Milwaukee’s PB process moves ahead

By Devin Anderson

It's been close to one year since we organized and won a $600,000 investment to fund participatory budgeting through the Milwaukee Community Impact Fund. Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend part of a public budget. It gives people real power over real money.

Since then, there have been a lot of starts and stops in this process, but here are four takeaways after the steering committee finally had its first meeting.

1. Steering committee: The steering committee is made up of seven residents representatives and four city employees.

   • Brook Stanley 

   • Amanda Avalos

   • Tammy Rivera

   • Jamaal Napoleon

   • Christlyn Frederick-Stanley 

   • Ashley Harrell 

   • Anita Johnson

   • Nik Kovac, Director of Budget and Management

   • Bill Christianson, City Comptroller

   • Steve Mahan, Department of Administration

   • Evan Goyke, City Attorney

   2. Timeline: The timeline is still a little unclear, but November 2026 is the deadline to submit recommendations for the distribution of money for projects that should be shared with the Common Council by no later than early November 2026. That means there is about six months for the city to conduct its PB process.

   3. Learning: The committee has some learning to do. While Ms. Anita Johnson was on AART’s Northwest Side PB steering committee in 2023, many other committee members have less experience with the PB process. They are interested in learning from AART and our history/knowledge around PB along with other cities like Eau Claire, WI that have run a PB process in the past. Eau Claire ran a PB process in 2021 that allowed residents to vote on how $300,000 was spent. Projects that were funded included making a playground ADA accessible and adding led lights at the park.

   4. Making meetings more accessible: The committee is interested in making meetings more accessible by having them in the evening so more community members can attend. The meetings will also be hybrid. The committee believes that this is a community project and that the meeting times should be more convenient for community members to attend.

The next meeting will be on April 14 at 5 pm CT. It will behybrid, meaning held online and in person. City Hall’s address is 200 East Wells, Milwaukee and the meeting will stream through the city’s GoTo Meeting platform. We will email details for the virtual option to those who signed up for updates as well as share the link on our social media platforms. 

Note: Meeting frequency is the first Tuesday of every month unless otherwise directed. In-person attendance is preferred with a virtual option available for those with conflicts preventing them to attend in person.

Pledge to be a PB voter to receive updates on this process: bit.ly/PBvoter.

Devin Anderson serves as AART’s Campaign and Membership Director.