Milwaukee Professionals Association

CFNBA - MARCH 9, 2005 MINUTES

May 01, 2005

MINUTES from the CFNBA Business Leadership Council Meeting
March 9, 2005
11:30 am ?– 1:00 pm
CENTER STREET LIBRARY, 2727 W. Center

Presented: Wednesday, April 13, 2005


OPENING/CFNBA OVERVIEW
 Mary Glass, Chair/CEO did the welcome and gave us the following facts as overview for the CFNBA Business Leadership Council.
 Meetings take place the 2nd Wednesday of each month.
 April 13th and May 11th meetings will take place at the Washington Library, the following two at the King Drive Library, and the following two at the Atkinson Drive Library.
 The boundaries of the organization are Capitol to the North, Holton to the East, State to the South, and 60th to the West ?– it?’s a 3 miles by 3 miles radius.
 This constitutes the ?“inner city.?”
 The goal of the organization is to have every business owner in the area at the table in the next 3 ?½ to 4 years.
 The organization operate with two Kwanza Principles in mind: 1. Cooperative Economics and 2. Collective work and responsibility.
 The hope for this organization is to produce bold initiatives to improve the community and one example of that is Operation Safety.
 Another focus of the organization is membership, need a group of business leaders who are also willing to do something for the community.

ROBERTS RULE ?– VP EDUCATION
 Jo Anne Carter Hauser, VP-Education, spoke about her work: she taught middle school, and she worked at the Graduate Studies Program for the College of Education at Cardinal Stritch University, now she is an independent Education Consultant with a passion for and a focus on Urban Education.
 She forewarned the group that they will have quiz on Robert?’s Rules of order, which the group will begin to use.
 She also talked briefly about ?“Shouldering the Burden of Revitalizing Central City Milwaukee.?”
 There are weaknesses in our community, but we tend to advertise them. We need to shift the paradigm and let people know that we care about out community and the people who commit crime are not the norm, but the exception.
 This is, however, a huge discussion topic and is too big for the meeting today so Jo Anne will present strategies that have worked in Seattle, Detroit, and Chicago
 Mary ?– We want to empower the group with knowledge at every meeting in the effort to continue being life-long learners.

SAFETY INITIATIVE
 Derrick Smith, VP-Safety (board member, not present) Operation Safety Initiative report was given by Mary.
 The two main issues in the report: Vice crime (prostitution, gambling, panhandling) in the inner city and the ?“blunt problem?” in our neighborhoods.
 State Rep. Tamara Grigsby is helping with these issues in the legislature with the youth smoking problem. There is a law on the books, but according to Rep. Grigsby it does not have enough teeth to allow the officers to do what they have to to help solve the problem.
 The ?“blunt problem?” is linked to the drug problems and Mr. Smith is having a dialogue with the company that makes the blunts to see what can be done to try and solve the problem. Also it is essential to talk about funding that is available for education on this matter, and what actually CAN be done with the resources available.

PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD
 Francie Wendelborn, Attorney from the U.S. Attorney?’s office came to talk about Project Safe Neighborhoods ?– brochures were passed out. It is a program to give communities and individuals guidance on how to combat gun violence in their neighborhoods. The key points were building partnerships with local law enforcement and more advertising for the Safe Neighborhood program.
 Ms. Wendelborn offered herself as a resource for Bill Hoffman and others who are working on the issue of safety for CFNBA Business Leadership Council. She also has a history in the US Attorney?’s office which includes work with victims and that knowledge may be helpful in generating ideas about how to heal the community after violent crimes.
 President Maurice Hopkins asked a related question about the use of psychologists and counselors for kids who have been witnesses to or victims of violent crime. The previous experience that Ms. Wendelborn has in the US Attorney?’s office indicates that that office is thinking about the problem. Ramona Santiago who works with Project Ujima does some work in this area. And also, the Milwaukee County District Attorney?’s office crises response unit ?– that team should be working with law enforcement on the victim issues.

