In a hectic process that two commissioners described as “tainted,” the Social Development Commission board voted 5-3 to reelect Commissioner Jorge Franco as its chair and elected other board officers during a virtual meeting Wednesday evening.
“Restoring services is what I’m focused on, and I intend to do that,” said Franco, who also serves as SDC’s interim CEO.
SDC provided vital social services like tax assistance and job training to low-income residents before stopping operations two years ago amid financial turmoil.
Since halting operations, the county’s premier anti-poverty agency has no active programs, little to no remaining funds and a mounting pile of legal judgments.
The meeting heightened tensions both within the board and the community as commissioners argued about voting procedure and community members gave impassioned public comments about the removal of former board member Dessie Levy, the return of services to Milwaukee residents and elections for vacant community board seats.
SDC’s board met twice last week and is engaging in a series of informational sessions this week as members consider if the anti-poverty agency should pursue filing for bankruptcy or take other action to resolve its growing debt.
“Tainted” process
During the meeting, Commissioner Pam Fendt said she received a virtual calendar invite on Friday, but did not find out the focus of the meeting until this week.
She said she learned Wednesday that some commissioners had more than five days’ notice because Franco had discussed a plan to call an election of board officers with them but did not offer details.
“And so I call kind of the whole integrity of this process into question if some people knew further out than others, and I would actually move that we postpone this election,” Fendt said.
Franco disputed Fendt’s claim in an interview after the meeting concluded, saying all commissioners were notified of the meeting Friday and that the meeting agenda was later posted on SDC’s website and on the Milwaukee Public Library’s public notice board.
An agenda for the meeting had been posted on the organization’s website by Monday, though it’s unclear exactly when it was posted.
“She has no reason to be objecting to having an election that was properly noticed, she received it, and that’s the fact,” Franco said.
Dispute on election procedure
Once the meeting moved from public comment to the officer election item of the agenda, Commissioner Michael Harris quickly made a motion to nominate Franco as chair; Commissioner Spencer Coggs as vice chair and treasurer; and Commissioner Peter Fetzer as secretary, which was seconded by Coggs and opened for discussion.
Fendt raised a point of order that other board officer nominations had to be considered at the same time. Franco disagreed and said the board needed to consider the motion on the floor to elect him, Coggs and Fetzer first and would reopen nominations if it did not pass.
Franco and Fendt talked over each other with raised voices for about a minute before she finished her comments on why she opposed the nomination.
“I do definitely want a secretary, but I think this is a tainted process,” Fendt said.
Commissioners Richard Diaz and Walter Lanier also opposed the nomination, with Lanier saying the process did not adhere to Robert’s Rules of Order, while other members did not comment before voting.
Robert’s Rules of Order is a manual used by organizations to guide meeting procedures.
The board held a roll call vote and elected Franco as chair, Fetzer to serve as secretary and Coggs to be vice chair and treasurer.
After the vote, some commissioners were still unclear about the process.
Lanier asked if the vote was intended to nominate the slate of officers or approve their nominations, and Franco said it was to accept the nominations.
Support for Levy and calls to resume services
Dessie Levy said during public comment she felt targeted as a Black woman and as “low-hanging fruit” when she was removed from the SDC board in May.
Levy was appointed by Greater Milwaukee Committee to serve on the board until she received an email from Franco on the day before five commissioners tried to hold an emergency meeting that removed her from the commission for exceeding the allowed number of unexcused absences.
Levy and four other commissioners disputed the action at the time, in part because the board had not approved meeting minutes with attendance records.
“You want to use the bylaws for my position as an absent or missing-in-action commissioner, but we never followed all of the bylaws since day one,” Levy said.
Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, a handful of community members sent emails to some of the commissioners to request the SDC board reinstate Levy to the board and hold elections for the six publicly elected seats on the board that are currently vacant.
Franco said SDC was not acting personally in removing Levy, but following the strict language in the bylaws that dictates the absences policy and used roll calls recorded during public meetings to verify attendance.
“It’s been reviewed numerous times,” he said.
Tracey Carey, a nearly 40-year resident of Milwaukee, said she was disappointed in the board’s lack of integrity. She demanded approved meeting minutes and public representation on the board “so that we can have restored faith that the group assembled here is legitimately, and honestly, working in the best interests” of SDC and Milwaukee.
Ophelia Carr, who was among those who sent an email in favor of Levy, advocated for SDC’s social services to come back as a resource for her family and neighborhood.
“You’re squabbling and things like that,” she said. “That’s not our problem. Our problem is having resources in our community, around the corner, on the bus route.”
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