Fire and Police Commission approves promotions, reappointments and probationary extensions; consent agenda adopted

The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission adopted a consent agenda Sept. 4 and approved multiple personnel actions across the Milwaukee Police and Fire departments, including promotions to Emergency Communications Officer 2, crime analyst promotions, reappointments and requests to extend probationary periods.

By general consent the commission adopted the consent agenda, which included resolutions FPC‑212,171 through FPC‑212,195 covering meeting‑minute approval, appointments and reclassification referrals, eligible‑list referrals, and eight rescissions of firefighter and police appointments as listed in the meeting file. The commission recorded no objections when the chair called for adoption by general consent.

The commission approved promotions to Emergency Communications Officer 2 (FPC 212,185) for Shelby Wood, Morgan Dixon, Lashana Webb, Clarissa Elanteni and Antonesha Jones. The motion to approve passed on a roll‑call vote with all commissioners recorded as voting yes.

The commission approved the reappointment request of firefighter recruit Nicholas R. Gerhartz (FPC 212,185 rollback by policy) on a roll call vote; the department described the action as a standard rollback under existing FPC policy allowing a candidate to roll back up to one class.

The commission approved promotions within the Police Department: Kendra Stepnowski, Mikaela Artiga and Christian Schwartz to Crime Analyst II (FPC 212,189) and John Armstrong to Office Assistant 3 without examination (FPC 212,190); the department said Armstrong met the requirements and the existing eligible list had been exhausted. Each of those personnel actions passed on roll call with unanimous ayes.

The commission granted the reappointment of former police officer Juan Orozco (FPC 212,192) after first waiving the one‑year reappointment rule in FPC Rule 13, Section 1 by a two‑thirds motion. The joint motion to waive the rule and approve the reappointment passed on a roll‑call vote with all commissioners recorded as voting yes. The meeting record notes the commission met earlier in closed session to interview Orozco and reviewed department and officer letters.

The commission approved several requests to extend probationary periods (FPC 212,196; FPC 212,197; FPC 212,198), each supported by department letters on file describing commanding officers’ recommendations; those items passed by voice vote with no recorded objections.

All motions that took roll‑call votes were recorded with unanimous affirmative votes in the meeting transcript; voice‑vote items were recorded as approved with no objections.