Milwaukee County Supervisor Elect Sylvia Ortiz-Velez Will Take Office On April 16th

Ortiz-Velez has become the most popular Supervisor elect to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors after defeating incumbent Supervisor Peggy West who had been in office for 14 years causing an upset for certain unions, multiple public elected officials and Voces de la Frontera Action that supported and endorsed the incumbent.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

April 15, 2018

Milwaukee, WI - On Monday, Sylvia Ortiz-Velez will be sworn-in as the next Milwaukee County Supervisor for District 12 at the Milwaukee County Board Room at 1:30 p.m. at the Courthouse Room 200 among other 17 supervisors. Ortiz-Velez managed to oust Incumbent Supervisor Peggy West who was also the Finance Committee Chairperson causing a major upset in the election.

West had the endorsements of Voces de la Frontera Action (VDLFA) and Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the Executive Director for Voces de la Frontera (VDLF), Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milw.), State Representative JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milw.), Milwaukee Alderman José G. Pérez, Kim Shroeder, President of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association (MTEA) and Dave Weingrod from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) 212 unions including the endorsements of Milwaukee County Judge Pedro Cólon, Municipal Judge Phil Chavez, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson (D-Milw.) and the list goes on.

In contrary, Ortiz-Velez had the support of community movers and shakers including activists, Carmen Cabrera, Luz Sosa, Victor Huyke, Marilyn Figueroa, Hector Colón, Rebecca Arrichello, Gadibel Morales, Geary Morales, Dyango Zerpa, Teresa Mercado, Gregorio Montoto, Nancy Hernández, Martin Jimenez, Attorney Carlos Pastrona, Tony Garnica, Ernesto Nava, Raul Huerta, Ernesto Ramirez (Chato), Ricardo Diaz, Carmen Cabrera, Anita Abraham, Cy White, Scott Wales, Roy Camronero, Blanca Blanka Estrada, Frankie Sabath, Yussef Morales, Felix Questell, Johnny Osorio, Kristina Reyes and Mariana Reyes (Reyes Family), Juan Estrada (Estrada Family), Oscar Brenes, Owner of El Patron, Dionisia Gonzalez. Former Alderman James Witkowiak, Rogelio Cabral, Eleazar Lopez, Angel Salmeron Dueñas and the list goes on.

Neumann-Ortiz from VDLF, a 501c (3) non-profit org and Voces de la Frontera Action, a 501c (4) political org, which the Board of Directors of both organizations is controlled by White liberals who engaged in false claims against Ortiz-Velez and even used their non-profit organization's e-mail system to send out political propaganda against Ortiz-Velez, and also attempted to generate donations using the Ortiz-Velez election to continue to oppose her election to the County Board. Ortiz-Velez is also a member of VDLF and to have Neumann-Ortiz to continue to target her after Ortiz-Velez defeated West by a 57% to 42% margin and had an increased of the voter turnout by 48.84% in the district compared to 2017 is unprecedented in the VDLF and VDLFA organizations history to continue to attack another Latina from the same organization.

The April 3rd voter mandate was clear in the Milwaukee County Supervisor 12th District race, voters sent a strong message to the County Board that they wanted change and to Neumann-Ortiz including VDLFA that their false claims about Ortiz-Velez were not taken seriously and should be ashame for their actions against one of their own members at Voces de la Frontera. 

No doubt, Neumann-Ortiz, Voces de la Frontera and Voces de la Frontera Action under the control of a White liberal Board of Directors have lost credibility in the Latino community and shame on them for using the Ortiz-Velez victory election to generate donations to continue to oppose the will of the Southside community electors who cast their votes for Ortiz-Velez.

Today, neither Neumann-Ortiz, the VDLFA Board and union representatives involved have not had the decency to publicly apologize to Ortiz-Velez for making false claims (that Ortiz-Velez was a candidate for Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and Leadership MKE, which was not true, Ortiz-Velez was an independent candidate and did not receive an endorsement or any donations from Abele nor accepted or consented for any favorable advertising from Leadership MKE, which Neumann-Ortiz wanted to mislead the community to think that she did without any proof) against Ortiz-Velez and none is expected simply because they failed in their quest to prevent Ortiz-Velez from getting elected.

Ortiz-Velez's hard work and campaigning door to door paid off and she definitely ran a positive campaign.

Time to clean house at both Voces de la Frontera and Voces de la Frontera Action!