Ku Klux Klan Worker's Cooler Spotted At City of Milwaukee Street Construction Site

Contractors hired by the City of Milwaukee don't get background checks before doing work for the City.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

December 8, 2017

Milwaukee, WI - It seems the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works under Commissioner Ghassan Korban and the City Attorney's Office is lacking any background checks on contractors including their workers by not including contract clauses that prohibits any racist deemed decals and Confederate flags from being displayed by workers contracted during jobs for the City. According to a Facebook post by Sam Singleton-Freeman on Friday, it shows a street construction worker's cooler from a hired City contractor with openly displaying a Confederate flag and a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) decal on it in the sidewalk where some workers were doing some street work.

The contracted workers at the site on N. 25th Street and W. Wells in Milwaukee were asked by the person taking photos for which contractor they worked for and they refused to identity the company. Contractors for the City of Milwaukee should make sure their company names are displayed at work sites.
According to Urban Milwaukee, both Alderman Robert Bauman who represents the district where the cooler photo with the KkK decal was taken and Sandy Rusch Walton, spokesperson for the Department of Public Works have confirmed that the work site where a worker's cooler decorated with a Confederate flag and a KKK decal was discovered belong to American Sewer Services, Inc. (ASS). The owner of ASS is Dennis Biondich of Rubicon, Wisconsin, State corporation records show.

On Wednesday, the Common Council Public Works Committee held a hearing about three American Sewer Services, Inc. workers with open carry handguns at N. 19th Street and W. Meinecke Ave. and one of them displaying a handgun in his hand who was later fired, according to Commissioner Korban. A photo of the three workers with handguns was taken on November 30 and went viral in the social network.

The City of Milwaukee has a Firearms and Dangerous Weapons policy prohibiting City employees and contractors from carrying weapons while during City jobs. Alderman Bob Donovan, who is a member of the Public Works Committee during the hearing exposed that some City workers have told him that they do carry weapons on the job violating the policy.

Members of the Common Council will work on a resolution to make it clear that firearms will be prohibited from City work sites and maybe an added provision should be added to prohibit the display of racist decals like the KKK decal and Confederate flag, which is associated with the White supremacist and White nationalist movement including the KKK.

Editors note: A rally is planned to condemn the display of the KKK decal by a City contractor worker at a work site on N 25th Street and W. Wells and to also call on the City of Milwaukee to end all contracts with American Sewer Services, Inc. on Monday, December 11 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall. The rally even is sponsored by the Young Workers Committee of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Coalition of Black Labor Unionists, the Milwaukee Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Coalition, Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Young People's Resistance Committee including allies.