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City Service Commission upholds discharge of Equal Rights specialist Omar Barbarena
Summary
After hearing months of browsing logs and witness testimony, the City Service Commission found cause and denied Omar Barbarena’s appeal of his Jan. 21 dismissal, citing evidence that more than 28,000 nonwork URLs were accessed on a city-issued device.
The City Service Commission on March 13 upheld the Jan. 21, 2026 discharge of Omar Barbarena, an equal rights specialist, finding that the department had proven cause for discipline.
Mary Reid, temporary systems analyst senior for the City of Milwaukee, told commissioners the department’s review of IT records showed “more than 28,000 non work related personal Internet browsing URLs” on Barbarena’s city-issued device and presented a sample week in December showing roughly 35 of 40 work hours spent on personal browsing. Roberto Sarita, information services manager in the city’s ITMD, confirmed the URL lists were derived from the appellant’s work device.
The commission’s decision closed a multi-step administrative appeal. Reid said the records spanned from Oct. 10, 2025, to Jan. 2, 2026, and that the department compiled a summary (exhibit D16) showing sample days with multiple hours of nonwork browsing that coincided with days Barbarena was scheduled to work. She also pointed to training, emails and recorded meetings the department says documented repeated efforts to address performance issues.
Barbarena, who identified himself as an equal rights specialist in the Office of Equity and Inclusion, disputed that the department applied progressive discipline or afforded him adequate due process. He said some of the browsing entries were incidental or related to legitimate research and that he had not been placed on a formal performance-improvement plan. He also raised personal mitigation, saying he informed his supervisor of a family death immediately prior to the discharge meeting.
Witness Ramona Ramos, the equal rights complaints liaison, testified she frequently observed nonwork content on Barbarena’s workstation in their shared office and described seeing images and entertainment content during work hours. ITMD’s Sarita testified he compiled the browsing exports and provided them to Reid at the department’s request.
Commissioners asked a series of technical and procedural questions — including whether the device could be taken home, whether incidental limited personal use required department authorization, and how complaint-response records were tracked — before moving to deliberate in closed session. When the panel reconvened in open session, commissioners voted first that the department had cause to discipline the appellant and then that the discharge was appropriate. The chair announced the appeal was denied and the discharge stands.
The commission did not alter the penalty. Commissioners did not announce further remedial steps at the hearing; the record will stand as the administrative finding of the board.
The commission adjourned following the vote.
