Former deputy city attorney nominated to become ninth member of Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission

A former mainstay in the Milwaukee City Attorney’s Office is now nominated to serve as the ninth member of the city’s Fire and Police Commission on Wednesday.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson nominated Miriam Horwitz, who spent 14 years as an assistant city attorney and about seven more as deputy city attorney, to fill the vacancy left by former Commissioner Joan Kessler, another veteran lawyer who stepped down from the oversight board in September for personal reasons.

If confirmed by the Common Council, Horwitz would push the commission to the statutory maximum of nine commissioners for the first time in its history. That would fulfill a goal of Johnson’s, who called for a nine-member commission in the aftermath of the legally flawed and costly decision to ouster former Police Chief Alfonso Morales in 2020.

The Fire and Police Commission, one of the oldest and most powerful oversight boards of police and fire departments in the country, has typically functioned with seven commissioners. Its members are nominated by the mayor and confirmed by the Common Council.

Horwitz has more than 40 years of experience in litigation, employment law and workplace issues. In 2019, she became the first recipient of the Diversity and Inclusion Trailblazer Award from the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Horwitz is also one of more than a dozen former employees of the City Attorney’s Office to publicly criticize City Attorney Tearman Spencer for his management of the office.

She served as Spencer’s deputy for seven months before resigning in 2020, citing Spencer as a main reason for her decision to leave. About a year later, after watching the office’s turnover increase and allegations of sexual harassment and a toxic work environment go public, Horwitz publicly urged the Common Council to consider removing him – an elected official.

Councilmembers have acknowledged concerns about Spencer’s office but have not pursued his removal. Spencer has blamed the issues in his office on poor pay, employee resistance to change, media coverage and his predecessor, Grant Langley, as a root cause.

After leaving the city, Horwitz joined the Goldstein Law Group in March 2022. She is a board member of Tikkun Ha-Ir (Hebrew for “Repairing the City”), an organization that serves the Jewish community, and participates in a youth mentorship program through the U.S. District Court’s Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Horwitz would be Johnson’s fourth appointee to the commission, after Bree Spencer, Ruben Burgos and Gerard Washington, all of whom were confirmed within the last seven months.

Burgos and Washington were nominated at the same time and would have become the eighth and ninth commissioners were it not for Kessler’s resignation shortly before their confirmation.

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

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Johnson nominates former deputy city attorney to be 9th member of FPC