DISTRICTS 3-5-7
 Officer Shellee Lubus, the Milwaukee Police Department?’s District 7 Representative spoke next. She mentioned the fact that the Police Department is forming a Homicide Review Commission to look at the whole process from start to finish.
 The District 7 Crime Prevention meeting will take place on March 21st at 6:30pm
 The Milwaukee Police Department?’s District 5 Representative (Officer Bruce Scott) said that the areas where they have made the greatest improvements have been where communities and the Police Department work together to fight crime. The community members are more aware of where the problems are than the police, and they can tell the police where the drug houses are.
 The police department?’s goal with community involvement is to reduce crime and the best way to do that is to increase the number of volunteers on block watch.
 It is important to come to the Crime Prevention Meetings because you will learn what solutions have been tried in other places and perhaps been successful, and it is also good to know that some of the problems are either distinct to your area or are more widespread than you think.
 District 5 has its next crime prevention meeting on Thurs, April 7th at 5:30 pm at the District office on 4th and Locust. The May meeting, which will be attended by the Police Chief, will take place May 4th at 5:30 pm at the same location. Mary promised that there would be a representative from the group at each of the meetings.
 Officer Robert King was there from District 3; he is new to this part of his job and will have to get back with the date and time of the District 3 Crime Prevention meeting. He did discuss the robberies of the KFC?’s that had been happening and because of a clerk at one of the KFC?’s the suspect was caught.

GROUP DISCUSSION
 James Lindsay (the restaurateur) commented that the police department and the courts maybe should do a better job of publicizing when crimes are solved and people are convicted. It would act as a crime prevention because potential criminals would think twice if they knew that suspects are regularly apprehended.
 Francie from the US Attorney?’s office mentioned that after the Homicide Review Commission is done with its report they will hold community meetings to discuss the findings. Bill Hoffman suggested getting African American and community radio stations involved in the publicizing, and Mary suggested that he should contact the people he know about how the process would work for that.

GUEST SPEAKER
 Al Rabin from the Department of Commerce was there to talk about Brownfield Development Grants from Commerce. Dave Misky from the Department of City Development ?– MEDC (Al?’s City counterpart) was also there to take questions and give advise.
 James Lindsay was a recipient of a Brownfield Grant.
 A Brownfield is a contaminated site that has frequently gone into tax delinquency so it is in the state?’s best interest to redevelop that site to bring back a source of income, and it can help with local business development.
 They can help create jobs in this way.
 Al and Dave offered their help to anyone who is interested in writing a block grant for funding to develop a Brownfield site. Priority is given to proposals that will create jobs, bring revenue to the community, and provides health insurance to the workers. The state looks at many things: the level of contamination of the site, level of unemployment in the area, and Dave also added they look at the projects that the City is supporting as well. Al also stressed that there is a provision in the law that requires Commerce to try and give grants to areas that have not had funding before, which would help people in the inner city area.
 This issue ties to safety, because Brownfields not only supply a ready meeting place for illegal activity, but many of them contain hazardous chemicals which we do not want our children near.
 They showed pictures of two developments which are going up in the next few years. CMC Shops east of Miller Park where old rail yards used to be and the Small Animal Hospital which will be at 2342 N Newhall Street.
 There are also grants that the DNR gives that can help people who want to get a Phase 1 and Phase 2 site assessment done on a Brownfield site (which needs to be done to get a development grant) but Al?’s office can also assist with that.

SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES
 Kevin Ronnie, Candidate for School Board, District 6 spoke. His key points were:
o The graduation rate for African American males is 21% which causes our community to have a lack of skilled workers
o He has a history with community organizations/community activism
o We have great potential in our school system to make things better.

 Linda Chappetto ?– who is working for Peter Blewett for School Board, John Hagen for School Board, and Charlene Hardin for School Board spoke next:
o The graduation rates have risen for the last for years 12%, and it is an issue the board continues to be focused on
o The achievement gap between minority and white students is narrowing, but the board is focused on student achievement
o Peter and the other board members have worked to bring resources into the schools which enrich students education but do not cost any more to try and combat the loss of state and federal funding.

The meeting was ended.

Respectfully submitted by:
Linda Chappetto