Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

Public works meeting. On Thursday, 02/19/2026 at 9AM, I am vice chair Alderman Lamont Westmoreland. We are joined. All the way to the left, Alderman Larissa Taylor, Alderman Alex Brower. To my right, Alderman Robert Baumann.

And to my farthest right, Alderman Deandre Jackson. Starting with item one, file two five one seven seven zero substitute resolution authorizing the Department of Public Works to accept a gift from the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club for an asphalt hot box. Sponsored by Alderwoman Moore. Alderwoman Moore.

Thank you so much mister chair and committee members. This is such a great opportunity for the city. As we are looking at creative ideas on how to support residents, this opportunity that is presented before us from the brewers to provide resources for DPW and they'll talk a little bit more about what this thing actually does. I want to tell you that we get lots of calls and emails particularly during the wintertime around potholes. It's the bane of our existence.

Living here in the city of Milwaukee, we get lots of cold, snow, ice, and those are the things that impact our beautiful roads. In the winter, it can be really, really tough. And so the old method of how we typically, you know, patch up potholes is, you know, it it works for the time being, but it's definitely shortsighted and there's definitely an opportunity for us to do better. And so we have this amazing opportunity and I just want to thank our Milwaukee brewers for providing us with the resources. Definitely a win win for our city. I'll probably kick it off to Kevin to talk or okay. To jump in and talk a little bit more about it. But thank you so much.

Good morning, Chairman Wesmoreland and committee members. Jim Bowell, Department of Administration Innovation Office. First off, we want to thank Alderman Moore for her sponsorship of this individual file. What you do have before you today is a resolution that would allow the Department of Public Works to accept a gift from the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball organization for a large capacity asphalt hot box. There are in spring two typical rights of spring that we see.

One is the start of an exciting new baseball season of the Milwaukee Brewers and another one is potholes that seemingly abound our streets. The particular resolution you have before you allows the Department of Public Works to accept a donation from the Milwaukee Brewers for a large capacity asphalt hot box. This piece of equipment will enable the city to utilize asphalt material during extended periods of the year. Normally, our availability of hot patch is something that comes only in April and there's a lot of limitations with the cold patch. We also have to go and utilize asphalt material and go outside of the city to garner that.

If when you have a traditional hot box that material cools in the hot box, it renders it unuseful. It basically is a brick and you can't put a brick into a hole. And in the winter months we're restricted by cold patch which doesn't have the same ability. This particular piece of equipment will allow us to recycle, to utilize and store things that are unutilized overnight to actually heat it up. It provides a lot of flexibility and there are a number of additional safety measures for that.

So it will extend the ability to extend the season for the best means of filling potholes. That will be a huge plus to us. The particular measure also has a number of safety features that will be a benefit to our crews in getting material in and out. The Brewers organization wanted to be here today as you are probably very aware. The start of the baseball season started this week with the reporting of regular players and so that happened just a couple of days ago.

They were unable to be with us here today. But we are very excited for the opportunity as part of this agreement. The Department of Public Works will put decals on the asphalt hot box equipment that are multi brewer decals and as part of this agreement have agreed to do some stenciling, some minor stenciling in the roads with the Brewers logo. But other than that Kevin and Tom are here and can provide additional details of the equipment.

Mr. Chair? Yes, go ahead. This sounds all fine. Of all the things we could spend $27,000 on how did this rise to the surface?

Tom Weingren, Street Services Manager with DPW. This was a piece of equipment we were looking at regardless of conversations with the brewers. We had actually rented it last year with we found success with it. We really like it. We checked with our resources and it has good references used elsewhere. So we're confident about that.

A little approval.

Mister chair.

Yeah. Go ahead.

So what is this I understand the decals going on the equipment. And it sounds like it's it's good equipment because I think there was a whole big discussion over the coal patch before and how it might not be as effective. So this sounds like it will be much more effective having this piece of equipment. And then the stenciling on the roadway, yeah, you said minor stenciling? Is this like advertisement for the brewers, but yeah.

Sure. Yeah. So this the city gym in particular, think, was was originally approached by the brewers with this interest in a partnership, all the women and oh,

you said they've notified me you didn't introduce yourself.

