Supervisors Embrace Part-Time Roles, Schedule

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

It’s been more than a decade since 2013 Wisconsin Act 14 curtailed the Milwaukee County Board’s powers and reduced supervisors to a part-time salary, and now, after much turnover on the board, supervisors have waved the white flag, finally surrendering to a part-time role in county government.

At their latest meeting, the board approved delaying the beginning of their meetings from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Why? To make it easier for supervisors to schedule the meetings around their other professional commitments.

Supervisor pay was reduced by legislation that also curtailed the board’s powers, transferring them to the office of then-county executive Chris Abele, who pushed for the legislation. Voters approved the salary reduction in a 2014 ballot referendum and it took effect in 2016. Supervisors are now payed $25,924 annually.

It was never spelled out in state statute, either before or after Act 14, whether the job of Milwaukee County Supervisor was full-time or part-time. However, before the legislation supervisors were compensated similarly to a state legislator, and they had health benefits.

The legislation was meant to diminish the board’s role in the government, which includes oversight and policy; the pay reduction telegraphed that they should spend less time doing the job; and it worked.

Today most supervisors work full-time jobs outside of the courthouse. They run for the office knowing the job is not compensated like a full-time role. The offices of the board are regularly empty. The video meetings that began during the COVID-19 pandemic continue. Meeting attendance is poor. In fact, it’s common for committees and even board meetings to run with at least one supervisor absent.

In March 2023, Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson secured a change to county ordinance requiring committee chairs to be in-person at the courthouse during committee meetings. This followed a meeting that month, when department heads and members of the public offered testimony to an empty room, with the entire committee appearing virtually. Nicholson asked her colleagues to consider the message sent to the public when they are “testifying to an empty room.”

Sup. Shawn Rolland, chair of the committee that appeared entirely virtual, said he was in a hospital room with a family member, and implored his colleagues to make an effort to appear at committees in person. “I had to beam in from a family member’s hospital room,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to chair this meeting, because nobody else is in the committee room.'”

During debate over the new rule, Sup. Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones told her colleagues that she was forced to resign two different jobs in order to keep up with her supervisory duties. “In my schedule, I have to be mindful of the hours that I work at my other job and the hours that I commit to the county,” she said.

At the same meeting, Sup. Steve Taylor offered his perspective on the changing culture of the board. “It’s been frustrating coming back — after being here six years and being in this building and having the hall full of my colleagues — to coming down here and it’s a ghost town,” he said.

At the latest meeting of the full county board, supervisors debated a resolution to delay the start of full board meetings to noon. The sponsor, Sup. Kathleen Vincent offered a few arguments to support the proposal. Vincent also said she thought a later start time would benefit the general public.

But most of the debate concerned supervisors’ own personal schedules, and the struggle to balance the duties of elected office against work and personal life.

Sup. Sky Capriolo noted that she has a flexible work schedule, but added, “I can only bend so far, before things in my life start falling apart.”

Sup. Jack Eckblad said the ability to take a full day off from work was a “privilege” and argued that making the job of supervisor more flexible would help the board attract “a diverse set of perspectives” and “more of our best and brightest.”

Several supervisors, however, were not so convinced the board should go in this direction. Sup. Justin Bielinski said the later start would likely push board meetings past the closing time of the courthouse at 5 p.m. — necessitating overtime for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Deputies working at the courthouse. The board has long harangued the sheriff’s office for its use of overtime.

Rolland worried that a hard stop at 5 p.m. would create a filibuster for the board. “The timing could be used as a weapon by a supervisor who doesn’t want an item to come forward,” he said.

Such a move is a real concern, said Sup. Sheldon Wasserman. A former state representative, Wasserman said Democrats in the Legislature used a time limit on meetings against Republicans during his tenure in the Capitol. Wasserman, who is also a physician, told his colleagues that he delivered two babies in the middle of the night before the meeting that day. “I’m awake here, I can do it, it’s my job,” he said.

Several supervisors also suggested that the board reduce the amount of time it spends on ceremonies before the meeting. The board will often award citations and plaques to members of the public for various good deeds and services. It has also held ceremonies for Pride Month, Womens History Month and Juneteenth among other events.

However, none of these other considerations won the day. At issue was a proposal aimed at helping supervisors fit their part-time job into their full-time work schedules.

Sup. Sequanna Taylor was among the first supervisors elected after the board was reduced to part-time pay. Nicholson was too. Taylor said she sympathized with her new colleagues trying to balance their various responsibilities and noted that she also had to leave other jobs and offices to focus on her supervisory duties.

“This is part-time pay, but it’s not a part-time job,” Taylor said. “For those who didn’t know that, sorry to be the one to tell you, you will be working more than part-time.”

Steve Taylor said he was certain, given past experience, that the board would run up against 5 p.m. at future board meetings. This new time pressure would cause supervisors to choose between rushing or ending debate, or incurring new overtime expenses in the sheriff’s office, he said.

“I understand what some of you are going through, but [the full board] meeting is the one that matters,” he said.

The board passed the later start time by 14 to three. Supervisors Rolland, Steve Taylor and Nicholson voted against the resolution. Sup. Deanna Alexander did not attend the meeting.

The adjustment to this may not be smooth. Before the vote, Sup. Anne O’Connor queried county staff about the implementation of the new meeting time: “I have a question as to when this would take effect, personally, in July it would be a problem for me.”