Spencer Coggs vs. Brandon Methu: Race for Milwaukee City treasurer is a battle of generations

The race for Milwaukee city treasurer pits a seasoned elected official against a young real estate investor.

Incumbent Spencer Coggs was first elected to the office in 2012 by a narrow margin, about 700 votes, and in 2016 he overwhelmingly won re-election by more than 55,000 votes. Coggs spent 30 years in the state Legislature, which includes 20 years in the state Assembly and 10 years in the state Senate.

In 2012, as a state senator, a former staffer of Coggs filed a sexual harassment and discrimination claim against him and the case was settled for $75,000.

Coggs graduated from Riverside High School in 1966 and worked for a few years after high school. He eventually went back to school at Milwaukee Area Technical College and transferred some credits to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he graduated in 1976 with a degree in urban studies.

Real estate investor Brandon Methu is new to the political scene. He is in his first race for public office and said he believes term limits are a “magic pill for Milwaukee’s problems.”

Methu sits on the city of Milwaukee Board of Review, which listens to challenges from property owners on assessments.

Methu graduated from Bradley Tech High School in 2008 and went on to earn a degree in economics from the UWM in 2012. He has been investing in real estate since 2013.

The city treasurer is the chief investment and revenue collecting officer for Milwaukee. According to the city treasurer website, in 2018 the office collected more than $800 million in property taxes and handled more than $3.4 billion in in-house transactions. Also in 2018, the office had more than $4.2 million in total investment revenue.

The 2020 city budget appropriated $114,040 for the salary of the city treasurer. 

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Coggs is seeking a third term in the office saying if elected he would like to work closer with the Common Council.

“There are a number of neighborhoods that I would love to be more stable, but they have abandoned or vacant homes and sometimes it’s a blight on the neighborhood,” Coggs said adding he would like to work with the City Council to address the issue of vacant homes.  "We should be working more closely together because they get a number of calls from people and then they call us. It would be great to have a coordinated effort from the beginning.”

Methu points to his time on the Board of Review as the reason why he is running for treasurer saying he wants to create more transparency and fairer property assessments.

“During my time reviewing these startling cases, I learned that Milwaukee was evicting longtime residents from their community under the guise of increasing assessments,” Methu said. “However, unlike evictions from a rental unit, there are very few legal resources available to homeowners faced with this burden. I decided to get behind the curtain to work with Common Council and the assessor's office as city treasurer arming citizens with the information they need to ensure fair and accurate property assessments.”

Methu acknowledged the assessor’s office is separate from the treasurer’s office, but the treasurer “plays a major role in the dissemination of the new tax bills. When elected, I will work with the Common Council and the assessor's office to ensure a fair deal for Milwaukee’s homeowners.”

Coggs and Methu recognize one of the biggest jobs of the treasurer’s office is collecting the property tax revenue every year but each have other ideas the office could be more effective.

Coggs said he would like to work with more community organizations to help residents understand the options that are available to them if they are facing foreclosure.

“We have relationship with a group called Take Root Milwaukee and they talk to people about the problems they have paying their property taxes,” Coggs said. “One of my pledges for the upcoming term is to work more closely with Take Root Milwaukee so that we can get ahead of the curve.”

Methu said, if elected, he would have the treasurer’s office put in place a system, starting with US Bank, to allow property owners to pay their bills online or through a mobile device.

“This way of using systems that you already use, like a US Bank account or an online mobile payment system decreases that ability to miss that payment,” Methu said adding he believes the system is “purposefully made overly difficult to catch people missing those payments who don’t necessarily have the money and the time. It doesn’t work with the modern way we do things.”

Both Coggs and Methu believe their experience can help them improve the office moving forward.

Coggs said when he came into the office he was used to handling issues like a legislator, writing laws to tackle an issue, then he had to learn how to work with the Common  Council.

“I came in and wanted to make sure that not many people were getting foreclosed on and with the changes that we made, we’ve done that,” Coggs said. “The foreclosure rate has gone down and the redemption rate has gone up. In 2015, only 38% of people who were being foreclosed on were able to save their homes. Now, last year in 2019, it’s up to 58%. We’re making progress.”  

Methu said he has watched minorities, and particularly women, get mistreated in government and real estate, and he would like to create a more welcoming environment.

“Government and also my time in real estate, women just don’t get a fair shake,” Methu said. “They’re mistreated, especially in government positions. As someone who values women as well as minorities, I want to make it clear that if elected I would create a workplace that allows them to thrive which I don’t think they’ve experienced up to this point in the city of Milwaukee and really the city treasurer’s office as well.”