Common Council President Jose Perez: ‘I Will Always Listen’

On April 22, District 12 Alderman Jose Perez was elected President of the Milwaukee Common Council by his colleagues. Of Puerto Rican ancestry, he is the first Latino to hold this office. He replaced Cavalier Johnson, who had been elected the Mayor of Milwaukee.

We met at City Hall in the common council president’s large, wood-paneled office. He never ducked a question. His answers were straight and on point.

Tell me your life story, your parents, where you grew up, the neighborhood you lived in and the schools you attended. 

I’m Puerto Rican and in the first generation of my family born here in the United States. In 1950-51, my grandparents migrated from Puerto Rico with my mother to Milwaukee. My grandparents were humble country folks, lived with dirt floors. Everything they owned they got from working for someone else, or bartering, or they grew crops and sold them. My dad is from Puerto Rico and met my mom in Milwaukee. My dad could not speak English, but he got a job at Grede Foundries and worked there until he retired. My mother worked at the tanneries and then at Sobel Electric on 9th and National, which is now the MATC building.

I’m a lifelong Southsider, grew up off Fifth and Pierce, tough neighborhood, a lot of drugs and gangs around us. I went to St Matthew Grade School on 25th and Scott, then to Pulaski High School, but I ended up dropping out. Two years later, I got my GED and was working with young people and community organizations. I also did work through my church and for MICAH, (Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope). Eventually, I earned my college degree from Cardinal Stritch University. 

During the years when you went through your formal education, were you working?

I was single through these years and working for the Social Development Commission. I also did other part time jobs. I also learned an important thing, that internships are very important. During my college years, I did a summer internship in Washington D.C., did another summer internship in Constituent Services for Milwaukee Mayor Norquist, and my final summer in college, I worked in city hall in the communications section in the city clerk’s office. I have fond memories of coming into this council president’s office where we are presently sitting. 

And now you are the president. Yours is an inspiring American story. Back then as a young man, you got to know a number of important people.

I’m fortunate because of my involvement in internships, the leadership in my church and also from my work at MICAH. I learned a lot about church-based and community-based organizing. I found out there is value in relationships, understanding people’s needs and opinions.  

You have been the Alderman of District 12 on the South Side for the past 10 years. How did you get that job?

In January 2006, I went to work for the Department of City Development, then did six months in the Community Block Grants Office, then in 2010, I resigned to start my own business with a childhood friend. We were in real estate and construction. I learned about the difficulty of being an entrepreneur. It’s easy to start a business but it’s difficult to maintain it. In 2012, I decided to run for alderman and got elected by 86 votes.

What’s changed in your district from when you were a boy in that neighborhood up until now?

There has been more development. The building up of the east side over to Walker’s Point has made that area a good place to live and work and play. Those newer apartment buildings are good smart developments, and we did not displace anyone or any residential unit. The library on Ninth and Mitchell has been a success. More success has come from the El Rey Market Empire investments in stores, from Pete’s Fruit Market, and also Cermak Fresh Markets.

We do have very dense and crowded neighborhoods. When residents complain to me about lack of parking, I say, “Hey, that’s a good problem to have, means people want to live here.” The biggest change in my lifetime is the diversity. We are predominantly Latino in my district, but we also are seeing more African Americans in our neighborhoods. If you want to see what Milwaukee looks like, come to the South Side.

What exactly is the job of the common council president?  

Each person who takes this job has a different approach. Since I got elected president in April, I’ve spent a lot of time building relationships and talking to my colleagues, the other 14 aldermen. As council president, I get to decide who chairs the committees. I’ve pretty much kept the committee chairmen who were already there. But I did move a few folks around, wanted to keep a balance. Currently, there are two alderman vacancies because of Mayor Johnson leaving and Alderman Kovac becoming Budget Director. My goal is to keep each of us aldermen talking and coordinating. I try to engage my colleagues. 

From what I’ve read, you seem to be a uniter, a good listener. Here is a comment from you regarding your new job at council president: “Serving in this position is impossible without us being together. We won't always agree, but I promise you we will talk and we will agree to disagree sometimes. And I will always listen.” Can you expand on this philosophy?

The risks you take when surrounded by good people you trust, those risks are calculated. You need confidence when going down that road, working together to get unanimous votes on things. This takes time and energy, people talking to one another. It’s also about not making a promise you can’t keep. My colleagues want to be engaged through honest conversations, which may mean disagreeing, but we still need to move forward. Folks ask me about my agenda. I think the council is forming the agenda as we go forward. The alders want to have an impact on public safety, investing in neighborhood development and delivering on those investments—and of course, making hard decisions about our budget.

Another quote from you: “You don’t make assumptions about people. You sit down and learn what is important to them. You go on the road with someone and build that relationship, and then you ask them to either trust you or figure out how you can work together.” What do you mean by this?

