Council Delays Adding Bree Spencer To Fire & Police Commission

Bree Spencer‘s appointment to the Fire & Police Commission is on hold.

At the request of council members Ashanti Hamilton and Chantia Lewis, the council voted unanimously Tuesday morning to hold her appointment.

Spencer would serve as the seventh member of the part-time public safety oversight body. A resident of Milwaukee’s East Side, she serves as a project manager for a national civil rights group.

The commission is responsible for hiring, firing, discipline and policy setting for the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee Fire Department. Its most recent high-profile action was the adoption of a towing policy for vehicles driven recklessly.

“I wanted to create the opportunity to sit down with this woman,” said Hamilton. He said there was outreach, but scheduling conflicts prevented it from happening.

“I agree with that,” said Lewis. She said she has a meeting scheduled for Thursday.

The nomination was made in February by Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

“She’s a capable and talented nominee and when the council next takes her up she will have broad support,” said Johnson’s communications director Jeff Fleming in a statement to Urban Milwaukee.

Spencer was present in the council chamber with FPC executive director Leon W. Todd, III, but neither was invited to address the council.

The nominee is the senior program manager for the justice team at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The nominee said she manages the agency’s policing portfolio. She previously spent nearly a decade at Milwaukee-based public safety nonprofit Safe & Sound in various leadership positions.

“I miss serving the City of Milwaukee,” she told the Public Safety & Health Committee on March 10. The committee unanimously recommended her appointment be confirmed.

“I want to be part of the improvement and the betterment of the Fire & Police Commission and how it works,” said Spencer. “More broadly, my goal is to really shift the narrative and thought process in Milwaukee around what public safety is.”

She said it was unfair to put the burden of public safety entirely on first responders.

Commissioners serve in a part-time capacity, earning $6,600 per year for participating in regularly-scheduled, evening meetings. They are appointed for a five-year term.

Spencer would be the seventh member of the commission, filling the seat vacated by retired firefighter Everett Cocroft. He moved to Las Vegas in late 2021.

Related Legislation: File 211673