Priorities
Milwaukee County is rich in positive assets; Ryan Clancy will work hard to ensure that the things that make Milwaukee special and unique are accessible to everyone.

Increased access to public spaces

Milwaukee County has world-class parks, but - too often - they are inaccessible to residents for low-dollar reasons. I'll focus on common-sense approaches so that we can get the most use out of our public spaces by pushing for increased lighting, facilities for youth and bathroom access. Milwaukee's youth also deserve robust, high-quality programming - especially when Milwaukee's schools are not in session -  and connections to organizations doing phenomenal work in the area. 

Expanded transit

Milwaukee relies on, and benefits from, a robust public transportation system. Closing and limiting bus routes, especially those in underdeveloped areas, has impacted the ability of our residents to attend work and school, and to engage fully in our communities. I will fight to restore and expand bus routes where they are needed the most, while advocating for the most sustainable, efficient upgrades to ensure that they remain cost-effective and viable.

Public / private partnerships

Partnerships with local businesses and organizations have led to infrastructure improvements and - in most cases - more use of Milwaukee County's phenomenal park system. I'll ensure that the public comes first, that these partnerships prioritizes full access to the public, and that we allow all residents to fully enjoy public assets, while ensuring that third parties contribute a fair share of the overhead when they are profiting from public spaces.

Sustainability and the freedom to thrive
Our public spaces, transportation -  and Milwaukee County's dedicated employees - are all assets worth caring for. Sustainability goes far beyond just our physical environment. A sustainable plan for Milwaukee County's future must also prioritize and fund the human needs of employees and residents instead of over-enforcement and criminalization.

The County Board's consideration of Deputy Sheriffs on buses is not acceptable. Aside from the unsustainable costs, relying on Sheriffs with arresting powers will not keep our MCTS operators nor passengers safer, and would only make our public transit part of the prison pipeline.

The onus for bus safety cannot rest with just our dedicated MCTS operators. We need a core group of trained County staff to:
  • cultivate relationships with both MCTS operators and passengers,
  • use that understanding to anticipate conflicts, and deploy themselves where they're needed the most,
  • provide short-term backup and support to operators during active conflicts on buses,
  • provide ongoing modeling and supplemental training to bolster operators' existing de-escalation training, and 
  • act as a resource for all parties to direct them to existing resources to help prevent and transform conflict in the future.

Rather than funding reactive policies, our limited County resources are better allocated towards funding human needs, especially in innovative City/County partnerships such providing doulas and the City / County Task Force on Climate and Economic Equity. These will have longer lasting, sustainable effects on County residents for generations to come.

We must also ensure that our visitors and residents are treated fairly, that our constitutionally-protected rights to travel are preserved, and that we push back against profiling and discrimination. The unquestioned $25,112,809 for the airport expansion in the 2020 budget includes significant funds for Customs and Border Patrol, but no oversight of their activities. Although CBP's routine duties include checking bags, in border areas within 100 miles of the international border (including Milwaukee), they can duplicate much of the scope of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including detention and deportation facilitation. Given the immigration and profiling human rights abuses of the current federal administration, Milwaukee County must stop the practice of writing blank checks to facilitate this, and instead use our budget to protect the rights of our residents and visitors.

Similarly, I firmly oppose targeted efforts to increase criminal penalties, leading to increased incarceration and the chilling of free speech and non-violent, civil protest. I firmly oppose measures such as Senate Bill 386 which provided up to six years in jail for civil protest which did not result in harm to people and was clearly aimed at indigenous peoples and allies who oppose pipelines and threats to clean drinking water.

I was proud to be part of the group that shut down the ICE offices in downtown Milwaukee in 2019, and equally proud to stand beside the De La Cruz family when they were separated by collaboration between MPD and ICE. Here's my stance on immigration as it relates to the business community.

As County Supervisor, I will obstruct collaboration with ICE and any CBP duties involving detention of immigrants, and oppose any legislation which seeks to criminalize civil action.

Human Needs

Having volunteered extensively in shelters both here in Milwaukee and across the country during disasters, I know how important these services are. Warming rooms are an urgent, life-saving need for our most vulnerable community members, and I am thankful that we have dedicated non-profits and County employees who work to ensure that none of our neighbors without permanent housing are forced to be exposed to freezing temperatures overnight. It’s vital that we increase our capacity and availability immediately, ensure that they remain accessible every night that the temperature drops below 32 degrees, and that we reject harmful and inaccurate stereotypes that opponents are using to oppose them.

I will work to declare a "Right to Shelter" in Milwaukee, ensuring that every person experiencing homelessness in Milwaukee County will have the right to shelter, from December 1st through March 31st, and that everyone who needs it will be guaranteed a warm bed for the night.

Working conditions and wages

For years, Milwaukee County (and other municipalities across the state) have passed or considered legislation to raise working conditions, protections and wages, only to see those important actions undone or pre-empted by state laws. I will continue my work with state legislators to reverse those preemptions, continue to fight at the national level for legislation such as the One Fair Wage Act, and to find creative solutions to protect working families, and to reduce the ever-widening gap between corporate profits and working class pay.

With COVID-19 already present, Wisconsin's striking down of Milwaukee's 2008 mandatory sick-time ordinance must be reversed. Employers allowing employees to stay at home when sick, and employees being able to do so while making ends meet, is not just an equity and social justice issue, but - especially in the service industry - an urgent matter of public health. 