You're correct. I forgot. You. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kevin Meeks, City Engineer, for the City of Milwaukee, and Chair and members of the committee. Alderman, thank you for the question. So the concept was to provide some sort of acknowledgment to the brewer's contribution in a public fashion. So the decals on the equipment is one piece of that and then the stenciling of up to of 75 locations of newly filled potholes is another element of that. So it will be the ball and glove logo.

Mr. Chair?

Yes, go ahead.

Quick question, Kevin. Can you talk a little bit about capacity because another one of my colleagues reached out and said, wait, do we need more than one as far as capacity to support what is typically the need for the city during our colder months? Whoever can Yeah.

The long term plan is to staff is to equip more than one. I think with it being a brand new operation to our staff as it sits right now, we want to make sure that it fits within the picture we imagine in our operation. So we're going to take it step by step, but we do have outlook for multiple.

Perfect. Thank you. Thanks, Mike.

So the pothole gets filled and then there's like the Brewers logo next to it or on on top of it? How does that The

intent is basically being selective about where it is in the roadway. We don't want our staff in the middle of an intersection, you know, worried about a stencil. So we're looking at kind of outside of the regular traffic trafficked area. It's gonna be on large enough patches to actually fit the logo. We're proposing a two by two stencil. And basically, on the new newly patch surface, it's just gonna be stenciled right on there.

Like top. Yep. So it'll it'll go away. Yes. It'll it'll Yeah. It'll It'll not permanent.

It's not permanent. Okay. It it would last longer than putting it next to it considering surface prep on a brand new surface. It's gonna hold it a little bit longer. It would be similar to a lot of utility markings. Variable according to weather and traffic.

Okay. Alright. That you? One more. You paint them or? Yeah. Go ahead. You got a question? Go ahead.

Yeah. I was just so I hate to, you know, kinda put this out there, but I just I'm curious. That money that's being donated, is it specific for it's like you get it and you have to use it specifically for this piece of equipment. There is no no other use for it. Allowable use.

Alderwoman, is for this particular piece of equipment. The $27,500 for this is not only the entirety of the equipment. The equipment is a little bit under $25,000 We did assess some cost for the equipment as well as the stencil in this and a little bit of time for even applying a small number of stencils in a row. It takes a little bit of time. We want I wanted to ensure that we weren't losing on that end. And so the boroughs generously agreed to at least compensate us for both of those ends. Thank you.

All right. Alderman Baumann has moved for adoption. Any objections? Hearing none, so ordered. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

You're welcome. Item 2251585. Resolution authorizing the Department of Public Works to accept a gift from the Daniel Hone Foundation to fund a route reports roadway condition monitoring pilot.

Good morning. I'll begin again. Chairman Westmoreland, committee members Jim Bowell, Department of Administration Innovation Office. This particular donation is one that was appeared before the committee last cycle. We are receiving a donation from the Daniel Hone Foundation for a street maintenance division vehicle mounted image processing technology cameras, two of them that would be part of a pilot that would be able to be mounted vehicles to assess roadway defects including like potholes, cracks in the roads.

I think even perhaps some of the technology at least has discussed if signage falls or is turned and things along those lines. There was an issue that was raised about whether or not our this creates an awareness for the city and whether or not as as you know if for those of you who chairman Jackson who sits before Jed Legg, the city always has the potential of a liability issue from individuals who drive their vehicles into a pothole and want to assess a claim against the city and there is a requirement by state law that there has to be a period of of a known danger and that the city had to not respond in a timely basis. The concern that was relayed as whether or not this particular equipment will create that mechanism of us knowing. We believe that having this equipment enable DPW to more efficiently have a knowledge and be able to establish crews that will more efficiently tackle that. We did internally look and have a discussion both with the Department of Public Works and the City Attorney's Office and we think that there is a mechanism that will allow us to limit any potential new liability and still catapult from the benefits of this.

