With allegations of African American disenfranchisement and taxation without representation, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is facing criticism for his appointments to the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) board.
Abele’s picks have diminished the representation of both Milwaukee County residents and African Americans on the MATC board, leading his critics to ask if he’s really representing the interests of his constituents or doing the bidding of conservative suburbanites.
“The board needs to represent the makeup of the college and the city,” MATC grad and former employee Marietta Love told a Milwaukee County Board committee on Friday.
Kimberleah Bledsoe, president of MATC’s student senate, said Abele’s appointments were “extremely concerning” because minorities are disenfranchised.
“Black representation matters,” Bledsoe said.
Since a GOP-backed law change in 2012, Abele has become the only county executive in the state who has a say in the makeup of the local technical college board.
Now, unlike other technical colleges, the MATC board is appointed by the board chairs of the counties within the school district—Milwaukee, Ozaukee and Washington—as well as the Milwaukee County executive. The rest of the state’s technical college boards are appointed by local public school superintendents, not elected officials.
The GOP’s changes give Ozaukee County and Washington County residents a disproportionate say in the makeup of the MATC board. Milwaukee County has two of four votes to appoint board members, yet 90% of MATC’s students are Milwaukee County residents. Although Washington County represents just 2.2% of MATC’s students, it now has 25% of the board’s appointment power. Just 8% of MATC students come from Ozaukee County, yet it has 25% of the appointment power.
Currently, none of those empowered to make appointments are people of color.
The MATC-only law was authored by then-state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) and state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), both of whom live outside of the MATC district. The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) had bragged that it had pushed the law, which also increases the representation of employers on the board.
Mike Rosen, head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 212, called Grothman and Lazich’s bill a “hostile takeover” of MATC after the MMAC couldn’t get its nominees on to the board.
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As the Shepherd reported in April 2015, Abele used his new power to appoint two white directors in 2015, one of whom lives in Ozaukee County, even though plenty of qualified African American and Milwaukee candidates sought the positions.
As a result of Abele’s votes, the number of African Americans on the MATC board has plummeted from four to one. Yet African American Milwaukeeans make up 35% of MATC’s students, according to the county resolution.
On Friday, a Milwaukee County board committee voted 5-1 to seek a state law change that brings MATC appointments in line with the other technical colleges. If so, MATC appointments once again would be made by the superintendents of the local school districts, the largest of which is the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).
Supervisor Deanna Alexander, a conservative Abele ally, was the lone dissenting vote in helping Abele reduce the power of Milwaukee County and its African American residents.
