez as she resealed and locked each tabulator.

“Elections are run at the municipal level and at this point, it is up to the Milwaukee Election Commission and the Milwaukee city attorney’s office to decide what their plan is, in light of what’s happened,” she told Votebeat.

National Republicans — long critical of the heavily Democratic city and its elections — decried the mistake. 

“This is an unacceptable example of incompetent election administration in a key swing state: voters deserve better and we are unambiguously calling on Milwaukee’s officials to do their jobs and count ballots quickly and effectively,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chair Lara Trump wrote in a media statement.

Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Alexander at ashur@votebeat.org.

Milwaukee recounts thousands of absentee ballots, delaying results is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Ray Mendoza doesn’t care who you vote for. He just wants you to vote. 

To Mendoza, 54, the right to vote is too precious to squander. That’s how the Milwaukee man feels after surrendering that right for the roughly 20 years he spent in a federal penitentiary and on probation.

“I encourage everybody, if you’re a convicted felon and you’re not on probation or parole, get out and vote. Use your voice,” Mendoza last week told a reporter outside Milwaukee’s Frank P. Zeidler Municipal Building, where he voted for the third time in his life — casting an in-person absentee ballot.

Each state sets its own process around removing and restoring voting rights following a felony conviction. Maine and Vermont are the only states that allow people to vote while still in prison. People in Florida can’t vote until completing their sentence and paying all fines and fees — a requirement some critics have likened to poll taxes that barred African Americans from voting during the Jim Crow era.

Wisconsin automatically restores voting rights after someone is “off paper,” meaning they have completed their prison sentence and time on probation or extended supervision. In a state of roughly 6 million people, that puts voting off limits for the roughly 23,000 in state prisons and more than 45,000 serving probation or extended supervision for felony convictions. 

Those figures represent just a fraction of people living with felony convictions on their criminal record.

Meanwhile, roughly 2 million people are incarcerated in jails or prisons nationwide, while about 17 million more live with a felony conviction — a status that can bar them from certain jobs, public assistance or housing. 

Mendoza regained his right to vote in 2019 after completing his prison bid and probation. But even now, voting stirs an anxiety he can’t fully shake. He feels at times as if restoration is a ruse to send him back to prison for unwittingly violating some rule.

“I’m waiting for somebody to come up and say, ‘You’re under arrest for fraudulent voting,’” he said of the back-of-mind feeling. “But I know I’m registered. I know I’m legit.” 

Nevertheless, he votes, and he urges all eligible voters to do the same, telling them: “If you don’t vote, you don’t have any right to complain.” 

Still, he recalls meeting community members who plan to sit out on Election Day, believing their vote counts for little. Mendoza’s experience helps him see things differently. 

He asks: “If your vote wasn’t important, why is that the first thing they take when they take your freedom?”

Mendoza now hopes his work and perspective will shape a more peaceful Milwaukee, where he lived before going to prison for participating in a violent crime that included charges of attempted murder and kidnapping. 

Mendoza, a Marine Corps veteran, began turning his life around even before going to prison. Just before his 1997 conviction, Mendoza publicly denounced the life of gang violence he previously embraced. When a Milwaukee police officer shot a man named James Rey Guerrero who was allegedly fleeing police, Mendoza worked with community leaders and police to calm tensions and organize a nonviolent prayer vigil.

At his sentencing hearing, family members and community leaders pleaded with the judge to show leniency, citing his work in the community, court transcripts show. 

“There were a lot of threats against Milwaukee police by gang members who were upset with what had transpired, and Ray was very instrumental in helping to kind of calm that and allow that prayer vigil in March to go on,” an employee of Milwaukee’s Social Development Commission told the judge. 

But redemption would have to wait. Mendoza was sentenced to 20 years in a federal penitentiary. 

His path to rehabilitation wasn’t a straight line. He said he spent his first 13 years in and out of solitary confinement, contemplating how to return to selling drugs without getting caught. 

 “All the way up until year 14 of my sentence, my mind said, ‘Well, I’m gonna come home and I’m gonna make a phone call and I’m gonna get a truckload of drugs and up here so I can get back to work,’” he said.

But returning to old habits, he eventually realized, would return him to prison. 

“One day I was sitting in the hole, and I just say, ‘You know, if I want to go home and stay home, I gotta change the way I think. I gotta change the way I live my life, and I gotta change the way I view everybody else and everything else around me,’” Mendoza said. “I refuse to go back to prison.”

