Milwaukee chief, FPC headed for showdown
Commission could order Morales to make changes
The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission has called a special meeting for Monday evening that could end with the city’s police chief being ordered to make changes to the department — and in the past, those orders have come with steep penalties, up to firing.
The only item on the agenda is “a resolution to vote and issue directives for Police Chief Alfonso Morales.”
When the Fire and Police Commission issued a directive to Morales’ predecessor, Edward Flynn, to change policy, it came with a stark warning: “failure to comply with this directive may result in disciplinary action by the board, including discharge, suspension without pay or reduction in rank.”
It’s not immediately clear what the commission will order Morales to do, if anything, but it currently is reviewing the department’s standard operating procedures on use-of-force and crowd control and civil unrest. Commission members also have said they will evaluate Morales on community policing, as well as other factors.
The Monday special meeting comes after the commission’s chairman, Steven DeVougas, canceled the regular Thursday meeting where the board was expected to discuss Morales’ six-month evaluation. The commission did keep its scheduled executive
session and met with Morales behind closed doors for about an hour.
In a brief interview afterward Morales said he doesn’t know if his job is in jeopardy. He said he did want to discuss aspects of the meeting but first needed advice from legal counsel. Morales also said he does not know what to expect at Monday’s special meeting.
On Friday, the department released a statement saying Morales was unable to discuss Thursday’s meeting because of “the nature of closed-door executive sessions.”
DeVougas on Thursday declined to tell reporters what directives or further action might be coming. “All answers will be revealed on Monday,” he said. Asked what he thought of Morales’ job performance, DeVougas said: “That’s between me and the chief.
“I don’t have a personal opinion on whether the chief should or should not keep his job,” he said when reporters continued to press him with questions. “You guys will have to wait until Monday.”
The commission is facing a series of internal challenges, including staffing shortages, an upcoming search for an executive director and DeVougas denying he committed ethics violations found by an independent investigator.
The commission has canceled five of seven regular meetings since April, according to city records. It also had three special meetings in that time: one on a highprofile disciplinary matter that included regular commission business, a second on the results of the independent investigation and a third last week in closed session to discuss Morales’ six-month evaluation.
On Thursday, DeVougas said he has been canceling meetings because he’s balancing pandemic concerns. The executive director, Griselda Aldrete, has said the commission has met 14 times since March. Aldrete recently withdrew from her own reappointment process but has said she will stay on the job until her replacement is confirmed.
In the last week, Morales has publicly criticized the commission, saying he believed he was being set up to fail by the board’s inaction and that he had lost confidence in DeVougas after an independent investigation found the chairman likely violated the city’s ethics code and lied about representing a prominent real estate developer accused of sexual assault.
That report also revealed for the first time that Morales felt pressured by DeVougas to take action on a specific discipline case during his reappointment process. DeVougas has denied any wrongdoing.
The city’s ethics board is expected Monday to take up a motion to investigate an ethics complaint filed by the Milwaukee Police Association, the union representing rank-and-file-officers, against DeVougas.
Asked about the ethics investigation, DeVougas said: “I think the focus needs to be on healing the city of Milwaukee and getting to a place of somewhat normalcy. Anything else is just a distraction, and I don’t want feed into that.”
DeVougas said he plans to continue as chair. He has a good relationship with members of the Common Council, he said, and does not expect them to remove him.
The police union has continued to call for his resignation.
“He has fired our members for untruthfulness and he’s doing the same thing,” Dale Bormann Jr., the union’s president, said on Friday. He added he was worried about Morales’ future with the department and what will unfold at Monday’s meeting.
“We’re going to watch this very, very closely,” he said.
Morales and the department also have faced heavy criticism, as protesters in Milwaukee and across the nation have called for reform and rethinking the role of police after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Some aldermen and residents have questioned or outright condemned officers’ use of force during the civil unrest, including rubber bullets, tear gas and smoke, and several of those incidents are under review by the department and commission.
Morales also has come under fire for how his department handled the sexual assault investigation against a developer who was interviewed by police with DeVougas at his side, and how police records related to that investigation were obtained by the Journal Sentinel.
The independent investigation into a series of ethical issues related to the case found police appeared to rush to interview the developer about the allegation, apparently because he was being courted to join the board of a newly formed fundraising organization for the department.
The interview also took place at Sojourner Family Peace Center, violating a memorandum of understanding that had been reached under Flynn, the previous chief, that said suspects were not to be interviewed at the complex.
Morales has defended both the timing of the out-of-custody interview and the fact that it was done at Sojourner, a complex that serves domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.
The commission appointed Morales to serve a fouryear term after he had fulfilled the remainder of Flynn’s term, which expired in February 2018.
In December, Nelson Soler, Angela McKenzie, Ann Wilson and Raymond Robakowski voted in favor of appointment to a full term. DeVougas and Everett Cocroft voted no, and Fred Crouther abstained. The commissioners were appointed by Mayor Tom Barrett and confirmed by the Common Council.
Robakowski said he wants more information about the ethics situation and the sexual assault investigation, including how the video interview became public.
“I have to get all the information possible so I can make a decision I can live with,” he said Friday, stressing that he was speaking only for himself.
“The thing in my mind that is wearing thin on me: This woman went to the police for help and look what happened,” he said. “People call the police for help. Sometimes they’re the last resort.”