Common Ground To Mayor – ‘Why Are You Protecting Willie Hines?’

Convent Hill. Photo by Mariiana Tzotcheva.

The broad coalition pushing for improvement to the beleaguered Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) is substantially ramping up its call for the ouster of agency leader Willie Hines, Jr.

Common Ground Southeastern Wisconsin issued an open letter to Mayor Cavalier Johnson Thursday morning calling for the mayor to drop his support of Hines.

“Mayor Johnson, why do you continue to protect Willie Hines, the Executive Director of HACM? For over a year we have been publicly asking for help with bed bugs, rats, black mold, abusive managers, rent mismanagement, and crime in our buildings. We have told our stories. We have shown videos. We have compiled reports. Yet you have done nothing to help us. Instead, you have stood by Hines while he has driven HACM—and our quality of life—into the ground,” says the letter, which lists 190 HACM residents as signatories.

Despite public revelations of service breakdowns within HACM, Johnson has steadfastly stood by Hines. “They are headed in the right direction, and I have confidence in the agency’s leadership,” said the mayor in his March State of the City speech. He said he was keeping a “close eye” on HACM and monitoring U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports on the agency.

Common Ground went public with its campaign in March 2023, and has secured a series of improvements. Changes include the city closing a loophole where HACM inspected its own properties and the council allocating limited city resources to make property repairs.

Its latest letter, which lays out problems and a timeline of issues within the agency, says real improvement cannot happen until “competent senior leadership” is in place.

The city-affiliated agency’s board is appointed by Johnson and confirmed by the council, but its operations are managed by a board-appointed director and funding comes primarily from the federal government.

The new letter posits a theory on why Hines has been allowed to stay on. “Maybe you’re letting him stay until he can mix out his pension?”

It suggests that Hines, a former alderman, could stay on until March 2025, when he would be both 60 and have accumulated an estimated 28 years of city service.

But a previously prepared estimate from the City of Milwaukee Employes’ Retirement System (CMERS) says could be making even more, and earlier. Hines, should he retire in December on his 60th birthday, would begin receiving $142,600 annually. He would also receive a $89,861.31 lump sum payment, says the CMERS report, due to the 2001 Global Pension Settlement.

Prior to becoming HACM deputy director in 2015 and director in 2022, Hines served as an alderman from 1996 through 2014. For the purposes of calculating his pension, the CMERS report calculates his annual final average salary (a three-year lookback) at $222,000.

Hines supported Johnson’s candidacy for mayor.

Mayor’s Office Responds

Johnson’s administration rejected Common Ground’s letter.

“The Common Ground letter is loaded with innuendo and false statements. Notably, it does not include a single, substantive suggestion to remedy the challenges HACM faces,” said Johnson’s communications director Jeff Fleming. “HACM leadership and well-intentioned city officials are advancing solutions for Milwaukee public housing. We look forward to Common Council approval of the HACM board nominees, announced over a month ago, so that additional steps forward can occur.”

The letter does allege fraud occurred at HACM, which a Common Ground representative attributed to a HUD report and a forensic audit. The HUD report says there is a “serious risk of fraud, waste and abuse” from a lack of accounting safeguards, poor record keeping and limited staffing. The forensic audit, as of June, was still underway.

“Mr. Mayor, we deserve better. Milwaukee deserves better. It may be hard to remove your friend and disrupt his retirement plans, but it needs to be done,” concludes the Common Ground letter.

The Common Ground letter follows a letter of frustration issued by a majority of the Milwaukee Common Council in late June that said the HACM situation was “no longer tenable.” That letter did not call for Hines’ removal.

Before the June council letter, the mayor issued a press release saying he was forwarding new HACM board appointees to the council for confirmation. The council said it would forward the nominations to the Steering & Rules Committee for review, but it has yet to publicly hear the appointments. Because of the August recess, the earliest the council could now act is September.

Only four members are currently on the seven-member board, with one having a long-expired term. Johnson nominated two new members and made one reappointment. Members serve five-year terms.

Along with announcing the appointments, Johnson also revealed that he was pursuing a “nationally recognized public housing consultant” to help HACM.

A copy of the Common Ground letter is available on Urban Milwaukee.