He’s kept the promise he made to himself. After his release, Mendoza went to work as a violence interrupter, sharing his experiences and helping to head off gunfire. More recently, he began work as a restorative justice coach at The Northwest Opportunities Vocational Academy, designed for students determined to be at risk of not graduating. 

“According to (Milwaukee Public Schools), these (students) are the worst of the worst of the school system. Those are the ones that I love the most. Those are my favorites,” Mendoza said. 

He sees a version of himself in every young person he works with. For them, his message is simple: They don’t have to go through the pain and heartache he endured. They can do things differently.  

On this Election Day, the nation, including Wisconsin, faces partisan divisions so deep that some have vowed to move to another country if their preferred presidential candidate loses.

But where many see hopelessness, Mendoza sees something different.  

“I don’t think things are hopeless right now. I’ve seen hopeless,” he said.

“I see opportunity. Even with all the negativity that’s going on in our city, I still see opportunity, not for me, not for people my age, not for people in the work that I do, but for the young people.”

‘Use your voice’: Ex-incarcerated Milwaukee man cherishes regained voting rights is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

The Democratic National Committee is putting mobile billboards in nearly a dozen metro areas that could be crucial in determining the outcome of the presidential election. (Getty images photo illustration)

WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee is rounding out its $7 million in spending on the “I Will Vote” campaign by putting mobile billboards in nearly a dozen metro areas that could be crucial in determining the outcome of the presidential election.

The billboards are intended to increase turnout and direct voters to the DNC’s I Will Vote website that provides information about polling locations and educational materials.

The mobile billboards are set to drive around Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Las Vegas, Nevada; Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Tempe, Arizona.

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a written statement that the I Will Vote campaign “is a testament to Democrats’ commitment to and investment in the many communities that make up our strong coalition of voters.”

“Throughout this campaign, Democrats have worked with diverse vendors and talent that are reflective of our values as a party and the communities that we are reaching with the campaign,” Harrison said. “This entire election cycle, the Democratic Party has not taken a single vote or community for granted and used every opportunity to engage with the pivotal members of our party that will take us over the finish line on Election Day by electing Democrats up and down the ballot.”

Previous DNC “I Will Vote” mobile billboards have been directed at Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Black, Haitian, Latino, LGBTQ+, Native American and rural voters, according to the announcement. The billboards have also run in nine different languages.

The DNC spent around $200,000 on this final round of mobile billboards.

More than 1 million people have visited the DNC’s I Will Vote website since its launch. Voting information can also be found at vote.gov and vote.org.

Any civil rights violations regarding voting can be reported to the Department of Justice by calling 800-253-3931 or by filling out a report online.

The DNC is hoping the billboards help Vice President Kamala Harris win the 270 Electoral College votes needed to become the country’s next president.

Polls show tight race

Harris has been polling closely, often within the margin of error, with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the key battleground races that will determine the next commander-in-chief.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter places Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the toss-up column for the presidential race, meaning Harris and Trump are relatively evenly matched to win those states’ Electoral College votes.

Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief, wrote in her final analysis released Friday that “(p)olling averages suggest that Trump has a narrow lead in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina. If he won all three, that would add up to 260 electoral votes, ten votes shy of an Electoral College victory.”

“Harris has a tiny lead in Michigan and Wisconsin,” Walter added. “If she wins both, she’ll still be 19 votes shy of 270. Nevada and Pennsylvania are currently tied in the 538 average. In that scenario, neither candidate could win without Pennsylvania.”

But, Walter writes in her article that “dramatic scenario isn’t one that we’ve seen in the last two cycles.”

“Instead, almost all of the battleground states have ultimately broken to one candidate. In 2016, Trump carried all but Nevada. In 2020, Biden carried all but North Carolina,” Walter wrote. “Moreover, analyst Ron Brownstein has noted that in every presidential election but one since 1980, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have voted for the same candidate.”

Cortaisha Thompson knocks on doors on Milwaukee's southside. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

A strong, warm fall wind accompanied Cortaisha Thompson as she walked through a south-side Milwaukee neighborhood. “I like to be out talking in the community just like, interacting with people,” the 26-year-old told Wisconsin Examiner. About 20 canvassers from Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT), including Thompson, have spent months knocking on doors throughout Milwaukee ensuring voters have what they need in the election on Tuesday, Nov. 5.  

