Council Could Send People’s Flag To April Referendum

People’s Flag of Milwaukee. Photo from www.milwaukeeflag.com.

There are several steps required, but the Milwaukee Common Council is moving to send the question of adopting a new city flag to voters.

A referendum could take place in April to consider adoption of the People’s Flag of Milwaukee “Sunrise over the Lake” design, with the results automatically going into effect.

The compromise comes after multiple years of debate, including a heated, hour-long debate on the council floor last month. The referendum concept is co-sponsored by leading People’s Flag of Milwaukee proponent Alderman Peter Burgelis and leading opponent Ald. Mark Chambers, Jr.

“This has been a long three weeks of many discussions with colleagues,” said Burgelis during Tuesday’s council meeting. “Given the conversations that were had, I think the best path forward would be to put the question to voters and let the voters decide.”

A procedural move delayed adoption in September and Mayor Cavalier Johnson, years ago a People’s Flag adoption sponsor, signaled to the council in the intervening weeks that he would veto the flag’s adoption if it passed with a narrow majority. Burgelis told Urban Milwaukee that he was one vote short of the 10 votes necessary to override a veto.

Despite a turnover in council members, including Burgelis and Chambers, opposition to Robert Lenz‘ flag remains centered on the fact that a 2016 citizen-led design contest is perceived as not having been inclusive of the entire population of the majority-minority city. The voting took place online. A newly-released four page report from Chief Equity Officer Bernadette Karanja says the process was not equitable and inclusive of the city’s population and that the community’s adoption of the flag is limited to certain areas of the city. Supporters have said that residents have already adopted it, flying the People’s Flag and buying merchandise that includes it, and several companies, including breweries, marketing firms and the Milwaukee Brewers, have used the design. Opponents have also questioned how much the design applies uniquely to Milwaukee.

But despite the brokered compromise between the leading opponent and proponent, on Tuesday the council held off on advancing a referendum. For one, the City Attorney doesn’t believe it has the legal authority to order the referendum without changing the city charter.

An opinion from City Attorney Evan Goyke says the council does not have the authority currently to enact a “non-advisory” referendum. Burgelis is introducing a charter amendment to allow non-advisory referendums, but it would take two three-week council cycles, at minimum, to be adopted and Goyke’s opinion raises the concern that it would need to be narrowly crafted to comply with the city’s “home rule authority.”  The Wisconsin State Legislature’s Act 12, which enabled the city sales tax, prohibits advisory referendums.

The referendum concept is already off to a rocky start. As a first step, Burgelis had proposed to amend the flag adoption file Tuesday to indicate a referendum was the desired path and then hold the proposal in council until it could be adopted alongside a charter change. But opposition, both for and against the flag, mounted.

Some council members are opposed to the idea of using an automatically-enacted referendum. “Referendums are a very dangerous precedent we would be setting here,” said Ald. Robert Bauman, a flag opponent. Amending the city charter to allow a non-advisory referendum, said Bauman, could “open the flood gates” to voter review of all kinds of things. A decade ago, he was an opponent of allowing the streetcar proposal to go to referendum, a measure which failed when a petition drive came up short.

Mayoral communications director Jeff Fleming said Johnson shares Bauman’s concerns with enabling referendums. “Is that a door we want to open? That’s not a fully answered question,” Fleming told Urban Milwaukee after the council vote.

Council member Jonathan Brostoff, a flag supporter, said he was opposed to the referendum because he thought considerable debate had already occurred and the council should vote to adopt the flag. Flag opponents, Milele A. Coggs and Russell W. Stamper, II, said they opposed advancing the proposal.

Legally speaking, the council left things where they stood last month. It held the matter in council as is. Burgelis withdrew the amendment for the time being.

A debate on a charter amendment and referendums could publicly begin next week. The referendum, according to a fiscal note, would not cost anything if held alongside a citywide election. Replacing the 13 flags the city owns is estimated to cost $793.

The People’s Flag would be a replacement for then-alderman Fred Steffan‘s 1952 flag, once derided as one of the worst in America. Steffan combined multiple submissions from a design contest to make his flag. No one offered an argument in support of Steffan’s design last month, nor Tuesday.

The official explanation for Lenz’ design is as follows: “The sun rising over Lake Michigan symbolizes a new day. The light blue bars in its reflection represent the city’s three rivers (Milwaukee, Menomonee, Kinnickinnic) and three founding towns (Juneau Town, Kilbourn Town, Walker’s Point). Gold represents our brewing history and white represents peace.”

For more on the flag debate, see our past coverage.

Disclosure: Urban Milwaukee’s sister business, Urban Milwaukee: The Store, sells merchandise bearing both the current flag and People’s Flag.

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