Business Improvement District Board #5 (westown Area) - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you.

Everyone, welcome to the Community and Economic Development Committee. I am the Chairman Alderman Russell Stamper II. To my furthest right is Alderman Mark Chambers. To his left is Alderwoman Marina Dimitrievich. To my immediate left is our staff assistant, Ms. Carmen Roman. And to her left is Alderwoman Moore. And to her left is Alderman Jackson. welcome so i am delighted to see this many young people here i understand that you're a guest of older woman more please raise your hand if you are a leader no leaders okay leaders all the leaders come on up leaders come on up only leaders If you're a leader, I'm already calling up leaders. Everybody else can sit back and follow. But let me see some leaders. All right, leaders. Yeah, you look like a leader.

And Chair, this is the Common Council Youth Intern. So these are all of our interns.

Awesome. Awesome. So young people, thank you for coming down to witness Alderman at Work. The city of government, this is how the city of Milwaukee does business. We're more than happy to have you. All the way more, these are your guests. I would like for you to introduce them and let us know what's going on. Unless we have a leader I'd like to introduce and let us know why you guys are here today. Where's the leader? Can I get a leader? My man, look, me and you got the gold chain. Let's do it. You got the gold chain on like me, man. You can be just right here just like me one day since you got the gold chain. Please introduce yourself and let us know who you guys are.

I'm D'Angelo.

I go to Riverside University.

A little closer to it. Okay. I'm D'Angelo. I go to Riverside. I'm an upcoming senior, and I joined this internship to get more into this type of field that y'all are doing and learn more about the city.

Excellent, excellent, excellent. Young lady?

My name is Celine. I am a rising senior at Hmong American Peace Academy, and I'm here to just learn about what happens here in the city while I'm at home.

Excellent, excellent, excellent.

Young lady.

Okay, hi, everybody. I'm Samira, and I go to Marquette University. I'm actually, or I just finished my first year, and I actually did this program last year, so I'm looking forward to doing a lot of the same things and helping Ms. Charlene out, but also seeing, like, Just general city things, you know, city departments, all that good stuff. What else did you want to say?

And you're a former?

I'm also a former youth council member.

Awesome.

Representing the 13th district.

Awesome. Thank you for coming down.

Hi. Hi. My name is Anaya. I'm an uprising senior, and I basically joined this program because I didn't want to be a couch potato. My mom was like, you're either going to get about this house or you're going to be cleaning this house. You're going to be doing something. So I decided to do something where I could pick up good habits further down the line.

Excellent. Excellent. Hi.

Hi. I'm Jacqueline. I just graduated from Riverside University High School.

Go Tigers.

And I joined this program because I'm a part of the Milwaukee Youth Council. So it's kind of just like an extension to that.

Excellent. Excellent. Good. Yes.

Hi, I'm Serena. I'm a rising sophomore at the Hmong American Peace Academy. And I'm a youth council member at large. And I joined this internship to really just see like all the range of like law and government and like the work in it. And also follow Ms. Sharlin around in her day to day because she's so busy.

All right young lady I'm Corinne I go to first King and I'm upcoming sophomore and I joined this because I wanted to be more involved in my community and I'm also a part of these council awesome awesome laughs, but we got to

Hi, everyone. My name is Agent McGillmore. I represent the 15th District. I'm a rising senior, and I attend Walters East High School. This is my actually second year living in Charlene, and I'm so honored. I feel like I joined the game to just get more experience, learn more about the government, to get a deeper dive of what I want to do towards my future. Yes. Excellent.

I got a question for you. Who's your alderman?

You!

You!

All right, young man, you have the floor. Last but definitely not least.

I'm Kai Weiss. I'm entering my senior year. I attend Bader Hill High. It's located in Glendale. Okay. And I attended, I registered for this internship because I want to know more about politics and, like, the pathway that you'd have to take to enter this sort of field and what exactly happens and stuff like that.

Awesome, awesome. All right, young people. Alderman Morris, thank you for bringing them. Would you like to make some comments before we get into city business? Absolutely.

