JOINT COMMITTEE ON REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes JOINT COMMITTEE ON REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES ALD. ROBERT BAUMAN, CHAIR Spencer Coggs, Preston Cole, Mario Higgins, Ald. Khalif Rainey, Antonio Perez, Maria Prioletta, and Ald. Russell Stamper, II. Staff Assistant: Linda Elmer, 286-2231 Fax: 286-3456, lelmer@milwaukee.gov Legislative Liaison: Aaron Cadle, 286-8666, acadle@milwaukee.gov Monday, February 25, 2019 10:00 AM City Hall, Room 301-B 1. Review and approval of the January 15th meeting minutes. Meeting unofficially convened at 10:08 A.M. Members present: Maria Prioletta, Jim Klajbor (for Spencer Coggs) and Ald. Robert Bauman Members excused: Khalif Rainey, Russell Stamper, Mario Higgins and Tony Perez The minutes were not reviewed as no quorum present. 2. Communication from the Department of City Development on Housing Infrastructure Preservation Fund Activities. Yves LaPierre, Dept. of City Development, is getting ready to bid out on 2 projects, one in Bronzeville (getting a roof) and a property on Sherman Blvd. that needs a fair amount of work. 3. Communication from the Department of City Development on the Lease-to-Own Program. No new information to report so department not present. 4. Communication from the Department of City Development relating to the Rehabilitation to Rent Program. Amy Turim, Dept. of City Development, said all existing homes are rented while new homes are in suspension at the present time, so 5 properties are rented. The city will be issuing a RFP to find someone to replace Friends of Housing as the rehab agent. FOH is still the property manager and the city is looking to go in a different direction with the rehabilitation and she is trying to meet with Ald. Coggs and Ald. Stamper, whose districts include the most properties. 5. Communication from the Department of City Development on the Strong Home Loan Program. Mr. Larry Kilmer, Dept. of City Development, said the 2019 numbers include 7 City of Milwaukee Page 1 JOINT COMMITTEE ON Meeting Minutes February 25, 2019 REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES approved loans for $185,000 and 85 applications in process for strong home loans. Ald. Bauman would like the total number of loans and the total amount since the program began. 6. Communication from the Mayor's Office, Department of City Development, and the City Attorney's Office relating to activities, revenue and expenditures of the Strong Neighborhoods Plan. Nick Sinram, Budget and Management Division, said $2.5 million out of $11 million has been encumbered. 7. Communication from the Department of Neighborhood Services relating to the Compliance Loan Program. Steph O'Connor, Dept. of Neighborhood Services, didn't have a lot to update. The average income was increased to $60,000 the end of last year but that hasn't dramatically changed their statistics. 8. Communication from the Department of Neighborhood Services relating to demolition and deconstruction. Tom Mishefske, Dept. of Neighborhood Services, said $2.5 million was provided and a minimum of $1.2 million will be spent on deconstruction. An RPF was issued and they had 5 interested contractors, with 3 having the best proposals. The Dept. is currently questioning all 3 to identify the wining proposal. The contractors have to be SBE qualified and Ald. Bauman hold that Northcott Neighborhood House was having problems meeting those qualifications. He asked why the ordinance isn't being amended so Northcott could qualify. Mr. Mishefske noted that a subcontractor could be hired, but that does increase costs. Ms. Prioletta asked why Northcott couldn't be certified? One of the contractors is both SBE and LBE certified and all 3 candidates are being looked at. Ald. Bauman told the department that they have to bring issues like this to the Council's attention. A decision will be made this week on the finalist for the RFP for 40-60 properties, depending on what the contractor wishes to do. The Dept. of Public Works will be doing mechanical demolition starting this spring and DNS also put out 2 bid packets of 30 properties each for mechanical demolition by private contractors to use available funds. 9. Communication from the City Attorney's Office relating to legal proceedings against landlords with nuisance properties. Adam Stephens, Deputy City Attorney, did not submit a report as the litigation has largely stayed the same since the last report. They did receive the delinquent tax rolls for 2018 and will be submitting a report the end of March relating to LLCs. 10. Communication from the Dept. of Neighborhood Services relating to the billing of nuisance property charges. Tom Mishefske and Emily McKeown, Dept. of Neighborhood Services, said once MPD designates a property as a nuisance property then police charges are billed to that property and DNS rolls any unpaid charges onto the tax roll. Last year DNS changed over to a new land management system and the dept. bills $5-$6 million per year. City of Milwaukee Page 2 JOINT COMMITTEE ON Meeting Minutes February 25, 2019 REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES With the transfer to the new system, those records having the highest charges were generated first. The MPD charges totaled $30,000 so new records have not been created yet for those charges and those charges were kept in a separate Excel database for about a dozen properties. Once that was recognized, new bills were created and sent to those properties and any unpaid bills will be put on the 2019 tax bills. DNS has no ability to determine if they are billing correctly or how many properties are chronic nuisances. This item will be scheduled for the next meeting with MPD requested to attend. DNS is working with its vendor to create a new type to enter these amounts into the land management system. 11. Public Comment No members of the public wished to comment. 12. Set next meeting date. April 8th at 10 a.m. Meeting adjourned: 10:45 A.M. Linda M. Elmer Staff Assistant This meeting can be viewed in its entirety through the City's Legislative Research Center at http://milwaukee.legistar.com/calendar. 181452 Communication relating to the 2019 activities of the Joint Committee on the Redevelopment of Abandoned and Foreclosed Homes. Sponsors: THE CHAIR City of Milwaukee Page 3