Namely, one of the bigger concerns is if there is a known danger exception. Basically it's not all potholes are built the same. If you have a very small and narrow pothole that's not going to present the same level of danger or it's not going to do have the potential for damage. It is the ones that we see in the roads that from time to time are the big massive large deep potholes and the reporting of those create a higher level threshold for the city of Milwaukee and trigger our ability to respond. The benefit of this equipment that Kevin Muse alluded to at the last meeting is this equipment will enable the Department of

Public

Works through the camera technology to not only assess a relative size but also depth of potholes. That actually will enable the Department of Public Works to be able to sift off even in advance of potential residents calling in the dangers and be able to tackle the known bigger liabilities on a more timely basis. We also believe when it comes to the overall policy that there is a way for us to actually deal with this in a mean and manner without with limiting liability. And that is when the crews actually or the designated supervisors will drive through the streets, they'll have the ability to have the technology download all the data that it's pulling. We treat that initial information as a raw detection.

And if detection only becomes a known hazard if it crosses a threshold of potentially three triggers. One of the triggers is if a resident summarily winds up calling and reports something that either coincides. That could be something that we didn't pick up but anytime a resident calls that does trigger the city's response. Number two, the department of public works designated staff member validates a pothole that comes in even from that technology. And number three, it meets a policy defined emergency threshold.

So for example, even if that machinery is pulling up equipment, it could have very surface level ones and it has one that pulls up that is very, very deep and very dangerous. There is the ability to actually segment those dangerous ones off and be able to respond in a timely basis to those that do the most potential damage thus limiting the liability even before we have a formal complaint. And so we believe if we then confirm are able to confirm those that we can see the benefits of what this equipment will bring without expanding the potential liabilities. But we're appreciative of Baldwin and Baldwin for bringing this issue. It is one that certainly is very true for the city of Milwaukee.

But we think that there is at least a reasonable method and Kevin and I guess there's two Kevin's here with me here, one from the city attorney's office and one from the Department of Public They would be happy to expound on any additional questions.

Mister chair. That question. Alderman Jackson. Well, you

alluded to it, but so this information is gonna be internal? Like, is it gonna be just for you guys, your eyes only? Or is gonna go into the database with all other claims of piles and things?

I think he's talking I think, Alderman, you're talking about any data that is pulled from that

equipment whether that be internal? Public record.

It wouldn't be internal.

It it would be internal, but like anything else I mean it's potentially subject to a public record. And you know as you know I think you can drive the streets and one day you can see no pothole on the street and within two days it's like where did that come or something that's very minor turns major. You know The ability to draw this data, this data is going be influx all the time because of the nature of how potholes actually move and expand and grow and disappear when they're filled and resurrected again as well too. Overall, there's a benefit to this. I don't think that there's any intention to take this data and immediately put it on the city's website in the open portal.

It is for internal use and certainly there will be a verification mechanism that DPW will be looking to determine that. Is somebody could you find a law firm that would apply for an open record then they're probably looking at ten days items that are reported that are dangerous will already have been filled by that time. I guess we can play the cat and mouse game but I think we prefer not to attempt to try to run from our shadow here at the city when we have technology that can provide a benefit to our efforts. Mr.

Chairman, whenever you

No, I was just

going say can we hear from the attorney because that's why we held this was to get the city attorney to review it.

That's ACA, Kevin Todd. So the short answer to whether or not this will increase liability is probably yes. But it's a I would say probably yes in as much as the city's defense to a particular pothole claim is the lack of prior notice. There are other defenses that may or may not be available depending on the facts of the specific case. But the extent to which it would increase liability is impossible to quantify because this is a new technology.

This would be an issue of first impression in Wisconsin about when we receive notice, whether or not the hit on the visual computer system itself consists of notice. We have a lot of cameras around the city that we control, but just because a camera catches something doesn't necessarily mean that we are we have notice of a certain event or occurrence. And to the extent that it also goes to whether or not or the extent of which DPW has the ability to respond to those hits. My understanding is right now either DPW workers or they we receive some notification from the public, something like that where we then respond to a particular area and try to find the pothole and fill it. If the DPW has the additional capacity or can effectively respond to those in a timely manner, the increase in liability may be very slight or negligible.

But there is just because this is such a new technology and it hasn't been addressed by Wisconsin courts yet. You know, there there is a lot of of questions that you know, will be answered if this program goes forward.

And and to DPW, how are we going to step up our response times? Because we don't respond very well now to be honest with you. Every member of this council knows that from the reports we get from constituents in our own eyes.

