Number
201314
Version
SUBSTITUTE 1
Reference
Sponsor
ALD. DODD, HAMILTON, JOHNSON, KOVAC, BAUMAN, LEWIS, COGGS, AND RAINEY
Title
Substitute resolution directing the Department of Administration - Intergovernmental Relations Division to seek revised terms for grants from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
Analysis
This resolution directs the Department of Administration - Intergovernmental Relations Division to seek revised terms for grants from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The Department of Administration - Intergovernmental Relations Division is also directed to include the substance of this resolution in the City of Milwaukee's Federal Legislative Package for the 117th United States Congress.
The City Clerk shall send copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, all members of Wisconsin's Congressional delegation and the U.S. Attorney General.
Body
Whereas, Years of ballooning public safety budgets and pension liabilities, combined with stagnating shared revenues and legislative constraints on the City of Milwaukee’s ability to generate revenues, are placing the City under tremendous fiscal pressures; and
Whereas, The City is concurrently under pressure from residents and community organizations to increase funding for community, health, social justice and anti-poverty programming, particularly as an alternative to traditional law enforcement funding as a means of maintaining public safety; and
Whereas, The Common Council has made clear its desire that the Police Department:
1. Re-think a mind-set that hiring and deploying sworn officers is the best use of budgeted and outside funding.
2. Make the use of force a tool of last, rather than first, resort.
3. Embrace early intervention methodologies like trauma-informed care and violence prevention.
; and
Whereas, Council members and community stakeholders have found their efforts to re-imagine and improve the delivery of public safety services stymied by inadequate funding, as well as a statutory structure of law enforcement governance that almost entirely avoids local oversight; and
Whereas, The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) awarded the City of Milwaukee Police Department $9,712,096 in federal grant funds over a three-year award period under the 2020 COPS Hiring Program (CHP); and
Whereas, The 2020 CHP award will fund the salaries and fringe benefits of full-time officers for the thee-year award period, and requires that the City bear the costs for the following 12 months; and
Whereas, Generally, grantees may use CHP award funding to hire new officers, to rehire officers who have been laid off, or to rehire officers who are scheduled to be laid off on a specific future date, as a result of local budget reductions, on or after the official award start date; and
Whereas, Milwaukee’s CHP funding was awarded for the first hiring category, to hire 30 new police officers; and
Whereas, Despite budget pressures and the scarcity of funding from any source, the Common Council agreed to accept the sizable 2020 CHP award only after a lengthy and at times divisive public review, in large part because of dissatisfaction over using the funds to hire new officers and a lack of oversight in how the additional officers would be deployed; and
Whereas, Flexibility in how the 2020 CHP award is used would help the City to be more nimble in addressing future budget constraints and right-sizing the Police Department, and in using funds in novel ways to achieve a more profound impact on public safety beyond simply hiring sworn officers; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, By the Common Council of the City of Milwaukee, that the Department of Administration - Intergovernmental Relations Division (IRD) is directed to actively lobby the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to change the terms of the City’s 2020 COPS Hiring Program (CHP) grant to provide the City with greater flexibility in how grant funds will be used, and for similar flexibility in any future Department of Justice public safety grants awarded to the City; and, be it
Further Resolved, That IRD shall seek grant terms such that any changes in the implementation of the 2020 CHP award, or other similar awards from the Department of Justice, which are made possible by such flexibility, must be approved by the Mayor and the Common Council prior to implementation by the Police Department; and, be it
Further Resolved, That IRD shall include the substance of this resolution in the City of Milwaukee's Federal Legislative Package for the 117th United States Congress; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the City Clerk shall send copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, all members of Wisconsin's Congressional delegation and the U.S. Attorney General.
Requestor
Drafter
LRB176523-2
Dana J. Zelazny
January 20, 2021