I just want to, so we have a total of 10 interns. So we decided to do internship a little bit different. So the hope is that all of the interns get an opportunity to go into every single district. So we'll be contacting you to see if there are events or opportunities. They've been at a lot of press conferences. We've driven over some potholes and some speed bumps. It's been very interesting, but they're, you know, again, getting engaged in all things city government is not just sitting behind a desk, you know, or filing paper. It's about all the different many departments that make the city operational. And so we're going to be able to experience a snippet, you know, of what that is because there's so, so much to do. And today we just met with Vision Zero and had an opportunity to connect with Mariah, who is an amazing influencer. So we'll be posting, but you'll see us out. So say hi to us. Absolutely. Thank you all so much. Thank you.

Can I ask if we have opportunities? Because I remember you mentioned, and I have had a couple, but I'm going to have a couple more. Should we just kind of go through? Can you reach out to me? Yes, please. Because I would like you to see some in the district stuff. I would love that. We would love that. All the Roman is correct in that. It's not always 50-50, but some weeks it could be 80-20. But we're in City Hall. That's where a lot of the decisions are made. But a lot of the community work, of course, is outside of these walls, right? So just trying to understand. And I think that's probably one of the most misunderstood parts of our job is what it kind of looks like day-to-day. So I'll definitely invite you into my district. I would love to have you. Such a good-looking group of people, too. So thank you. Thank you so much, Alderman.

Does anybody know what an alderman does? Who wants to take a shot at that? Who's on the youth council?

That was, uh-oh, yeah. Listen, you have right here on the youth council. So what are you doing on the youth council? Go ahead, take a stab at it. What do we do on the youth council? The question was, what does an older person do?

Okay, my fellow youth council people can also add stuff. There you go, right. But right now, as a member at large on the Youth Council, we really just engage in talking about like current issues. So right now we're like touching on like ICE and like publicizing that. But also we're also like delegating grants. So just like all citywide issues and just making sure that we're good representatives for our districts and city as a whole.

That's what we do.

Yeah.

Our ultimate job is to support this community. Help build his community, but most importantly, bring resources to his community. Or her community. Or her community. So that's what we do, you guys. And we're hired by the people on the local level, which means we're the closest to government to the people. And people calling their aldermen for mostly every issue. And we have to determine if it's state, federal, or county. But we get most of the calls because we're the city representatives. All right? Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much. That was great.

We'll see you soon.

All right, let's get down to business. Item number one, 260341, appointment of Christian Kerserka to the business improvement district number 26 by the mayor. Miss Christian Kerserka, are you available?

I am.

Hi. Hi. Is it Kerserka or is it Kerska?

It's Kerska.

I think I was closer than Alderman Chambers.

How are you doing today, Ms. Christian? Appreciate the humor. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Let's see. Tell us why you would like to be involved in the bid.

Well, just to give you a little bit of background, I'm with the Sigma Group and we've been within the Menominee Valley for 22 years. Personally, I have been working on valley redevelopment since 1999 in conjunction with the City of Milwaukee. So the valley in and of itself and the bid district is near and dear to me on a professional level, certainly, but also on a personal level because I've invested the majority of my career to helping improve that area. So this seems like a logical next step for me to take with regard to the momentum that was created with the redevelopment and keeping that going and serving the businesses, including our own within the bid.

Sounds good.

I agree with you. Excellent. Thank you for your service. Do we have any questions or comments by the committee? Hearing none, Alderman Chambers moves for your confirmation. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Thank you so much and have a great day. Thank you. Number two, 260342, appointment of Sandra Armstrong to the business improvement district number 26 by the mayor. Ms. Armstrong, are you available? Ms. Armstrong, good afternoon.

Yes, my apologies. I was muted.

That's okay. Thank you for your attendance today. We appreciate your willingness to serve. Let us know why you would like to serve on this board.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Um, well as owner, uh, owner of citywide facility solutions, uh, we've been located in the Valley for about 12 years and, um, I've always believed businesses have a responsibility to do more than just operate within a community, but we should help strengthen it. Um, so I've been working with Katrina on various projects throughout the years and she knows, um, my, my passion for bringing people together within the Valley and, um, seeing what we can do for the greater good. And that's really the impetus behind why I would want to serve as part of the Business Improvement District. And through our company, every day I have the privilege of working with hundreds of local businesses, property owners, service partners throughout Milwaukee. So it gives me a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities that are facing our commercial districts. So I want to use that perspective to help create a cleaner, a safer, a more vibrant opportunity that'll benefit the entire community.

