Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has been promoting his work with African American Milwaukeeans as he campaigns for re-election. But his record in office seems to have a troubling pattern when it comes to employing African Americans.
On the heels of a suit filed by Doris Ellison, an African American certified nursing assistant who was transferred from a first-shift job to a third-shift position at the county’s mental health hospital, Abele’s interim director of the Department on Aging alleges that Abele is racially discriminating against her, too.
Jonette Arms wouldn’t talk to the Shepherd about her allegations, but her complaint filed with the state’s Department of Workforce Development Equal Rights Division and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission speaks volumes about how Abele has treated her.
Arms, an African American, has been the interim director of the Department on Aging since Stephanie Sue Stein, the longtime director, retired in June 2015. Stein, a white woman, recommended Arms to succeed her, Abele made Arms the interim director, and 14 of the 16 members of the Commission on Aging (two were unavailable) supported her promotion to permanent director.
But Abele hasn’t promoted Arms.
As the Shepherd can report exclusively, according to Arms’ complaint, Abele treats Arms differently than his other department heads, none of whom are African American.
Arms’ complaint even alleges that Abele’s chief of staff reprimanded her for not lying to county supervisors about why Abele hasn’t promoted her to permanent director status.
No African American Department Heads
According to Arms’ complaint, after she became interim director last year, Abele and his chief of staff, Raisa Koltun, began treating Arms adversely, which Arms says is due to her race. Abele and Koltun aren’t paying Arms what Stein was paid; are prohibiting her from speaking to the media; are denying her the right to carry over her 2015 vacation time; are undermining Arms’ authority with her subordinates; and transferred out the department’s financial officer without notifying Arms, among other things.
Perhaps most damningly, Koltun told Arms that Abele was holding appointments until after the November budget process, yet he appointed a new airport director during that time. Ismael “Izzy” Bonilla, who began his tenure as the airport director this month, is not African American.
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“County Executive Chris Abele had decided only to hold appointments of African Americans,” the complaint reads.
Even worse, in January, when county supervisors asked Arms why her appointment was stalled, she didn’t say anything. Five days later, the complaint alleges, Koltun “orally reprimanded [Arms] for not responding to the County Board member’s inquiry by stating that [Arms] had an agreement with County Executive Chris Abele that her appointment would not be made until after the election. In fact, there was no such agreement.”
State Takeover of County’s Department on Aging?
When contacted for Abele’s response, his spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff emailed, “The county executive takes seriously any allegations that we receive. While I can confirm that no discrimination based on race, or any other factor, occurred in this instance, we can’t comment further on an open legal matter. We plan to do a search for a new department head, and as we’ve told Ms. Arms, we hope she applies for the position.”
But County Supervisor Steve Taylor from Franklin, a member of the county’s Commission on Aging, has been urging Abele for months to make Arms the permanent director, calling her “well respected and admired.”
Taylor said he couldn’t say for sure if Abele was discriminating against Arms because of her race, but noted that other interim directors were able to speak publicly and be the face of their departments before they took permanent positions with the county. All of those interim directors, Taylor pointed out, were white.
“She’s definitely being treated differently than other department heads,” Taylor said.
The Franklin supervisor said he’s concerned that Arms will face retaliation for filing her complaint. He’s also warned that Abele seeks to merge the county’s Department on Aging with the state Department of Health and Human Services, which Taylor says would be a mistake.
“We’re the ones who are close to these people and understand their needs,” Taylor said.
