A Milwaukee committee is meeting Thursday to continue work on a process to engage the community in the budgeting of $600,000 in funds for non-police safety solutions.
“While regularly, the budget is decided on by our elected and appointed leaders, this process makes way for the community to propose ideas, deliberate and vote how it’s spent,” said Amanda Avalos, chair of the MKE Community Impact Committee.
In July 2025, the Milwaukee Common Council approved a resolution sponsored by Ald. Milele Coggs that created the MKE Community Impact Committee. The group was tasked with developing a method of participatory budgeting for the $600,000 and presenting it to the Common Council by November.
The committee, which has been meeting since March, will present an update on its efforts and ask for an extension to continue its work through March 31, 2027 at the Common Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee, likely at its meeting on Nov. 11.
The committee’s first months
The committee is made up of four assigned city roles or designees and seven appointed residents.
Since forming, the MKE Community Impact Committee has reviewed materials from other cities that have similar programs, launched a city website to describe its efforts and formed three work groups to draft recommendations.
It also has engaged other community members and organizations, including the African American Roundtable, which advocated for years for participatory budgeting through its Liberate MKE campaign.
The African American Roundtable ran its own participatory budgeting initiative, where Northwest Side residents proposed and voted on community-led projects. The organization now has a Participatory Budgeting Committee that shares updates on the city’s progress.
Markasa Tucker-Harris, executive director of the African American Roundtable, said she appreciates the MKE Community Impact Committee’s evening and hybrid meeting schedule and willingness to engage in dialogue.
She also thinks the city can do more to support its work.
“The steering committee can’t do it by themselves,” Tucker-Harris said. “And so I think that the city, to ensure that this process is successful, should also do more to get the word out about what’s happening.”
What the committee has discussed
The committee has spent time recently deliberating requirements for project proposals, such as how to set a minimum and maximum funding cap.
The eligible projects and proposals work group initially recommended that applications not identify a vendor, person or community group to execute a project idea, in order to abide by the city’s purchasing and bidding requirements, according to Comptroller Bill Christianson, who was assigned to serve on the committee.
Some committee members, along with Coggs, disagreed that people would apply with ideas for the city to carry out because they want them to be resident-led.
“I think the whole point of these proposals is it will be groups who will propose things that they want to do that their group is going to help execute,” Coggs said at the committee’s Sept. 22 meeting.
Christianson said they could shift the framing to be similar to the city awarding a grant.
Avalos, Anita Johnson, the committee’s vice chair, and other resident members have said that participatory budgeting is not supposed to be defined by the city’s normal restrictions and should be more accessible to residents.
“We get to skip that and we get to say these are the only things that matter,” Avalos said at the committee’s Oct. 8 meeting.
Responding to feedback
At the MKE Community Impact Committee’s September meeting, members from the African American Roundtable’s Participatory Budgeting Committee thanked members for their dedication and shared a statement of concern that the “focus on structure and technicalities has created a state of indecision and inaction.”
“I understand that it’s new and that it’s different, and that people are afraid, but we have to set our fear aside so we can fund our community,” said Baisha Whitten, a member of the African American Roundtable’s Participatory Budgeting Committee, in an interview.
Whitten said the time spent focusing on putting up guardrails has her concerned about the timeline for completing the process, and also comes across as a lack of trust of the community, which she believes will make it harder to achieve results.
“I would have liked to see this thoroughness spent on the vote or see this thoroughness spent on getting the word out to the community so we could be prepared for the project, but it has been a frustrating level of bureaucracy in my opinion,” Whitten said.
Avalos said the committee is working to address the statement and other feedback from public comments.
“The committee is working to ensure the process prioritizes community-driven decision-making power, that we are open to adopting best practices from other cities who have built participatory budgeting models, and that we are building awareness and engaging with all parts of the city,” she said.
Community input already has shaped the committee’s discussions, a vote to require all members to take part in training and the approval to purchase a $5,000 handbook from the Participatory Budgeting Project, a national organization that works with communities on developing participatory budgeting processes, Avalos said.
“We know that there might be some things that have to be very specific to Milwaukee, but we think that that’s a great place to start,” Tucker-Harris said.
To get involved
The committee will host an in-person and virtual meeting at 5 p.m. Nov. 5 in Room 303 in City Hall, 200 E. Wells St. Included in the agenda is a presentation on the Participatory Budgeting Project’s resources, training and technical assistance offerings.
Anyone can attend or give public comments at the committee’s meetings at City Hall or join virtually.
You can reach staff assistant Chris Lee at 414-286-2232 or clee@milwaukee.gov to receive agendas and minutes from previous meetings or to support any of the work groups.
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