Alderman Robert Donovan

Milwaukee Ald. Bob Donovan loves creating non-profit groups, even if it gets him in hot water.

Back in 2005, Donovan was indicted on a federal charge of defrauding the government through his involvement with the Milwaukee Alliance, a non-profit he started after his election to the Common Council in 2000. The indictment charged that Donovan used his aldermanic funds to help pay the bills of the Milwaukee Alliance, whose employees included his wife Kathy Donovan and his stepdaughter Stephanie Repich. Donovan also voted to give the group a federal grant, without disclosing his connections to the group. The Milwaukee Alliance also did some constituent services for Donovan and provided him with free space for a district office.

In November, 2005, Donovan agreed to a non-criminal resolution to the indictment whereby he paid a $2,500 fine and agreed not be involved with any non-profit receiving federal funds for the next two years.

Not long after the two years was up, Donovan was back, with a new group called “Operation Impact,” created to fight crime in his South Side district. A 2011 news release by the group announced that “over the last three years, Operation Impact has raised several hundreds of thousands of dollars… from local businesses, foundations and individuals” to help pay for police overtime for beat cops, new lights for alleys and surveillance cameras for businesses on the South Side. The group’s website thanks a long list of donors, including four local foundations, six local businesses and the Milwaukee Police Association.

The group’s splashiest impact came when Donovan convinced Garda armored services to donate a used armored courier truck, nicknamed “the Rhino, ” to the Milwaukee Police Department.

Donovan, though, had much bigger plans, and was pushing to fund Operation Impact with another $700,000 in government funding from the city and state.

Precisely how much money was actually raised or spent by his group is difficult to say. I can’t find any records for it. Operation Impact is not registered with the State of Wisconsin and no records for it appear at Guidestar.org, which tracks all non-profits. (By contrast, the Milwaukee Alliance, which went of business in 2006, could be found both in state records and at Guidestar.) Mick Daley of the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing, says there is “no record of any kind” for Operation Impact.

At least some of Operation Impact’s fundraising was done through the Milwaukee Christian Center, a south side non-profit. That group’s most recent federal tax form, for 2010, does have one line listing a total of $59,816 raised for Operation Impact and expenses of $3,589. But there is no mention of the group in its 2009 and 2008 tax forms. And the 2010 federal form doesn’t offer any detailed accounting of where the donations for Operation Impact came from or how the money for expenses was spent.

All of the press releases for Operation Impact have actually been issued by Donovan’s office at City Hall, list him as the contact person and are studded with quotes from Donovan, including one of him quoting Winston Chuchill. A press release quoted Donovan saying donations for police overtime were being collected by the Common Council. As with the Milwaukee Alliance, it’s difficult to know the boundary lines between Operation Impact and Ald. Donovan’s office, where one ends and the other begins.

To further complicate things, Donovan also runs some group called “Common Sense,” with its slogan “Ideas for a Better Milwaukee.” The site promotes Operation Impact, and lists the phone number of Donovan’s aldermanic aide Patricia Doherty. It also runs articles by Donovan and what appear to be his supporters, seconding his stands on various city issues.

Jodi Hazen, finance director for the Milwaukee Christian Center, directed all questions about Operation Impact to the center’s executive director, Barbara J. Wyatt Sibley, who is out of the office until next week.

As for Donovan, when I reached him by phone he asked what I was calling about. I said Operation Impact. Donovan’s response: “Oh. Okay. Have a good evening.” Then he hung up the phone.

An aerial image of the neighborhood where the Milwaukee Police Department Administration Building currently sits (Image from Google Maps)

Alderman Bob Bauman, who represents downtown and the near west side, has put forth a proposal to relocate the Milwaukee Police Department headquarters and municipal courts to southeast corner of 27th Street and Wisconsin Avenue. As part of that proposal the MPD District 1 station would be relocated to W. Wisconsin Avenue between 6th Street and the Milwaukee River and the former MPD headquarters would be redeveloped. Under Alderman Bauman’s plan, a single request for proposals (RFP) would be issued by the City for the development of the new headquarters facility, the new District One station, and for the redevelopment of the existing facility. The City would then lease back the new facility at 27th and Wisconsin. The lease back provision would allow the City to avoid the up-front capital costs of developing a new facility. Given that the current facility used by MPD has a looming maintenance and renovation bill of $58 million, all ideas should be on the table. This one in particular seems worth exploring, as it would go a long way to improving other problems.

Replaces one part of over-bearing government presence in neighborhood with potential additional, taxable use

Much of the western edge of downtown Milwaukee is plagued by single-use, superblock-style buildings. Starting at 4th Street and moving west, there are multiple 10,000+ seat arenas, a 5,000+ seat theater, the convention center, a large library, a large technical college, a large museum, multiple detention facilities, multiple law enforcement facilities, two different courthouse facilities, and an extremely under-utilized public square. In short, a number of vital buildings arranged in one of the least attractive layouts possible. The sum of all of the parts is not greater than the whole.

Removing the Milwaukee Police Department Administration Building, and having it replaced with a taxable, likely mixed-use facility is good for injecting activity into the neighborhood.

