Year of retroactive pay for Milwaukee city employees' RNC duties raises questions on council

Two top City of Milwaukee officials key to preparations for this summer's Republican National Convention are each receiving retroactive pay of more than $11,000 for their efforts over the last year — plus increased pay through at least the July convention.

The raises, which are retroactive more than a year, are in effect after receiving the support of the City Service Commission on Feb. 6.

Retroactive pay is not without precedent at the city — including for the 2020 Democratic National Convention the city hosted. However, members of the Common Council have questioned the practice of providing a year's worth of increased pay retroactively and the processes for determining who at the city receives temporary boosts in compensation.

"You decided after a year, 'Oh man, they've been working so hard, they're going above and beyond, let's go back a year and make them whole.' That's what it feels like on paper," council President José G. Pérez said during a meeting of the Finance and Personnel Committee Friday.

Milwaukee Department of Employee Relations Director Harper Donahue IV said the process for an employee to receive retroactive pay usually begins with a manager saying the employee had been working on an extra project but had not been compensated for that extra work.

The Republican National Convention is an event of international scale that will be held in downtown Milwaukee July 15-18. It is expected to bring tens of thousands of people to the city and, like the Democratic National Convention, is considered a national security event by the U.S. Secret Service.

The city landed the convention in the summer of 2022.

Milwaukee city officials receive retroactive pay for Republican National Convention work

Those receiving the additional pay for their RNC duties are Mayor Cavalier Johnson's spokesman, Jeff Fleming, and American Rescue Plan Act Director Andrea Fowler.

Fleming's additional duties include serving on U.S. Secret Service committees and participating in the work group coordinating the city's RNC-related activities.

Fowler is an attorney at the city who handled much of the legal contracting work for the Democratic National Convention and is now among the key people tasked with planning for the RNC. She has been the co-chair of the city's RNC Executive Steering Committee since June 2022, a position in which her responsibilities include overseeing the city's contracting portfolio for about 200 intergovernmental agreements and security grant expenditure and compliance, according to her resume.

Their increased pay extends a total of 18 months, back to Jan. 8 of last year through an anticipated end date of July 20, 2024, according to notices of temporary appointment.

Fleming's retroactive pay totals $11,600, and he will receive about $4,500 more in 2024, according to the city Department of Employee Relations.

Fowler's retroactive pay is $13,535, and she will receive about $5,200 more in 2024, according to the department.

Fleming's 2024 salary before the additional pay is $105,978. Fowler's is $122,719, according to the Budget Office.

Fowler was chosen by the Mayor's Office for the additional duties based on her "previous experience handling affairs of a national convention, ability to manage compliance and project planning," according to the notice of temporary appointment.

Fleming was chosen by the Mayor's Office based on his years of public relations experience and "his ability to use sound judgement (sic) and provide expertise in managing community relations and engagement."

Neither was among the unelected city officials who received raises as part of legislation approved by the council and signed by Johnson last month. The legislation also raised elected officials' salaries.

Fleming and Fowler declined to comment.

More: City of Milwaukee Employee Salaries 2019-2022

Republican National Convention security grant expected to cover a portion of the salary increases, budget director says

Such increased pay would typically come from the department's budget, but the RNC-related pay raises are expected to be at least partially funded by a federal security grant that host cities have historically received for presidential nominating conventions, according to Milwaukee Budget Director Nik Kovac.

Milwaukee and Chicago, which is hosting the DNC in August, are each seeking $75 million grants ahead of the conventions this summer. The sum is $25 million more than cities have received in the past for hosting the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions.

Budget officials did not immediately know how much of the pay increases would be covered by the security grant but expected that costs for grant administration and other convention planning work would be reimbursable.

Whatever is not covered by the grants would be funded from the budgets of the Mayor's Office and the Department of Administration.

Council members question process, equity of additional pay decisions

Donahue spoke to the importance of the program through which the additional RNC pay was permitted, known as the "auxiliary resource program."

The program — which Donahue called a "critical tool" — allows for hiring in situations including in anticipation of a future job opening or when an employee has taken on additional responsibilities because of a special project or a colleague's extended leave.

Although council members offered support for the overall program, they questioned the process and the equity of how employees are selected to receive additional pay.

Ald. Milele Coggs asked if an equity analysis was conducted to determine which positions move forward to the City Service Commission.

There currently is no such analysis conducted, Donahue said.

Council members urged the creation of a structure and rules to avoid making it look like the city was choosing winners and losers.

Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, the committee's chair, raised concerns about giving some employees retroactive pay while others have been waiting years for their compensation to be brought more in line with the market rate.

"I know we can't do everything at once but the order and how the order happens is very personal for some people," she said.

Kovac said the request for the pay increase came closer to the convention than four years ago, saying his best explanation was that there were other focuses, including the development of the plan to increase pay for elected and certain unelected officials.

At least one Milwaukee employee received extra pay for 2020 Democratic National Convention

Retroactive pay increases are not without precedent at the city, including during the DNC that the city planned to host four years ago before the event was largely scuttled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Bryan Rynders, budget and fiscal policy operations manager, received $14,834 for his work on the Democratic National Convention. Of that, $1,813 was a retroactive payment, according to a Department of Employee Relations spreadsheet of employees who had been part of the auxiliary resource program.

The spreadsheet, which dates back to 2019, showed an increasing use of retroactive pay through 2022 before its use declined last year. While no employee received retroactive pay in 2019, nine employees received between $507 and $8,890 in 2022.

Last year, four employees including Fleming and Fowler, are listed as receiving retroactive pay. The other two received retroactive payments of $8,853 and $6,197, both for performing higher-level functions, according to the spreadsheet.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com. Find her on X at @AlisonDirr.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Year of retroactive pay for Milwaukee officials' RNC work questioned