Mhmm. Yeah. I appreciate the question, Alderman, Chair, members of the committee. Kevin Muse, City Engineer for the City Of Milwaukee. I think this is an attempt to do that. I mean, the biggest thing that we hope this allows us to do is to identify the severity of the potholes and in particular prioritize the severe potholes. The other piece of this is the efficiency of knowing where the potholes are when they're in a row. That is not how the public reports potholes to us. And so when we chase service requests, our ability to deploy is less efficient than it is right now. I think to be frank, in most cases when the public does report a pothole to us, they don't give us the information necessary to judge the severity of the pothole.

So it makes it difficult for us to do the chasing of those that may be most likely to lead to claims. So that's our hope for this technology is that it allows us to do that type of work.

Sure. And how many cameras are we installing and how many vehicles?

The pilot is for two. So, yeah.

It's just

a test of the technology. Right. Alderman Taylor.

Well, thank you because you just said two cameras. And I was just wondering how does that I don't know if you could have time to explain or could give a a detailed description but because I was looking at it and I said, well, okay. So, how do you do that if I I have a camera, right, on my dashboard. Right? I'm driving down the street, but when I see a pothole, I gotta get out, take a picture

Mhmm.

Send it into email, send it over to you guys. How does this technology how does it stop you from having to do that?

Sure. Absolutely. Thank you, Alderman. And I'll start and then maybe Tom can build if I either misspeak or to add additional detail here. So the basic thing here is we're buying a package. We're buying the camera system. We're buying the processing of the imagery that the camera system takes. And then we're buying the access to the software suite that will present that imagery to our supervisors

maintenance.

So it's all one package, one piece of one contract, so to speak, with route reports, the firm that's mentioned in the resolution. So the camera system is a dashboard cam, much like you were referencing. It is a very high resolution dashboard camera, probably higher resolution than those that a regular member of the public would tend to have on their dashboard. And it uses a proprietary algorithmic you know, AI, artificial intelligence system to read the imagery and identify pavement defects from that imagery and then it flags potential pavement defects for our supervisors to review.

Okay. Are those two you said you have two. So are you trying to cover the majority area of the city or?

Yes. When we started exploring this, we had long conversations about trying to figure out where these cameras should be to make sure we're getting the widest cross section possible of the city streets. So street maintenance is separated into a North District and a South District. And so we do have one camera for a supervisor for the North District and one of those vehicles and a camera in one of the vehicles for the South District. The supervisor vehicles are the basically short of like an MPD vehicle, the most random travel patterns across the city because they are covering their whole district. And so they're the most likely to capture a a wide variety of the roads in the city.

Alright. Thank you.

Since we are talking about potholes, can you explain when a crew arrives to a pothole? What do they do from beginning to end? What is like the what is the vibe the pothole bible say they should be doing?

Tom Wangrin, street services manager. So if you're talking about a patch crew, pothole bible would would dictate they get there, make sure that the traffic arrangement is safe, call in extra support if traffic support is needed. They they have kind of specialized brooms that are made specifically for potholes and they they're required to clean it out, prep the surface and they apply the asphalt patch and lifts so they if it's a deep enough pothole they will put a base course on it, tamp the base course and then finish with a wear course, tamp the wear course, potentially depending on the size of it, they'll roll it with the wheel of their vehicle and move to the next one.

Now if they don't so they're supposed to clean these potholes out. If they don't clean these potholes out, what could happen? It it. Patch does not last as long?

It it could affect the bond. Correct.

Okay. You know, I've seen crews just kind of not saying they all do this, but I've seen crews just dump it in there and leave. They don't roll over it. They don't tamp it down. And I've even talked to some of the crews, and they say, oh, we don't have to tamp it down.

If we have knowledge of potholes that have been filled incorrectly, do you go out there and dig this out and and start over? Like, what what what do you do? Have. You just wait for it to come out.

No, we have certainly done that. Okay. And we appreciate all notice of this type of behavior because we take it very seriously. Right. We have implemented software where, you know, the crew is required to take a before and after photo. Right. We use that for quality control and we would definitely appreciate knowledge of any of these infractions to our procedure. Can the inside

of the pothole be wet when it is being filled?

