September 20, 2011

Milwaukee – The Frank P. Zeidler Award Committee and the Milwaukee Common Council today honored HACM Secretary-Executive Director Tony Pérez with the 2011 Frank P. Zeidler Public Service Award.

Nominated by Common Council President and HACM Board Chair Willie L. Hines Jr., Pérez was unanimously selected by the award committee for his extensive work to strengthen disadvantaged communities and the whole of the Milwaukee area.  Beyond his commitment to the mission of the Housing Authority, this work has included the founding and development of the Milwaukee Community Service Corps (MCSC), his efforts over 18 years to successfully bring a Job Corps Center to Milwaukee, and helping the City of Milwaukee win federal funds that helped thousands of at-risk, low-income youth find employment.

The award is given annually in memory of the life and public service of former Milwaukee Mayor Frank Zeidler, a tireless advocate for social justice and equal opportunity and a champion of mutual respect and cooperation as the keys to both world peace and civic unity. Government, in his view, was a sacred public enterprise whose goal was the greatest public good. Zeidler was a citizen in the deepest sense of the word: someone who identified his welfare with the welfare of the world around him and never stopped working for its betterment.

Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.