Council Beefing Up Negotiation Team In Advance of Public Safety Contract Talks

City of Milwaukee labor negotiator Nicole Fleck would gain additional support under a proposed amendment to the 2023 budget.

A new research-focused position would be created in advance of upcoming labor negotiations with the unions representing police officers and firefighters. The contracts dictate pay, benefits and work rules for the city’s biggest labor expense, its public safety employees.

“The position would be immensely helpful in the long run,” said Fleck to the Finance & Personnel Committee Thursday. “There is lots of information and comparable data that needs to be collected.”

She said the new person would help both with negotiation and arbitration proceedings. “We are going to be bargaining a lot of difficult topics with the unions,” said Fleck. She is currently supported by a part-time individual who spent half their time on other Department of Employee Relations tasks.

“That was the point, to provide support in labor negotiations,” said Common Council President Jose G. Perez, the amendment’s sponsor.

The City Attorney’s Office has the authority to hire 41 attorneys, including 35 assistant attorneys, but Perez noted that they routinely have 10 vacancies.

“We are actively recruiting to fill all of our positions,” said deputy city attorney Todd Farris. He said there were nine vacancies currently, including the chief of staff and the deputy in charge of litigation. The office is objecting to the proposed cut. “All of these positions were created for a reason.”

Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs asked what the vacancy rate truly was, but that data wasn’t immediately. “The vacancy rate is at least nine, put it that way,” said budget director Nik Kovac. Another amendment pegged the vacant assistant attorney position total at 13.

She suggested a friendly amendment to Perez’s proposal that would remove the funding, but leave the position so it could more easily be funded in the future. Perez accepted the change and the committee unanimously endorsed the full amendment.

The proposal cuts $99,369 from the City Attorney’s Office, the equivalent of one higher-level assistant attorney’s salary, and adds $57,691 to the Department of Employee Relations for the new position. Including the related benefit costs, the amendment has the result of freeing up $41,678 from the tax levy. The new position is expected to be required for at least two years.

Perez said he was proposing the position cut not because of a political disagreement with the City Attorney, but because there were consistent vacancies in the office resulting in a short-term funding source. City Attorney Tearman Spencer did not appear on the matter. The City as a whole has struggled with hiring in recent years, but since Spencer was first elected in 2020 his office has seen sustained high levels of turnover which council members have pinned on his leadership.

A second amendment would have eliminated an assistant city attorney position from Spencer’s office in favor of creating an attorney directly under council control in the City Clerk‘s office. But sponsor Scott Spiker, a frequent critic of Spencer, withdrew the amendment before a vote. Former Mayor Tom Barrett vetoed a similar proposal in 2021 and the council narrowly failed to override the veto.

The full council is to vote on the budget Nov. 4.