FPC seeks legal advice in chief selection
Although still locked in a tie vote, the six people on Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission believe it is imprudent to proceed in its search for the city’s next police chief until it navigates the legal quagmire it’s found itself in with ousted chief Alfonso Morales.
At the commission’s meeting Thursday, Chairman Nelson Soler said the commission needs written legal advice from the City Attorney’s Office clarifying how Morales’ reinstatement by a judge could affect the selection of a new chief, or the city must settle that dispute before a new chief can be selected.
For more than a month now, the commission has been locked in a 3-3 tie in its effort to select either Maj. Malik Aziz of the Dallas Police Department or Supervisory Special Agent Hoyt Mahaley of the FBI as its next chief.
That matter was further complicated in December, when a Milwaukee County judge reinstated Morales as chief after he was controversially demoted to captain over the summer by the commission. The city has admitted in court that it did not give Morales due process.
Morales has not decided if he will return to work as chief, though. His attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, said he and the city resumed settlement talks Tuesday. He said they could last several weeks.
On Thursday, Soler said the commission has been acting on verbal advice from the City Attorney’s Office since September about proceeding with the chief selection, despite Morales filing for a judicial review the same month.
“Since that advice has not been provided in writing I think it’s imprudent for this board to continue with this process,” Soler said.
All five other commissioners agreed. It’s not the first time commissioners have taken aim at the City Attorney’s Office. In December, Everett Cocroft and Fred Crouther both suggested the commission made the decision to demote Morales after consulting with the office.
City Attorney Tearman Spencer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
What legal advice commissioners received from the City Attorney’s Office before the commissioners’ vote to demote Morales appears to have given rise to conflicting answers.
Soler’s remarks came hours after Leon Todd, the newly appointed executive director of the commission, told the Common Council that the Fire and Police Commission had reached out to the City Attorney’s Office for guidance.
“The commissioners, once they receive the opinion from the City Attorney’s Office, will be able to review and consider that opinion and then decide on the next steps and decide how to proceed with regard to the selection process of the new chief,” Todd told the Common Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee earlier Thursday.
For at least the time being, the commission no longer has to worry about losing Aziz to another agency. He had been named a finalist for the chief job in Dallas, but in December, the city manager there selected another candidate.
Aziz, who has been attached to several other chief openings across the country in recent years, has said he will field job offers on a first-come, first-served basis.
Mahaley declined comment Thursday, while Aziz said he agreed with the commission’s position and hoped for a timely resolution.
In his remarks Thursday, Soler also offered a full-throated defense of the commission, which has been heavily criticized by local elected officials since its police chief snafu emerged.
Nelson said the commission has been “handicapped” by poor assistance from the City Attorney’s Office and a support staff that has battled chronic staff shortages and turnover in recent years.
Cocroft said their part-time status for a job that requires up to 30 or more hours every week renders it a “thankless” position.
Every commissioner expressed agreement with those sentiments.
In December, after Morales’ reinstatement, Ald. Robert Bauman called for the removal or resignation of each commissioner. In November, seven Common Council members, including Bauman, called for the commission to halt its police chief selection out of fear that it was too dysfunctional to proceed.
“This board is consistently referred to as one of the most powerful citizen boards in the nation, yet we’re consistently rendered handicapped by the poor assistance that I just mentioned,” Soler said.
Wilson, Avalos appointments remain in limbo
After twice tying on the selection between the two candidates in December, Soler deferred a third vote until Thursday with that expectation that a seventh, tie-breaking commissioner would have been confirmed.
But Mayor Tom Barrett’s nomination of Amanda Avalos was held up last month in the Common Council confirmation process because her background investigation was completed by an outside firm instead of the Milwaukee County Sheriff ’s Office, which is required to conduct the investigation under city ordinance.
The Sheriff’s Department tweeted Thursday morning that it had completed the background investigation.
Avalos’ nomination will be taken up by the Common Council at its meeting on Jan. 19.
So, too, will Barrett’s renomination of current Commissioner Ann Wilson to another five-year term.
Commissioners’ appointments require Common Council confirmation.
On Thursday, the Public Safety and Health Committee recommended that the Common Council defeat Wilson’s nomination to the embattled commission, which has come under intense scrutiny since the judge’s decision that found the commission’s process in ousting Morales was “fundamentally flawed.”
The powerful civilian commission has oversight responsibility over the police and fire departments.
Its unanimous decision to demote Morales could cost city taxpayers a significant sum in a settlement.
Barrett has continued to back Wilson even as he said the commission “made some serious mistakes“and that residents should expect “changes” as positions on the commission come open.
After more than an hour in closed session, the committee decided to recommend the full council “place on file” Wilson’s nomination, essentially recommending that the council defeat it.
Wilson’s nomination was held in committee last month because members of the council had additional questions about ongoing litigation that they wanted to ask about in a closed session.
There were few comments Thursday in open session about Wilson’s nomination, and members of the committee appeared hesitant to make a motion on her confirmation.
Ald. Milele Coggs, who is not on the committee but attended the meeting, spoke in support of Wilson, saying Wilson had participated in community meetings when residents were calling for more transparency and inclusion and had represented the interests of the Milwaukee citizens.
Wilson told the committee she had experience and had advocated for working together.
“I am clear that all the different votes that we took ... different people weren’t happy with them, but the problem is if there’s so many groups of people at some point you’ve got to vote your conviction because there are a lot of people, there are a lot of sectors,” she said, adding she had served to the best of her ability.
Ald. Scott Spiker, who made the motion to place the item on file, said he had no question that Wilson was someone of great integrity but that he was concerned about her judgment related to “recent decisions” by the commission.
“I do have concern that reappointing current members isn’t going to change things,” he said, adding that in Wilson’s case his concerns had not been entirely put to rest.
Alds. Marina Dimitrijevic, the committee’s chairwoman, Mark Borkowski, Spiker and Khalif Rainey voted to place the item on file. Ald. Chantia Lewis abstained.
Ronda Kohlheim, the city of Milwaukee’s inspector general, confirmed she has opened an investigation into Morales’ demotion. The city admitted it did not give Morales due process.
She did not know when her report would be finalized.
The demotion prompted Morales to retire, sue and request a judicial review of the decision.
Common Council President Cavalier Johnson, who on Monday joined other Common Council members who have called for the selection process to be halted and Acting Chief Jeffrey Norman to be given a chance to serve in the role, said his office requested the probe.