As a small business owner and founder of PRAWN: the Progressive Restaurants and Activists of Wisconsin Network, I have pushed back on industry lobbyists who seek to keep service industry wages and working conditions low, and worked with state lawmakers to incentivize higher wages for employees. Here's some of that story. We can, and must, do more for working families and immigrants across Milwaukee County.

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The On Ramp to the High Road

When elected, I will propose the "On Ramp to the High Road" for service-sector employers across Milwaukee County who want to do the right thing, but realize that we cannot wait for legislation to raise our standards of employment. This package, provided voluntarily to employers, will provide resources, support, best practices and online, module-based training to small and medium sized businesses across the county on the following topics, any or all of which individual businesses can choose to implement:
  • implementing wage increases
  • tip sharing
  • profit sharing
  • automated employee pre-tax payroll deductions
  • race and gender equity and mobility
  • sexual harassment prevention
  • childcare
  • how to protect employees and customers from ICE
  • paid sick days

For service-sector employers willing to commit to being a full "High Road" employer (paying at least the full $7.25 minimum wage plus tips rather than Wisconsin's current $2.33 minimum wage for tipped employees), and who complete the voluntary course outlined above, this package will also provide access to positive public recognition, employee incentives and referrals to third-party working and expansion capital through "High Road" guaranteed loan funds.


Ridesharing Revenue

I approve of the proposal to tax ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft and to use those funds to pay for public transportation. We can improve this legislation, though, by adding to it an increase to the minimum rates that rideshare drivers take home. No driver should drive their personal vehicle to pick up a passenger, drop them off, and make only $3.37 before paying expenses like gas, insurance, maintenance and depreciation. No driver should have to work for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to make ends meet. I propose raising the minimum per-ride amount that ridesharing services remit to drivers to $5.00, and raising the per-mile rate to a minimum of 60 cents (from the current under 50) for rides originating or terminating within Milwaukee County. Because this will take state-level legislation to become law, I also suggest a $2 per ride interim fee to ridesharing companies for fares which pick up and drop off passengers at General Mitchell Airport.

Transparency

Transparency is important in government, and should be important in campaigns. I’m proud that each time that I filed a campaign finance report, that it was on time and clearly showed every donor to my campaign- with no anonymous cash donations. You can also see exactly where we spent those donations. Reports for both candidates in this race are available at county.milwaukee.gov. 
Campaign finance reports may not sound like the most exciting way to judge a candidate, but I’m proud of the number of small donations - from baristas, parents, blacksmiths, teachers, restauranteurs, elected representatives and organizers who have worked with me for years and trust me to represent them. I’m also proud of the support from my former union, the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, and all of the many organizations like AFSCME and Voces De La Frontera Action who have stepped up to offer support and volunteers for our small, grassroots campaign. 

Budgets as moral documents

Milwaukee County's budget is not merely a dry list of expenditures: it reflects our priorities and choices. Aside from the priorities outlined here, while researching our current budget and contracts, I noticed in July 2019 that Milwaukee County was doing business with Southwest Key, a technically "non-profit" entity, but one which was making millionaires by engaging in the practice of child separation at our southern border. I publicly called for a full divestment of the County (and MPS) from Southwest Key, on the radio and with a press release, and Milwaukee County responded by ending that $913,500 annual contract. As County Supervisor, I will continue to ensure that our budget is one which reflects our values as a community.

Milwaukee County Jail Reform

Milwaukee County Jail is overcrowded and understaffed for the population it is tasked with serving. We need to reduce the number of people behind bars, both by continuing to make gains at streamlining pretrial processing and by expanding the CART (Crisis Assessment Response Team) program, which connects offenders with resources instead of incarceration when their offense was caused by a mental health crisis, and by keeping people accused of nonviolent misdemeanor offenses out of jail. We should rely on specialized professionals, not jail employees, to address the complexities of mental health and addiction. Focusing on these alternatives will be a cost savings to Milwaukee County and the savings from lawsuits against the county stemming from understaffed facilities will also free up revenue for other vital programs which more directly serve our residents.

Taxes

Tax the rich.

Corporations and the extremely wealthy should be taxed at higher, fairer rates at the state and federal levels, and a portion of that revenue used to fund human needs at the municipal level.

The Fair Deal

The longer-term solution to a healthy, vibrant Milwaukee County is to demand back more of the revenue that we send to the state of Wisconsin. Milwaukee County contributes far more to the state than what we receive back. We have good leadership, and know what priorities need funding, but end up fighting over scraps rather than being able to fully fund initiatives which will improve the lives of County residents.

Until we have the political will in Madison to return more funds to Milwaukee County, the "Fair Deal", which provides the ability for Milwaukee County to raise a sales tax, is a viable option. Sales taxes, even with exemptions, are inherently regressive, though. I support the Fair Deal with a provision that it sunset, but not as a permanent measure; to provide vital services on the backs of the poor and middle class is not just.

I am fully in support of a measure to instead tax more targeted industries and areas, including a countywide tax on lodging and tourism, and/or a tax on downtown entertainment districts, and believe that these options require additional consideration and analysis.
Authorized and paid for by Friends of Ryan Clancy