County Board Drops Wage Demand, OKs UWM Hotel

The Milwaukee County Board did a turnaround Thursday when it reconsidered and approved, 16-2, a plan amendment to allow a hotel on UWM's Innovation Campus development without a minimum wage restriction it had demanded in an earlier vote.

The board had previously allowed a change in the UWM site plan to include a 128-room hotel, but on a 10-8 vote attached a rider imposing on the hotelier – so far unnamed – a minimum wage of 125 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $12.50 an hour, for all full-time employees.

County Executive Chris Abele was forced to veto the whole resolution to stop the wage provision, which would have stopped the hotel project in its tracks.

Supervisor Jim "Luigi" Schmitt, who represents the district, had pleaded with his colleagues not to pass the higher-wage provision, but he fell two votes short.

After the first vote, the developer said he would pull out of the project, Abele denounced the wage amendment as onerously unfair to the prospective hotel owner, and the county attorney pronounced it illegal.

Still, Schmitt as late as early last week said he was making slow progress in turning votes his way, even though it was obvious that the hotel simply would not get built, much to the damage of UWM and Wauwatosa's plans – not to mention the county's own share in property tax revenues.

Schmitt had to seek a suspension of the rules to get the measure reconsidered so soon, fearing that the delay imposed under standing board rules would drive the developer off for good.

Schmitt did turn minds and prevail, though, after continued lobbying. He got his suspension of the rules, and only supervisors John Weishan and Theo Lipscomb voted against the plan change without the higher-wage provision.

The hotel project can now proceed through the rest of the Wauwatosa permitting process, where it expected to get a warmer reception.