Common Council sends letter critical of mayor’s office’s lack of communication and transparency
There seems to be a failure of communication between the Milwaukee Common Council and the office of Mayor Tom Barrett and members of his administration.
A February 18 letter to Barrett, signed by Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton and 10 of the city’s 15 aldermen, was critical of the Barrett administration’s failure to appear before the council and its committees over the last four weeks to discuss various issues.
One of the issues was the safety of city officials and staff in the event of emergency incidents, such as the receipt of a suspicious substance by the mayor’s office last September.
The council also wanted to talk to members of Barrett’s administration about the lack of responsiveness and transparency over lead lateral remediation plans. The council wanted the mayor’s administration to respond to “the rising concern” over how safe the city’s water is given the revelation in January of 2018 of the gross mismanagement of the city Health Department’s once touted Childhood Lead Contamination Prevention Program. The revelation led to the resignation of former health commissioner Bevan Baker.
Demands by community advocacy groups for the city to address the lead lateral issue led the council to offer a public airing of their grievances at a February 14 Steering and Rules Committee meeting.
Representatives from the Health Department, the Department of Public Works, and the Water Works were asked to attend to respond to questions raised by new information presented by the Get the Lead Out Coalition and the Freshwater for Life Action Coalition.
No representative from these departments honored the request.
“The failure, once again, by your administration to act in the interest of open communication and transparency leaves the council in the all-too-familiar position of addressing critical matters that affect our city without any communication from its mayor,” the letter read.
“The absences of these department heads—all of whom you appoint—was keenly felt and their collective failure to send even a representative was disappointing, especially when the leadership of some of these departments could be clearly seen sitting across from us earlier in the same committee meeting.”
The council letter ended with the expression of hope members of the mayor’s administration will be present March 7 “and engage with the community on this serious issue.”
There has been no response to the council’s letter to the mayor’s office.