Council members to explore refunding snowplowing fees after DPW response to storm

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Four members of the Milwaukee Common Council said Monday they plan to explore whether it would be possible to refund property owners more than $11 million the city collects in annual snowplowing fees.

In a joint statement, the aldermen said it was in response to what they considered a poor performance by the Department of Public Works (DPW) in clearing streets after last Friday's snowstorm. 

Alds. Robert Bauman, Peter Burgelis, Sharlen Moore and Andrea Pratt said they would hold a hearing at next month's public works committee meeting to "explore the feasibility of refunding snowplow fees for residents who experienced poor or inadequate snow removal services."

In interviews Monday, Burgelis and Pratt said they were flooded with messages from residents in their district who were unhappy with ice-covered streets around their homes. Burgelis said, in his southwest side district, major roads were clear, but the side streets were a mess.

"Those residential streets were terrible," Burgelis said. "Not just bad, they were awful."

Pratt said in her north side district, even main roads remained covered in snow for much of the day Friday. 

"I was going up Atkinson [Avenue], and I said, 'Well if Capitol Drive isn't done, then I know they haven't been here," Pratt said. "And they had not been there, and it was about four o'clock in the afternoon at that time."

The council members' original statement included some salty language. The initial draft that went out included a quote from Burgelis that said, 'If we can't handle four inches of snow now, what's going to happen later this winter? We're f***ed." 

Burgelis told a CBS 58 reporter that quote was part of an initial draft that wasn't supposed to come out. The Common Council later sent an updated version of the statement that did not include any cuss words from Burgelis.

"Residents are upset. That makes me upset, and that first draft was real emotion," Burgelis said in the interview. 

Longtime resident Vince Toran said Monday night he believes the DPW's performance has fallen off over the three decades he's lived near the intersection of N. 60th St. and W. Keefe Ave., which is on the border of Moore's district.

"Each year, it gets a little worse and worse," Toran said. "Each year, in the past 30 years, it's getting a little worse than it was before."

Tiffany Shepherd, a spokesperson for the DPW, said in an email the department looks forward to a "productive dialogue" at the Jan. 8 committee hearing. 

Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, declined to offer a comment for this story. Instead, he noted the council members were pursuing a communication file, as opposed to a proposed ordinance or resolution.

In their interviews, Burgelis and Pratt acknowledged bringing up the idea of refunding plowing fees was largely their way of making a point.

"It's a big lift," Burgelis said. "But I think we have to highlight the importance and the significance of that fee."

Pratt also said it was unlikely to think the council would actually refund more than $11 million given the city's budget challenges.

"It's probably not realistic to think so," she said. "But I do think it's important that we highlight this issue."

By adding a communication file on the subject, it compels DPW officials to face questions from aldermen, and that seems to be the council members' actual intention. 

The city's snowplowing fee is folded into a larger municipal services bill that includes things like water treatment, sewer maintenance and trash collection. Milwaukee charges property owners $1.13 for each foot of street frontage.