Council won’t pay in Hawley Road flooding
Opponents concerned about setting precedent
More than a year after a torrent of water flooded streets, basements and vehicles in the area of Hawley Road south of I-94, the Milwaukee Common Council declined to reimburse a portion of residents’ claimed damages.
Those in opposition raised concerns about the precedent they argued would be set by reimbursing residents. Those in favor argued the residents suffered significant property damage so the water could be turned off slowly to avoid causing larger problems in the city’s water system.
“In order to spare the cost to the City of Milwaukee and its Milwaukee Water Works, they took the time over several hours to shut the water off,” said Ald. Michael Murphy, whose district included the area that flooded. “As a result, who was paying that cost of not shutting it off quickly were the claimants in my district.”
The area from West Dixon Street to just south of West Adler Street and from South 60th Street to South 61st Street was affected by the December 2019 water main break.
Murphy described the neighborhood as lower-income and working class, saying many residents there live paycheck to paycheck. There were about 39 claimants who made a total of $436,000 in claims, he said.
The legislation would have directed the City Attorney’s Office to settle the claims for up to 50% of the amount the residents said they suffered in damages.
That reduction, Murphy said, would make the payment “manageable” for the city.
A lawsuit brought by the plaintiffs’ attorneys, he said, could end up costing the city more than what it would pay to resolve the claims now.
Attorney Michael Cerjak of the law firm Cannon and Dunphy is handling 11 claims and said in an email that he was disappointed with the outcome and felt the 50% compromise was reasonable.
But Ald. Ashanti Hamilton, who chairs the Judiciary and Legislation Committee that heard the claims, said the evaluation that should have happened did not take place.
Without all the necessary information, Hamilton said, he did not think the city could protect itself against the creating of a precedent upon which future claims would be compared. Based on the information available, he said, the claims are somewhat similar to ones the council has denied in the past.
Ald. Scott Spiker said he, too, was concerned with the precedent approving the claims would set.
“I feel confident that if this were nine water main breaks that through some miracle only affected one person each we wouldn’t even be thinking about this,” he said. “And I don’t see a reason because it impacted multiple people through no fault of their own to treat it differently than if it were nine individual cases.”
Ultimately, the legislation was rejected on a 4-11 vote, with Murphy and Alds. Nik Kovac, Robert Bauman and José Pérez voting in favor.
Hamilton along with Common Council President Cavalier Johnson, Nikiya Dodd, Milele Coggs, Khalif Rainey, JoCasta Zamarripa, Chantia Lewis, Mark Borkowski, Spiker, Marina Dimitrijevic and Russell Stamper II voted against the legislation.
Other council action
The council also:
● Unanimously rejected a request from the Police Department to participate in a television production of the A&E series “The First 48,” which documents homicide investigations.
● Unanimously approved a change in zoning to allow for Wisconsin’s first WoodSpring Suites, a four-story, 122-room extended-stay hotel that would be developed south of West Bradley Road and east of North 124th Street on the city’s northwest side.
● Unanimously approved a zoning change to allow development of a building with 251 upscale apartments at 1237 N. Van Buren St. The development, known as Nova, would also include 2,400 square feet of street-level commercial space, a third-floor outdoor pool deck and a 300-space parking structure.
● Unanimously passed an ordinance that would require the mayor to nominate new members + of Milwaukee’s Historic Preservation Commission within 90 days of having been notified of a vacancy in writing by the city clerk. If that 90 days elapses without a nomination, the Common Council president would have 90 days to nominate a new member, who would be subject to confirmation by the full council. The legislation differs from a previous proposal that Barrett vetoed in February. The council left the veto in place with the expectation that new legislation would be introduced with changes.
● Unanimously approved creating a police Diversion Task Force that would develop a plan for responding to 911 calls that do not involve threats to public safety.