Excellent, excellent. That's wonderful. Thank you so much for all those comments and what you're going to do over there. Let's see if we have any questions or comments by the committee. Do we have any? Hearing none, Alderman Jackson moves for your confirmation. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Thank you so much, Ms. Armstrong.

Thank you.

Have a good day. 260343, appointment of Deantrum King to the Business Improvement District, number 37 by the Mayor, Deantrum King. How are you? I'm here. All right, all right. This is an appointment for you, Mr. King. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Let us know why you would like to serve.

Well, just originally starting off coming from the city of Chicago and now being in Milwaukee, just the love that Milwaukee has shown since I've been here. Again, welcome me into the city, but also being able to connect in my work that I do now. I'm a huge passion for connecting resources whether that be from business to business or resources amongst the businesses to the residents themselves so a big part of what i do now my passion is about that connectivity and being on this board will allow me another opportunity to again connect a lot of those resources while also again meeting some individuals amongst the city i haven't had the opportunity to just yet wonderful wonderful we appreciate that man and welcome to milwaukee how long you been here I've been here about 14 years, so I'm deciding amongst my family right now. We're trying to figure out, am I officially a Wisconsinite now, or can I still claim Chicago?

Okay, now the question is going to be, you know where I'm going. You took my question.

Go ahead. You already got it. Hey, man, who you rooting for, bro? I know that's the follow-up question, and you already know who I'm rooting for. I got to stay with my Chicago home team. Hey, boo the hoes.

Boo the hoes. Boo the hoes disappointment.

I probably should have got the confirmation before I answered that, right? Mr. King, your confirmation has been denied. With that, Alderman Chambers moves for your approval. Thank you for your willingness to serve, man. You have a good day. All right, moving on to number four, item 260335. This is a resolution appropriating $10,000 from the Economic Development Committee Fund for the 2nd District Back to School Festival. We have an incorrect sponsor. That's supposed to be Alderman Stamper. For the record, please change that to Alderman Stamper. This is a sponsorship that we support annually. I'm going to let Alderman Chambers talk about his program, but I'm happy to support this economic development fund. It brings economic opportunity, prosperity, as well as opportunity to the area for young people and for families. It definitely fits the criteria for the Economic Development Fund. Happy to support year after year. Alderman Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're so delighted to celebrate the fourth annual Second District Back to School Festival, Sunday, August 30th. Same place, the Indigenous People Park, 7301 West... Last year, with the help of the economic fund, we were able to hire youth to come and provide clean up, hire them to just make sure to keep the areas clean and also pass out food and be runners for the vendors that's there. We were able to help over 2,000 families with back to school resources, fully stuffed book bags, laptops. graphing calculators, you name it, we did it. So, you know, excited for, you know, get back in the swing of things and start the youth off on a good foot for the upcoming school year. So I really appreciate it and move approval at the appropriate time. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

How many people? How many children did you serve?

Man, we had 2,100 book bags total. Nice, nice. Fully stuffed. Fully stuffed with everything that was on the Milwaukee Public Schools supply list, minus clothes, obviously.

That's excellent, man. Keep up the excellent work for our young people. Any more comments or questions for the committee? Mr. Chair.

Alderwoman Moore. Thank you so much. I just want to, you know, give my kudos to Alderman Chambers. I unfortunately missed last year because I think I might have been out of town, but I heard it went really well. But the year before, I also participated and volunteered. And it was I was elated to see so many folks turn out for this back to school festival. And it doesn't diminish, you know, this is the time where so many people do back-to-school festivals, but to know that so many partners came together to support this extraordinary initiative. So I would absolutely, you know, just give him his flowers. It's just an amazing community event. And I think point of order, would it be appropriate for him to – to move approval or would it make sense for one of us to move approval?

