The Milwaukee Common Council on Tuesday again delayed a vote on changing the official city flag to “Sunrise Over the Lake,” this time with the measure’s sponsor saying he planned to pursue a change in the City Charter to allow the flag to go to a binding referendum in April.

However, whether a referendum is legally feasible remains to be seen, and other council members raised concerns about the broader implications of changing the city’s most important legal document that is akin to its constitution.

Ald. Peter Burgelis, who revived the debate over changing the Milwaukee flag this summer, said he had talked with other council members and others in recent weeks. (The council delayed a vote last month after a heated hourlong debate.)

“Given the conversations we had, I think the best path forward would be to put this question to voters and let voters decide,” he said.

The People’s Flag, as “Sunrise Over the Lake” is known, depicts the sun rising over Lake Michigan. Under the legislation Burgelis put forward, the change would take place as of Jan. 31, 2025.

Referendum on Milwaukee city flag faces unsure path

It is unclear whether it would be within the city’s power to put a referendum like the one Burgelis has proposed on the ballot.

Under a change he put forward and then withdrew Tuesday, the flag legislation would have been amended to direct the city Election Commission to place a binding referendum on the April 2025 ballot.

Such a referendum, however, “is not supported by state law,” according to an email City Attorney Evan Goyke sent to Burgelis Monday night.

The question cannot be placed on the April ballot without a change in state law or, theoretically, a change in the City Charter to adopt a process for such a step, Goyke told the Journal Sentinel. The latter option would require additional legal work from the City Attorney’s Office to determine whether it is feasible, he said.

And, even if a Charter change would offer a path to referendum, it is unclear whether enough council members would support a change.

Ald. Jonathan Brostoff said he objected to sending a decision on something like the city flag to referendum.

“If that’s the case, why do we make decisions on much more important things?” he asked.

Ald. Robert Bauman said sending the flag to a binding referendum would set a precedent for sending any number of issues to such a referendum.

“I think that’s a very bad precedent, particularly if it only takes only a majority vote,” he said.

Burgelis after the meeting framed such referendums as an avenue for direct democracy after state legislators last y year banned local governments from putting advisory referendums on the ballot. (The law left in place an exception for capital expenditures proposed to be funded by the property tax levy, according to Goyke’s memo.)

Questions of equity, inclusion in city flag process persist

Tuesday’s meeting followed at times tense discussions last month at council and at the Steering and Rules Committee, which recommended the legislation on a 5-3 vote.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Burgelis sent his colleagues a nine-page memo that sought to answer questions council members had raised about the proposed flag’s design, whether the selection process was equitable, how much the change would cost and more.

Burgelis argued in the memo that the flag selection process was equitable and inclusive. The city’s chief equity officer disagreed.

Burgelis wrote that the design initiative was publicized by all major news outlets locally as well as on social media, more than 1,000 designs were submitted by members of the public, the judges on the selection panel were chosen based on their knowledge of design, history or flags and that the rating process for the five final designs was active for two weeks and open to the public.

“Given the foregoing, it is clear that the selection process that was followed to identify the People’s Flag design was even more comprehensive and inclusive than a City-managed process would have been,” he wrote.

Among the concerns that have been raised, including by Mayor Cavalier Johnson, was that the sun rising over the lake was a sight not equally afforded to all residents across this racially segregated city.

“While that may unfortunately be true, part of the vision for the People’s Flag is that it can be a symbol of a city looking towards the future, where all members of the community can enjoy the water resources that make Milwaukee special,” Burgelis wrote in the memo.

He also said the flag’s rising sun is an element “visible from every neighborhood in the city, and can be interpreted as our commitment that every resident of the city be given a fresh start and a bright future.”

It is unclear whether Johnson would sign the legislation. Last month he said there ought to be more conversation about using an image of the lake, when Black and Latino Milwaukeeans do not have the same access to it.

In a separate memo, Chief Equity Officer Bernadette Karanja wrote that it is important to include the opinions of children and parents in ZIP codes not exposed to Lake Michigan or the city’s rivers.

“If I was to use an anecdotal representation of the proposed Flag’s acceptance, then, I would subjectively and anecdotally observe that this flag is flown predominantly on the East Side of Milwaukee,” she wrote. “I would also subjectively observe, there’s little to no representation of this flag on the North and immediate Southsides of Milwaukee where Black and Brown people reside.”

She raised concerns about the extent to which the voices of low-income residents and people of color were included in the flag’s selection process.

Karanja included in her recommendations the creation of processes through which the preferences of people of color are accurately represented in decision-making on “a Flag that will be representative of Milwaukee for hundreds of years.”

“It may likely be that when all people are included in an evidence-based manner that this flag is chosen again,” she wrote. “This will only affirm its relevance to all communities of Milwaukee. However, it is my humble opinion, that the data we have thus far does not provide this evidence.”

Cost of City of Milwaukee flag replacement could range depending on work done

As for the cost, a city fiscal analysis found that it would be about $800 to replace flags currently flown at 13 locations by the Department of Public Works, Police Department and the Mayor’s Office.

Burgelis’ memo said a group of donors had offered to cover the replacement cost.

It would be much more expensive to replace the seals on Department of Public Works vehicles, but only if they were replaced all at once on existing equipment. The department’s current seal incorporates the city’s existing flag.

To replace all the seals at once would cost an estimated $463,750. There would be no extra cost to change the decals if they were phased out as the existing vehicles were replaced.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.