Adds additional investment along W. Wisconsin Ave

This project would involve significant investment at two points along W. Wisconsin Avenue. The downtown core would see investment as the new MPD District One station is developed. More importantly, the visible investment that Marquette and others (Ambassador Hotel, 2040 Lofts, etc., etc.) have made along W. Wisconsin Avenue would be extended westward to 27th Street. This would hopefully attract more investment to the area, which has struggled to generate activity west of 24th Street.

Adds active use at major city intersection (27th and Wisconsin Ave)

This point piggybacks on the one above, but it still is worth mentioning. The 27th and Wisconsin intersection has long been a sore spot for the City, with a struggling TIF district and a controversial gas station. Moving MPD administration and the municipal courts to the intersection would create an active use at an otherwise empty site.

Reduces potential long-term liabilities for the City of Milwaukee

With the city leasing the new facility at 27th and Wisconsin, they shouldn’t have to worry about long-term maintenance costs and could more easily relocate given future department needs changing.

It’s only an RFP

The City could elect not to go forward with the received proposals if they’re not satisfactory. Issuing the RFP isn’t a commitment to anything other than to evaluate the RFPs.

CIty of Milwaukee Police Department

Bradley Tech, a fight, gangs, guns, and more squad cars than you can count.  And no news.  Why?  What happened?

For years much of the crime reporting on the evening news worked like this:  Listen to scanner, put out news story.

But today with the Milwaukee Police Department’s move to OpenSky radios, and more importantly to digitally encrypted communications, the days of scanner based reporting are coming to an end.  Maybe that’s a good thing, because having officer communications listened to in real time could possibly impact their security.  But somewhere between MPD and MPS, a press release, statement, or a news conference should of been held to notify the public of the events.  It didn’t happen.

Representatives from MPD responded to complaints that the public wasn’t notified by pointing out that the calls for service were visible on the City of Milwaukee’s website, at least for awhile.  And yes, a close look at the page might have clued a very astute, and likely bored, reporter to notice something big had happened.  But even this would only have been possible within a short window of time, and only with very careful monitoring, as after 90 minutes the data is no longer available from the website.  Removing the data after 90 minutes is hardly open, accurate, or easily monitored.

The impact of this lack of communication has Alderman Donovan calling out Milwaukee Public Schools for a cover-up and there are citizens that think there is a MPD cover-up as well, but what is clear is there has been a lack of transparency.  Cover-up or not, what needs to be learned is that openness of public information makes for good government.

Alderman Donovan has suggested allowing certain news agencies access to the radio communications, and although that is one solution, another is to work towards providing the dispatch log in an open machine readable format.  This would offer developers and news agencies the opportunity to build mashups, a web application that combines data from multiples source, to monitor the activities of MPD.  These applications could include mapping tools, alert systems, and even monitoring applications to start, but with the addition of other data, such as liquor licenses or violations, citizens would be better prepared to work with the city in improving their neighborhoods.

This may never replace the level of detail that officer to officer communications once provided, but it could be a small step towards open government in Milwaukee and hopefully a big step away from conflict and disenfranchisement.

Today we received just about all we needed to confirm our suspicions, a couple of great quotes from the Milwaukee Chief of Police Edward Flynn courtesy of the Journal Sentinel article Jazz in the Park fans have a whine and cheese party.

“It’s the first time I’ve been thrown under a bus by a wine-drinking Brie-eater,” he said.

“Listen, I can’t tell you the Police Department is not going to enforce appropriate laws. I will tell you that when it comes to an event like this, we’re going to respond to conduct. We’re not doing anything pro-active.”

Translation: The police don’t care if you uncork your own bottle of wine or pop a few carry-in beers at Jazz in the Park, as long as you’re peaceful and behave.

Flynn communicated this to Kate Borders, East Town’s executive director, when he saw her at the fest last summer. “Against the backdrop of 19 years of no major incidents there, I certainly assured her that we weren’t suddenly going to become revenuers,” Flynn said.

It’s perfectly reasonable for the East Town Association to want this event to break-in, or even generate a profit to support area businesses, no one should complain about that.  What is a shame is how this whole thing has been handled.  The East Town Association has done nothing to help itself here, failing to control and soften the reaction at every step of the way.  The statements from Chief Flynn, that contradict earlier reports from the East Town Association, are just another step in this saga that probably isn’t over.

Let’s at least give it a catch title.  Jazzgate?

• "Neighbors fed up with vandals, lack of patrols" – A story of chaos and vandalism ensuing in a northwestern Milwaukee neighborhood that the police don’t seem to care to fix.  If I lived there I would be scared for my life judging by the stories told and the police departments unwillingness to monitor things.
• "City ranks at bottom of health categories" – This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to you, but being host to most of the people that experience severe socioeconomic problems in this state means the city’s health ranking will be pretty low.  In other news, keep your pants on.
• "Experts say ‘most dangerous city’ rankings’ twist numbers" – Clearly, it’s disgusting how they glorify Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, and company as such dangerous places.  Offer a solution, not an insult.
• "All routes lead to Amtrak Station" – A summary, more or less, of the status of all transit projects in the Milwaukee-area.  If you’re short on time just know that the story ends with Scott Walker killing everything in favor of a weak express bus plan.
• "Developer completes Park East financing" – Mandel Group Inc. has all the money it needs for the first phase of the North End on the site of the former Pfister & Vogel tannery.  I’m excited to watch the progress of this and enjoy the results.