With mayor threatening veto, debate over new city flag in Milwaukee Common Council is seemingly at a standstill

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- After Milwaukee's Common Council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 15, the city won't have a new flag. The alder behind the proposal blames the mayor. 

Alder Peter Burgelis sponsored the proposal to adopt “Sunrise Over the Lake,” also known as the People’s Flag, as the official City of Milwaukee flag. The flag won a citywide contest in 2016. 

Other alders voiced concern with the flag in previous meetings because of what they believe was a lack of representation from the city's minority communities. Some alders said not enough judges that represented the entire city were involved in the selection process of the People's Flag back in 2016.

On Tuesday, the mayor acknowledged those concerns, saying he would veto the approval of the flag if Milwaukee's Common Council voted in favor of it. 

“I would veto it," Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. “I’m hearing, not just from constituents, but also from their elected representatives on the Common Council, that they’d like a more inclusive process for their constituents to be able to weigh in. I respect that.”

Alder Burgelis said nine of the 15 alders were in support of the flag's approval in council. However, without a supermajority of 10 alders needed to avoid a veto from the mayor, he said the conversations are seemingly at a standstill. 

“There’s no sense in having that loss," Burgelis said. “It’s disappointing that a majority doesn’t work on the city council for something like this."

Tuesday morning, Burgelis proposed a substitute amendment to direct the election commission to place a binding referendum on the April 1 ballot. He said he believed that would be the way people could be represented in the decision. However, that motion was withdrawn after negative reactions from other alders and raised questions about its legality. 

"Sending something like this to referendum, if that’s the case, why do we make decisions on much more important things? We should be seeing this action for all sorts of stuff if that’s the case and I don’t want to set that precedent," said Alder Jonathan Brostoff.

“I think it’s unfortunate," Burgelis said. "But those are the rules we have in front of us. We have to play by the rules and if the majority is the path forward, great. If a supermajority is required, then that’s the goal we have to go for.”

The current Milwaukee city flag has been roundly criticized by vexillologists as one of the worst municipal flags in the U.S.