Milwaukee zoning board chair’s salary cut
Group home dispute preceded pay measure
The chair of Milwaukee’s Board of Zoning Appeals just had her salary cut — in part because of a zoning dispute on the city’s near west side in Ald. Robert Bauman’s district.
Catherine Doyle, an attorney, was earning $52,000 annually in her part-time job.
That salary has been chopped by about onethird, to $35,000, under a measure approved last week by the Common Council on an 11-4 vote.
Bauman, who sponsored the legislation to cut Doyle’s pay, said she works around 10 to 15 hours a month preparing for and presiding over board meetings. The board meets 12 times a year.
That makes Doyle the city’s highestpaid employee when her salary is calculated on an hourly basis, Bauman said.
Doyle said she works “considerably more” than what Bauman claims. Her work load varies, she said.
“Some months, it’s 30 hours. Some months, it’s 50 hours,” said Doyle, who said the board chair has typically been an attorney with zoning law expertise.
However, Bauman’s primary argument for cutting Doyle’s pay is that she isn’t following the city’s zoning ordinances.
The quasi-judicial zoning board reviews requests for special use permits and zoning variances.
Among the criteria for granting a permit is whether the proposed development would meet the city’s comprehensive land use plan.
Doyle, following an opinion from the city attorney’s office, says the board shouldn’t consider the city’s land use plan when deciding whether to grant a special use permit.
That opinion was issued after the Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker in April 2016 approved a law that expanded private property rights.
That law includes a provision that says a conditional use permit issued by a local government doesn’t need to be consistent with that community’s comprehensive plan, according to the Wisconsin Legislative Council.
Bauman said the zoning board should still follow the city ordinance, and he said other legal opinions differ from the city attorney’s office on that provision. If Milwaukee is sued over the issue, he said, it can defend its position in court.
All this relates to a zoning case in Bauman’s district, where the owner of a duplex wants to operate a group home for eight teenagers.
Z’s Home of Love LLC would provide short-term, supervised care for neglected youth referred by county social workers or the juvenile court system, according to plans filed with the zoning board. It would be in an eight-bedroom duplex at 2220-2222 W. McKinley Ave.
“Most of these youth are coming out of abusive living situations and are in need of protection,” according to the proposal, filed by property owner and Z’s Home of Love operator Hazel Miller.
Bauman first introduced his proposal to cut Doyle’s pay at the Nov. 10 council meeting.
That was one day after the zoning board reviewed the McKinley Ave. group home proposal.
Doyle, at that board meeting, said Milwaukee’s near west side comprehensive land use plan shouldn’t be part of the panel’s deliberations.
Bauman “was dissatisfied with my response,” Doyle said.
Nearby residents and Bauman, who attended the hearing, said the group home would hurt efforts to attract more homeowners to the neighborhood.
“It’s a fragile residential area,” Bauman said in an interview. “It needs stability.”
Z’s Home of Love would be a good use for the duplex, and would not harm the neighborhood, according to the proposal.
“Every precaution will be taken to ensure the safety of youth in the program and the neighbors,” the board filing said.
The board is expected to issue its ruling at Thursday’s meeting.
The original Nov. 10 proposal was to cut Doyle’s salary by more than half, from $52,000 to $25,000, which Mayor Tom Barrett vetoed.
Barrett’s veto was upheld by the council at the Nov. 28 meeting before the aldermen instead voted to reduce Doyle’s salary to $35,000.
Ald. James Bohl said he pursued cutting Doyle’s pay four years ago but delayed action while waiting for her term to expire. That happened in January, although Doyle has remained as board chair.
And Bohl agreed with Bauman that Doyle and the zoning board’s other members should follow the city’s comprehensive plan when considering special use permits.
However, Bohl opposed Bauman’s pay cut proposal. Bohl said it fails to follow the proper procedure of first doing a salary study.
“I’m not so certain that one decision yesterday on a Board of Zoning Appeals issue should be the reason for addressing a salary,” Bohl said at the Nov. 10 meeting. “Those passions just smack of knee-jerk reaction.”
Bauman, at the Nov. 28 meeting, said his proposal wasn’t personal.
“It’s not a vendetta,” he said. Doyle said she doesn’t mind taking a pay cut.
But that decision needs to be guided by a salary study, which was recently started by the city Department of Employee Relations, she said.