So with our we have a cold patch material that were that is water activated that we tend to use on wet days and that absolutely it can be wet. It's not ideal if there's moisture but.

What about the hot patch?

With the hot patch, it's not ideal if there's moisture but we have to make a decision on whether or not we let that sit or we do it just short of perfect, you know, the day of.

Right. And I know, you know, sitting on the jail led committee, I've learned that, you know, if the city's liable or not, it's dependent on when the city has notice of that pothole. So if we arrive to a pothole and we determine like it's too wet or it's filled with water, etcetera, we can't fill it. Somebody hits it and files a claim. Are we liable or can we say we couldn't fill it because of the condition?

It's it would really depend on the specific factual circumstances, how long the pothole is there, how long we've had notice, whether or not we have the opportunity to actually fill the pothole. It's hard to answer hypotheticals in a vacuum. In that case, I mean, this would be an argument for courts, but not something that we're I'm going to say like absolutely we would be liable or absolutely we wouldn't be liable. I think a judge would make that decision. We would obviously argue that we wouldn't be liable in

that case.

Got it. Okay. Any motion?

Okay.

Madam, that

is true.

Alderman Brower.

Yeah. Thank you so much. I really like the idea of us being proactive in some sort of systematic way. The volunteers who are doing canvassing for my office, do I ask them to report puddles? So theoretically, they're walking down a single street or the ward, they are reporting those things and taking a picture in there, but that's not as systematic as this. And, you know, they're not professionals in what we're doing, you know, with this.

They might not be

able to identify all the things. I mean, I will say that, like, you know, when I did the ride along with the with the crew, with the asphalt patch crew, I mean, it is there is so much time that is spent between going up near Butler to get the truck loaded up, and that's the only because we don't have an asphalt plant, that's where we where we go. I mean, for every piece of the city, even if it's by the airport, we're going to Butler to get it loaded up to go down to a portion of the city and then empty the truck at various locations in ideally in a geographical area until we then load the truck back up again. And that I mean, that's kind of the pattern it seems for the for those crews. So anywhere we can get that's you know, if we can find stretch of road that has, like, six issues on it in a five or six block area, that can be incredibly efficient in the use of our time.

I mean, I just like so I really appreciate that. I mean, we do have to do we have to figure out some sort of systemic way. So this resolution, I think attempts to do that. I think it'll I think it'll result in what we want, you know, which is that we can find, like, a whole string. You just go down Locust or Layton or whatever and just our capital and just boom boom and get them as we go down with one truckload or potentially multiple truckloads and they're all the same area and it's a lot more efficient with their time. So, I I support this motion.

Alright. Motion for adoption by Alderman Brower. No. Bowman.

Bowman, I think made the motion.

I'm sorry. Bowman. I'm

with it. I think I'm fine.

Okay.

I just want the city attorney to review it. It's gonna it doesn't increase our exposure to liability. So okay.

Alright. Motion is for adoption by Alderman Bowman. No. We're good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You. Report

it on paper.

Item 3251. It hit. 746. Resolution determining it necessary to make various non accessible public improvements at various locations and appropriating funds for these purposes with the city engineering cost estimate it to be $15,000 for a total estimated cost of these projects being a $150,000. Good morning.

Good morning. Holly Ruttenbach with DPW. I do have a proposed substitute on this file. And this is for setting up engineering funding on

Got it.

It's not accessible part.

Alderman Jackson accepts the substitute.

I wanna see it first. You just can't.

Oh, you want me to see it? No. It's okay. Anybody see the substitute? Okay. Alderman Taylor. Yeah. Is it good with the substitute? No objections to order. So

Holly written back with DPW. This is for setting up engineering on various DPW future contracts.

Move approval. Move adoption, right? Move move Alderman Baumann here moves adoption. Hearing no objections are ordered. Okay. Item four. Two five one seven four seven. Resolution of pro approving construction of non accessible public improvements at various locations and appropriating funds for these purposes with the city. Construction cost estimated to be 10,842,000 for a total estimated cost of these projects being 11,641,000. There is a substitute Alderman Baumann accepts the substitute. Here are no objections to order.

Good morning. Holly Ruttenbach with DPW. This is for setting up construction funding on various DPW contracts.

