Pérez Shakes Up Council Committees

Milwaukee City Hall. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Do you have business before the Milwaukee Common Council? Get ready to see some new faces.

Not only are five of the 15 members newly elected in the past six months, but the makeup of the committees is now different.

Common Council President José G. Pérez issued new committee assignments following last week’s council meeting, the first since December 2021 with a full complement of 15 voting members.

The committee level is where most of the council’s work and debates take place. The committees host formal public hearings and directly interface with city department representatives. The chairs of the committees wield great influence, leading meetings and also serving on the committee-of-committee-chairs, the Steering and Rules Committee. The full council receives reports from committees and regularly adopts the recommendations in their entirety.

The most notable change in the latest shake up is Alderman Scott Spiker becoming a chair for the first time. He replaces Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa as the chair of the Public Safety and Health Committee.

New council members Andrea Pratt, Larresa Taylor and Lamont Westmoreland also received their first committee assignments. Pratt will serve on the Licenses Committee and Community and Economic Development Committee (CED). Taylor will serve on the CED and the Judiciary and Legislation Committee. Westmoreland will serve on the Public Works Committee and Public Safety and Health Committee.

Zamarripa, who did not respond to a request for comment, will not see her voice greatly diminished now that she’s not a chair. She’s still on three committees. She’s the vice chair of CED and a member of both the Public Works and Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development committees.

Council presidents, elected by their peers, can unilaterally make the assignments and designate the chairs. Pérez was unanimously elected president in April 2022 following the resignation of newly-elected Mayor Cavalier Johnson. The chairmanships often reflect the power dynamics within the council, including those of the oft-sought-after finance, zoning and licenses committees. The council president serves as the chair of the Steering and Rules Committee, but Pérez was forced to sit in on a number of committees over the past year because of the turnover on the council.

Council committees meet every three weeks with an August recess.

The latest changes are expected to last through the end of all 15 members’ terms, April 2024.

Finance & Personnel Committee

• Marina Dimitrijevic (chair)
• Spiker (vice chair)
• Milele A. Coggs
• Michael Murphy
• Mark Chambers, Jr.

Licenses Committee

• Coggs (chair)
• Mark Borkowski (vice chair)
• Chambers
• Jonathan Brostoff
• Pratt

Community & Economic Development Committee

• Russell W. Stamper, II (chair)
• Zamarripa (vice chair)
• Khalif Rainey
• Pratt
• Taylor

Judiciary & Legislation Committee

• Borkowski (chair)
• Robert Bauman (vice chair)
• Murphy
• Chambers
• Taylor

Public Works Committee

• Bauman (chair)
• Stamper (vice chair)
• Zamarripa
• Brostoff
• Westmoreland

Public Safety & Health Committee

• Spiker (chair)
• Rainey (vice chair)
• Borkowski
• Dimitrijevic
• Westmoreland

Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee

• Murphy (chair)
• Bauman (vice chair)
• Stamper
• Zamarripa
• Brostoff

Steering & Rules Committee

• Perez (chair)
• Dimitrijevic (vice chair)
• Stamper
• Bauman
• Murphy
• Coggs
• Borkowski
• Spiker