Arnitta Holliman's removal as head of Milwaukee's Office of Violence Prevention comes after rising scrutiny

Arnitta Holliman's removal as the director of Milwaukee’s Office of Violence Prevention comes after simmering tensions and mounting scrutiny over the office's effectiveness in recent months.

Holliman was notified Wednesday that her appointment had concluded, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s chief of staff, Jim Bohl, said in a statement.

The Mayor's Office and the Common Council have for the most part been tight-lipped about the specific reasons and timing behind her removal.

Holliman declined to comment. She had an annual salary of $105,000,  according to the city.

In the last several months, Holliman had been under pressure from some elected leaders at City Hall and community members to prove the impact the office was making, as homicides continue to climb and an influx of state, local and philanthropic aid has flowed to its programming.

Even with that infusion, defenders of the office have argued that its operation is far too small, especially in comparison to the Milwaukee Police Department, and should not be held responsible for the city's continued violence.

The office has a $4.25 million budget and 15 positions, six of them funded with federal pandemic aid, this year. Its team of violence interrupters, called 414Life, which is contracted out of the Medical College of Wisconsin, is staffed by fewer than 25 people and concentrates only on select neighborhoods with a long history of gun violence.

The Police Department's 2022 budget, in contrast, is about $280 million and city officials expected its sworn strength to average 1,657 over the course of this year.

"It is the administration’s intent to continue the work underway in the violence prevention office, while, at the same time, increasing the office’s responsiveness to changing demands and expectations in public safety," Bohl said.

“Over the past year, additional millions of dollars have been directed to the Office of Violence Prevention through the State of Wisconsin, city resources, and philanthropic sources," the statement continued. "Looking forward, we want those new resources effectively deployed to make Milwaukee safer.”

In October, Gov. Tony Evers announced that $8 million in federal pandemic aid would be allocated to the office out of $25 million that would go to violence prevention across the state. Soon after, the city budgeted more than $3 million in federal pandemic aid for the office.

Bohl's statement did not elaborate further on the reasons behind her departure.

Johnson's spokesman, Jeff Fleming, declined to provide additional details about the reasons for her removal and said he would expect a new director to be announced in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, he said there are still staff in the office and support from the Health Department, where the Office of Violence Prevention is located.

But the position will not be an easy one to fill, according to Vaun Mayes, a violence prevention community activist who has worked with the office. He said the office’s relatively small size requires its director to raise the profile of its work and establish a range of partnerships.

“Everybody does not have the same relationships, or the ability to make adequate relationships, when it comes to preventing violence and sending people out to neighborhoods,” Mayes said. “Arnitta did a great job. I have no idea of who they think could hold that role properly.”

Holliman, whose background is in psychology and counseling, was appointed to the position by then-Mayor Tom Barrett in May 2021 following the resignation of Reggie Moore.

At that time, she said she planned to focus on mental health, preventing gun violence and gender-based violence, and engaging youth.

Ald. Michael Murphy, who has pushed for better tracking of the office's performance metrics, said it is natural for a new mayor such as Johnson to install his own personnel at high level positions.

He said he believes Johnson wants to see the office focus more on disrupting the city’s homicide rate, shootings and domestic violence in a way that could be more easily measured.

As Milwaukee wades through a third straight year of historic and worsening levels of gun violence, Holliman's office began to receive more scrutiny for the effectiveness of its work outside City Hall as well.

In response, Holliman repeatedly said that even with a recent influx in government funding, the office was underfunded in comparison to the magnitude of violence plaguing Milwaukee. Her position on that was supported by other city officials and community members who work with the office in Milwaukee.

"In terms of the scope of the problems that we’re talking about, it’s not as much funding as people think it is," Murphy said. "You can't, certainly, lay all the blame on the Office of Violence Prevention in any shape, form or fashion.”

Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee mayor announces change at Office of Violence Prevention