The Social Development Commission has lost three more commissioners in the past week, leaving the agency with just four remaining commissioners. 

The latest board members to resign include: Marjorie Rucker, the appointed commissioner for the African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin; Donna Brown-Martin, appointed by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s office; and Patricia Nájera, who represented Milwaukee Area Technical College; according to William Sulton, SDC’s attorney.

“I think all the board members feel very overwhelmed,” Sulton said. 

Their resignations come on the heels of former board chair Barbara Toles’ departure after attending a virtual board meeting on Oct. 23. 

Since the anti-poverty agency suspended operations and laid off employees six months ago, the SDC’s board has been meeting regularly to figure out a path forward. 

Reappointments remain uncertain

Brown-Martin’s term on the SDC board officially ended on Oct. 1, but she continued to attend meetings until she left the board on Oct. 31. 

“There was some discussion about whether the County Exec’s office could simply reappoint her because she had historical knowledge (rather) than having someone else come in,” Sulton said. 

After reviewing the SDC’s bylaws, county officials decided they could not reappoint Brown-Martin, Sulton said. 

Milwaukee County will defer replacing Brown-Martin’s seat on the board until it receives clearer information about the agency’s path forward, according to an email Brown-Martin sent to Sulton and SDC interim CEO Vincent Bobot. 

However, Brown-Martin will continue to volunteer with SDC, according to Sulton.  

“I think we are fortunate to have former board members and community members who are stepping up,” Sulton said.

Resignations leave more vacancies

Rucker resigned Monday and did not give a reason, Sulton said. 

Nájera submitted a resignation letter on Friday. In her letter, she said she was grateful for the opportunity to work with an organization that had a long history of positively impacting Milwaukee residents. 

“Essentially, she does not feel like the commission is actively operating,” Sulton said. 

NNS tried to contact Rucker, Brown-Martin, Nájera and Bobot for comment, but did not receive responses as of Wednesday night. 

The board now consists of Bobot, who is also an elected commissioner; Jorge Franco, of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin; Jackie Carter, of Port Milwaukee; and Matthew Boswell, who was appointed by Milwaukee Public Schools. 

Carter is the newest commissioner and was appointed to the board by Mayor Cavalier Johnson in June. 

Boswell’s term is set to expire on Nov. 18, Sulton said. 

Here’s more on the SDC

Smaller board puts SDC at risk of losing sizable funding

What you need to know about SDC’s progress amid frozen bank accounts

SDC sends out second round of paychecks to former employees

SDC puts main office and warehouse up for sale

How the Social Development Commission failed its Milwaukee residents

Why did the Social Development Commission fail? Here are takeaways from our investigation

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.

The Milwaukee Bucks are off to one of the worst starts they have had in over a decade. Through seven games, they sit with a disastrous 1-6 record and are currently on a six-game losing streak. 

The Bucks look like a lost bunch out there—not only that, but they are an old bunch as well. Although they possess the talents of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, those two are still not enough, at least, to start the season. 

Things are not trending in the right direction, and because of that, the Bucks have fallen to near the bottom half of many NBA rankings, including the New York Times. The New York Times dropped the Bucks from 15 to 26 in week three of the rankings. 

“The Bucks have the longest losing streak in the league right now at six games. It’s the first time in 10 seasons that Milwaukee has had a stretch like this. Sure, the losses to the Cavaliers came down to the wire. But that was after getting pasted in Memphis with two days off against a team that was playing the second night of a back-to-back. Yes, Khris Middleton is missed. But the Bucks bench has been awful defensively.”

The Bucks also fell from 19 to 26 in the NBA.com power rankings. 

“The Bucks almost beat Cleveland on Saturday in what was their first clutch game of the season, but couldn’t get the stop they needed in the final seconds and are 1-6 (or worse) for the first time in 24 years.” 

And for Hoos Hype, the Bucks see themselves at No. 25 on this week’s power rankings. 

“Despite another ho-hum otherworldly performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo and a strong offensive start from Damian Lillard, the Milwaukee Bucks are just 1-5. A major culprit: opponents are dominating the possession game.”

“The Bucks are the league’s worst offensive-rebounding team and second-worst at creating turnovers. In total, foes average 90.8 shots per game compared to Milwaukee’s 26th-ranked 85.7. It’s hard to make up a differential that big, even with stars of this caliber.”

“Frankly, a lot is happening in Milwaukee, and little is good. Their ranking when we return in two weeks might be the most important story of the early season, because if they’re still bottom-feeding like Mississippi River catfish, the Giannis trade rumors will become deafening.”