Well, because I'm the sponsor, it's okay for him to make the approval. So I'm actually sponsored. And not to mention the bikes too.

Oh, yeah. You had hundreds of bikes.

It was just, oh my gosh, amazing. I think we're actually adding more this year because we have a hopeful new partnership to announce soon. Excellent.

And people always like to see the city has their skin in the game. Absolutely. All right.

Chambers, did you give the dates? Sunday, August 30th, 12 noon to 4 p.m. at Indigenous People Park. All right. 7301 West Courtland Avenue.

Awesome. All right, Chambers. Moves for confirmation, adoption, hearing no objections. So, order number five. 260352 resolution relating to the establishment of this year's 20, next year, sorry, 2027 funding allocation plan sponsored by me. Every year we receive a certain amount of funds from the federal government. Our job is to disperse it throughout the community for community development, engagement, just overall improvement, all aspects of community development. Ms. Vanessa and Director Higgins, you have the floor.

All right, good afternoon. I'm Vanessa Carmona-Lewis, Associate Director for the Community Development Grants Administration, and I'll let Mario present himself.

Hopefully you can hear me, because right now I'm having issues with trying to hear you guys. Right now I can hear you, but I have to keep my phone on mute. The Community Development Grants Administration Director, that's why I was out today for some emergency contractor issues. So I asked Vanessa at the last minute here to see if she could present this for me. So we'll allow her to do so. I will allow her to do that. Awesome. Awesome. All right, Vanessa, you have the floor. Thank you.

All right. Good afternoon. Thank you. So we wanted to present the funding allocation plan for 2027. Really just presenting it. We're not going to walk through it today. We'd really like time for you all to have to review it, especially before the public hearings. We will be having two public hearings in July. The first will happen on July 15th at St. Augustine's Preparatory Academy. And then the second one will be the following day on July 16th at DPWs building 35th Street and so wanted to make sure that we presented it Once you have time to review you'll kind of see that we are presenting it with a little bit of a reduction based off of all of the activity and the Kind of I would say planning that the federal committee has done through Congress. We are seeing a decrease a little bit in that funding. So we're kind of preparing that for 2027 for CBG and home.

What percentage would you say? I think it was a couple million?

Yes, possibly. We haven't seen as sharp of a decrease, mostly just because it depends on the amount of jurisdictions that receive the funding for all the jurisdictions that receive it. So it just kind of depends on how that funding gets allocated to everyone.

Kind of like we did last year, and it just worked out, so hopefully. Yes. All right, well, okay, what do we have? Did you want to just tell us how much we have and which category is getting what, and then we'll look to the funding allocation plan presentation. Hopefully everybody can make it. Please, committee, when you get a chance, check your emails and respond so we can put that out there in the neighborhood, I mean, in the community. You want to tell us the release date for the press conference and all the press release and all of that?

yeah sure so um right now maybe what i'll start with is um what we're anticipating the funding is going to look like um for cdbg we're anticipating about 14.8 million okay um home 4.3 okay esg 1.3 and hopwa 1.5 all right um and in the allocation plan you'll kind of see um in the attachment slide nine you'll see where the trends have kind of been decreasing and then what how we're trying to Handle that, manage that.

All right, questions by the committee?

Vanessa, Director, thank you all so much. I'm sure you guys will be more than open to receive questions from us if we do have any questions. Other than that, thank you for all your hard work on this year's funding allocation plan. We look forward to the two presentations. The sooner you can get it to us, the sooner we can announce it and invite everybody. This is your opportunity to apply for some funds that are flexible with for community work.

Yes.

So we'd like to...

Sorry, I wanted to make sure, because you asked about publishing it. It is on the website, so folks can take a look at it. It is on the website, and the dates have also been placed on the website as well.

Okay, so it's ready. Yep. All right, so we can... So, colleagues, whenever you guys are ready, you can start promoting the funding allocation plan.

Yep, I move that.

approval. All right. Auto Woman Moore moves for adoption. Hearing no objections or order. Everybody, thank you so much for coming to today's CED. Meeting is adjourned.