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Former employee sues Sherman Phoenix for not paying her

By: Associated Press//January 24, 2020//

Former employee sues Sherman Phoenix for not paying her

By: Associated Press//January 24, 2020//

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A former Sherman Phoenix employee is suing the Milwaukee market and its developers for not paying her for more than a year.

The Sherman Phoenix, a development in the city’s Sherman Park neighborhood, houses small businesses owned by people of color. A complaint filed in federal court on Jan. 8 says the market space and its developers violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and Wisconsin wage laws by not paying Joanna Brooks regularly.

According to the document, Joanne Sabir, a developer of the market, offered Brooks a job handling administrative duties related to lessees’ move into Sherman Phoenix. Brooks asked for an annual salary of $50,000. She said Sabir didn’t counter, and the two continued to discuss the position.

Brooks started working as the Sherman Phoenix’s entrepreneurship program manager in January 2018. Brooks said she worked 10 to 20 hours a week, meeting with prospective tenants, consultants and possible partners; handling administrative duties; helping carry out programs; and managing the Sherman Phoenix’s social media accounts. Brooks said Sabir and Juli Kaufmann, another Sherman Phoenix developer, only paid her two or three times throughout her employment from January 2018 to February 2019.

Brooks is asking to be compensated for her time working for the Sherman Phoenix, attorney fees and other legal costs.

Neither Brooks’ attorney, who works with the Sherman Phoenix on other matters, nor Kaufmann immediately returned requests for comment.

The market space opened in December 2018 at the site of the former BMO Harris Bank building on West Fond du Lac Avenue. Protesters set fire to the building following a fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in 2016. The Sherman Phoenix development was a response to the devastation and an attempt to help the neighborhood recover.

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