Move adoption. Alderman Bowman moves adoption. Here in objection so ordered. Item five, two five one seven four eight resolution authorizing the commissioner of public works execute project agreement titled cost sharing memo of understanding between the City Of Milwaukee's public department of public works, DPW, and the Milwaukee County Transit System. For the cost sharing of construction for asphalt surface overlay on North Holly Road and West Wisconsin Avenue in the 10th Aldermanic District.

Good morning. Holly Ruttenbach with DPW. Milwaukee County Transit had reached out to DPW last year and had indicated that they had additional funding remaining on the grant that they had received for the bus rapid transit. And with that funding, they were looking to make improvements in the bus rapid transit lanes. So DPW evaluated the entire line of the bus rapid transit and identified both North Holly Road and a small portion on West Wisconsin Avenue that was in poor condition where we would be looking to partner with Milwaukee County Transit to actually resurface the roadway in those select locations along the Bus Rapid Transit line.

Move approval. Alderman Brower moves for adoption. Hearing no objections.

So ordered.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item 6251730. Resolution directing the commissioner of public works to execute a document titled first revision state municipal agreement for a state led highway project with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for the programming, design, real estate, acquisition, and construction of West Fond Du Lac Avenue from North 19th Street to North 12th Street to set up funds for design, engineering, and an estimated cost of $524,100 with an estimated city share of $131,000 $24 and a grantor share of $393,076 and to set up funds for real estate acquisition at an estimated cost of $100,000 with an estimated city share of $0 and a grantor share of $100,000

Good morning. Good morning. Good I'm Major Projects Manager.

Good morning. Good morning. What would like know? I don't have any questions. Any questions? Move adoption. Move adoption. Alderman Baumann here. No objections. So ordered. Item seven, two five one seven three one, resolution directing the commissioner of public works to execute a document titled state municipal financial agreement for a state led highway project with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for the programming design and construction of North 76th Street from Lorraine Place to Free Brents Avenue and to set up funds for design engineering at an estimated total cost of 240,000 with an estimated city share of 60,000 and a grand tour share of 180,000. Good morning again. Good morning. Any questions? Hearing no question.

No

objection. Alderman Bowman moves adoption hearing. No objection. So ordered. Item eight, two five one seven three two. Resolution directing the commissioner of public works to execute a document title state municipal financial agreement for a state led highway project with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for the programming design, real estate acquisition, and construction of South Kennekenick. First time I'm saying that publicly.

Did I

say that right? Mhmm. Kennekenick.

Yes, Kennekenick.

You bet. AKA KK. Avenue from East Morgan Avenue from Fulton Street to set up funds for design engineering at an estimated total cost of $2,100,000 with an estimated city share of $525,000 and a grantor share of $1,575,000 and to set up funds for real estate acquisition at an estimated total cost of 110,000 with an estimated city share of $0 and a grantor share of $110,000. Move adoption again. Okay.

Alderman Bowman moves adoption. No objection. So city of Milwaukee Milwaukee for cost participation for the design of Morgan Avenue at intersections with 20th, 16th, 13th, And 6th Streets with a total estimated cost increase for the project of 25,000 with an estimated grantor share of $0 and estimated city city share share of of $20.25 5,000 thousand dollars. Dollars. Any

questions? Question, mister chair. Chairman Jackson. Transferring from where?

Excuse me. The the dollars? Yeah. From the city count, I guess.

Oh, just from the general? Yes.

It just say transfer. It doesn't say where from.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

The controller handles that. Okay. I'm good. Move adoption.

Okay. Autumn Jackson moves adoption. Any objections? Hearing none. So order. Autumn Taylor.

I'd like to actually go back. I do have a a real quick question. Can I reconsider number seven?

Otto Woman Taylor moves to reconsider item number seven. Any objections? No. Hearing none. So ordered. Go

ahead. So my reconsideration is I apologize that I didn't catch before, but I get a lot of questions about 76th Street because it's You see the dog? It's it's real busy, and a lot of people just wanna know, like, what we're doing. And this is not a very long stretch The finish of 76th Street. So how do we determine which parts of that street is going to be repaired and and working with DOT? How do you determine that? Yep. Because people are asking for the entire 76th Street to be able

to So, going be type of projects start to show up as they are also under the same DOJ requirement of getting all the curb ramps up to current standards by, I think, 2037. And so a lot of these projects are going to be preservation style projects like an overlay and getting the curb ramps up to date. That's not to say as this process moves through scoping and design and they start to schedule the years, if the concern is the pavement gets worse, there's other safety issues that more can't be done. But that's what we're trying to set up now is that initial stage of looking at these projects, trying to determine what they really need, when they're going to get to it. And through any course of project, we will meet with the public as well to get input from them.

