The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting lawyers representing the City of South Milwaukee and residents of the Lake Bluff Apartments are in settlement talks over whether the complex will be razed. There’s no word on what the possible settlement could involve, but shortly after a federal jury ruled South Milwaukee was engaging in discrimination against the tenants of the Lake Bluff Apartments, the City of South Milwaukee did indicate they’d be open to the idea of only razing one of the two disputed buildings in the Lake Bluff Apartment complex, allowing the other to stay. To be honest, I’m not at all surprised that the City of South Milwaukee is now anxious to resolve the situation, given the fact that their collective backs are against a wall. It would seem to me that a jury verdict would be difficult to overturn on appeal, and given that fact, the city would be foolish not to attempt to barter the best possible deal for themselves, before a solution is imposed upon them.
Ultimately, the taxpayers of South Milwaukee are the real losers in all this, because it’s certainly a strong possibility that the city will be on the hook for not only their own legal expenses, but a significant portion of the legal expenses accumulated by the tenants as well. If the City of South Milwaukee does end up paying some (or all) of the legal bills for the tenants of Lake Bluff, that could mean many thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money flowing out of the city’s coffers.
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