The $500 million question: How to fund replacement of Milwaukee County's Safety Building

The Milwaukee County Safety Building in November 2024. Photograph by Margo Kirchner.

By Alexandria Staubach
 
“Public safety, efficacy, and dignity,” said Milwaukee County Circuit Court Chief Judge Carl Ashley to a crowd about Milwaukee’s County’s biggest facilities concern: the Safety Building.
 
Ashley spoke Monday at a Wisconsin Policy Forum luncheon about replacing the county’s “crumbling, aged, and obsolete” Safety Building.
 
Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Wisconsin Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk), and Wisconsin Rep. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) joined Ashley on stage. The officials discussed the need for the project and how to fund it.
 
Numerous plans have been developed over the years to address the Safety Building’s failing infrastructure. Panelists said the need is now not only more pressing but also more expensive. The projected budget is now about $495 million.
 
The Safety Building is one of three buildings in the county’s judicial complex. Constructed in 1929, the Safety Building initially housed the central police station, some courtrooms, a jail, and the sheriff’s office. In the 1990s, the jail facilities and sheriff moved into a new space, leaving the courtrooms and legal offices behind.
 
Currently, the Safety Building houses the district attorney’s office and criminal courtrooms. However, the building was not constructed with today's notions of due process and civil rights in mind. Age, coupled with its unintended use, takes a toll.
 
Privacy and safety were concerns shared among the panelists. Because there are no segregated hallways, individuals in custody share close quarters with their families, witnesses, attorneys, law enforcement, victims, and potential jurors trying to get to and from courtrooms.
 
Crowley said this mix of individuals resulted in more than 850 incidents requiring law enforcement response last year.

Lovern highlighted that some 40,000 victims and witnesses are made to comingle with defendants and their families at some of the most charged moments in their lives. “It is not conducive to the safe adjudication of a case,” he said.
 
Erin Perkins, project manager for the county’s Community Justice Council, who also spoke at the event, said the absence of private spaces outside courtrooms results in “trashcan meetings” where defendants and witnesses often discuss sensitive matters, at times within earshot of jurors.
 
Ashley said jurors overhear conversations they should not hear, resulting in mistrials that are wasteful, implicate victims' and defendants' rights, and slow down the circuit court’s already crammed docket. Further, it “engenders a lack of trust in the criminal justice system,” he said.

Perkins shared that the county allocates $500,000 per year in its budget to address emergency repairs alone. Bringing the building up to code could cost as much as $300 million, without the benefit of providing a more suitable environment, she said.

Panelists agreed that the building must be replaced, but the politics of funding are an issue.
 
While the legislators were supportive of the project, they were wary of buy-in in Madison. Donovan said multiple times that for broader buy-in from the Legislature, the City of Milwaukee needed to “step up” and that “engaging the City of Milwaukee in this fight” would be crucial.
 
Felzkowski, president of the Senate, highlighted that many in the Legislature may feel exhausted at the idea of helping Milwaukee after the last budget cycle, when the area received a lot of state assistance. The state’s investment and intervention in the pension crisis, shared revenue bill, and Brewers’ stadium consume resources that others in the state would love to have, she said.
 
She noted the state’s surplus but said “we would have spent that surplus with requests five times” if each were granted.

Felzkowski said there was reason to hope a deal with the Legislature could be reached but acknowledged that funding the project on a short timeline will likely be an uphill battle in the Legislature. Spreading payments over several years will lessen the blow, she said.
  
Negotiating a funding plan with the Legislature was “very doable,” but “it’s got to be creative,” she said while sharing her personal support and recognizing that “when Milwaukee is strong the rest of the state is strong.”
 
Donovan chuckled at that statement and said it was not necessarily shared by other legislators.
 
There was tension over who should foot bill, and the panel explored state-mandated costs specific to Milwaukee that could be used to free up some resources.
 
Felzkowski was quick to point out that “counties exist to carry out the work of state government,” while Crowley highlighted Milwaukee County’s outsized responsibilities, such as paying for highway patrol and the Community Reintegration Center, compared to other localities.

Chuck Kahn, a former Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge in attendance (and a current WJI Action board member), pointed out that the courts are administered by the state and that judges are state employees. 

“Why are we starting with the premise that this is the county’s responsibility at all?” he asked.
 
Waiting to take action to replace the building could be even more costly. Crowley and Perkins said that waiting just five more years could result in $100 million of added costs to replace the building.
 
Plus, 60,000 square feet of the building cannot be used, but the county still pays to heat and ventilate it, Perkins said. Eliminating the energy bill alone could save the county $1 million per year, Crowley said.