We'll with the next next with what to own. Going a And to

get And could you say we have a state trunk parts and state traffic parts? And I'm and I'll tell you why I'm concerned because a portion of this sits in District 9 Mhmm. And we've had two deaths. And so every time I have a meeting, I keep getting these questions about what are you gonna do about this area where these two deaths occurred?

Sure. And

so that would be part of, you know, right now, they are simply programming all of their state trunk system and the connecting highway system to address primarily a lot of these that are going to be forthcoming are to address the curb ramps. And that's just the initial start. And so as they go through and they look at crash history and other incidents like fatalities, that puts a bigger pressure on to look at other things that they can do as part of the project to address some of these issues.

Okay. I would like to have more conversation offline regarding how to just look at different solutions at different for different areas especially along that particular road.

Definitely. Feel free to reach out to me anytime.

Thank you. Okay.

We were considered. What do we do? We have to have another motion.

I have a motion to adopt.

Okay. Motion to adopt item seven. Objections? Hearing none so ordered. That takes us to we had item Ten. Ten?

Is that the 09:30 for you?

We gotta wait till who?

Yeah. It's after. Thanks, David. Item 10. 250962. Motion relating to the recommendation of the public works committee related to licenses. Do we have Milton Madison present?

Public passenger actually, public passenger

Good morning. Good morning.

Of perjury of the state of Wisconsin that the testimony you're about to give is the truth and only the truth?

Yeah. Know. Are you in receipt of notice of today's meeting with a possibility that your application may be denied.

I am very well aware of that.

Okay. Please state your name and address for the record.

Milton Madison. You said my address. Right? Yes. 4346 North 48th Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Okay. Jim, are there any holds?

No holds, mister chair.

Sergeant Velasquez, is there a police report?

The applicant is on parole for first degree murder. Email notification to Wisconsin Department of Corrections on 01/2726 requesting to provide information to license division regarding the parole status and the end date of the status.

And, sir? Yes, sir. There is

a letter in your file from the DOC indicating this licensure would not be in violation of the terms of his release.

Got it. Mister chair? Yeah.

Go ahead. What was the date of the offense?

The offense was 11/30/1991.

'91. Okay.

So you were sentenced under the old sentencing law where parole was still possible basically? Yes. You reached your mandatory release date?

No. With that license any license, you don't have a mandatory release date, but you do go in and do what you're supposed to do as far as, you know, what the DOC recommends, as far as programming and all of that, and you reach a parole date and they deem you eligible. But when were you paroled? 2016.

Okay. So you've been out for nine years now.

Ten Approximately nine years. Almost ten years.

With approval. I wanna ask, do you do you wanna speak to the police report that we have? Sure. I will. Okay.

But don't say you're winning. Don't say too much.

Oh, no. No. No. It's nothing like that. I mean, as far as the police report, I mean, I I did what I did. I own that. I that and I've owned it from the beginning. I never went to trial. So I pleaded guilty to it and, I mean, poor choices. As far as mister Brown's family, my victim, you know, not only did I victimize him and his family, I caused his death, but his family as well.

And looking back, hindsight being twenty twenty, his family weren't the only ones victimized. I victimized my own. I had children out here that I left out here. You know? And by the grace of god, I mean, I have my parents and the mothers that were making sure I was able to keep a relationship with my children. And I just instilled in them, you know, don't live the life I was living. Don't do the things I was doing. Because they could end up in here doing the same thing I was doing, trying to raise your children from prison. And it's pretty much hard. You just hope that, you know, they listen.

And my idea, no troubles. The thing is this year. I missed out important events in their lives that a father should have been there. And I was out here living this life of trying to give my children everything that I didn't have. In the process, I wouldn't giving them what they needed. And that was that father time. That important. That was very important in a child's life. But I thank god that they turned out the way they did. Darn.

