Milwaukee's effort to crack down on bad landlords restarts after infighting
After a two-month delay due to political infighting, the Milwaukee Common Council is restarting its effort to crack down on problem landlords.
Council members voted overwhelmingly in January to target bad landlords who do not pay their fines or taxes and use limited liability companies to protect their personal assets and identities from bill collectors, tenants and the city.
Sponsors of the plan initially proposed creating a task force specifically focused on problem landlords and their LLCs, but decided to use an existing committee to avoid duplicating efforts. The council's push was instead to be led by the nearly decade-old Special Joint Committee on Redevelopment of Abandoned and Foreclosed Homes, co-chaired by Ald. Robert Bauman and Preston Cole, commissioner of the city Department of Neighborhood Services.
But Bauman said his efforts to move forward were blocked by Cole. He accused Cole of objecting to an agenda for the committee, leading to a canceled meeting and effectively delaying council members trying to hold bad landlords accountable.
"It, in fact, was stalled. But (Mayor Tom) Barrett's people do this a lot. They pick fights that in the end they can't win in the sense that, well, we'll just rewrite something, and take away the issue that they're raising in objection. This was a classic example," Bauman said. "It did shut it down."
Bauman added that he believes Cole and others in the administration "don't like the oversight."
"No self-respecting bureaucrat would want legislative oversight, particularly on a regular, routine basis," Bauman said. "But he definitely threw a monkey wrench into the works."
Cole insisted that was not the case.
He said the committee, which was created in 2008 during the foreclosure crisis, needed some updates in terms of its scope, membership and mission.
"We've got a go-forward strategy. We're chomping at the bit to get going," Cole told the Journal Sentinel. "And if someone wants to say I'm the holdup, that's probably not the case. I can't even speak to that quite frankly. But we are, again, hellbent doing what the mayor and (council) president have asked that committee to work on. And so now that work begins in earnest."
The delay came amid an ongoing Journal Sentinel investigation about how some landlords have been gaming the system and not paying property taxes and building code fines.
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The effort appears to be back on track following a Tuesday meeting of the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee, which voted unanimously to back Bauman's resolution to change the name and membership of the group.
"What today's meeting showed you was that all levels of government are aligned to get at these landlords that do harm to our neighborhoods," Cole said.
If the plan wins approval at next week's Common Council meeting, the committee will consist of eight members, including three appointed by the mayor and three appointed by Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton. The other two members will be the city treasurer and the executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, or their designees.
The committee is expected to study and make recommendations about LLCs as well as other issues involving problem landlords and is required to report its findings to the council by the end of June.
The task force's failure to meet hasn't stopped the city from targeting some problem landlords.
For example, the city attorney's office has taken action against some of the city's most notorious landlords, including Mohammad Choudry and Elijah Mohammad Rashaed.
"This is the most meaningful work that I've done in my life, and I'm really energized about it because we've got smart people working on it," Cole said. "And I'm happy to be part of that team."