Top Milwaukee Police Department official apologizes after $15M grant mistake surprises council

A top Milwaukee Police Department official on Thursday took responsibility for allowing the Common Council to be caught off guard late last week by media reports that an employee's mistake cost the city its opportunity to apply for a $15 million grant to hire additional police officers.

"Part of my role is to communicate to the public and to our intergovernmental partners all that is necessary to inform and be transparent," Milwaukee Police Chief of Staff Heather Hough told the council's Public Safety and Health Committee. "In this case, I did not communicate the incident to the council when it occurred."

She apologized for not reaching out to the council when Mayor Cavalier Johnson and the Fire and Police Commission had been notified after the incident in mid-May.

And, she said, changes have been made to prevent similar grant application mistakes in the future, including requiring that applications be submitted at least five days before the deadline to allow time to resolve any technical issues well in advance.

Council members expressed support for Hough and her decision to take responsibility for the lack of communication.

The committee meeting came after the Mayor's Office admitted late last week that it wasn’t the city’s decision not to apply for the federal policing grant for 2024, known as a COPS grant, but that an employee had failed to meet the deadline and is now the subject of an internal investigation.

Days earlier, Johnson and Budget Director Nik Kovac in an interview with the Journal Sentinel said the city was not applying for that grant in the 2024 budget, citing provisions in a new local government funding law known as Act 12.

The law "provides a disincentive to apply for future COPS grants, which we are not doing in this year's budget," Kovac said in the interview.

Johnson then added: "We've applied for COPS grants in the past because prior to (the passage of the law), at least, it made sense for us to do that and allow the federal government to cover the costs for three years. But now there's some disincentive for doing that."

It was only once Mark Belling of News/Talk 1130 WISN-AM radio reported about the employee's mistake that Johnson's Chief of Staff Nick DeSiato and spokesman Jeff Fleming, who was present in the original interview, told the Journal Sentinel that the employee tried to submit the grant online just hours before the deadline but was prevented from completing the process due to a technical issue.

They maintained that even if the city had applied for and been awarded the grant, the city would have had to turn it down because of the new law known as Act 12.

The law requires Milwaukee to maintain the number of police officers and the daily staffing level in the fire department minimally at the numbers from the previous year ― excluding any who are in state- or grant-funded positions.

But Common Council President José G. Pérez told the Journal Sentinel that the city would have been in a better place to negotiate with state leaders on that provision in the law if millions of dollars hung in the balance.

"I would rather try to fix a problem having $15 million than looking like the city lost an opportunity for it, the Police Department, the administration lost an opportunity for $15 million," he said. "And they're going to say, the way Act 12 is now it's not going to count. We didn't know that back in May."

Pérez said for the council, the lack of communication creates distrust in Johnson, his administration and the Police Department.

The Journal Sentinel has filed open records requests with the Police Department, the Mayor's Office and the Budget Office seeking additional information about the grant, the employee's actions and communications between officials about the incident.

Ald. Scott Spiker, who chairs the committee that heard from Hough, told the Journal Sentinel he found out about the situation over the weekend through an exchange with Ald. Robert Bauman. Bauman learned of it from a Friday email from Belling.

"I understand ... that it's kind of a moot point now, but it wasn't when this failure occurred, and if this occurred back in May, well before Act 12 passed, it would have been real nice for us at the council to have been informed about it," Spiker said.

He added: "It's not a $15,000 mistake, it's a $15 million mistake."

Elliot Hughes of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this story.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Police Department apologizes after $15M grant mistake