Did Harbor Commissioner Have Conflict of Interest?

Ron San Felippo. Photo by Michael Horne.

For at least 20 years real estate businessman Ron San Felippo has been co-manager of a business for Milwaukee World Festival, the parent company of Summerfest. This curious arrangement — which has never been reported — may have gone back to his days when he served on the Summerfest or MWF board, from 1992 until 2000.

After San Felippo stepped down from that board, he was appointed to the Milwaukee Harbor Commission, where he served from 2000 until last week. He resigned just three hours after Urban Milwaukee raised questions as to whether he was a city resident, which is a requirement to serve on the Harbor Commission.

It’s unlikely San Felippo would have been appointed to the Harbor Commission if he hadn’t quit the Summerfest board, as the two positions would be in conflict: the Harbor Commission is the landlord for Summerfest and the land it sits on. If any Harbor Commissioner did “simultaneously serve on the Summerfest board, there would be a firm expectation for recusal from voting on leases for Summerfest,” as Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, told Urban Milwaukee.

But San Felippo did have a conflict that he never reported: he is one of two managers for a private company that holds the alcoholic beverages and possibly the food licenses for Summerfest. The company was originally called Food and Beverage LLC and was later renamed MWF LLC. The details of this are murky, as a private company’s financials are not open to scrutiny and Summerfest’s federal 990 tax statements divulge few details about it.

Under the law, a member of any city board or commission must file a Statement of Economic Interest listing any potential conflicts of interest. But in the nearly quarter century San Felippo served on the Harbor Commission he never disclosed his position as a manager of Summerfest’s private business.

That’s because “we never got paid anything,” San Felippo told Urban Milwaukee. But the instructions for this statement require officials to “List every organization with which you are associated and the nature of your association with that organization.” A business is the first example it gives of an organization that must be reported.

“I always assumed you only had to list anything you got compensation for,” San Felippo explained.

Yet few private citizens in Milwaukee are more aware of how city boards and commissions works. San Felippo has history going back a half century of serving in official positions including as president of both the Milwaukee School Board and the Fire & Police Commission and as a Milwaukee Public Library trustee.

Without mentioning San Felippo’s name, Urban Milwaukee asked Matthew Westphal, a Milwaukee County Assistant DA for the Public Integrity Unit, his thoughts on a city appointee not disclosing his connection to a private business. “That is a significant red flag,” Westphal said. “These statements of economic interest are very important. They allow people to decide whether an official is making decisions based on the public interest or in the interest of their business.”

San Felippo’s years serving on the Summerfest board would naturally have given him influence when the Harbor Commission discussed matters related to the festival. And because San Felippo did not disclose his connection to Summerfest’s private business, there would be no reason to question his suggestion, made more than once to the media, that Summerfest should have “something going on at the festival grounds every day of the year.”

But such a dramatic expansion of Summerfest would greatly increase its food and alcohol sales. San Felippo and his fellow manager, businessman Michael White, say they get no compensation for holding the food and bar licenses and merely sign off on forms, but the annual reports for MWF LLC filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions says “the nature of the business” is to “Manage and operate the beverage operations for Milwaukee World Festival, Inc. and the Henry Maier Festival Grounds.” The company’s “Management is vested in the managers,” the filing states, and the only managers listed are San Felippo and White.

San Felippo’s position with the Harbor Commission added to the power of someone with considerable clout in the city. He has served on the board of the Historic Third Ward Association since the 1990s and as its president for many years and as chairman of the Third Ward’s Business Improvement District (BID) for many years as well. Both bodies have a significant say over development in the neighborhood. And as head of the BID San Felippo oversaw the management of the Public Market for years.

Meanwhile he is the president of San Felippo Consulting Company, a marketing, management consulting and real estate development company, and Managing Partner of MSSD, which owns and operates residential and commercial real estate.

“If you talk about leaders in the Third Ward, Ron would be at the top of the list,” says Patrick Curley, longtime chief of staff for former Mayor Tom Barrett, who reappointed San Felippo to the Harbor Commission seven straight times.

“San Felippo is a very powerful person,” says real estate developer Peter Renner, who has developed projects in the Third Ward going back decades.

San Felippo has been quoted regularly in news stories, offering his opinions on a wide range of matters, including the transformation of Commission Row, whether to tear down I-94 in Downtown, how to redevelop the Grand Avenue mall, the expansion of Discovery World, the proper location for a tribute to Irish immigrants and many other issues.

But he offers only the vaguest and often misleading statements on why he’s a manager of the private company that manages key operations for Summerfest.

“I remember being asked if I was willing to be a manager,” San Felippo told Urban Milwaukee. “It was decided that would be a good idea. We were to look over the paperwork and sign it, and that would be it.”

But they already have a registered agent for the company. Why did they need you to sign it? “I don’t know why,” San Felippo answered. “I’m not a lawyer.”

And why did they need two people — you and Mike White — to sign the application? “I don’t remember.”

San Felippo said the forms listing him “might be left over from when I was on the Summerfest Board.” But he hasn’t been on the board since 2000 and for years after that the annual reports for MWF LLC listed him as a manager.

“I was told they (Summerfest) stopped using that years ago,” San Felippo said. That’s at least half true: the annual reports of MWF LLC did not list San Felippo and White from 2017 to 2020, but they were listed once again from 2021 through 2023, the most recent report, with the statement that “management is vested in managers.”

As for the idea San Felippo is not a lawyer, that’s true, but on the company’s 2012 annual report, he signed it as an “Attorney-in-Fact.”

Moreover, there are probably few business people in the state who know more about the workings of LLC’s or limited liability companies: state listings show San Felippo is an owner or co-owner of 22 different LLC’s.

Both White and Summerfest also say the two businessmen aren’t paid for their work as managers, but beyond that their accounts vary. That will be reported in our next story.

This is the second in a series of investigative stories. Read the first one here.