Let the Discussions
beginTuesday,
June 12, 2012City of Milwaukee Common
CouncilResolution
120220 - Resolution directing the City Comptroller to conduct an
Audit of Milwaukee Police Department's crime reporting
practices.
Initial Sponsor and co-sponsor: Alderman Joe
Dudzik, sponsor, Alderman James Bohl and alderman Bob Donovan, co
sponsors.
Add-on Sponsors - June 12, 2012: Aldermen
Davis and Alderman Jose Perez
========================
MILWAUKEE (MPA) - Today is June 27, 2012, two weeks
ago the City of Milwaukee Common Council held a roll call vote (13 ayes, 1 No
and 1 excused) to send to committee File 120220 - Resolution directing the City
Comptroller to conduct an Audit of Milwaukee Police Department's crime reporting
practices. Common
Council discussion followed a request to Milwaukee Police Department for
information by Ben Poston, Journal Sentinel Reporter, and being given a cost of
over $10,000 for the request by Chief Edward Flynn and Sergeant Michael D.
Jones. It also followed a press conference by Milwaukee Chief of Police Edward
Flynn. Letter from
Chief Flynn - CLICK.Press Conference, Chief Flynn - CLICK==============================Politics
BriefThe Common
Council Meeting, June 12, 2012, provided interesting comments
and perspectives about what the members knew before and what they did not know
about Milwaukee Police Department reporting of crime - its legitimacy, IMS
system for reporting, cost requet by chief Flynn, problems with reporting system
at outset of Flynn's tenure, request for funding for capital improvements (was
funding of reporting system a priority of police department), capital
improvement cost of $7 million dollars over a 3-year period, use of funds
allocated by council (including $50,000 funding of unknown scuplture), scope and
fiscal notes, input from fire and police commission-others, outsourcing,
legitimacy of delay back to committee, cap cost with amendment was an option -
outsourcing has been common practice of comptroller's office, audit price of
$35-$150,00 in cost, redundacy of audits (internal by police-Federal Bureau of
Investigation and state audit, audits being conducted and seemingly not known by
council members (internal, FBI and state), additional co-sponsors added to
resolution during and before discussion with original sponsor for audit, to
debate-cont, need for contextual report for margin of error, negative image of
Milwaukee reason for moving ahead with vote and not moving ahead prior to
committee, letter from comptroller to Alderman Witkowski-Chair of Safety
committee with files for exploration, lack of communication between council
members, sketicism of ability of new comptroller, sketicism of reporting by
Chief Edward Flynn and mayor reporting crime was down, knowledge by selective
two that other members of council did not seem to know (letter from comptroller
to Alderman Murphy and contact to Alderman Murphy by police department, Alderman
Murphy repeating of support for police department, sketicism of motives of the
Journal Sentinel are the basic discussion points of the 32:51 minutes of
deliberation for File
120220. Vote 13 ayes, 1 No and 1 Excused. Sent to
committee.Customer Care and
SafetyMilwaukee Common Council gave the appearance that
they have been notified about an issue but have failed to
"stay-on-top-of-it" for customer care of Milwaukeeans. That their
quality assurance and due diligence efforts have been predicated on what the
chief of police and the mayor have said, with no account and balance on behalf
of this branch of government for the people. It was very wise to go to committee; however, as
Alderwoman Coggs suggested, even when it gets to committee due diligence is
needed.According to
the final
report (Michael Dunn, ex-Deputy comptroller) of the weakness of project
management on the 3rd District of the police department --project planning and definition, project
budgeting, and ongoing oversight. The
report gives a clear view that should be used as a prerequiste for the
ongoing busyiness of the drag on providing credible and timely information on
crime reporting and overall services of Milwaukee Police department.
