All 18 seats on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors are up for election on April 7. Just three of the races are contested.
Felesia Martin and Stacy Smiter are running for the District 7 seat.
What does a supervisor of the Milwaukee County Board do?
The board is Milwaukee County’s legislative body. One of its main responsibilities is to review, amend, and vote on the Milwaukee County budget each year. It also establishes programs, services and laws for the county and votes on executive nominations.
Each supervisor represents a different region of Milwaukee County on the board. If elected, supervisors serve two-year terms and are paid about $26,000 annually.
As a group, they make decisions that affect our parks, public transit, mental health services, and more.
Where is District 7?
District 7 covers much of the northwest side of Milwaukee, including Dineen Park, Nash Park, Cooper Park, McGovern Park, Enderis Park, Capitol Heights, Roosevelt Grove, and Lincoln Creek. If you're not sure about whether you live in District 7, you can look up your ballot for the April 7 election here.
Who are the candidates?
WUWM interviewed the candidates. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the audio for the full conversation.
Stacy Smiter
Stacy Smiter is a licensed real estate broker, college educator, small business owner and financial literacy volunteer.
He has an MBA in Healthcare Management. In 2023, he received a governor’s pardon.
Smiter owns and operates Dream Investment Holdings LLC, teaches real estate and business at Milwaukee Area Technical College and volunteers with SecureFutures, where he coaches students at James Madison High School and Tenor Journal Square High School on financial literacy.
Smiter currently serves on the boards of the Wisconsin Realtors Association, AFT Local 212, and as the President of the Greater Milwaukee Board of Realtists, advocating for housing justice, youth opportunity, and economic inclusion.
Smiter previously ran for Milwaukee Common Council District 5 in 2024. He did not advance beyond the primary election.
What makes you prepared for the job of county supervisor?
What makes me prepared for the position of county supervisor is that I bring not only a business mindset but also a lived experience in the very district I'm running in. I've been a resident of Milwaukee County for about 33 years, and I've been a resident of District 7 for about 20 of those years. So what I bring to the position is my lived experience [in District 7], as well as my journey through life of going from incarceration to earning my master's degree in business to becoming an educator and teaching at MATC. I bring that necessary skillset to the table to be able to negotiate.
What do you think are the two biggest issues for District 7, and how would you address those issues?
The two biggest issues in my district that I’ve learned since I've been out door-knocking are crime and property taxes. The way that I would address crime is by sitting down with our County Sheriff's department, as well as across the aisle with our city elected officials, and discussing the different tactics that we can use that actually can bring results. I'm a firm believer in KPIs or key performance indicators. I don't believe in just throwing money at things without having real results from it. So the best way that I would address crime is by being tougher on it. For one, we don't have enough stiff punishments for crimes that are repeated, but also look at what we can do to prevent them — what is causing crime to rise? Everyone knows it’s our housing instability.
And then with property taxes, we can't continue to just raise the property tax levy every year on the taxpayers, because we have shortcomings in the county budget. Right now, the legislators are trying to kick out a package that will give us property tax relief, but from a county perspective, we have to be up there advocating and lobbying a lot more in order to get real relief when it comes to the property tax. We shouldn't rely on that every year to be the reason to cover our shortcomings. We have to stop wasteful spending.
What would you do differently as a County Board member compared to the incumbent?
Now, I'm not saying that being a county elected official is an easy job, but what I believe I will bring different to the table is the accountability piece — the presence that everyone feels is no longer there. But also, the guts to be willing to say, ‘Hey, where is our money going?’ And not just folding, because everyone else is just going with the program. We have to really start looking at how we're spending our money, where it's going and holding each other accountable. So I'll be that accountability, that presence that I'm already in as a community advocate as well as an educator. And bring a new set of ideas that actually give people real results and show us that we actually can see what we're getting and giving in return.
Felesia Martin (Incumbent)
Sup. Felesia Martin was first elected to the County Board in 2018 and re-elected in 2020, 2022 and 2024. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee, and also serves on the Health Equity Committee, Parks and Culture Committee, and the Personnel Committee.
Martin’s career experience includes working as an administrative coordinator for more than 30 years at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She’s also worked as a community organizer for the Obama for America campaign.
