MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Concerns raised over open meetings compliance after Fire and Police Commission met behind closed doors for 20 minutes

Alison Dirr
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission may have violated the state's Open Meetings Law after one of its most consequential meetings Thursday, though the executive director says the commission did nothing wrong.

The commission voted unanimously Thursday to demote Alfonso Morales from police chief to captain. It also elected its new chair and vice-chair.

After the commission concluded its meeting at 7:25 p.m. and the public video broadcast was turned off, commissioners remained in the meeting room — where media had not been permitted due to COVID-19 concerns — for about 20 minutes.

Media remained in the City Hall rotunda, with police restricting access, until reporters from the Journal Sentinel and TMJ4 asked the police to alert the commissioners that the commission still had a quorum, without public access, a potential violation of the state Open Meetings Law.

Members of the media were then allowed inside at 7:43 p.m.

"I think that seems like a pretty clear violation of the Open Meetings Law to exclude the public, or in this case the media, and then continue to meet," said Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council. "You have to presume that they were meeting about official business and you have to presume that it’s a meeting that should have been open to the public unless they gave a legally defensible reason why it wasn’t."

Fire and Police Commission Executive Director Griselda Aldrete, who was in the meeting room for those 20 minutes, said Friday there were no violations of the Open Meetings Law. 

She said the door to the meeting room was unlocked and members of the media failed to open the door.

But members of the media were separated from that door by a separate set of doors and a hallway, where police officers stood. The officers, who appeared to be acting at the direction of the commission, had been instructing media where they could be.

Aldrete said she couldn't speak for the police in the hallway blocking access to the meeting room.

The police department did not immediately respond to a request Friday afternoon for comment on the open meetings concerns, including who was directing the officers in the hallway.

Aldrete said the group was signing necessary documents in the room, as always happens after meetings.

"I would really appreciate if you guys would stop this narrative that we’re violating the Open Meetings Law when we’re not," she said.

She said those who were meeting were not going to tell the media it could "bombard" them in the room once the meeting was over.

Lueders said the public shouldn't have to take Aldrete's word that commissioners were not talking about official business behind closed doors. That was supposed to have been clear from the meeting being open.

When commissioners did finally emerge, they refused to answer questions from media.

Among those who would not respond were newly elected FPC Chairman Nelson Soler — who replaces former chairman Steven DeVougas, the subject of investigation into allegations of ethics violations — and newly elected Vice-Chairwoman Angela McKenzie.

DeVougas nominated both Soler and McKenzie to their new positions.

Soler was appointed to the commission in 2016 and served as vice chair since 2018. He is the president of Multicultural Entrepreneurial Institute, Inc., a marketing organization, and holds board memberships on multiple local business organizations.

Soler said at the meeting that the commission needed to "move forward from drama."

He did not respond to requests for an interview Friday.

This was just the latest instance in which actions of the FPC — among the oldest and most powerful civilian oversight boards in the country — have raised transparency concerns.

Commissioners did not hold any public meeting or discussion on a long set of directives previously issued to Morales before they voted Thursday to demote him to captain. One after the other Thursday, they spoke to their concerns with his leadership, sharply criticizing Morales before voting.

It remains unclear how or why the FPC drafted the directives or how commissioners so quickly came to agree on all of them at a previous meeting. 

When the directives were announced, the FPC noted that "failure to comply fully and promptly with these directives shall result in disciplinary action by the board, including discharge, suspension, or reduction in rank."

But Thursday's vote came before all of the deadlines for responding to the directives had passed. 

And the commission's actions drew the ire of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who called Thursday's meeting "not good government" and "completely lacking in transparency."

"I am angry with what happened tonight," Barrett said Thursday. “Chief Morales should have been given an opportunity to respond. At the same time, I understand some of the frustration because rather than responding to the directives, he spent two weeks on a (public relations) campaign and clearly that angered the commissioners, as well."

Assistant Chief Michael Brunson Sr. was named acting chief by unanimous vote, following the department's chain-of-command. He was sworn in Friday morning at City Hall. 

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.