Thursday, July 10, 2025
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Thursday, July 10, 2025

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Morales Asks Judge to Immediately Reinstate Him as Milwaukee Police Chief

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The “situation at City Hall, it’s dysfunctional these days. The Common Council has a bunch of people who only want to hear their own voices.” -Attorney Franklyn Gimbel

Chief Alfonso Morales is asking a judge to immediately reinstate him as Milwaukee’s police chief, saying the city is filled with disarray, discord, and inaction.

Morales milwaukee police chief

We spoke to Morales’s lawyer, Franklyn Gimbel, who told Wisconsin Right Now that Morales “wants to be chief with the authority of a chief and not be a puppet of the Fire and Police Commission.”

We obtained the full affidavit in which he is asking a judge to restore him to the job. You can read it here.

The affidavit asks the court to “order that Chief Morales return to work forthwith and that Respondends put him back into the position he was in prior to the FPC’s illegal action,” as well as pay him back salary and benefits and attorney’s fees since Aug. 6.

Gimbel said that Morales’s legal team has decided to take “some affirmative action” to deal with the “horrific treatment they visited on him (Morales).”

Morales milwaukee police chief“We are asking him (the judge) to reinstate him (Morales),” said Gimbel, who denounced what he called complete dysfunction at City Hall. He blames the Common Council and Fire and Police Commission for not getting something done, with City Attorney Tearman Spencer acting as their agent.

He’s hoping the judge will sign the order but expects he might give the city a chance to respond. Since Judge Christopher Foley reversed Morales’s Aug. 6 demotion on Dec. 18, without giving the city orders for what to do next, Morales’s side has “been talking about one of two roads,” said Gimbel. “One is reinstatement and one is buying out his contract.” But no settlement offer has come, so the new court filing is seeking reinstatement. Gimbel said there’s been no “substantial and reasonable” progress made.

Gimbel said the fact Morales retired doesn’t stop the city from reinstating him as chief. “We talked to the folks at the pension office, and there are methods and means by which he can be reinstated,” said Gimbel.

Gimbel said the “situation at City Hall, it’s dysfunctional these days. The Common Council has a bunch of people who only want to hear their own voices.” City Attorney Tearman Spencer, who has faced harassment allegations, doesn’t have the confidence of anyone in city government, said Gimbel. He believes if former City Attorney Grant Langley was still in office (he was ousted a year ago by Spencer), the situation would be resolved.

“We’ve had conversations, but they have not had any real direction or authority,” said Gimbel. “Nobody has come to the table with what it takes to settle these things.”

Gimbel said Morales wants to serve as police chief but he doesn’t want a situation where he’s put in “to set him up to fire him again.”

He noted that Morales has broad departmental and community support. “There’s never been a chief in my 60 years as a lawyer who has had the support of the rank-and-file like he does,” he said.

Gimbel said that Nate Cade, the third-party attorney hired to deal with the matter, doesn’t seem to be “rushing to get a deal done. I don’t know if he has control over his clients. We are at the point in this journey, where we need some action. It’s time to ring the bell to get this thing addressed and let a judge tell us what to do.”

The affidavit says that Morales’s lawyer contacted counsel for the City Attorney’s Office “to inquire about arrangements for Petitioner to promptly resume his duties as Chief of Police and to set a time for his return to work as Chief.”

It says Morales was told that “there could not be an immediate return and reinstatement of Petitioner Morales to work as Chief at the Police Department and that he should not show up for work at the Police Administration Building.” The city wanted time to determine whether they would have him return to work or reach a financial settlement.

A meeting was held at the end of December. On Jan. 17, Gimbel sent a letter to the city requesting a decision. He was told the city would “be in touch.”

No specific return to work date or alternative offer for settlement and buy-out came.

In mid-February, it was learned there was “considerable disarray and dysfunction with the Respondent FPC, as well as discord and disagreement between certain members of the FPC and the City atatorney’s Office.”

The FPC then retained private counsel to represent it going forward. That is Attorney Nate Cade. Cade said he might be able to establish a specific return to work date for Morales in March of 2021.