She’s lived in the Sherman Park neighborhood for more than 40 years.
What makes you prepared for the job of county supervisor?
What makes me prepared is being open to all of the constituents, and what prepared me for this role in particular is being rooted in the community. I’m a member of the Sherman Park Community Association. I live in the Sherman Park portion of the district. And being engaged in faith-based initiatives within the district, being open and accessible to folks, and having worked on several initiatives and campaigns before running. So I believe that's what makes me prepared for this district.
I have a connection to the majority of the neighborhoods, and I've worked with constituents on various projects within our community. Also the work that I have done across my professional career — I worked for 30-plus years in the academic medicine space, and during our community engagement piece, we were out in the community, touching base with families that came to our various clinics out at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Those kinds of things and talking to neighbors and the community at large, that is what prepares you, because nothing really prepares you for a government role, even if you've gone to school for political science and all that good stuff. If you don't have a heart for people and you're not tapped into the communities, it's going to be a difficult road ahead.
What do you think are the two biggest issues for District 7, and how would you address those issues?
What I've heard from knocking on over 900 doors so far, you won't believe this, but the key issue is the McGovern Park Senior Center. And secondly, what are we going to do to strengthen the Milwaukee County government so that we can address mental health issues?
The McGovern Park Senior Center, we know we need some type of facility to address the needs of our older [adults] — I call them seasoned adults. We had that big vote in June, and we voted down for very specific reasons that would not have borne good results for the community as far as environmental impact. So we are currently working with the Department of Health and Human Services and community partners, and are still looking for a location to house our senior center.
It may not be in the park itself, simply because Milwaukee County, due to our physical constraints, it’s not feasible for us to take on that project alone and build that facility that just houses a senior community center — it was very clear that they do not want a multigenerational facility. They want a facility specifically for seniors and don't want to be forced. So we are still having discussions about that and there are two informational sessions coming up during the month of March.
As far as behavioral health is concerned, I’m always raising my voice. Here's the thing that the community needs to know about mental health from a Milwaukee County perspective: Our mental health is under our behavioral health department, and the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors has absolutely no say.
I will share with you during our 2026 budget hearings in November, we always have this great event every single year when we're preparing for the next year's budget. And it's a listening session. That's where the County Board, we sit there, mouths zipped, ears open, hearts open to listen to the community.
And when we heard this past November from a gentleman, 72 years old, six months sober from, in his words, cocaine addiction. And they're closing the detox center. And that tugged at my heart, but it also gave me pause to think about how we are governing and how we're ruling and how we're administering the budget.
What do you think you've done well so far on the County Board, and what would you still like to accomplish?
This is difficult because I hate tooting my own horn. When I initially ran in 2018, I ran on a platform of protecting and preserving our parks to ensure equity across the board, making sure that they're free and accessible to all residents of Milwaukee County and visitors. And when I talk about equity and accessibility, to be clear, we're also talking about folks with disabilities. And ensuring that they have equal access, that they have those platforms that we now have that roll out to Lake Michigan so that they can be in their wheelchairs and not have to worry with the sand, but they can go directly out there and participate like everyone else.
I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve on our parks standing committee, and we've made some very good decisions regarding the fish passage [over at Kletzsch Park].
What I've done well is represent my district and the parks that were in our district. At Sherman Park, which is no longer my district, but it was, I secured funding for lighting to light the pathways so that people can enjoy the park after dark. I secured funding for two brand new basketball courts that were donated to us by the Nancy Lieberman Foundation.
At Dineen Park, I worked with the Dineen Park Neighborhood Association, Alderman Murphy at the time, and MMSD, and we got that lagoon on the right track to being cleaned up and cleaned out. We also have brand new playground equipment there.
Public safety — we had shootings at Dineen Park, and I’m working with the Neighborhood Association in the community and the Sheriff's Department. We got cameras in that park. However, that is not the answer. Cameras are not the answer, but people are being more vigilant – they're now calling in, and when they see something, they're saying something.
Those are the things that I am so proud of: that I'm available and willing to help people. And when I can't do what you want me to do, I’ll give you a full explanation of why.
