Landlords can’t evict tenants who seek to address lead issues

Milwaukee Common Council passes ordinance

Milwaukee landlords are barred from evicting or retaliating against tenants who seek to address lead in their homes, under an ordinance the Common Council passed Tuesday.

“Any family that believes their dwelling is at risk with any lead, they should be contacting the Health Department, contacting (the city Department of Neighborhood Services) and getting inspections to verify that,” Ald. José Pérez, the lead sponsor, said after the meeting.

The legislation states that landlords can’t evict or retaliate against a tenant for seeking services from the city to address suspected or known sources of lead poisoning or for cooperating with the city’s efforts to investigate or get rid of lead. The measure passed unanimously. The city’s Health Department struggled for months after it came to light that the department had failed to provide services for the families of children with lead poisoning, or at least failed to document its efforts.

The revelation led to the resignation

of Health Commissioner Bevan Baker.

An average of 3,000 of the 25,000 Milwaukee children tested for lead each year have elevated lead levels, the Journal Sentinel previously reported.

In March, a Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin doctor told a Common Council committee that the number of Milwaukee-area children being hospitalized for severe lead poisoning is rising.

Climate, Economic Equity task force

In other action, the council unanimously supported the creation of a citycounty task force to address climate change and mitigate racial and economic inequity. The task force is a diverse coalition that aims to ensure disenfranchised communities are prepared for and have a role in efforts to address climate change, Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton said at a news conference after the measure passed.

“We want to make sure that we have a strong coalition of people that will continue to hold people’s feet to the fire so that we see and take advantage of those opportunities,” he said.

Residents might wonder what climate change has to do with economic equity, County Board Supervisor Supreme Moore Omokunde told those gathered.

“We know that if we’re going to be retrofitting roofs, we’re going to be redoing windows, we’re going to be putting solar panels up, somebody has to do that work,” he said.

It’s important to ensure that people who have been hit hardest by de-industrialization and other causes of economic inequity have access to those jobs, he said. “We know that there can be a new industrialization through green jobs that actually fix our climate change crisis and also fix the inequities in our city as well,” he said.

The Milwaukee County Board will take up the measure before the end of July, he said.

Towing ‘drop fee’

The Common Council also passed a measure requiring private tow truck companies to submit documentation to the city every time a $50 fee to “drop” a vehicle is legally required to be offered, regardless of whether the vehicle’s driver decided to pay it.

Thomas Woznick, parking services manager for the city, told the Public Safety and Health Committee on June 6 that the city has had complaints about private towing companies not dropping vehicles when they’re legally required to do so.

“This is a measure to ensure accountability with our ordinance,” Woznick told the committee.

Moving forward, the city plans to maintain report cards that would include the number of tow requests, tows performed, submitted drop waiver forms and complaints made to parking services for every licensed private tow contractor performing private property tows, he said.

The plan is to submit those to the Common Council’s Licenses Committee as part of the licensing process for private property towing.

In December, Abyss Towing LLC lost its license to operate in Milwaukee after a man filed a meticulously compiled complaint accusing the company of failing to offer the “drop fee” before towing his car. Abyss said the man, Matthew Clark, got into his vehicle and started it after it was hooked up to the tow truck and that he refused to pay the drop fee that was offered to him.

The Common Council also approved:

❚ Directing city departments to create reports that detail the services and resources provided in the 53206 ZIP code.

❚ Creating a 53206 Task Force to look at media and academic reports that portray the ZIP code negatively; identify economic, health and social barriers for its residents; and make recommendations to affect residents’ lives.

❚ A proposal for a downtown Milwaukee high-rise that would mix high-rent apartments with affordable units.

“We know that there can be a new industrialization through green jobs that actually fix our climate change crisis and also fix the inequities in our city as well.” Supreme Moore Omokunde County board supervisor