The Board of City Service Commissioners in Milwaukee voted Dec. 15 to deny the appeal of Brian Dean, a former plan examiner specialist, and to uphold his discharge for violating the city's workplace‑violence prevention policy.

The five commissioners voted in favor of the department's actions after a full-day hearing that included testimony from departmental managers, a review of camera stills and a trove of emails and personnel records. The commission first voted that the department had cause to discipline the employee and then voted to affirm the discharge.

The department's human resources administrator, Shanice Burnell Jones, told the commissioners that the investigation found a pattern of conduct that included an on‑site encounter in September that prompted staff concern and triggered the department's disciplinary process. "The investigation ... reveals repeated violations of the city's workplace violence prevention policy and city service rules," she said during closing remarks, urging the commission to uphold the discharge.

Burgess McMillian, the interim operations manager at the Permit and Development Center, testified that after the September incident a coworker "was noticeably bothered or upset by it" and that he reported staff concerns to HR. McMillian said the record contains multiple emails showing recurring frustration in customer and staff interactions.

Brian Dean, who worked in the department for about six and a half years, acknowledged striking his fist on a desk in frustration on the date in question and described steps he had taken since an earlier March incident: he signed a last‑chance agreement in May, participated in EAP counseling and worked under a performance‑improvement plan. "I pounded my fist on the desk in frustration," Dean testified, and said he apologized the next day; an email exchange between him and the permit desk supervisor, Jennifer Bennett, shows an apology and a message of "fresh start."

Appellant counsel argued the act was a single instance of frustration, pointed to Dean's remedial steps and urged the commission that the conduct did not meet the policy threshold for workplace violence. "The facts, they show frustration, not threat," counsel said in closing.

The commission also heard from Jasamil Arroyo Vega, the department's chief of building inspection, who testified remotely that she reviewed the investigation, spoke with affected staff and approved the termination at the departmental level; she said the department took precautionary steps, including increased first‑floor security presence, after staff reported feeling unsettled.

The board alternated rounds of direct testimony, commissioner questioning and cross‑examination of witnesses and examined documentary exhibits including camera stills (admitted as evidence), contemporaneous emails and personnel records. The record shows the department placed Dean on administrative leave, cited a prior March incident that led to a last‑chance agreement signed May 19, 2025, and issued the contested discharge on Sept. 26, 2025.

After closing arguments the commissioners moved into closed session for deliberations as permitted by state statute. Upon return to open session they voted first that cause existed to discipline the employee and then that the department's decision to discharge him was appropriate; the commission denied the appeal and affirmed the discharge. The hearing concluded and the board adjourned.

The commission did not announce further remedial steps or reinstatement; the board's action is the final administrative decision recorded in the hearing transcript.