Cade was told by Gimbel on March 2 that “Chief Morales is ready and willing to return to the Chief’s job this month.”

Cade said he would be in touch and was waiting to hear from the pension office. On March 23, he said there were impediments to Morales returning to work as police chief based on what the city pension personnel advised.

Morales’s lawyers asked for clarification on why pension concerns would prevent Morales’s return.

On April 15, they met with ERS Director Jerry Allen. He explained the options. He said “there is no legal reason or impediment from a pension perspective that prevents” Morales from returning as chief.

There is past precedent; Robert Ziarnik retired from the Police Department and was subsequently appointed as chief some months later.

Gimbel said that the “discord, distrust and uneasy standoff that currently exists at City Hall between the City of Milwaukee, its FPC and the City Attorney’s office” is “no excuse or good reason” for continued “disobedience” of the Court’s order.

Cade is being paid $350 an hour. A second attorney Carlos Pastrana is being paid $325 an hour.

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“In Washington County our budget cycle starts right now, and it’s not due until November. We will propose our budget goals to the County Board in the next couple of months. We will share ‘This is what we’re thinking.’ It gives them months of time to think those through, give us feedback, and [have] that kind of dialogue,” Schoemann explained in an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN.

Schoemann said that is far better than the approach Evers is taking again this year.

“That’s not how government is supposed to work,” Schoemann said. “It’s not the vision of the governor. It’s not the vision of any one person.”

Evers and the Republican legislative leaders who will write the budget have been involved in on-again, off-again budget talks this month. On Thursday, the governor’s office said those talks were off once again because of gridlock in the Senate.

“Ultimately, the Senate needs to decide whether they were elected to govern and get things done or not,” Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a post on X.

Schoemann’s criticism of Evers is nothing new. He has long been a critic of the governor and has turned that criticism up since launching his campaign for governor.

But the recent criticism was also aimed at other Republicans who may jump into the 20206 governor’s race later this year.

“Nobody else in this race on the Republican side, being rumored to this point, has the executive leadership of skills and history to be able to show ‘This is how I’ve done it before, and here’s how we’ll do it Madison,’” Schoemann said. “The results in Washington County speak for themselves.”

Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany is also rumored to be looking to get into the Republican race. Before he went to Congress, Tiffany was a Republican lawmaker in Madison.

Businessman and veteran Bill Berrien is also on the short list of likely GOP candidates for 2026.

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(The Center Square) – Wisconsin budget negotiations have reached an impasse with both sides pointing fingers at the other in Wednesday afternoon statements.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said Republican Legislative leaders backed out of negotiations after he agreed to “an income tax cut targeting Wisconsin’s middle-class and working families and eliminating income taxes for certain retirees.” He said Republican leaders would not agree to “meaningful increased investments in child care, K-12 schools, and the University of Wisconsin System.”

Republican Assembly leaders said the two sides were "far apart. Senate leaders say Evers’ desires “extend beyond what taxpayers can afford.”

“The Joint Committee on Finance will continue using our long-established practices of crafting a state budget that contains meaningful tax relief and responsible spending levels with the goal of finishing on time,” said a statement from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Assembly Finance Co-Chairman Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam.

Evers said that there were meetings between the sides every day this week before the impasse.

“I told Republicans I’d support their half of the deal and their top tax priorities – even though they’re very similar to bills I previously vetoed – because I believe that’s how compromise is supposed to work, and I was ready to make that concession in order to get important things done for Wisconsin’s kids,” Evers said.

Senate Republican leadership said that good faith negotiations have occurred since April on a budget compromise.

“Both sides of these negotiations worked to find compromise and do what is best for the state of Wisconsin,” said a statement from Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and Senate Joint Finance Co-Chairman Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green.

In early May, the Joint Committee on Finance took 612 items out of Gov. Tony Evers’ budget proposal, including Medicaid expansion in the state, department creations and tax exemptions.

Born previously estimated that Evers’ budget proposal would lead to $3 billion in tax increases over the two-year span.

Wisconsin Policy Forum estimated that the proposal would spend down more than $4 billion of the state’s expected $4.3 billion surplus if it is enacted.

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