Milwaukee branch of NAACP puts Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Plan

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Sep 19, 2008 by Sean Ryan

The Milwaukee branch of the NAACP asked the federal government to cut off the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Plan Commission if it doesn't commit to racial diversity.

As the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People pushes for affirmative action, the commission argues about 13 percent of its work force is composed of minorities, and said it is making every effort to work with people of color.

Nonetheless, American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin Foundation Inc. attorneys, working on behalf of the NAACP, this week filed a complaint (PDF) with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance alleging SEWRPC doesn't follow affirmative-action requirements. Karyn Rotker, ACLU senior staff attorney, said the goal is to get more minorities onto the SEWRPC payroll so they can inject new perspectives and priorities into regional planning.

Minorities who live in Milwaukee and have a street-level view of its residents' problems could help SEWRPC efforts to bring new employers to Milwaukee's 30th Street industrial corridor or to build commuter rail in the region, she said.

"It seems to us that you need a diversity of perspectives and a diversity of views inside an agency that's supposed to represent the region," Rotker said.

This is the second complaint the ACLU filed against SEWRPC. The first -- filed in late August and on behalf of the Good Jobs & Livable Neighborhoods coalition -- argued to the U.S. Department of Transportation that SEWRPC's transportation planners don't sufficiently focus on public transit.

The planning commission is up for Federal Highway Administration recertification this year, and the USDOT plans to hold public hearings on the subject in late October.

The NAACP complaint requests SEWRPC lose its federal money unless it establishes an affirmative-action program, opens an office in Milwaukee and creates a carpool or bus service to link Milwaukeeans to its office in Waukesha. The complaint criticizes the planning commission for not having a minority supervisor. It also argues the agency should have expanded its search for a new executive director rather than recruit Deputy Director Ken Yunker for the job.

SEWRPC responded to the complaint with a written statement (PDF) attributed to Evenson.

"We stand by our policy to build careers at the agency, nurturing and developing talent from the entry levels and providing them with the broad base of planning experience necessary for our top leadership positions," the statement said.

The NAACP considers the SEWRPC complaint a small part of its efforts to be a watchdog for affirmative-action enforcement, said Milwaukee NAACP President Jerry Ann Hamilton. She said she wants SEWRPC, like other companies the NAACP puts on notice, to discuss how to increase its minority employees.

"We're finding that the people that we have offered to sit down and talk with or we have given criticisms of, most of them come down to sit down and talk with us and they have resolved the conflict," she said. "That's what we hope will come of this."