'Displaying hateful symbols is unacceptable:' Committee approves resolution prohibiting hostile displays on job sites

MILWAUKEE -- A resolution directing the City of Milwaukee's Department of Public Works "to include a clause in all contracts prohibiting certain displays on city job sites that are offensive or show hostility toward a protected group" was approved Thursday, March 8 by a Milwaukee Common Council committee.

This, according to a statement from Alderman Tony Zielinski, who sponsored the resolution. It was approved Thursday by the Public Works Committee and will go before the full Milwaukee Common Council March 27.

Zielinski worked with the City Attorney's Office to draft the resolution after an American Sewer Services worker brought a lunch box with a Ku Klux Klan sticker on it to a city work site. This happened after American Sewer Services employees were caught on camera with guns on a city job site.

“Displaying hateful symbols by an independent contractor or its employees is unacceptable and an affront to the very neighborhoods where this work is taking place. It’s contrary to the values of the City and its diverse population,” said Zielinski in the statement.

According to the statement, this resolution prohibits the display or discussion of any written or electronic material that is offensive or shows hostility to certain groups based on but not limited to sex, age, race, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, religion, arrest record or military service.