I mean, as far as the police report, the police report, report, it is what it is. I can't change that. I'm not trying to change it. I gave up a job to take this job. I had a job. I've been working since I came down here in 2016 to Marshall Shear as a driver. I drove those guys. I was the only driver they had until mister Landerman decided he was gonna let me go, give me a grant because I was doing everything I was supposed to do. So I drove those guys to work, and he told them that he didn't want me driving anymore. He wanted me to have a job.

I got a job working out in Waukesha. I worked that job for five years. I found another job closer to home, making it slightly less money, but I figured, you understand, with the gas, it would, you know, it would compensate and it did. Me being 65 now and the job I took, eventually, the wear and tear of living half heavy stuff, it kinda starts wearing on my body. So I found this job with Transdev.

Which I thought was good because at the same time, I'm looking at it like this. I'm doing something for the community, something that I don't mind doing because now since I've been home, I've been taking care of elderly people in my family and family stray. They don't care nothing about it. Our elderly now. They really don't. So I have a stepdad that came into my life in 1971. And my mom passed away in o eight, but they were together all that time. And now all he wants to do is go get lottery tickets. That's what I do. I take him to get his lottery tickets when I get off work.

And I know the stories I hear that he we talk about on a daily, every day. I've heard these stories over and over, but they just want somebody to listen to him. Mhmm. And that's what I do for him. I have a elderly auntie. You know? I don't mind doing that. So working with these people, I figured, okay. Taking them to where they wanna go, Walmart, Potawatomi, doctor's appointments, it's really not an issue. And if I'm working and getting paid for it and paying my bills, I'm good with that.

You know? So I took this job here not knowing that this report was gonna be on the back end of it because this wasn't explained to me. So there's no way I'd have gave up a job to take a job.

Okay. No. We got Mister chair, just just for your for your information. The police are required to object based on the existence of the police report and then we evaluate whether it could have any impact on the work that you're proposing to do. Right. With this license.

Right.

And we're concluding it doesn't. So, require personnel. They're required to review records and then if there are any to come here and report them. All they're doing is reporting because they're required under our rules to do

that. Yeah.

And I I understand. I mean, they have a job to do. And just on the back end of this, I love this city. I've been here since 1965. I come here from Mississippi. And when I went in, it was bad. Our city is atrocious, man. It really is. And it's not to put the city down. Stuff that goes on in our city and I I look at it and I'm like, I can't help but think, was I a part of the way it is now? With the things that I was doing prior to going to prison. It's like Mister Chi.

Okay. Thank you. Does the committee, anybody in the committee have any questions about the police report?

No. I don't have any questions about the police report but I was just gonna second the motion that Alderman Bowman put out.

Go ahead.

Just let him know that, you know, we hear you. We hear your, explanation, and we're willing to move forward with, granting you your license. So I would just say good luck with that.

Okay. Before we get to that, are there any neighbors present that wish to testify? Let the record reflect that there are no neighbors present to testify. Alright. We're in committee. Sounds like you're going member the board. Member to I it

up tomorrow.

Can

March 3. March 3? Okay. So, I don't need to go downstairs anymore.

No. No. No. You can pick it up. You can go downstairs on the third. Everyone's gonna

Alright. Now, we're gonna move forward to item Here. This item actually is going to be held at the request of Alderman Cox who is not present today. She's excused from the meeting. So, we're going to hold this and he'll be noticed on appearance for the next meeting.

Next public works. Okay. Meeting.

Yeah. Hold on.

Alright. The motion on the floor by order, Min Jackson is.

Is this an airport case?

No. This

was this was heard This was heard before. It wasn't before the

airport making side deals?

No, that

was that was a different. No.

But that

was a different time. Yeah.

Motion of go order member hour.

Yeah. Just I and this is only we debate we debated prior. We moved it and then it was that was sent done. We'll done. Done.

And

application. Okay.

Alright. The motion on the floor is by Alderman Jackson Bowman. Which one? Alderman Jackson, hold to the college chair. Hearing objection. So ordered. This concludes Yeah. Meeting with no further business. We're adjourned.

Well, that was quick for you.