Council delays review of plan for federal aid
Leaders say Barrett did not provide enough time
The Milwaukee Common Council is delaying consideration of Mayor Tom Barrett’s plan for spending a quarter of the nearly $400 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds the city is in line to receive, with council leaders saying the mayor did not provide enough time for their review ahead of a finance committee meeting Wednesday.
“I look forward to reviewing the proposals carefully and meticulously, as do other council members,” Ald. Michael Murphy, the finance committee chairman, said in a joint statement with Common Council President Cavalier Johnson. “Giving us five working days prior to the committee meeting to digest these proposals is not adequate or fiscally wise.”
Barrett contended in an interview that he had been meeting regularly with Johnson and Murphy ahead of his plan’s release and said the funding he proposed is urgently needed.
Barrett had expected his spending plan to go before the Finance and Personnel Committee Wednesday and the Common Council on July 27.
Instead, it will be taken up at a special meeting the first week of September, along with proposals by council members that are also being delayed. The council goes into recess in August.
The city has received about $197 million so far and will receive the second installment of its $394.2 million total allocation next year.
Among the proposals that are expected to be taken up in September are a $150 million allocation for affordable housing from Ald. Robert Bauman and a $97.7 million allocation to address lead poisoning among children from Ald. José Pérez.
Barrett’s plan was released July 13 and would spend about $93 million on such areas as employment and job training, street lighting, reckless driving, pandemic response, small business support, violence prevention and more.
Barrett said in an interview that he felt money was urgently needed in the areas in which he proposed spending, including reckless driving and violence prevention.
“Of course I want them to be able to examine (the proposals) and scrutinize them, but this is something that my team has been briefing aldermen literally for weeks on,” Barrett said.
He also said his plan only spends
about a quarter of the funding and noted the city has until the end of 2024 to allocate the nearly $400 million and the end of 2026 to spend it.
Murphy said although Barrett did meet with him and Johnson, he said they received only preliminary drafts of the plan that did not contain enough information to share with other council members.
“It just is not adequate timing to review a request of nearly $100 million,” Murphy said.
He said council members would be held to the same standards as Barrett’s administration in terms of the level of detail required in proposals.
Murphy also said that given the speed at which bureaucracy works, it is unlikely that the delay of a month will have a substantial impact on Barrett’s proposals.
He also said slowing the proposal down for a month will allow for a more transparent process.
As for Bauman’s legislation, which was before the council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee on Tuesday, Barrett said he had not reviewed it but said he expected the council to require the same level of vetting of Bauman’s proposal as for proposals from Barrett’s administration.
“We’ll look at the proposal,” Barrett said. “Housing is a high priority of mine, but it has to be done in a coordinated fashion with everything else.”
Barrett’s proposal includes an allocation of about $30 million for housing.
Bauman predicted his $150 million proposal would ultimately be adopted, calling it “bold” and saying Barrett’s overall plan lacked vision. But he also predicted a chaotic process for allocating the funds.
“Nobody knows where to start, and so people are reluctant to ship $150 million out the door without knowing what other plans are out there,” Bauman said.