Denise Wandke Out at MCTS, Says She Will Return

MCTS President and Managing Director Denise Wandke. Photo courtesy MCTS.

Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) Managing Director Denise Wandke has taken a leave of absence from her role at the top of the county’s transit system.

On Wednesday Oct. 2, MCTS employees received an email from Deputy Director Julie Esch informing them Wandke had taken an “unexpected leave of absence” effective immediately and that she would take over for Wandke in the interim.

Two days later, Wandke posted a picture of an RV on Facebook, announcing, “I’m going to rough it and go camping….let the next journey begin!”

On Oct. 8, Wandke told Urban Milwaukee that she will return to MCTS and has taken time off for “personal health issues.”

A spokesperson for MCTS told Urban Milwaukee, “Denise Wandke, president and managing director of MCTS, is on a leave of absence. We have no information to share at this time. MCTS Deputy Director Julie Esch is fulfilling managing director duties in the interim.”

Wandke initially came into the role of managing director on an interim basis in 2022. She was serving as deputy director when former Managing Director Dan Boehm took a leave of absence and later resigned amid a workplace investigation.

MCTS is controlled by the quasi-governmental non-profit Milwaukee Transport Services, Inc. and its board. Wandke was appointed to the position by Donna Brown-Martin, chair of the MTS Board and director of the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT), in consultation with the county executive’s office.

Wandke is a lifelong resident of Milwaukee County and began at MCTS as a bus operator in 1994. She moved into management in 2005. She took over leadership of the system during a turbulent period, as MCTS was navigating how to handle mass transit during a pandemic, the departure of long-serving managing director Boehm and a precarious budget situation masked by federal stimulus funding released at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wandke was performing her duties as managing director right up until her departure Wednesday. The day prior she appeared at the county board’s Committee on Transportation and Transit, offering the agency’s opinion on legislation proposed by Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson to reduce fares on election day. The legislation did not move forward in part because of concerns Wandke raised on behalf of MCTS.

The transit system faces a structural deficit that will return when it runs out of federal stimulus funding. MCTS recently announced it was scrapping plans to develop a second bus rapid transit route over the next few years, instead using the money to keep the system solvent until 2028.