With all the communication techniques we have at our fingertips, Google, internet news, email, Zoom, we still have lousy information about each other. We need to sit down with one another and have conversations and get to know each other. Folks have some similarities and can create understandings. When you understand a person’s self-interest and passion live and in person, you have the most valuable way to get their commitment. If you are passionate about public safety or education, I will work with you in those areas. I don’t want to waste your time on subjects you aren’t committed to.

Probably the biggest challenge facing Milwaukee currently is stopping the violence—homicides, shootings, reckless driving, domestic violence, assault and theft. The common council oversees the Office of Violence Prevention. I believe the OVP has been allocated more than $11 million in federal and state COVID relief funds spread over five years. That money is in addition to the OVP’s regular budget of $3.7 million. Alderman Bob Bauman recently said that he had no idea how that money is spent. Alderman Scott Spiker said that the Office of Violence Prevention will never be an article of faith for him, that he wants evidence that it works. How does the council plan to oversee how these OVP funds are spent?

Some South Side alders including myself are engaging the Office of Violence Prevention. We’ve been discussing with them specific efforts to solve problems on the South Side. We’d like the OVP to have a location where residents can go to for information and training. We are committed to getting them a South Side presence. Monitoring the OVP doesn’t happen in committee. It happens in the parks, on the streets and in the neighborhoods. I think the OVP should be engaging people, building relationships with residents and community organizers, using their money to work with on-the-ground leaders and volunteers in troubled neighborhoods. We will try to help the OVP personnel to be on the streets and working with the organizers.

From my experience with the community organizers on the North Side, it seems that they don’t get enough help from city government in terms of involvement, funding, or even of being heard.

I understand that some of these organizers are feeling triaged, ignored, not appreciated. There are a lot of unsung heroes in our community that get no recognition. We sometimes don’t know who they are. We have to make connections with them. They aren’t getting paid. When we talk about public safety, we need to engage families and parents to give them help dealing with lawbreakers. We encourage them to call us because we want to be able to help.

Another challenge is Milwaukee’s infrastructure. There’s been great success in building up the Downtown for residents to work and live, but those residents are mostly white and have good-paying jobs. But improving neighborhoods surrounding the Downtown has been challenging, if not neglected. All you have to do is walk the streets in the heart of the central city, 35th, 27th, Fond du Lac, Atkinson, Hopkins, and you will see vacant houses, stores and buildings. Many of them are owned by the city including a number of public school buildings. Any thoughts on what to do about this crucial issue?

We’ve been working with the Department of City Development. We need to be investing in these neighborhoods and rehabbing houses and blocks one at a time. I might have 100 foreclosed properties in my district, and only 35 are city owned. The bank-foreclosed houses and buildings may not be paying their taxes, but the city still has to clean up the yards. We can’t take possession of these properties until after the owners stop paying property taxes and that can take up to three years. So they sit empty. This problem is much larger on the North Side, those alders having up to 600 foreclosed properties.

Can you donate any of these foreclosed city-owned houses to needy residents?

I get that question now and then, but the amount of work and cost to rehab an abandoned house is prohibitive, not to mention other costs like property taxes and utilities. 

Sounds like you are invested in building up the infrastructure of neglected neighborhoods. 

Yes, I am, and we also want to make sure the streets, alleys and sidewalks are safe. Lighting is a big deal. If there is a grid of lights not working, people don’t feel safe. Are the parks kept well lighted, clean and safe? We also have to make sure the landlords are keeping their properties up to code.

Do you work closely with Commissioner Lafayette Crump and his Department of City Development?

The City Development Department has been allocated more funds for legal aid to make sure residents are not unjustly being evicted. We work with the development people on avoiding any foreclosure process. We also have programs that help fixed-income residents repair their homes.

In Milwaukee, the police have often been controversial. In the coming years, does the council plan to add more police officers or reduce the police force? 

A timely question. Right now, we are going through an extensive study on police department staffing. It’s called the Matrix Study. We want sworn officers to do regular police work, but we want civilians to do administrative type work in the department. This is a similar approach to 2006 when we hired parking checkers to issue parking tickets, not the regular policemen. Over the years, we’ve gotten way too comfortable expecting the police to fix everything. They should be doing police work, not be social or mental health workers.

I interviewed Police Chief Norman a while ago, and he was open to making changes.

Yes. Chief Norman has been a very open book and willing to take our ideas and listen to strategies. The alders are not trained in law enforcement, but we can tell you what does not work or when our constituents are not getting good service or when the wait times for police help are far too long. We are waiting to hear from the Matrix Study on the right number of police to serve on the ground per capita. 

Is there an end date as to when this Matrix Study will be completed?

I think by the end of the year come budget time. It’s complicated. The council controls the budget. The Fire & Police Commission controls the Police Chief and police policy, and that includes wage bargaining. An experienced police sergeant told me he was having difficulty getting police officers to work on weekends. This is the kind of problem we face. We have to coordinate these types of issues better.