A number of Social Development Commission board members called an emergency meeting Nov. 5 to consider ousting CEO and chair Jorge Franco from agency leadership, but the Zoom call quickly devolved into a heated exchange.
Tension between Franco and board members has been growing since he took the reins of SDC late last year. The anti-poverty agency has been closed since April 2024, when officials discovered it was in financial disarray.
Commissioner Walter Lanier initially called the emergency meeting along with commissioners Jackie Carter, Pam Fendt, Michael Harris and Dessie Levy.
However, Harris did not attend the meeting. According to Lanier, Harris initially agreed to the meeting but backtracked.
During the meeting, Franco repeatedly declared the gathering “out of order” and tried to adjourn it four times, arguing that bylaws require five commissioners to authorize an emergency session. The board is made of eight commissioners.
“If Mr. Lanier brings $15 million dollars to the table, I’ll consider leaving,” said Franco, referring to a deal he is working on with Wings Financial Credit Union, which signaled its intent last month to provide a $15 million line of credit.
At one point, Franco called Lanier a “liar” and said he was advocating for “selfish leadership.” He signed off after a final declaration that the meeting was over.
But the commissioners weren’t done.
They stayed on for another 20 minutes, airing grievances about what they described as Franco’s authoritarian style and lack of transparency. Commissioner Peter Fetzer, who opposed the emergency meeting, acknowledged some of their concerns. No vote was taken on Franco’s removal.
Franco stepped into the CEO role nearly a year ago, promising to revive the agency’s programs and rebuild trust. Yet the taxpayer-funded agency remains far from reviving its former slate of 20 programs, which included food pantries, lead remediation and more.
Some commissioners say Franco’s leadership has instead deepened dysfunction.
“Meetings have gotten contentious because people have a suggestion that does not align with what he wants,” said Carter, a commissioner who was appointed in 2024. “That’s just not the way you run things.”
“There’s a lack of transparency,” echoed Levy, who joined the board in April.
Commissioners say SDC isn’t transparent under Franco
Some commissioners also complained that Franco has blocked discussion of important topics, such as the state’s attempts to drop SDC as a federally-designated community action agency.
So far, Franco has refused the state’s request to relinquish the designation and free up $2.2 million in federal funding for another agency to address Milwaukee County’s food needs.
In a letter last month, Wisconsin Department of Children and Families secretary Jeff Pertl warned SDC that the state’s FoodShare program would run out of funds on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.
“People in Milwaukee County cannot afford further delay,” Pertl wrote. “It is clear that we must turn the page to resume these vital services.”
Fendt said Franco barred discussion of the letter during the board’s Oct. 30 meeting.
In an interview before the meeting, Franco said the Department of Children and Families’s letter contained multiple falsehoods and that nothing is stopping it from giving the funds to another agency. The department has disputed that.
Fendt and Lanier said they’ve repeatedly tried to add other items to board agendas, only to be ignored. Lanier said he’s requested an election for a new board member since joining in January.
Levy added that meetings often lack structure and that meeting minutes are not posted on the agency’s website.
The commissioners also said Franco failed to involve the board in his effort to secure the credit line advance.
Despite the friction, Lanier said he doesn’t want Franco removed from the board entirely. Lanier said he would be interested in taking over as chair.
Franco helped SDC recover from scandal nearly 30 years ago
Franco is credited for helping SDC through a similar crisis nearly three decades ago, after audits revealed mismanagement and prompted the resignation of its CEO and chair.
Franco was elected board chair and, along with 15 commissioners, given six months to stabilize the agency. The board soon hired a new director, and the agency resumed its programming.
In 2013, Franco became CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He has held both the CEO and chair positions at the chamber since 2014.
Some commissioners have previously raised concerns about Franco holding both CEO and chair roles at SDC. He’s not the first to do so since SDC shuttered its doors last year. Since former CEO George Hinton and chair Elmer Moore resigned last year, the titles have shuffled among several other volunteer leaders, including Pamela Johnson, Vincent Bobot, and Barbara Toles.
Johnson and Toles have since left the board.
Bobot, the president of SD Properties, SDC’s real estate arm, said he wasn’t aware of the emergency meeting. In an interview, he said he would rather commissioners focus on securing funding to get SDC back to what it once was.
“Whoever gets (the position) is going to have the same problem,” Bobot said.
Gina Castro is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at gcastro@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: SDC commissioners call for dismissal of CEO in acrimonious meeting
Reporting by Gina Lee Castro, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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