The Bucks’ hope seems dim right now, but if they can get healthy, they may climb their way up slowly. As things stand, however, the Bucks are a hot mess. 

More Bucks: How All-Star’s Return Could Help the Struggling Bucks

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.

Polls closed across Wisconsin after an Election Day marked most notably by a human error in Milwaukee that prompted city election officials to count 31,000 absentee ballots all over again, potentially delaying the state’s unofficial results for hours.

In other areas around the state, problems appeared minimal despite long lines and rain. Some election officials said they had unprecedented turnout but managed it. Madison received bomb threats, likely originating from Russia, directed at several current and former polling places, but city police didn’t deem the threats credible and didn’t interrupt voting because of them.

By 9 p.m., election officials had already tabulated around 1.4 million absentee and in-person ballots across the state.

Unlocked tabulator doors prompt decision to count ballots again

In Milwaukee, election chief Paulina Gutiérrez projected that the city’s counting of absentee ballots would go well into Wednesday morning, partially a result of her decision Tuesday afternoon to make election workers count 31,000 absentee ballots all over again because some staff didn’t lock tabulator doors in the early morning.

For security reasons, those panel doors — which cover the on/off switch and sometimes a slot for USB drives — are to be locked during counting, though other security measures ensured there was no chance of tampering.

The decision to restart the count, city spokesperson Jeff Fleming said, was “out of an abundance of caution.”

Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said the commission didn’t weigh in on the city’s decision to rerun the batch of ballots, but she praised the city’s transparency throughout the process.

After Gutiérrez made that decision, the city put out an all-call to every Milwaukee employee to help election officials count the ballots that had already been tabulated. Between 30 and 50 city staff from health, fire, and other departments came to help, city spokesperson Caroline Reinwald said.

“Things are moving really smoothly right now and quickly, so hopefully this isn’t actually that much of a delay,” she said.

But Republican leaders criticized the oversight that led to the second count. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called Milwaukee’s central count “grotesquely disorganized.” State GOP Chair Brian Schimming said about election officials, “You had one job,” adding that the election operation had gone “ridiculously wrong.”

Johnson said his concerns about Milwaukee election officials’ oversight could be alleviated if they present him video logs of the central counting site as well as records from the initial and second count of the 31,000 absentee ballots, including how they’re split by party. There are video streams of central count, but vote totals weren’t exported in the manner that Johnson was seeking, though each vote has a paper trail, city officials stated.

Milwaukee officials had counted 64,000 absentee ballots of around 108,000 total by 8:30 p.m., including the initial batch of ballots that was rerun through tabulators.

Under Milwaukee rules, all of the city’s ballots are processed and tabulated at one central location. State law doesn’t allow election officials to tabulate or process any ballots before Election Day, a policy that is partially responsible for the typically late reporting of results from absentee ballots.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers tried to change that policy this past legislative session, but the Republican-written proposal to allow some ballot processing on the Monday before an election stalled in the Senate.

“It certainly seems like, if we did have laws that were a little bit different, that allowed pre-processing, like the majority of other states, that potentially we could have unofficial results earlier in the evening,” Wolfe said.

Election Day in Milwaukee was also marked by a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee, alleging that GOP election observers were being restricted at city election sites. The GOP walked back its claims at a Tuesday hearing, conceding there weren’t any issues.

Hoax bomb threat doesn’t disrupt voting

Outside of Milwaukee, election officials faced few issues.

The Madison Police Department received bomb threats for several current and former polling sites via several emails that appeared to be from an automated bot, perhaps linked to Russia, city spokesperson Dylan Brogan said. Police immediately thought they were bogus, and voting wasn’t disrupted at any voting location, Brogan said, though they followed up to make sure everything was fine.

In Thornapple, a northern Wisconsin town that faced a Justice Department lawsuit over its decision not to use accessible voting machines in the past, election officials did have a voting machine in use, said Erin Webster, a local resident who was an election observer on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, by 9 p.m., Wisconsin voters appeared overwhelmingly in support of a constitutional amendment to ban voting by noncitizens across Wisconsin. The amendment would have little practical effect on who can vote under existing laws, but it would bar municipalities from opening their local elections to noncitizens or younger voters.

The state had a surge of early in-person voting, but election officials said that Tuesday was still very busy. Melissa Kono, who has been a clerk in the small northern Wisconsin town of Burnside since 2013, said it was the most intense election she had ever administered in terms of turnout.

Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Alexander at ashur@votebeat.org.