Calmly walking up a staircase leading to a front door, Thompson knocked and waited. After about 30 seconds without an answer, she left a piece of voter education literature in the door and moved on. At the next house a woman answered the door, saying that she planned to vote on Election Day, but that she didn’t know that early voting was an option. Early in-person voting at polling places in Milwaukee began on Oct. 22 and will run until Nov. 3. 

Whether anyone answers the door when she knocks is a toss up, Thompson said. In some neighborhoods, doors stay shut the majority of the time. Sometimes it depends on the time of day and whether most people are at school or work. Thompson, who lives closer to Racine, has also noticed how different neighborhoods in Milwaukee have different vibes. On the South Side, canvassing walks can be quieter. When Thompson canvassed the North Side, she encountered more residents willing to talk about their political views. 

“I feel like I get more contacts and more energized people that’s willing to open the door and actually talk,” said Thompson said of North Side neighborhoods. Since LIT’s goal is simply voter education and not candidate endorsement, Thompson doesn’t try to  convince people to vote one way or another. Especially in Milwaukee, one of America’s most segregated cities, Thompson sees how people can feel pigeon-holed. “They feel like they have to vote for Trump, or they have to vote for Kamala,” said Thompson. “I just tell them like, we’re not here to tell you who to vote for or anything. We just want to make sure you get out to vote, and get your opinion out there.”

Signs for both former President Donald Trump and Vice  President Kamala Harris sprinkled the diverse neighborhood. Some homes were adorned with colorful decorations. As Thompson approached a couple of doors, where no one answered, she noticed local police association stickers. She said she enjoyed her time in Milwaukee, and even is considering moving to the city.

Each day she canvassed a different neighborhood or part of town. When Thompson canvassed in wealthier neighborhoods with residents “in those super big houses,” people often reacted with hostility to LIT, she said, “cussing at us and stuff like that.” On the South Side she felt more welcome. 

Periodically, Thompson would stop to check her phone to see what house is next on the list. Every canvasser is expected to knock on 175 doors a day. A couple months ago, the daily metric shot up to 275, which limited the amount of time canvassers could spend at each door. LIT has a goal to knock on 650,000 doors before election day, and has already reached more than  620,000. 

Thompson sees “a big mix of support” for different candidates neighborhood by neighborhood. “I haven’t gotten that yet, an area that’s strictly for her, or strictly with him,” said Thompson. A Marquette University poll released on Wednesday shows Harris and  Trump in a virtual dead heat, 50% to -49% among likely voters. 

Similarly, the race between Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde showed Baldwin leading 51% to 49%, a big drop from the seven-point lead Baldwin held in September. 

Many voters Thompson has encountered also seem squarely focused on the presidential election. There’s also the Republican-backed constitutional amendments on the ballot this year, which LIT is also informing voters of. “There’s people that say they don’t even go out and vote for no election if it’s not the presidential one,” said Thompson. LIT heard the same thing from voters  when knocking on doors for school referendums, mayoral races, and other elections. “None of it.” 

That attitude can change, though, when voters are asked about issues instead of about candidates. Thompson recalled speaking to a woman about health care access. “Her daughter got into a car accident and was in a coma and all type of stuff and they didn’t have the money to pay for her treatment,” said Thompson. “And then she started crying talking to me about it so I was like, kind of sad about it…There’s really people out here affected by not having that type of stuff. Majorly affected.” Reproductive rights was another recurring issue Thompson has heard while canvassing. Shortly after telling the story Thompson walked into a local convenience store for some water. When the store manager  he realized Thompson was out canvassing voters, he offered the water for free. 

Prior to getting involved in LIT, Thompson said she never paid much attention to politics. Older relatives of hers, however, were politically active and pushed her to get involved. When she did, and then started working with LIT, her whole perspective changed. “They bring a lot of stuff to your attention to make you realize, like, your vote really matters, and it really counts,” said Thompson. “Especially in times like this where it’s like if it don’t go the way you want it to go, you don’t know how it’s going to go afterward.”

This article has been edited to update the numbers of doors knocked by LIT, and to correct a misspelled name. 

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. 

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

Learn more about the city of Milwaukee’s Vision Zero plan. 

The “Speeding – We Can Live Without It” website offers resources and information to help prevent reckless driving.

News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.

Milwaukee campaign aims to curb deadly reckless driving is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.