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Three more commissioners resign from the SDC board [1]
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Date: 2024-05-31
The Social Development Commission’s Main Office, at 1730 W. North Ave., remains closed in late May after the agency shut down a month ago. (Photo by Meredith Melland)
Three commissioners have stepped down from the board of the Social Development Commission, or SDC, amid the troubled agency’s restructuring efforts, board chair Barbara Toles said Thursday.
The members who resigned are Joan Nesbitt, who was appointed by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Melissa Buford, who was appointed by the cCty of Milwaukee; and Nicole Blanks, who was appointed by the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee.
The three commissioners left for personal reasons, Toles said.
Blanks resigned from her post at the Interfaith Conference earlier this month for personal reasons, making her no longer eligible to serve on the SDC board, according to Ahmed Quereshi, Interfaith’s executive director.
Resignations follow former chair’s departure
Their departures follow the resignation of former board chair Elmer Moore Jr., who resigned about a month ago.
Moore’s resignation came shortly after the SDC shut down and laid off its employees in late April, which left a gap in social services for thousands of low-income Milwaukee County residents.
The agency’s Board of Commissioners met Thursday at the African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, 1920 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, where members talked about progress on a strategic plan and forming working committees.
Serina Chavez, the commissioner for District 5 and the board’s secretary, said SDC’s partner organizations or government offices must appoint new board members to fill the vacant appointed positions.
“As the board chair, I am asking the public to please be patient with this board as we work to reorganize, rebuild and restore some of the programs that SDC offered before,” Toles said.
Most of the meeting was held in closed session to discuss personnel and legal issues.
Toles said the board is continuing to work on a solution to pay employees who are owed paychecks, but did not offer details.
Working committees formed
William Sulton, SDC’s attorney, said Friday that the board has formed working committee groups as part of a strategic plan.
“They decided that there needed to be targeted work on specific issues and what came out of that was assigning board members to working committees,” Sulton said.
The working committees are divided into categories, including finance, communications and public engagement, employee staffing, critical operations and agency programs, according to Sulton.
During public comments at Thursday’s meeting, Steve Schuettke, a former SDC employee, updated the board on the SDC’s buildings. He expressed concern that in the absence of security, the facilities were vulnerable to a breach.
In response, commissioner Terese Caro said that the committees would address some of the issues he raised and would like to contact him about gaining access to all of the buildings.
“We also need to take an inventory of assets and then, so we’ll know the next steps on being able to move those items,” Caro said.
Here’s where you can learn more about the SDC’s closings and where to go for services:
Three takeaways from Thursday’s SDC Board of Commissioners meeting
Quick action helps 39 displaced SDC students graduate on time
Here’s what we know now three weeks after the SDC’s closing
Leaders, community members weigh in on the SDC’s shutdown
What you need to know about services after SDC’s abrupt closing
What do you want to know?
Do you have questions you want answered about the SDC? Thoughts you want to share? We are here for you. Let us know what’s on your mind by emailing us or commenting. You can also text us through News414, and our reporters will work hard to get the answers you deserve.
Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
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