'We want answers:' Milwaukee's Social Development Commission lays off all employees, shuts doors amid financial struggles

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Originally established in 1963, Milwaukee County's Social Development Commission (SDC) has served thousands of low-income families, helping with everything from employment to education.

But on Friday, April 26, with seemingly no warning, the state's largest community action agency shut its doors and simultaneously laid off all of its employees via a letter emailed out to staff.

Now, many of the people the agency worked with are left with disbelief.

When CBS 58 was outside of the SDC's headquarters on Wednesday, several showed up to the locked doors searching for answers.

“We have no information about what’s going on with our taxes, where should we go or nothing," said Cynthia Wright, who used the organization's free tax preparation service. “This is the second time I’ve been here, and the door's been closed.”

Wright said she filed in February and has no sign of her tax return.

“This is my money that’s owed by the government. I work three jobs, I work very hard every day," Wright said. “It’s very frustrating when you work 12 months, hard as you can to get your taxes to be able to pay some more bills and be responsible and you don’t know where to go.”

CBS 58 reached out to SDC's tax program director but didn't hear back before deadline.

And while Wright isn't alone, that's just one of the many issues plaguing the agency.

William Sulton, who is legally representing the SDC, confirmed that their CEO George Hinton was recently asked for his termination and that they had fired their financial director, Patrick Kirsenlohr.

Requests for comment to Kirsenlohr also went unreturned. 

On top of the staff changes, Sulton also confirmed the SDC failed to pay employees and are now undergoing a state-ordered forensic audit for their Weatherization Program, which saw a misallocation of more than $100,000 in funds.

Sulton added those funds went toward other programs.

“This is not a situation where somebody ran off with the money and went on luxury vacations or bought fancy cars," Sulton said. "This was a decision that was made, or I should say a series of decisions that were made, to provide community services to a community that simply extended beyond what SDC’s financial capabilities allowed.”

While he couldn't confirm exactly when those owed money will receive it, Sulton said paying people back is a "top priority."

“The director of finance’s job duties and responsibilities included maintaining the fiscal health and looking at each and every program and making sure that it met its budget," Sulton said. “That department failed, and in fact misrepresented numbers to the Board of Commissioners and to executive leadership at SDC. Folks relied on that information to their detriment.”

The closure isn't a surprise for Torre Johnson, who served as a board member for seven months in 2020 before he moved out of district.

"Especially in the African American community, it seems like all the things that are set up to help us end up closing so then we have to go outside the neighborhood," Johnson said. “It’s almost like trick-or-treating, we go outside our neighborhood to go trick-or-treating, so you gotta go outside the neighborhood to get the services we need inside our neighborhood.”

Johnson said the unknown future of one of the most powerful places in the county is a serious loss for the area.

"The SDC has always been a powerful place in our community," Johnson said. “We’re a community where we’re always finding a way to make it and to overcome our sorrows and our problems and our struggles, but this shouldn’t have to happen.”

When asked if the SDC could come back from this, Sulton said "absolutely" and called the decision to close "heartbreaking."

“SDC certainly feels bad, and the Board of Commissioners is working on a weekly basis, which is three times as often as it was before, to try and address these issues," Sulton said. “SDC is an institution here in Milwaukee. It may be that SDC comes back in a different form or has to undergo a regrowth if you will, a process, but SDC will be around."

The board has a meeting on Thursday, May 2, at 5:30 p.m.