"It would appear that this is a teachable moment of
"garbage in - garbage out". In other words, the FBI, internal and
independent audits can not tell you about what is not there, but should be
there." "Also,we the taxpayers should not be asked to
continue to layout millions of dollars for continuous errors - 2 1/2 million
here and $7 million there were a couple of the figures mentioned in the
discussion on June 12, 2012, said Mary Glass, Chair/CEO, Milwaukee Professionals
Association..The City
of Milwaukee recent history of the capital improvement project of the 3rd
District Police Department for the City of Milwaukee and the infamous reporting
system has been a nightmare ($21 million to a cost overrun of $64 million in 8
years) with scope errors, delays, cost overruns, and failed project
management. The four city departments involved before were not all
mentioned for input and accountability. They are: Milwaukee
Police Department, Department of City Development, Fire Department and
Department of Public Works - major eaters of the city
budget. Communication between each member of the common
council, committees and the full council as the government at the city level is
"lacking" and provides higher risk management.Quality control and risk management were needed
more in the discussion to help ensure the taxpayers-citizenry-Milwaukeeans are
getting the best services for dollars spent, improved best practices,
transparency that is not reactionary, state of the art technology, cost savings
due to ongoing personnel training, and accountability all the way round in the
police department.There should of been extra extra concern noted
about what kind of fallouts that may be/are found in the audit that pinpoints
police profiling and cooking the books to favor arrests, charges and
incarceration of African American and Latino populations. MPA see this as a
paramount issue since the two racial groups have reported and reported abuse
with little to NO solution building.Why was Alderman Puenta out of the chamber during
voting? He was Excused.Why was Alderman Murphy privy to comments from
Milwaukee Police Department and others did not seem to be, nor did it seem he
had shared the information? Why did Alderman Davis make the statement about not
wanting to get into "cooking the books" and suggesting that some of his
colleagues favor inflammatory rhetoric?Why did Alderman Wade feel he needed to "Dis" the
motives of now vs past behavior of reporting of the Journal
Sentinel?Why didn't
Aldermen Bauman and Zielinkski speak prior to vote?=========================
The dialog went as:
Alderman Willie Wade, District 7, kicked off the
discussion with question: "Is there a
reason File 120220 is immediate adoption and not going to
committee?"
"This is a time-sensitive issue the answers we may
gain from this particular file might help us with regards to ugh the budget
coming later this year. There is a 90 day
window this particular file has on it and again that would give us time to adjust our spending with
regards to Milwaukee Police Department, said Alderman Joe Dudzik, sponsor of
resolution.
Alderman Wade listed
as in favor of audit but NO to the file since it did not go to committee for
thorough discussion.Alderman Robert Puenta, District 9, listed
opposition - cited lack of expertise of
Comptroller – thousands of dollars – citizenry cost – expressed concern for the
common council to not jump because of one reporter's views since the council did
not know WHAT and HOW of Journal Sentinel reporter - recommended back to
committee.
Alderman James Bohl, District 5, co-sponsor - to
seek an outside review and provision to conduct an audit – cited timeline of 90
days to come back questionable – need scope looking at individual reports –
timeline of audit – should be ironed out prior to audit – time and cost –
opposed ramming audit through, is inappropriate – favor outside audit – Motion
to send back to committee by Boyle.
Alderwoman Milele Coggs, District 6, supported
audit for transparency and accountability – cited she has done legislation –
support motion back to committee - comments of capabilities of the comptrollers
office, file resolution need fiscal notes and cost analysis. - back to
committee.Alderman Terry
Witkowski, District 13, Chair of
the Safety Committee (where file would be sent) cited without adequate
information – file will give 6 years of data coming to Safety Committee
regarding year-to-year cost - in committee discussion could be had regarding
scope and ability of comptroller's office also input from Fire and Police
Commission and executive director - in favor of file sent to
committee.Alderman Joe Davis,
District 2, asked to be listed as a co-sponsor – was approved - item important
to monitor, encouraged more to co-sponsor so a detailed audit can be spelled out
– referred to committee due to negative images Milwaukee has gotten on some of
the cases regarding the issues – back to committee.Alderman Michael Murphy, District 10, make sense to
send to committee – scope of contract to determine cost of audit – need debate -
noted estimated cost $35-150 thousands given to Alderman Dudzik by
comptroller and shared with Alderman Murphy depending on scope, letter from
comptroller raises issues regarding capability of audit, by comptroller's
office, Milwaukee Police department expected Federal Bureau of Investigation
audit in 30 days, a police department internal audit and independent Wisconsin
audit - In favor of sending to committee.Alderman Murphy stated Police acknowledged they had
a recording problem – budget 2011-12 capital improvement - $7 million dollar
change – Police had acknowledged there was a problem but was not given credit by
Journal Sentinel reporter.Recommendation to examine any concerns - be up
front of the reports, look at the facts, listen to testimony by police – may
want to call on the state for an independent audit $100-$200.
