Spencer’s Exit From FPC Marks ‘Big Loss’ As Mayor Names Successor
Executive director hails her impact on commission; Jordan Morales nominated as replacement.
Jordan Morales speaks at a traffic safety press conference in December 2021. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson has nominated Historic Preservation Commission chair Jordan Morales to join the city’s Fire & Police Commission, replacing one of the public safety oversight board’s most active and outspoken members.
Morales, a Lower East Side resident, would replace FPC Vice Chair Bree Spencer, whose term expires Monday. The Common Council must confirm his appointment.
“Jordan Morales’s civic engagement is noteworthy. He has been a prominent voice on traffic safety and crime reduction in Milwaukee,” said Johnson in announcing the appointment Monday. “He will champion the interests of our residents in this important new role.”
Morales is an assistant superintendent for Mortenson Construction and serves as a structural craftsman and noncommissioned officer with the Wisconsin Air National Guard. He previously worked as an air traffic control watch supervisor for the U.S. Air Force and as an air traffic controller for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Spencer’s departure would remove an outspoken voice from the commission at a time when the body is navigating its reduced authority over Milwaukee Police Department policies.
During her four years on the commission, Spencer advocated for tightening MPD’s high-speed chase policy, expediting the public release of police video and placing greater controls on the department’s use of Flock license plate recognition cameras and other emerging technologies.
Executive Director Leon W. Todd III praised Spencer at the start of the commission’s July 2 meeting.
“This is a big loss for the commission,” said Todd. “She was part of the initial core group of new commissioners that helped to turn things around and right the FPC ship, so to speak.”
Todd said Spencer approached the position with “energy, intelligence, dedication” and “really has done it with her whole heart.”
“I don’t think there is any commissioner that works harder than Commissioner Bree Spencer,” he said.
Todd said Spencer participated in more police ride-alongs than any other commissioner and regularly found ways to stay closely involved despite her other professional responsibilities. “I wonder how she does it all,” he said.
Todd said Spencer elected to leave the commission after her term expires.
“It’s been an honor,” Spencer said.
Johnson nominated Spencer in February 2022, shortly after he became acting mayor. She was Johnson’s first nominee to the commission and was unanimously confirmed by the Common Council in April 2022.
Spencer joined a commission that had been destabilized by turnover and controversy surrounding its handling of the 2020 demotion of Police Chief Alfonso Morales. Morales, the new appointee, is not related to the former police chief.
Spencer was a leading advocate on the FPC for restricting police pursuits.
“The Milwaukee pursuit policy is dangerous, and it’s dangerous because it’s too permissive,” Spencer told the council’s Public Safety & Health Committee in June. “We know it’s too permissive because we are way off the national standard.”
The commission unanimously recommended that MPD officers no longer initiate pursuits when they attempt to stop a driver for a nonreckless driving offense and the driver flees. MPD estimated the proposed restriction would have prevented 111 of the department’s 970 pursuits in 2025.
But the commission could not make the change itself. Wisconsin Act 12, adopted in 2023, stripped the FPC of its authority to establish police and fire department policy. That authority now rests with the police and fire chiefs, though the Common Council may override a policy with a two-thirds vote of its members.
The council’s Public Safety & Health Committee recommended rejecting the pursuit proposal on a 4-1 vote.
Last September, Spencer launched her own consulting firm, Bridger Agency. She previously worked as senior program director for justice at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and spent nearly a decade in leadership roles at the Milwaukee nonprofit Safe & Sound.
Commissioners ordinarily are appointed to five-year terms, but Spencer’s tenure lasted approximately four years and three months. Todd alluded during the July 2 meeting to “technical rules” governing the expiration of her term and said Spencer had elected to move on when it concluded. He did not immediately respond to a request for additional information about why her term expires in 2026 rather than 2027.
FPC members serve part-time and are paid $6,600 annually to participate in regularly scheduled meetings and other commission work.
Before the council considers Morales’ nomination, the commission will hold a public meeting for residents to hear from him and ask questions of him.
The meeting will be held Monday, July 20, from 6 to 7 p.m. at the UW-Milwaukee Downtown Conference Center, 161 W. Wisconsin Ave., Suite 7000. A virtual participation option will also be available through the FPC website.
Residents unable to attend may submit questions or comments in advance to fpc@milwaukee.gov.
Johnson recently reappointed Dana World-Patterson and LaNelle Ramey for new five-year terms. They were both first appointed in 2021. The Common Council is expected to vote on their reappointments Tuesday.
The commission currently has a full complement of nine members.
UPDATE: The article was updated to clarify that Morales moved from Sherman Park to the Lower East Side.
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