Alderman Bob
Donovan, District 8, deferred to Alderman Dudzik for
clarifications.Alderman
Ashanti Hamilton, District 1, deferred to Alderman Dudzik for
clarifications.Alderman Nik Kovac, District 3, to go to committee
– based on cost and redundant spending on internal and federal audits - not to
cherry pick gotcha numbers, felt that was what was done by Journal Sentinel - true contextual report would have looked
over years -should not panic, been told year-after-year of the problem - know
the problem is there and need to know if we are fixing the problem - numbers
should be contextualized.Alderman Joe Dudzik - Information Management System
perspective of the Police department - Funding was asked for and list of things
to accomplish were: $2 ½ million for radio communication, repairs for IMS were
below the redesign of restroom of the 911 dispatch center - not sure of how much
emphasis was on the crime reporting - as for outsourcing, a common practice of
comptroller office, cost could be capped by an amendment at $150 thousands, as
for cost consideration cited $50 thousand approval for an unknown statute by the
council, hot summer - families should feel that concerns are being met - should
go forward.Alderman Donovan -
felt it should go forward - the idea that we all have known that the numbers
were wrong, untrue - was under the impression that crime was down based on
police department reporting and mayor reports to the public - commended
the Journal Sentinel - have been hearing about the numbers for a long long
time - need to get to the bottom of this and move forward now.ClickAlderman Hamilton - echoed move forward in an
orderly fashion, expected file in Safety committe is available, fiscal
information and not make a decision on-the-fly - all of council agree with the
spirit of law differ in manner - for sending back to
committee.Alderman Bohl - outside scope and cost needed to move
forward with a more defined way - for years almost Day 1, heard about Milwaukee
Police Department supposedly "cooking-the-books".
Alderman Kovac - if any
audit come back with numbers of cooking the books, immediate 15-1 solution not
audit. However, the data have not been compared contextual within the margin of
error for clarity - available for internal, DA and FBI interest - a contextual
report.
Alderman Davis - Did not want to get into "cooking the books" -
inflammatory rhetoric that is not productive - personnel - fire and police
commission and executive director for input for specifics - send to
committee.
Alderman Jose Perez, District 12, request to be a co-sponsor,
agreed; he also favored sending to committee.
Alderman Murphy -
Obligation to get to the truth. cost and have police hearing to get the other
side - not jump to conclusions - police had spoken to him and had reporting
concerns regarding the methods of reporter - send to committee.
Alderman
Wade - concern as others - other concern was smudging resources-time-efforts now
and not before - why the Journal Sentinel did not step up when the crime was
reported high but now with reporting crime was going down, they are stepping
forward - their motives.
=========================
Elected officials
representing Milwaukee at the city, county, state and national levels should
weigh-in on this issue and correct the People's business - quality control
services and cost-appropriateness.
Video of
Common Council meeting, June 12,
2012
====================================
On June 22, 2012, nine (9)
aldermen (Alds. Nik Kovac, Robert Bauman, Ashanti Hamilton, Jim Bohl, Willie
Wade, Robert Puente, Michael Murphy, Jose Perez and Terry Witkowski released a
statement.
CLICKIn
view of the incomplete findings so far and those to come, do you think the
Common Council has acted prematurely and/or overly broad?
What do you
think?
Tell the Milwaukee Common Council how you feel.
